Epicurus in the Roman Imperial Age: Four Case-Studies (Aristocles of Messene, Atticus, Dionysius of Alexandria and Plotinus)

In reassessing the extent and scope of the diffusion of Epicurean philosophy in the Imperial age, my analysis will focus on the Wirkungsgeschichte of Epicureanism from the late Republican age to the third century CE. Given the impossibility, within the limited scope of this chapter, of providing a thorough account of the influential presence of Epicurean thought over so wide a period, I will target my examination on four “case-studies,” which, in my view, are particularly representative of both pagan and Christian receptions of Epicurus: Aristocles of Messene, Atticus, Dionysius of Alexandria and Plotinus. The aim of this investigation of the main features of these four authors’ approach is to show that Epicureanism had a substantial presence in the Imperial age, even though it often functioned as a polemical target in the arena of philosophical contestation.