author

Philodemus

An Epicurean philosopher and poet from Gadara, he helped carry Greek philosophical ideas into Roman culture and left behind works that resurfaced in one of antiquity’s most remarkable buried libraries. His writing opens a lively window onto ethics, art, music, rhetoric, and the pleasures of everyday life.

1 Audiobook

The improved antidote, supposed to be more active in expelling poison, than a late invention, by the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart. in which the Catholics are vindicated from his abuse, and their claims for unrestricted emancipation, considered

The improved antidote, supposed to be more active in expelling poison, than a late invention, by the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart. in which the Catholics are vindicated from his abuse, and their claims for unrestricted emancipation, considered

by Philodemus

About the author

Born around 110 BC in Gadara, Philodemus studied in Athens under the Epicurean teacher Zeno of Sidon before making his way to Italy. Ancient sources and modern reference works connect him especially with Herculaneum and with the circle of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, placing him close to the intellectual life of the late Roman Republic.

Philodemus was both a philosopher and a poet. He wrote epigrams that survived in the Greek Anthology, but he is especially valued today for his prose works on ethics, theology, rhetoric, music, poetics, and the history of philosophy. His aim was often practical and human: to defend Epicurean thought and explain how people might live well.

Much of his later fame comes from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, where carbonized scrolls preserving many of his writings were buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. As scholars have gradually recovered and read those texts, Philodemus has emerged as one of the most important voices for understanding Epicurean philosophy and the literary culture of the ancient Mediterranean.