Epicurus

341 BCE – 270 BCE(lived 71 years)

Epicurus (341–270 BCE), born to Athenian settler parents on Samos, founded the Garden in Athens in 306 BCE. He recast philosophy as therapy, teaching that the good is pleasure—understood as freedom from disturbance (ataraxia) and unnecessary pain (aponia). Writing hundreds of works and codifying ethics in concise Letters and Principal Doctrines, he built a community that welcomed women and enslaved persons, prized frank speech, and treated friendship as medicine. In the Athenian contest he offers a third answer: secure a quiet life through clear beliefs about nature, simple needs, and loyal friends.

Biography

Epicurus was born in 341 BCE on the island of Samos to Neocles and Chaerestrate, Athenian cleruchs stationed abroad. As a youth he puzzled over Hesiod’s chaos and turned to philosophy. He studied with the Platonist Pamphilus and, more decisively, with the Democritean Nausiphanes, absorbing atomism while rejecting its deterministic chill. After brief teaching stints in Mytilene and Lampsacus, he gathered a devoted circle—Metrodorus, Hermarchus, Polyaenus—and in 306 BCE moved to Athens. There he purchased a modest house and garden outside the city walls and opened a school that was part household, part refuge, part laboratory for living.

Key figure in Athenian Philosophy

Epicurus's Timeline

Key events involving Epicurus in chronological order

-306

Epicurus Founds the Garden in Athens

In 306 BCE, Epicurus bought a house with a walled garden in Athens and formed a community devoted to tranquil pleasure, friendship, and freedom from fear. The Garden offered a private remedy to public anxieties [19][20][8].

cultural

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-306

Epicurean Ethics Codified in Letters and Doctrines

From 306 to about 270 BCE, Epicurus distilled his ethics into letters and Principal Doctrines, urging fearlessness and wise desire. The Garden’s shade became a schoolroom where sentences did the work of shields [8][20][19].

cultural

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-306

Institutional Diversification of Athenian Philosophy

Between 306 and 300 BCE, Athens hosted four distinct schools: Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Epicurus’ Garden, and Zeno’s Stoa. One city, four addresses—rival remedies for fear, knowledge, and life [19][18][20][17][12].

administrative

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-270

Death of Epicurus

Around 270 BCE, Epicurus died, leaving a community bound by friendship and texts—letters and Principal Doctrines—to carry his therapy. The Garden’s quiet routines proved stronger than a founder’s voice [20][8][19].

cultural

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Total Events

-306

First Event

-270

Last Event

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