Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T10:34:52.785Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 7 - The Garden and the Forum

Epicurean Adherence and Political Affiliation in the Late Republic

from Part II - Political Alliances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2018

Henriette van der Blom
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Christa Gray
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Catherine Steel
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access

Summary

Although Epicureanism was notorious for its exhortation to avoid politics and for its emphasis on personal security and happiness, several prominent politicians of the late Roman Republic have been identified with confidence as adherents of the philosophy. Among these were L. Calpurnius Piso, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar, and C. Cassius Longinus, one of the assassins of the dictator, as well as the short-lived consul C. Vibius Pansa and the notorious Memmius, dedicatee of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. This chapter explores how these figures integrated their apparently incompatible philosophical and political identities, and explores some commonalities between their career strategies, such as avoidance of oratory and reliance on the non-popular aspects of electioneering. It also examines their relationships and alliances, not only with each other, but also with the most powerful figures of their day, including Caesar, into whose faction they all, at one time or another, fell.
Type
Chapter
Information
Institutions and Ideology in Republican Rome
Speech, Audience and Decision
, pp. 147 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×