DOCSLIB.ORG

LUCRETIUS and the FEARS of DEATH a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University Partial Fu

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
LUCRETIUS and the FEARS of DEATH a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University Partial Fu LUCRETIUS AND THE FEARS OF DEATH A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Peter Aronoff August 1997 © 1997 Peter Aronoff BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Although he likes to pretend that he is the all-American kid from New York City, Peter Aronoff was actually bom in Columbia, South Carolina. Mrs. Hunter taught him to read in kindergarten at P.S. #4, Inwood, NY, for which he will be forever grateful. Around the same time, his parents taught him to be a decent human being, to have the courage of his convictions, and, when appropriate, to raise his voice. These lessons and how to read were probably all he ever really needed to know, but the remaining twenty-three years of schooling were nevertheless entertaining. He cannot think of anything more stupid than the autobiography of a twenty-eight year old. for Ithaca such weather one cannnot say, here, why one is still so happy. Amy Clampitt 'Grasmere' Archaic Figure iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Andrew Mellon Foundation and the estate of Lane Cooper provided support for the writing of this thesis, and I am grateful to both sources. The writing was done primarily in Ithaca, but my beloved cousin, Stuart Wallenstein, made available his luxury east-side apartment many times, and I wrote drafts of chapters two and three there, as well as revisions on the body of the entire thesis. I thank him both for the space and for his helpful insights on thought experiments. Dianne Curtin, Cheryl Miller, Nancy Sokol, and Miriam Zubal supplied an endless stream of answers and solutions to years of foolish questions and problems. Nancy Sokol, who is the soul of the Cornell Classics Department, went above and beyond: I owe my job to her extra phone call, and I am forever in her debt. My committee - Judy Ginsburg, Phillip Mitsis and Pietro Pucci - know how much I owe them, and I would like to thank Judy Ginsburg in particular for meeting with me on a weekly basis when I was initially hammering out the the work. At an early stage of the project, Elizabeth Asmis kindly read drafts of what became chapter two, as well as drafts of what became chapter nothing. Gail Fine also read a version of that same doomed chapter. At a late stage Charles Brittain read the entire thesis, some pieces more than once, as did Julia Annas at an even later stage. I especially thank these people since they had no obligation to help. Hayden Pelliccia and David Mankin were always generous with their time and knowledge, and they provided insight and encouragement on a number of key points. I am happiest to acknowledge what I owe to my friends and family. I love my work, which is, for the most part, a good thing. But it means that no one who knows me for very long can escape talking about death. This bare list cannot be more than a pale recognition of my debts, but I would like to thank the following people for discussion and argument: Ian Alderman, Sara Benjamin, Charles Brittain, Matt Gluck, Greg Hays, Vivek Jain, Amy Joy Lanou, Grace Ledbetter, Tami Loos, Keith McPartland, Ali Nathan, Nathan Nicol, Joanna Rios, Richard Swartz, Robin Warren, and Kate Woolfitt. My family has supported me, contrary to their best judgment, for my entire life. I cannot thank them enough, and it would be silly to say much else on that score. But I should note that my father found and provided the pen with which I wrote literally the entire thesis. Finally, I would like to thank Julia Annas, Charles Brittain, Richard Swartz, and Kate Woolfitt. They were kind enough to sit with me while I printed the final version the week before my defense and to help me collate the monster. It may not seem like a lot, but it made all the difference in the world. The thesis is dedicated to a place, which may seem odd. But as much as anything, a place is the people who live there and the life they live. I was lucky to have spent the last five years here, with these people, living this life. The work is a result of that time in this place. No other dedication seemed right. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch HI Dedication iv Acknowledgments V List of Abbreviations v iii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Emotions and the fears of death 6 Chapter 2: The nature of the soul and the fear of Hades 36 Chapter 3: The destruction of the soul and non-existence 78 Chapter 4: The destruction of the soul and non-existence: objections 136 Conclusion 170 Appendix 1: Materialism and the emotions 176 Appendix 2: Letter to Herodotus 81 181 Appendix 3: The two thought experiments in HI 843-861 190 Bibliography 201 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CAG Commentarium Aristotelicum Graecum CAH Cambridge Ancient History CHCL Cambridge History of Classical Literature De An Aristotle, De Anima De Fin Cicero, De Finbus Bonorum et Malorum DK Fragmente der Vorsokratiker edd. H. Diels and W. Kranz DL Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum DO Diogenes of Oenoanda, The Epicurean Inscription DRN Lucretius, De Rerum Natura DVB Seneca, De Vita Beata EE Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics EET P. Mitsis, Epicurus' Ethical Theory EF Philodemus, De Electionibus et Fugis EHEE G. Striker, Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics EpH Epicurus, Epistula ad Herodotum EpM Epicurus, Epistula ad Menoeceum HPM J. Annas, Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind G Socraticorum Relicjuae ed. G. Giannantoni KD Kuriai Doxai Non posse Plutarch, Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum L&S The Hellenistic Philosophers edd. A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley M oD Metaphysics of Death ed. J. Fischer M oH J. Annas, The Morality of Happiness ND Cicero, De Natura Deorum NE Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics R h et Aristotle, Ars Rhetorica SVF Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta TD Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes ToD M. Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire U Epicurea ed. H. Usener VS Vaticanae Sententiae v iii INTRODUCTION Start this way. Everyone wants to be happy (DRN VI 26, EpM 122). What people want, when they want this, is to live well, to have a good life, to succeed in their lives (NE 1095al8-20). These phrases are not identical, nor is their meaning perfectly clear, but neither point nullifies the substantial truth here. Over and above all the specific things that people want and pursue, they want, quite in general, to be happy. This desire naturally produces two questions. First, what is happiness? Second, how can we get it, whatever it is?1 The second question arises in an obvious way: if we want something, then we want to know how to get it - since we want happiness, we want to know how to get it. The first question arises, as Aristotle points out (NE 1095al7-22, 1097b22- 24), because to say that everyone wants happiness is not yet to say anything very definite about what happiness is. Everyone can agree that they want to live well, precisely because 'living well' is left somewhat vague. But since we will be more likely to achieve happiness if we have a clear notion of what it is, we will very much want to have such a clear notion. 1 Cf. DRN V I26-28, 'exposuitque [Epicurus] bonum summum quo tendimus omnes/quid foret, atque viam monstravit, tramite parvo/qua possemus ad id recto contendere cursu/ Seneca DVB I 1, and Aristotle EE 1214al4-15, 'rcpwxov 8e ( j k e j i x e o v e v xivi xo eu ^fjv icai rccoq k x t i t o v / but as emerges from his following remarks, Aristotle's n&q Kxqxov is not as immediately practical as the statements Seneca or Lucretius. See also Mitsis EET 11, and Striker EHEE 169-173. 1 2 If we consider the Epicurean response to these questions, it will put the subject matter of the rest of the thesis into better perspective. Happiness, according to the Epicureans, consists in the absence of bodily pain (cc7cov{oc) and the freedom from mental disturbance (ocxctpoc^icx). The characterization here is essentially negative, and Epicurus's language bears ample witness to this fact.2 At least two things are odd here. First, even if we understand this to mean that happiness is a life of physical and mental painlessness, rather than just a momentary condition, nevertheless the Epicurean position seems too passive. Lack of pain, even a whole life of it, does not appear to have enough positive content to make up a truly happy life. As the Cyrenaics put it, this life seems like the condition of a sleeper or even of a corpse (DL H 89, U 451). Second, and still odder, the Epicureans identified painlessness with the greatest pleasure (EpM 131, De Fin I 37-38). Even if happiness is painlessness, however, it looks like sheer perversity to pass off lack of pain as any pleasure - much less the height of pleasure. These are genuine and serious problems for the Epicureans, but I am not going to answer them. In order to consider the Epicurean answer to the second question - how can we achieve happiness, whatever it is? - I will simply take it to be true, for the sake of argument, that happiness is the conjunction of dt7tov{a and dxocpa^ia. Given that this is so, how can we get it? Put short, the Epicureans thought that we could achieve physical painlessness by satisfying, at a minimal level, our need for food, drink, clothing, and shelter.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Gone Girl : a Novel / Gillian Flynn
    ALSO BY GILLIAN FLYNN Dark Places Sharp Objects This author is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact the Random House Speakers Bureau at [email protected] or (212) 572-2013. http://www.rhspeakers.com/ This book is a work of ction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used ctitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2012 by Gillian Flynn Excerpt from “Dark Places” copyright © 2009 by Gillian Flynn Excerpt from “Sharp Objects” copyright © 2006 by Gillian Flynn All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Flynn, Gillian, 1971– Gone girl : a novel / Gillian Flynn. p. cm. 1. Husbands—Fiction. 2. Married people—Fiction. 3. Wives—Crimes against—Fiction. I. Title. PS3606.L935G66 2012 813’.6—dc23 2011041525 eISBN: 978-0-307-58838-8 JACKET DESIGN BY DARREN HAGGAR JACKET PHOTOGRAPH BY BERND OTT v3.1_r5 To Brett: light of my life, senior and Flynn: light of my life, junior Love is the world’s innite mutability; lies, hatred, murder even, are all knit up in it; it is the inevitable blossoming of its opposites, a magnicent rose smelling faintly of blood.
    [Show full text]
  • Livy's View of the Roman National Character
    James Luce, December 5th, 1993 Livy's View of the Roman National Character As early as 1663, Francis Pope named his plantation, in what would later become Washington, DC, "Rome" and renamed Goose Creek "Tiber", a local hill "Capitolium", an example of the way in which the colonists would draw upon ancient Rome for names, architecture and ideas. The founding fathers often called America "the New Rome", a place where, as Charles Lee said to Patrick Henry, Roman republican ideals were being realized. The Roman historian Livy (Titus Livius, 59 BC-AD 17) lived at the juncture of the breakdown of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. His 142 book History of Rome from 753 to 9 BC (35 books now extant, the rest epitomes) was one of the most read Latin authors by early American colonists, partly because he wrote about the Roman national character and his unique view of how that character was formed. "National character" is no longer considered a valid term, nations may not really have specific national characters, but many think they do. The ancients believed states or peoples had a national character and that it arose one of 3 ways: 1) innate/racial: Aristotle believed that all non-Greeks were barbarous and suited to be slaves; Romans believed that Carthaginians were perfidious. 2) influence of geography/climate: e.g., that Northern tribes were vigorous but dumb 3) influence of institutions and national norms based on political and family life. The Greek historian Polybios believed that Roman institutions (e.g., division of government into senate, assemblies and magistrates, each with its own powers) made the Romans great, and the architects of the American constitution read this with especial care and interest.
    [Show full text]
  • Living with Lucretius
    chapter one Living with Lucretius JONATHAN KRAMNICK In 1682, Thomas Creech published the fi rst complete translation of Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things into English. Greeted with some fan- fare on its appearance, Creech’s edition stood at the crest of a Lucretius revival of several decades in the making, including complete or partial translations by Lucy Hutchinson, John Evelyn, and John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester.1 One common explanation for this renewed interest in the poem has been that its cosmology was so amenable to the new cultures of science and observation. The universe is composed only of atoms and void; all forms of life rise from a swarming mass of particles in motion. So Lucretius argued and so the seventeenth century discovered, even as it resisted the lengths to which Lucretius was prepared to go in denying an immaterial soul and an afterlife of reward or punishment. My point in this essay is not to challenge this notion of the Lucretius revival so much as to focus on some questions of consciousness and agency that concern a world reducible to atoms. Accepting that the world is made only of matter, how can matter think? And, assuming that matter can think, what kind of agents and types of action can matter create? These questions turn out to be exceptionally hard to answer and touch on issues of real sensitivity around life, death, and human agency. According to Lucretius, atoms are indivisible and thus imper- ishable. They build various forms of life for as long as they remain in steady combinations and scatter to the void at the moment of death.
    [Show full text]
  • Konkurs Poezji I Piosenki Irlandzkiej – Marzec 2021
    Konkurs Poezji i Piosenki Irlandzkiej – marzec 2021 PATRONATY HONOROWE: Ambasada Irlandii w Warszawie Konsulat Irlandii w Poznaniu PATRONAT MEDIALNY: ORGANIZATOR I SPONSOR: Szkoła Języków Obcych Program sp. z o.o. www.angielskiprogram.edu.pl https://www.facebook.com/angielskiprogram.poznan SPONSORZY: 1 Szanowni Uczniowie! Zapraszam Was do wzięcia udziału w XVII edycji Konkursu Poezji Irlandzkiej, którego finał odbędzie się w Poznaniu 19 marca 2021 roku ( piątek) w Sali Kameralnej Szkoły Muzycznej II stopnia im. M. Karłowicza przy ul. Solnej w Poznaniu. Szesnaście dotychczasowych spotkań z poezją irlandzką, zarówno tą mówioną, jak i śpiewaną, to szesnaście wspaniałych przeżyć, które pozostaną nam w pamięci. Historia tych lat pokazała, że młodzież polska rozumie i ceni poezję irlandzką i potrafi ją zinterpretować nie gorzej niż rodowici mieszkańcy Zielonej Wyspy. Cieszy mnie niezmiernie, że inicjatywa szkoły PROGRAM (dawniej Program-Bell) przyjęła się wśród młodzieży w naszym regionie i dzięki niej anglojęzyczna poezja Irlandii stała się lekturą i przedmiotem interpretacji słownych i muzycznych. Motto tegorocznego Konkursu to słowa Samuela Beckett’a ”If you do not love me, I shall not be loved. If I do not love you, I shall not love.” W tym roku wybór utworów jest podyktowany szczególnym czasem, w którym przyszło nam żyć i jako przeciwwaga tych trudnych czasów poświęcony jest miłości, przetrwaniu, czy przemijaniu, wierszy smutnych wielokrotnie, nacechowanych jednak zawsze odrobiną optymizm. Rok ten jest też wyjątkowy, bo więcej kobiet staje się widocznych w życiu społecznym i kobiety stają się coraz bardziej znaczącym głosem, który wybrzmiewa publicznie. W tomiku zaprezentujemy trzy nazwiska poetek, takie jak: Eavan Boland, Katharine Tynan czy Eileen Carney Hulme, w tym wiersz Eavan Boland o znamiennym tytule „Quarantine”.
    [Show full text]
  • Song Pack Listing
    TRACK LISTING BY TITLE Packs 1-86 Kwizoke Karaoke listings available - tel: 01204 387410 - Title Artist Number "F" You` Lily Allen 66260 'S Wonderful Diana Krall 65083 0 Interest` Jason Mraz 13920 1 2 Step Ciara Ft Missy Elliot. 63899 1000 Miles From Nowhere` Dwight Yoakam 65663 1234 Plain White T's 66239 15 Step Radiohead 65473 18 Til I Die` Bryan Adams 64013 19 Something` Mark Willis 14327 1973` James Blunt 65436 1985` Bowling For Soup 14226 20 Flight Rock Various Artists 66108 21 Guns Green Day 66148 2468 Motorway Tom Robinson 65710 25 Minutes` Michael Learns To Rock 66643 4 In The Morning` Gwen Stefani 65429 455 Rocket Kathy Mattea 66292 4Ever` The Veronicas 64132 5 Colours In Her Hair` Mcfly 13868 505 Arctic Monkeys 65336 7 Things` Miley Cirus [Hannah Montana] 65965 96 Quite Bitter Beings` Cky [Camp Kill Yourself] 13724 A Beautiful Lie` 30 Seconds To Mars 65535 A Bell Will Ring Oasis 64043 A Better Place To Be` Harry Chapin 12417 A Big Hunk O' Love Elvis Presley 2551 A Boy From Nowhere` Tom Jones 12737 A Boy Named Sue Johnny Cash 4633 A Certain Smile Johnny Mathis 6401 A Daisy A Day Judd Strunk 65794 A Day In The Life Beatles 1882 A Design For Life` Manic Street Preachers 4493 A Different Beat` Boyzone 4867 A Different Corner George Michael 2326 A Drop In The Ocean Ron Pope 65655 A Fairytale Of New York` Pogues & Kirsty Mccoll 5860 A Favor House Coheed And Cambria 64258 A Foggy Day In London Town Michael Buble 63921 A Fool Such As I Elvis Presley 1053 A Gentleman's Excuse Me Fish 2838 A Girl Like You Edwyn Collins 2349 A Girl Like
    [Show full text]
  • How to Be Dead Dave Turner
    Contents Title Page Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Paper Cuts - Chapter One Chapter One Keep Reading! About The Author Big List of Awesome Copyright How To Be Dead Dave Turner Aim For The Head Books For Zoë For everything CHAPTER ONE Death watched the city sleep. He gazed down at humanity's glow from the top floor of the office block. A sleek and thrusting tower made from glass, chrome and undisguised wealth. He was waiting. He was good at that. He checked his pocket watch. A gift from three old friends. Crafted for him by Patek Philippe & Company in 1933 with a movement as complicated and precise as the dance of the stars that he had counted for millennia. Sometimes, as he gazed up at the night sky, he wondered if the universe was some kind of in-joke that had got out of hand and was working up to an awkward punchline. He had explained his theory when he and Einstein had briefly met. Nice guy. Good hair. That was back in 1955 and Death had not seen anything since to change his mind. He did not know how long he had existed. He thought he remembered the dinosaurs. An asteroid killed them, hadn't it? Was he there? Or had he merely read it in a book? All he was sure of? It's the sort of thing that happens when you live in a world without Bruce Willis.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis
    Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis Romanische Literaturen der Welt Herausgegeben von Ottmar Ette Band 61 Petrarch and Boccaccio The Unity of Knowledge in the Pre-modern World Edited by Igor Candido An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. The Open Access book is available at www.degruyter.com. ISBN 978-3-11-042514-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-041930-6 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-041958-0 ISSN 0178-7489 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Igor Candido, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Konvertus, Haarlem Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Dedicated to Ronald Witt (1932–2017) Contents Acknowledgments IX Igor Candido Introduction 1 H. Wayne Storey The
    [Show full text]
  • Naming Effects in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura
    Antonomasia, Anonymity, and Atoms: Naming Effects in Lucretius’ DRN Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Antonomasia, Anonymity, and Atoms: Naming Effects in Lucretius’ De rerum natura Version 1.0 September 2009 Wilson H. Shearin Stanford University Abstract: This essay argues that selected proper names within Lucretius’ De rerum natura, rather than pointing deictically or referring with clear historical specificity, instead render Lucretius’ poem vaguer and more anonymous. To make this case, the essay first briefly surveys Roman naming practices, ultimately focusing upon a specific kind of naming, deictic naming. Deictic naming points (or attempts to point) to a given entity and often conjures up a sense of the reality of that entity. The essay then studies the role of deictic naming within Epicureanism and the relationship of such naming to instances of naming within De rerum natura. Through analysis of the nominal disappearance of Memmius, the near nominal absence of Epicurus, and the deployment of Venus (and other names) within the conclusion to Lucretius’ fourth book, the essay demonstrates how selected personal names in De rerum natura, in contrast to the ideal of deictic naming, become more general, more anonymous, whether by the substitution of other terms (Memmius, Epicurus), by referential wandering (Venus), or by still other means. The conclusion briefly studies the political significance of this phenomenon, suggesting that there is a certain popular quality to the tendency towards nominal indefiniteness traced in the essay. © Wilson H. Shearin. [email protected] 1 Antonomasia, Anonymity, and Atoms: Naming Effects in Lucretius’ DRN Antonomasia, Anonymity, and Atoms: Naming Effects in Lucretius’ De rerum natura Poet, patting more nonsense foamed From the sea, conceive for the courts Of these academies, the diviner health Disclosed in common forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Who's Anti-Roman? Sallust and Pompeius Trogus on Mithridates." Classical Journal 101.4 (N.D.): 383-407
    Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Classics Faculty Publications Classics Department 4-2006 Who’s Anti-Roman? Sallust and Pompeius Trogus on Mithridates Eric Adler Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/classfacpub Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons Recommended Citation Adler, E. "Who's Anti-Roman? Sallust And Pompeius Trogus On Mithridates." Classical Journal 101.4 (n.d.): 383-407. Web. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. WHO'S ANTI-ROMAN? SALLUST AND POMPEIUS TROGUS ON MITHRIDATES Abstract: Contemporary scholars of Roman imperialism have discussed the ways in which ancient historians denigrate non-Romans and thereby present intellectual justificationsfor Roman conquest. This paper offers a case study that questions this position's validity: an examination of Sallust's Epistula Mithridatis (Hist. 4.69M) and Pompeius Trogus' speech of Mithridates (Justin 38.4-7). I argue that Sallust offers a more powerful attack on Roman foreign policy than does Trogus, whom many scholars have deemed "anti-Roman," and conclude that Roman historiansare capable of using
    [Show full text]
  • Lucretius's Atomic Soul
    Searching for Answers: Lucretius’s Atomic Soul Katherine McCreery [email protected] Dartmouth College, Class of 2019 Economics Major, Classics Minor 4 April 2018 McCreery 2 In his De Rerum Natura, Lucretius strives to scientifically explain several aspects of the natural world. In fact, he focuses so heavily on science that the text often reads more like an ancient scientific textbook than a philosophical work. Given the considerable attention paid to science, and given the modern practice of science as the basis for all further intellectual exploration, one may assume that scientific phenomena make up the essential building blocks that define Epicurean philosophy. However, several descriptions in De Rerum Natura seem like leaps not fully supported by science that are added in order to explain a pre-constructed Epicurean principle. While Lucretius includes more than one problematic scientific account, I will focus on his handling of the soul. His description of the soul is unsatisfactory in several ways, and the inconsistencies that arise from it call into question the assumption that science shapes Epicurean principles. In fact, his explanation for the soul only makes sense if one assumes that Epicurean principles precede Epicurean science. Given this new understanding, Lucretius’s scientific description of the soul becomes a product of a preconceived idea rather than the foundation from which the nature of the soul arises. The Epicurean approach to science has previously been met with skepticism. Cicero challenges
    [Show full text]
  • A Fork in the Road: the Catilinarian Conspiracy's Impact
    A Fork in the Road: The Catilinarian Conspiracy‘s Impact on Cicero‘s relationships with Pompey, Crassus` and Caesar Jeffrey Larson History 499: Senior Thesis June 13, 2011 © Jeffrey Larson, 2011 1 But concerning friendship, all, to a man, think the same thing: those who have devoted themselves to public life; those who find their joy in science and philosophy; those who manage their own business free from public cares; and, finally, those who are wholly given up to sensual pleasures — all believe that without friendship life is no life at all. .1 The late Roman Republic was filled with crucial events which shaped not only the political environment of the Republic, but also altered the personal and political relationships of the individuals within that Republic. Four of the most powerful, and most discussed, characters of this time are Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC), Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106 BC – 48 BC), Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115 BC – 53 BC), and Gaius Julius Caesar (c. 100 BC – 44 BC). These men often crossed paths and some even had close friendships with each other. Other than Pompeius, better known as Pompey, all the aforementioned individuals were involved, or reportedly involved, in one event which had profound effects on the personal and political relationships of all four individuals. This event is known as the Catilinarian Conspiracy of 63 BC. The Catilinarian Conspiracy was a pivotal episode in the politics of the Late Roman Republic that damaged both the political and personal relationships of Cicero, Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar. Politics in the Roman Republic was dominated by a small number of members of the senatorial class.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman Banditry: Scorning Senatorial Skullduggery in Sallust
    Penn History Review Volume 18 Issue 1 Fall 2010 Article 6 December 2010 Roman Banditry: Scorning Senatorial Skullduggery in Sallust Brady B. Lonergran University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/phr Recommended Citation Lonergran, Brady B. (2010) "Roman Banditry: Scorning Senatorial Skullduggery in Sallust," Penn History Review: Vol. 18 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/phr/vol18/iss1/6 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/phr/vol18/iss1/6 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Roman Banditry Roman Banditry: Scorning Senatorial Skullduggery in Sallust Brady B. Lonegran It is generally accepted that during both the Republican and Imperial eras (including the Pax Romana), banditry was commonplace throughout the known world.1 Due to its prevalence outside of urban centers, contemporary writers regarded brigandage as an unremarkable natural phenomenon only warranting a cursory glance.2 For this very reason, in his book Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality (1999), Grünewald argues that an empirical study on banditry is simply impossible.3 However, as MacMullen notes in his appendix on ‘Brigandage,’ the Latin term latro (or the Greek: lestes) was applied to men apart from the traditional bandit. For example, it included individual usurpers or challengers of legitimate Imperial power rather than bands of marauders from the ‘barbaric’ border-states.4 Grünewald takes this observation further in his work on bandits and emphasizes latrones and lestai as historical categories, which can be used to classify social realities. For him, the latro is a literary topos, an “artifact of the literary imagination.”5 ‘Banditry,’ as viewed in Rome, was synonymous with the illegitimate exercise of personal power.
    [Show full text]