Cicero on Epicurean Pleasures

Abstract

Abstract Cicero’s version and critique of Epicurus’ ethics in the De Finibus offer in some respects the fullest consecutive account extant from antiquity. Their proper assessment is accordingly important for the study both of Cicero and of Epicurus. A decade ago, in The Greeks on Pleasure, J.C. B. Gosling and C. C. W. Taylor put a balanced but on the whole low valuation on Cicero’s interpretation in De Finibus 1-2 of Epicurus’ views on pleasure.1 ‘Cicero,’ wrote Gosling and Taylor, ‘is clearly unsympathetic to Epicurus, and while he obviously finds it difficult to make consistent sense of him, he is not predisposed to try too hard.’ This is in addition to their thunderous ‘None of this shows careful attention to the original texts or the refinements of argument.’ But the Oxford scholars balance this harsh judgement by pointing out fairly that Cicero ‘is not ignorant of Epicurus. Often he more or less translates independently attested fragments . . .’. Indeed they may go too far in this direction, for their assertion that ‘the passage on the role of perception [De Finibus r. 30-1] ... shows acquaintance with the literature’ makes no overt allowance for the genuine possibility that this acquaintance was second-hand.

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