Prosecuting Epicurus in the Emperor Julian's Court

A Reading of Himerius Oration 3

Bibliographic Data

ID9342291
AuthorsJeremy Swist (0000-0002-5677-8888, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume10
Issue1
Pages221-249
Publication date2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of late antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1939-6716 • E-ISSN: 1942-1273
PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jla.2017.0007
OpenAlexW2760757483
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

Himerius Or. 3 is a declamation in which a nameless prosecutor accuses the philosopher Epicurus of impiety for teaching doctrines that deny the existence of divine providence. This article argues that the declamation deliberately voices Himerius's contemporary religious concerns by reading Epicurus as a personification of Christianity, and Christian sophists in particular. In light of the speech's program of alignment with the emperor Julian's religious and philosophical agenda, as well as Himerius's rivalry with the Christian sophist Prohaeresius, this paper also proposes that Or. 3's delivery was in 362 before the emperor himself

Ancient history · Art · Christianity · Emperor · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Reading (process · Rivalry · Sophist · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

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