CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 A Lost Epicurean Community Diskin Clay 1. Survival Oi.voavoo, 1tOAl~ AU1Ci~. Stephanus of Byzantium The Epicureans were a long-lived philosophical community and they might have lived longer than Epicurean philosophy itself. 1 But because of the apparent lack of change and innovation in their think­ ing, and because relatively few documents of their thinking-and living-have come down to us since the first generation of the Epi­ curean school in Athens, the conservative history of the Epicurean movement has been difficult reading and even more difficult writ­ ing. The longevity of this school already seemed remarkable to an historian of philosophy in the age of Augustus, who could record that the school was already 227 years old at the date of the assas­ sination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.2 Thus, reckoning backwards, we understand that the school was dated not from the year of its founding when Epicurus returned to Athens in 304 B.C., but from the year of his death and the beginning of the succession (diadoche) of his school from head to head when Hermarchus became scholarch in 270 B.c. Diogenes Laertius (10.9f), writing in the third century, speaks of 1 The following will be cited in short form: A. CASANOVA, Iframmenti di Diogene d'Enoanda (Florence 1984); C. W. CHILTON. Diogenes Oenoandensis Fragmenta (Leipzig 1967); Diogenes of Oenoanda: The Fragments (Oxford 1971); G. ARRIGHETII, Epicuro, Opere 2 (Turin 1973); M. F. SMITH, "Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda Discovered and Rediscovered," AJA 74 (1970) 51-62; "New Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda," AJA 75 (1971) 357-89; Thirteen New Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda (=DenkschrWien 177 [1974]); "More New Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda," in J. Bollack and A. Laks, edd., Etudes sur l'epicurisme antique (=Cahiers de Philologie 1 [Lille 1976]) 278-318; "Fifty-five New Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda," AnatSt 28 (1978) 39-92; "Eight New Fragments of Diogenes of Oenoanda," AnatSt 29 (1979) 69-89; "Diogenes of Oenoanda, New Fragments 122-24," AnatSt 34 (1984) 43-57; H. USENER, Epicurea (Leipzig 1887). 2 His chronology is preserved in Suda S.'ll. "Epicurus," the text of which may be found in Usener p.373. 313 CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 314 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY the school as surviving to his day, "without interruption, with one Epicurean (yvroptJiOC;) succeeding another in the headship of the school, when almost all the other schools had ceased to exist. lO This is of course an exceedingly narrow view of the history of the Epi­ curean movement, since it focuses exclusively on Athens and the diadoche of the school there. Diogenes (10.2Sf) gives an almost biblical list of the successors: Polystratus, who succeeded Her­ marchus, Dionysius, who succeeded Polystratus, Basileides, who succeeded Dionysius, and Apollodorus, the "tyrant of the gardenlO; but there were other Epicurean "notables lO (EAA6ytJiot): the Ptolemies, "blacklO and "white, lO from Alexandria, Zeno of Sidon, Demetrius of Laconia, Diogenes of Tarsus, Orion, and "others to whom the genuine Epicureans give the name 'sophists.'lO] The omissions in this list are notable: Diogenes says nothing of Carneiscus, Philonides, Phaedrus of Athens, Diogenianus, or the Celsus to whom Lucian dedicated his Alexander. He has no word for the Epicureans to the west who "took Italy by storm'" (totam ltaliam occupaverunt), or Philodemus or Siro or Lucretius. 4 And he seems unaware of the existence of the Epicurean who was Diogenes' namesake, Diogenes of Oenoanda. At the end of his biography of Diogenes of Sinope, Diogenes Laertius (6.81) lists five notable men by the name of Diogenes; our Diogenes is not one of them.s But then we know of no one who had heard of Diogenes of Oenoanda until a century ago when his name was discovered on an inscribed block in the mountain city of Oenoanda in Lycia: AIOrENO[.6 And then it became apparent that Diogenes of Oenoanda was well known to a large group of fellow Epicureans or 3 F. Sbordone, in his edition of Philodemus' Adversus [Sophistas] (Naples 1947) xiif, connects Diogenes' Epicurean -sophists" with the rhetoricians who antagon­ ized Philodemus; but Diogenes might have had in mind a figure like Timocrates, who assumed the ambiguous role of both rhetorician and philosopher; cf n.53 infra . .. That the Epicureans -took Italy by storm" is the exaggerated description of Cicero, Tusc. 4.3.7. The number and importance of the Romans who professed Epi­ cureanism over four centuries can be gathered from C. J. Castner, Prosopography of the Roman Epicureans from the Second Century B. C. to the Second Century A.D. (=Stud.z.kLPhiL 34 [Frankfurt a.M.] 1988); cf. n.l0 infra. 5 He was destined to figure as -Diogenes" 47a in RE Suppl. 5 (1931) 153-70 (R. Philippson). 6 Fr.54 Chilton (1971)=fr.l Casanova, first published by G. Cousin, -Inscriptions d'Oenoanda," BCH 16 (1892) 1-70. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 315 "friends" (cplAot), who were equally unknown to Diogencs Laertius and to posterity. With Diogenes of Oenoanda we come to the last chapter of the history of Epicureanism in antiquity, and, despite the fragmentary character of our evidence, it is a chapter that can still be written. After Diogenes, whose date remains a problem, we have only the meager and unedifying record of hostility to Epicurus and Epi­ cureanism in pagan, Christian, and Jewish sources.7 The beginnings of the history of Epicureanism as a community -even before it had developed into a philosophy-reach back to Epicurus' activities in Lampsacus and they can be taken back as far as Epicurus' early years as a teacher in M ytilene. 8 Epicurus' school-if that is the name for it-continued, as we have seen, until the time of Diogenes Laertius; and we have a very partial record of those who served as its head (ll'YEJ.Hov 'twv o"uJ.uptAooocpouvnov, D.L. 10.20) until the age of Hadrian, when we know that Heliodorus was able to succeed Popillius Theotimus, although he was a peregrinus and not a Roman citizen, just as nearly four centuries before Hermarchus of Mytilene succeeded Epicurus, although he was not an Athenian citizen (lC II 2 1099.1-3 with SEC III 226). In 178 the Emperor Marcus Aurelius renewed the imperial and philhellenic interest in the Epicurean school in Athens. This at least is a plausible inference from Aurelius Victor's few words on the emperor's visit to Athens before his campaign against the Marcomanni, when a crowd of philosophers representing the sects of Athens pressed him to decide on the difficult and recondite matters that most con­ cerned them. Ardua ac peroculta: these might not have been matters of philosophical doctrine but questions of the legal standing of the schools in Athens and their headships and property. 9 Beyond Athens, we know of the spread of Epicureanism through- 7 For a brief statement of the sequence see H. Temporini, Die Frauen am Hofe Trajans: ein Beitrag zur Stellung der Augustae im Principat (Berlin 1978) 166; a thorough history of the anti-Epicureanism in Christian writings may be found in W. Schmid, "Epikur," RA C 5 (1961) 744-803 (=Ausgewahlte philologische Schriften [Berlin 1984] 228-52). 8 The best account of the very sparse evidence for Epicurus' early years is still A. Momigliano, "Su alcuni dati della vita di Epicuro," RivFil13 (1935) 302-16. 9 Caes. 16.9. J. H. Oliver saw in this phrase a legal and sectarian rather than a philosophical problem: "Marcus Aurelius and the Philolosophical Schools of Athens," AlP 102 (1981) 213-25 (=The Civic Tradition and Roman Athens [Balti­ more 1983] 85-96). CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 316 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY out Italy in the second century B.C.,10 and to the east there are traces of its taking root in Syria. ll In Egypt, a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus reveals an interest in Epicurean theology, as does a letter requesting Ericurean books. 12 Philodemus gives us evidence for the presence o Epicureans in Rhodes, as does Diogenes of Oenoanda.13 They are spotted in Rhodiapolis in southern Lycia, and as far north as Amastris on the south coast of the Black Sea, where we meet Tiberius Claudius Lepidus-the Epicurean who opposed the influence of Alexander of Abonouteichos and at the same time served as the high priest of the imperial cult.14 And we finally discover Lucian in Amastris at the head of an indignant crowd of philosophers protesting to the imperial legatus the attempt Alexander had made on Lucian's life. The date of this visit is ca 165.15 But we cannot date the philosophical inscription of Diogenes of Oenoanda. This monumental advertisement for the healing power 10 The testimonia for individuals are presented in Castner (supra n.4), but the movement-if it was that-as a whole still needs its history: an initial contribution in Momigliano, review of B. Farrington, Science and Politics in the Ancient World, inJRS 31 (1941) 149-57; E. Paratore mainly treats Lucretius in L'epicureismo e fa sua diffusa nel mondo fatino (Rome 1960) and "La problematica sull' epicureismo aRoma," ANRW 1.4 (Berlin 1973) 116-204. 11 Documented by W. Cronert, "Die Epikureer in Syrien," (jlh 10 (1907) 145- 52. 12 P.Oxy. II 215, edited with a full commentary by H. Diels, "'Ein epikureisches Fragment iiber Gotterverehrung," SBBerl (1916) 886-909 (=Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte der antiken Philosophie [Darmstadt 1969] 288-311); and D. Obbink, "' POxy. 215 and Epicurean Religious 8£copla," in Atti del XVII Congresso Inter­ nazionale di Papirologia II (Naples 1984) 607-19. Epicurus' attempt to attract fol­ lowers from Egypt is already attested in Plutarch's Live Unknown (Mor. 1129A), which Usener took to be evidence for a letter "'To the Friends in Egypt," frr.l06f Us. The letter requesting Epicurean books comes from Egypt and in the view of its editor might come from the second half of the second century: J. G. Keenan, "' A Papyrus Letter about Epicurean Philosophy Books," GettyMusl5 (1977) 91-94. 13 Rhetorica I cols. LII.11-17, LIlI.l-6 Sudhaus; Diogenes frr.15f Chilton=frr.63f Casanova (the letter to Antipater). There is also the inscription honoring the Epicurean Eucratides of Rhodes, IG XIV 674 (IGR 1466); cf. M. N. Todd, "Side­ lights on Greek Philosophers," IHS 77 (1957) 136 11.72. 14 From Rhodiapolis comes the inscription honoring the physician and philoso­ pher Heraclitus-if not an Epicurean at least connected with the Epicureans of Athens: TAM III 910 (IGR III 733). 15 For the date of Lucian's visit to Abonouteichos, as well as the cultural context of the oracle at Abonouteichos, see C. P. Jones, Culture and Society in Lucian (Cambridge [Mass.] 1986) 133-48. Since Lucian speaks of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius as 8£6~, he must have written this memoire after 180: Alex. 48; Jones 168. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 317 of Epicurean philosophy provides us with new evidence for the Epicurean community in Oenoanda and Diogenes' associates in Rhodes, Athens, Chalcis on Euboea, and Thebes in Boeotia; the names of Diogenes and his fellow Epicureans were all equally un­ known when the first inscribed blocks from the wall of Diogenes' stoa came to light. Heherdey and Kalinka, who published the 88 fragments of the inscription discovered in the nineteenth century, put it at the end of the second century.16 The evidence to go on is slight: the epigraphic features of the inscription, its language and style, the prosopography of Oenoanda, the con temporaries named by Diogenes have all been interrogated. Martin Ferguson Smith, whose work on the site of Oenoanda has led to the discovery of 124 new blocks and fragments from Diogenes' inscription, suggested a Hadrianic date for the monu­ ment on the basis of its letter forms, which closely resemble those of an inscription from KemeraSl at the foot of Oenoanda, bearing a letter from Hadrian that can be dated to 125 and the record of a new religious festival established by the Council of Oenoanda on 25 July 124.17 He has also detected what might be a reference to the plague of 165/6 in NF 54, where Diogenes refers to the" destruc­ tion of certain tribes and plagues that have [occurred] in our genera­ tion." 18 An even later date has been the more common suggestion. It depends on the prosopography of Oenoanda and its fundamental document, the funerary inscription of Licinnia Flavilla. If our Diogenes is the Flavianus Diogenes of this monument, he and his inscription can be dated to "about A.D. 200" (by the estimate of Chilton [1971] xx). Alan Hall, who has made the latest attempt to discover Diogenes in the civic inscriptions of Oenoanda, offers two possible identifications and two possible dates. If Flavianus Diogenes was responsible for the inscription, Hall would put the date of his inscription "between A.D. 200 and 230"; but if Diogenes, 16 "Die philosophische Inschrift von Oinoanda," BCH 21 (1897) 442f. 17 "Oenoanda: the Epicurean Inscription," in Proceedings of the X th Internation­ al Congress of Classical Archaeology (Ankara 1978) 84M. The inscription from the ancient settlement at the foot of the mountain site of Oenoanda is now published by M. Worrle, Stadt und Feste im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien (= Vestigia 10 [1988]), who approves Smith's suggestion (72 n.131). See also Smith, in Actes du colloque sur La Lycie antique (Paris 1980) 73-87, who suggests that the ~tOYEVTlC; 'tpic; wU MOAT\'tOC; mentioned in the Hadrianic inscription is our Diogenes. 18 Smith (1978) SOf. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 318 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY son of Marcus (bis), otherwise Sosicus, is our Diogenes, this identification would allow for a date in the early Severan period.19 The third possibility is that Diogenes is known only from his in­ scription. Nevertheless, Diogenes might have inadvertently given us an approximate date for himself and his inscription. And Smith's discovery in 1970 of a series of fragments that prove to come from Diogenes' epistolary provides us with another clue. In NF 10 we find Diogenes lecturing a group of his fellow Epicureans; in col. 1.6f he recalls the ethical doctrine he had expounded to someone whose name is not complete, but its first four letters are clearly ABEI[ (Smith [1971] 373-75=fr.71 Casanova). Smith suggested Abeirkios, and George Hoffman followed with the better suggestion of Avitianus. 20 Avitus is clearly also a possibility and the Avitus who was consul in 209 has been proposed as a candidate for the honor of being lectured to by Diogenes (Casanova 74). What brought Avitus and Diogenes together we do not know. My candidate is another Avitus who is better known to the Epicureans of Amastris; he was also well known to Apuleius. 21 This Avitus, L. Hedius Rufus Lollianus Avims, was the Roman legate to Bithynia and Pontus in 165, when Lucian descended on Abo­ nouteichos to expose the fraud of Alexander and his bogus oracle. It was to Avitus that Lucian (Alex. 57) protested the attempt that Alexander had made on his life as he was traveling from Abo­ nouteichos to Amastris by sea. Safe in Amastris, Lucian gathered supporters in the large Epicurean community there to endorse him in his complaints to the legate. But Lucian and his supporters could have no influence over Avi tus, since Alexander had powerful Roman protection in the person of Alexander's aged son-in-law, the consular P. Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus. Avitus convinced Lucian to let the matter go. This civilized and eloquent Roman obviously had contacts among the Epicureans of Amastris and he provides a possible date for Diogenes of Oenoanda, just as Lucian provides us with a cultural context in his Alexander. Like the Epi- 19 ·Who was Diogenes of Oenoanda?" ]HS 99 (1979) 160-64. 20 Diogenes of Oenoanda: a Commentary (diss.Univ. of Minnesota 1976) 289f. Hoffman thinks the name A vitus is too short to fill the space available) but a pos­ sible supplement to line 7 is [ ... 1tpoo]£tPll1Ca~v; cf. 1tpOOAauco) 10 x.14; 1tpoooj.1~ 74.3; and 1tpo]OqlCO[VECO, 120 I.1 Casanova; as well as the title of theSententiae Vati­ canae, npoo~ou; 'E1tUCOUPOU. 21 Apul. ApoL 24,94 (vir bonus, dicendi peritus), 95f; D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor II (Princeton 1950) 1533; PIR2 H 40. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 319 curean Celsus, who wrote a treatise against the magicians,22 and Lucian, who attempted to expose the fraud of Alexander, Diogenes of Oenoanda waged from the mountain fastness of Oenoanda his own war against the superstitions of his age: the base popular con­ ceptions of the gods, oracles, dreams, and the philosophers' belief in the transmigration of the soul. II. Diogenes paene alter Epicurus Diogenes' conception of himself and his role in making public the healing word of Epicurus is fully expressed in the introductiop he provides for his inscription as a whole. He sees humankind afflicted with a kind of spiritual plague (Ku8a1tEp EV AotJ.1ip) and is moved to come to their aid. 23 A single verb captures his conception of him­ self, E1ttKOUpdv: "It is just to help those who come after us; for these too belong to us, even if they have not yet been born. And it is an act of humanity to come to the aid (E1tlKOUpeiV) of the strangers who visit our city as well. "24 Clearly Epicurus' name was meaningful to Diogenes; 25 he was the helper who came to succor struggling mankind. In his che1ps' to those who would stop in the shelter of his stoa to read his inscrip­ tion, where they would find displayed on its wall "remedies that bring salvation, "26 Diogenes was consciously imitating Epicurus; and he can be described in the language Cicero chose to describe one of Epicurus' oldest and closest associates, Metrodorus of 22 Alex. 21. He cannot, I think, be the pagan opponent of Origen's Contra Celsum, but rather the Celsus known from Lucian and Galen. For arguments in either direction see H. Chadwick, Origen: Contra Celsum (Cambridge 1953) xxv, and R. J. Hoffman, Celsus: On the True Doctrine (Oxford 1987) 30-33. 23 Fr.2 IVA-13 Chilton=fr.3 Casanova. Marcello Gigante provides a context for Diogenes' conception of philosophy as therapy in .. Philosophia medicans in Filo­ demo," CronErcol5 (1975) 53-61. 2. Fr.2 v.7 Chilton=fr.3 Casanova. Diogenes' philanthropy had its origin and model in that of Epicurus: D.L. 10.10; cf fr,49 Chilton=fr.121 Casanova. Hoff­ man's comments (supra n.20:165f) on the word cptA.av8pol1tov in Diogenes' intro­ duction are valuable for placing the word in its context. 25 As Hoffman seems to have been the first to notice (supra n.20: 166). 26 'tCx 'ti1~ (JCJ)'tTlpia~ 1tpofh:'ivat cpap .... a]1Ca, in Gomperz's much admired supple­ ment. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 320 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY Lampsacus: paene alter Epicurus. 27 His choice of the means to his philanthropy is the intelligent response of a wealthy and prominent Epicurean to Epicurus' injunction !lit 1tOAt'tEUE0'8o.t-"Keep away from lolitical life.» "In taking this course and not becoming in­ volve in political life I make these statements as if I were actually present. »28 Diogenes' term 0,) 1to[AEthEUO!lEVO~ reflects his respect for Epicurus' wisdom, but it has a very distinct and contemporary application in Lycia where inscriptions commemorated the philan­ thropy of the unphilosophical Opramoas, who was "active in the political life» of his own city (Rhodiapolis) and the cities of Lycia (1tOAt'tEUO!lEVO~ o£ Ko.t EV 'to.'i~ Ko.'tU AUKlo.V 1tOAEO't 1tcXao.t~).29 In offering an eloquent and sometimes prolix stoa to his native city Diogenes was more philanthropic than Opramoas, who could only offer a bath building.30 And he was true to Epicurus. The very philological problems that have invested Diogenes' in­ scription attest to the difficulties of distinguishing Epicurus from the Epicureans who were his followers. Does the Letter to Mother which Diogenes displayed on the wall of his stoa belong to Dioge­ nes or to Epicurus? (It belongs to Epicurus.) Do the maxims dis­ played on the lowest inscribed course of this inscription belong to Epicurus, to a "very competent Ionian disciple,» or do they belong to Diogenes? (They belong to Diogenes.) 31 Does the text of the last 27 Fin. 2.28, 92. I give a justification of this characterization in "'Individual and Community in the First Generation of the Epicurean School," in l:'U~Tttl1at.C;: Studi ... Marcello Gigante I (Naples 1983) 255-79. 28 Fr.2 1.3-7 Chilton=fr.3 Casanova; cf. D.L. 10.119 and its echoes collected in fr.8 Us. 29 Particularly the inscription carved on the walls of his heroon at Rhodiapolis: fGR III 739.xvm.48 and xx.50 (TAM II.3 905). The key term JtOAt.tE'UO).l£VOC; occurs in an honorary inscription (on a statue base) from the Letoon in Xanthos, pub­ lished by A. Balland, Fouilles de Xanthos VII (Paris 1986) no. 66. The inter­ pretation of this term is still not certain, despite the discussions of Ballard (177-80) and J. A. o. Larsen, SymbOslo 33 (1957) 5-26. Whether Opramoas was made a citizen of the cities listed in the inscriptions honoring his charities to the cities of Lycia, or was only active in the civic affairs of these cities-or acted in his official capacity as a Lysiarch-his activity was not that of the Epicurean Diogenes. 30 fGR III 739.XIX.28. Diogenes helps us with this contrast: fr.2 m.ll Chilton= fr.3 Casanova. The baths of "'the self-advertising Antonine plutocrat Opramoas of Rhodiapolis" are now plausibly located among the buildings of Oenoanda by J. J. Coulton, "'The Buildings of Oenoanda," PCPS N.s. 29 (1983) 10. 31 Chilton (1971) 97. The word 'turn to stone' (eA1.001t01.TtaaJ.L£v) in NF 81 (Smith [1978] 69-71) would seem to decide the question unexpectedly in Diogenes' favor. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 321 of the new fragments to be discovered in this century (NF 124) belong to Epicurus or to Diogenes? (The answer to this question is still in doubt: cf Smith [1984] 52-55.) These doubts are a tribute to Epicurus. What is remarkable is the fact that at the end of the legible history of Epicureanism-some four and a half centuries after Epi­ curus' death-these questions of attribution still arise. Diogenes' stoa did not stand long on the southern border of the ~Esplanade' of his native city. It was soon dismantled, and the fine ashlar blocks of its wall and its very foundations were used to build a shortened defensive wall protecting the city to the north. The stoa wall has been reconstructed in so many ways that one can say of it quot editores tot parietes. I offer here (jig. 1) one possible recon­ struction of the wall and the inscription it carried. The inscribed wall articulates clearly into three registers. And Diogenes' plan for the display of the texts that make up his 'Ypaq)'rl reflects his relation to Epicurus. The lowest inscribed course (above the orthostate blocks) carries Diogenes' Ethical Treatise and continues with his Maxims and Epistolary. This entire course seems to belong to Diogenes himself, but it is underwritten by Epicurus. His Ethical Treatise is evolved, as if it were a papyrus, in columns fourteen lines deep. Running below them in somewhat larger let­ ters is a nearly continuous taenia carrying Epicurus' Kuptat o6~at and a few ethical sayings of Epicurus that are known to us only from Diogenes' inscription. In the case of the Ethical Treatise one can properly speak of Epicurus as underwriting Diogenes. In some clear cases at least, Epicurus' maxims actually support Diogenes' own argument above, as is the case in NF 21, where a new but not unfamiliar maxim, [xav ~ii>]ov ou Ouva'tat cruvSfl1cTlv [Xou:lcrSat lmEp 'tou J.lTt PAclXU:tV J.lTlOE PAclx'tEcrSat], supports Diogenes' prophecy of a golden age of justice, "when the world will be filled with justice and neighborly love" above it (NF 21 1.6-8 [Smith (1974) 21-25]=fr.57 Casanova). As Smith noted when he published the new fragment, "the maxim relates to the Epicurean conception of justice, and the passage above describes how justice will prevail throughout the world when all mankind has been converted to the true philosophy. "32 Following the Ethical Treatise comes a series of maxims gener­ ously and handsomely inscribed in large letters, which are now 32 Smith (1974) 25. Chilton (1971: 66) also noticed the occasional and intended connection between the arguments of Diogenes above and Epicurus below. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 322 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY recognized as the work of Diogenes. They are, indeed, the record of his own attempt to provide his readers with a version of the KUpUll ~6~(lt of Epicurus-Epicurean wisdom to master and meditate. And there is on this same course (I of fig. I) a display of the letters of Diogenes of Oenoanda. The best known of Diogenes' letters is his letter to Antipater, and, in both its subject (the Epicurean theory of an infinite universe and the infinite worlds forming and dispersing within it) and in the attitude Diogenes adopts to his correspondent, Diogenes is clearly imitating Epicurus and his Letter to Pythocles. Both recognize the zeal of the pupil and the newcomer to Epicurean philosophy, and both answer his request for further instruction in one of the most abstruse aspects of Epicurean philosophy.33 But Diogenes' letter is also a dialogue and a record for Antipater of the conversation he had in Rhodes with his fellow Epicurean, Theodoridas of Lindos. In adopting the combined philosophical form of letter and dialogue Diogenes is also imitating Epicurus' Symposium, which is a dialogue between Epicu­ rus and Polyaenus. 34 Epicurus' Symposium begins with Polyaenus' question to Epicurus: "Do you deny, Epicurus, the heating prop­ erties of wine?"; the dialogue within Diogenes' letter begins with Theodoridas' question to Diogenes: "Diogenes, that the doctrine Epicurus has established concerning the infinity of worlds is true ... " (fr.16 III. 1 O-N .1 Chilton=fr.64 IV.IO-vl Casanova). The new investigations at Oenoanda initiated by Smith in 1968 have led to the discovery of two new letters from Diogenes' epis­ tolary: a letter to Dionysius of Rhodes (NF 58), who was already known (fr.51 Chilton},35 and a long letter Diogenes addressed to his associates in Rhodes concerning an Epicurean by the name of Ni­ ceratus. Here Diogenes adduces the authority of a letter of Epi­ curus, who had written to his followers in Lampsacus, to describe his narrow escape from shipwreck (NF 7, a block preceded by NF 10 and followed by Diogenes' own reflections on Epicurus' reflec- 33 Ep. ad Pyth. 84 (+. ti .... o III A 31.5·35 em B 37·41 em C 46-50 em II 45-49 em O'Q 58-62 em rD ::J rD til o >+. o rD 62 em ::J o ~ ::J 0- ~ Fr.,54 NF 52 Fr. 23 The Inscribed Courses of the 5roa \X'all (or \\:'alls): Total Height 2_37 m The Old Age treatise A B Epieurus' Letter to Mother. {rs. 52-53 Fr. 49 NF 3. 2-4 (to Hcrmarehus) NF 110 (to D(l~ilhel1sl C Frs. 50. 51 scored margin Introduction The Physics Treatise Fr. 14 5cnlenllae Variac Diogenes' Epistolary The Ethics Treatise fro 15 NF 107 fr. 16 (to Antipaterl NFF 10, 7. 8 NF .58 (to Diom'sius) tj ...... t.n ~ ...... Z (') t"'" ~ V> N V> CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 324 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY tions in NF 8).36 Diogenes addresses his friends as ,.uIKapl.01., just as Epicurus once addressed Pythocles as ,.uIKap1.£ ([89] Ar.). As we have seen, Diogenes reminds his friends in Rhodes of the doctrine he had once expounded to Avitus (1.6f) and expresses his dis­ pleasure at his friends' decision to send Niceratus "to us" (1tP0C; Ttllac;, n.12f). We cannot be sure if Diogenes is using the personal pronoun as did Epicurus in his Letter to Mother or if he had also in mind a group of Epicureans in Oenoanda.37 But it is likely that his use of the first person plural reflects Epicurus' own practice of writing letters first to an individual and then to a group of friends associated with the individual, K01.Vn KClt toi~. Such was the practice of St Paul. 38 The imf0rtance of the letter as a means to maintaining a com­ munity 0 attitudes and actions for Epicureans established in small communities in cities throughout the Greek world is reflected in the very title of Philodemus' n PCl'YIlCl't£tCl1., the acts of the epistle. And it is manifest in Diogenes' decision to display his own epis­ tolary under the letters of Epicurus which he displays in the upper register of his inscription (III B of fig. 1). Another sign of Diogenes' studied imitation of Epicurus is his decision to have his own last will and testament inscribed on the wall of his stoa (fr.SO Chilton, course C). It begins: "These are the instructions that I, Diogenes, give my relatives, familiars, and friends": ~tO'YEVllC; 'tole; (J'\)VYEV£Ot KClt OtK£lOt<; KClt cpiAot<; 'ta­ o£ £V'tEAAOIlCl1.. In making this very public record of his last will and testament 36 Smith (1971) 365-71, 373ff. I give my version of the syntax and argument of these three fragments in -The Means to Epicurus' Salvation: the 'Crux' at Diogenes of Oenoanda, NF 7 II 12," Sileno 10 (1984) 169-75 (=Studi in on ore di Adelmo Barigazzi). Casanova's sequence differs: 10 (fr.71), 8 (fr.72), 7 (fr.73). 37 Cf fr.52 III.3, 6; IV.3, 7-10 Chilton=fr.122 Casanova, and Smith's remarks on NF 24 in (1974) 34f. 38 Clearly from [59] 3f Ar. (Epicurus' letter to Idomeneus) and Ep. ad Pyth. 85, Epicurus expects that his letters will be circulated and that Pythocles will have his own copy of the letter to Herodotus. The importance of letters in the mission and expansion of Christianity is well documented in A. von Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten4 (Leipzig 1924) I 382-86. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 325 Diogenes was imitating Epicurus. Epicurus' own last will and testa­ ment (D.L. 10.16-21) is one of the most important documents of his philosophical career, if philosophy is understood-as he under­ stood it in his will-as a common and principled way of life. He preserved his will in the Metroon or Public Records Office of Athens and thereby made it as public and secure as the psephismata and other public documents of Athens. 39 It is a pity that only the first block on which Diogenes' will was inscribed has survived, for its sequel would preserve evidence for the Epicurean community in Oenoanda, whose survival Diogenes, in his own extreme old age, wanted to insure by his last act as an Epicurean philosopher. The word "friends" in line 2 is striking. By 'tl) P is not a commonplace in the philosophical literature of the second century. And Diogenes' description of Epicurus as a herald (Kftp'\)~) is even less common. Both terms, savior and herald, remaind us rather of the language of the New Testament. The language of I Timothy 2.7 combines the terms 'herald' and 'apostle', and 'savior' is the word for Christ in II Timothy 1.10. 43 The Kl)pu'YJla of the New Testa­ ment is of course the coming of Christ as the Messiah and savior. But, as Epictetus said of a herald from the pagan world, the words for the self-proclaimed hierophan t, herald, and torchbearer of a new philosophy are the same (al cpo>val al a{)'tai) as those of the mysteries of Eleusis, but in Eleusis they have a different spiritual meaning.44 So too in Oenoanda. In the Greek context, the herald was a public official who made proclamations at the Olympic games or the Eleusinian mysteries or negotiated the barriers between city and city. Alexander of Abonouteichos had his own herald to make the proclamation of the opening of his mysteries (Alex. 46), and in a new fragment of Diogenes' inscription it seems that Epicurus in­ vited Hermarchus to enter the mysteries of his own philosophy (NF 24 [Smith (1974) 31-3S]=fr.124 Casanova). We do not know exactly when Christianity reached Oenoanda, but its way was well prepared by Diogenes. Neither Epicurus nor Diogenes were heralds of the state or the religion of the state. They proclaimed the salvation of their philoso­ phy as private individuals, whose mission it was to attract others from the primacy of the ties of their cities to the alternative communities of 'friends'-[£~] 'to ouv£A6ov TtJlWV, as Epicurus put 42 SV 52: il c; and of Oenoanda as his native city; and in his introduction he makes the primacy of his concern for his fellow citizens clear to all. 46 But he also proclaims himself as a citizen of the world, as had Democritus long before him: "Throughout the entire enclosure of this our world all the earth is a single country and the world a single dwelling. "47 Diogenes' intellectual world seems a large one: of the Presocratics he names Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Diogenes of Apol­ Ionia, and Heraclitus; he engages Pythagoras and Empedocles (son of Acragas!) and their theories of metempsychosis (which he terms Jl£'tcl~a(Jtc;); the triad of ancient atheists appear in his inscription (Diagoras, Theodorus, and Protagoras); he engages Aristippus and his conception of pleasure and mentions Socrates, Plato, and Aris­ totle (the Heraclitean!); Democritus is an important figure in his polemics, as are the Stoics in general (though he never names an individual Stoic). And as one would expect, the name of Epicurus appears often on the wall of his stoa. But the horizons of his knowledge of philosophy are narrow. He knew Epicurus directly and well and was in possession of many of his writings; even his occasional and inadvertent misquotations from Epicurus' ethical sayings would seem to indicate that he knew some of Epicurus' ()6~at by heart. All of the other philosophers he names and sometimes addresses in a dialogue (which is a tandem 45 To Hermarchus, NF 24: Ot~llt 'tn[~ t~] 'to ouvtlJ)ov ~J.1rov [ ...... ] 1t(l(ki~ tio- 6&nx;, I.1-3=fr.124 Casanova. I would supplement line 2 by [0J.10tO ]1tllet"i~ on the strength of Metrodorus of Lampsacus' appeal to his brother Timocrates: 1tOt"OOlJ.1EV 'tt lCllA.OV E1tllCllA.o"i~, J.1ovov OU lCll'tllOUV'W; 'tll"i~ oJ.1oto1tlledlll~ lCllla1tllAAllYEV'tt~ elC 'tOU XllJ.1ll!' ~10'U ti~ 'tn 'E1t1lCOUpO'U ci>~ aAlleroc; eEOc:pllV'tll OPYtll (fr.38 Koerte=Plut. Adv. CoL 1117B). This fraternal appeal was rejected by Timocrates, who betrays the representation of Epicurus' philosophy as a mystery when he says that he barely managed to escape from "those nocturnal sessions and that mystic confraternity" (D.L. 10.6). 46 Thus, it is the extension of his healing message to the strangers who would visit his stoa in Oenoanda that characterizes his 'philanthropy'; cf fr.2 V.S Chilton =fr.3 Casanova and fr.49.2 Chilton=fr.121.3 Casanova. The pride of being a citizen of Oenoanda is eloquently expressed by C. Julius Demosthenes (Warrle [supra n.17: 4) who speaks of the love he had for his sweetest country from his earliest years: [a1to] 1tPcIYcllC; TtAllClllC; 'tTtV yA'UlC'U't(hllV J.10t> 1tll'tpiOa 1tEc:ptAlllCroC; (line 8). Dioge­ nes speaks of Oenoanda simply as his 1tll'tpic;: fr.15 11.14 Chilton= fr.63 Casanova. 47 Fr.2S 11.6-11 Chilton=fr.30 Casanova. Cf Democritus 68B247 D.-K. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 328 A LOST EPICUREAN COMMUNITY soliloquy) are rivals to his own philosophy and mistaken; these he seems to know from the doxography and not from their writings. To the Epicurean philosophy was also a common way of life, and in this sense of the word the horizons of Diogenes' philosophy were more generous. Before his inscription came to light, he himself was completely unknown; of all the contemporaries he names in his epistolary perhaps only one, L. Hedius Rufus Lollianus Avitus (cos. A.D. 144), was known. Diogenes' inscription has now given us the names of Epicureans active in Rhodes and in mainland Greece: Antipater (of Athens); Theodoridas of Lindos; and Menneas, Carus, Dionysius, and Niceratus of Rhodes. In addressing Antipater Diogenes calls Theodoridas "our companion" (£'ta'ipo<; llJ.u:Ov, fr.16 1.12 Chilton=fr.64 II .12 Casanova); and in addressing Menneas, he speaks of "our" Dionysius (AtOv'Uoto'U 'tot> llJu:'tEpo'U, fr.Sl 1I.9f Chilton=fr.129 Casanova). In this same letter he speaks of a woman with whom he stayed in Rhodes and her con­ tribution to his recovery; and the supervision of "the amazing Caruso " The formula of his conclusion to this letter is Epicurean, for it was Epicurus' habit to wish his correspondents health. But the plural Eppc.oo8£ xaA.tv is also a sign that Diogenes' Letter to M enneas was meant for a larger group and that it is a response to a letter that concluded EP pc.oOO. 48 Fragments of still another letter reveal that a diet of curdled milk was responsible for rebuilding Diogenes' health, and we know from his last will and testament that he was suffering from a stomach disorder. 49 The concerns of these letters to the Epicureans in Rhodes seem personal, provincial, and far removed from the kind of large philo­ sophical concerns that occupied Epicurus in the three major letters reproduced in Diogenes Laertius (Book 10) or the pastoral con­ cerns of the letters of the Christians who were Diogenes' contem­ poraries. But perhaps what was most important to Diogenes and his friends was the disposition that bound one Epicurean to another­ the bta8£ot<; he commends in Menneas who was concerned for the 48 For UytalVE1.V as a salutation of Epicurus' letters, cf. [40] Ar. and my remarks on fr.51 Chilton in AJP 99 (1978) 120-23. 49 For the diet of curdled milk, NF 23 (Smith [1974] 26-31)=fr.128 Casanova; in his last will and testament (which is his imitation of Epicurus' letter to Idomeneus: [52] Ar.) Diogenes speaks of suffering from a severe stomach disorder (Kap~ta1C:ov 1t(ieo~): fr.50.7 Chilton=fr.136 Casanova. CLAY, DISKIN, A Lost Epicurean Community , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:2 (1989) p.313 DISKIN CLAY 329 health of his fellow philosopher (fr.S1 II.6 Chilton=fr.129 Casanova). Like the early Christians, the Epicureans recognized one another as 'friends', although the Epicureans were perhaps unique in their de­ votion to friendship.50 The attitude of concern and even zeal for the physical and spiritual well-being of the Epicurean and the pleasures of friendship is dramatically expressed in a new block from Di­ ogenes' Letter to Antipater (NF 107=fr.63 Casanova, which follows fr.1S Chilton and joins fr.16 Chilton). In response to Antipater's progress and his enthusiasm for Epicurean philosophy ([(J1touo]i1~, 1.4), Diogenes is especially eager to meet Antipater himself "and the other friends in Athens, and in Chalcis and Thebes once again, thinking that you all share my feeling" (II.1-8). In the new block from this letter Diogenes writes: "I will try to join you, since the winter weather has now subsided, sailing first either to Athens or to Chalcis and Boeotia, since my appetite has been whetted as never before by the prospect of a trip by sea" (fr.64 1.2-13 Casa­ nova=NF 107 [Smith (1979) 70-74]). The 'you' of this translation is, as one might expect, second per­ son plural. The enthusiasm of the Epicurean for friendship radiates from Diogenes' epistolary and reminds us of the enthusiasm and warmth of the letters of Epicurus who was Diogenes' inspiration. Diogenes' eagerness to join Antipater and his fellow Epicureans in mainland Greece matches the spirit if not the language of the letter Epicurus wrote to Themista in Lampsacus, telling her that if she and Leonteus could not come to him, he would join them "on a three­ wheeled cart" ('tPtKUA.tEAHNAfIEPYKEI, the end of an hexameter oracle Alexander composed to protect his clients from the plague that had moved from the east with the armies of Lucius Verus. 60 Lucian says that he could see it inscribed on doorposts everywhere (Kat 'tou'to ~v io£i.v 'to £1to<; 1tav'taxou, Alex. 36). Its full text is <1>0i.(30<; clK£l.POKOJlT1<; AOlJ.LOU v£