Training in Frugality in Epicurus and Seneca

Scholars do not seem to have attempted, as far as I know, to relate this practice to any of the major tenets of his ethics. Schottlaender, for example, thinks that it was merely a sort of competition in frugality between Epicurus and Metrodorus.2 However, if one considers its similarity to parts of Epicurus's section on a~TprpKELa in the Epistula ad Menoeceum3 (henceforth Ep. ad Men.), the exercise of Epicurus may have been more than a private amusement between him and his disciple. In this article I wish to propose that practicing frugality on stated days may have been part of Epicurus's, and hence of the Epicureans', training, to attain and strengthen abrTprKeLa, to Epicureans a Aeya ryaO6v (Ep. ad Men. 130). Before Ep. 18.9 is compared with other Epicurean writings, its own meaning must be established. Two facts clearly appear. First, the magistracy of Charinus dates the letter to 291-290 B.c.5 In this year Epicurus was 50 years old and had taught philosophy since 311 B.c.; he had established his school in Athens in 306 B.c.6 Secondly, the letter states that Epicurus did not normally live as cheaply as was possible for him. Maligne famem extinguere was the exception rather than the rule. It is likely that at this stage in his life Epicurus had perfected his philosophy in all its details of theory and practice. In consequence, it is plausible

Frugality · Geography · Political science · Training (meteorology) · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law

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