Orthodoxy and Auctoritas: On nature in the Tradition of the School of Epicurus

This chapter is an investigation of the authority that Epicurus’ main work, the treatise Περὶ φύϲεωϲ, had in the school, in both the East and West, until the first century BCE in the first instance, and then until the end of the imperial period. The reception of the Περὶ φύϲεωϲ within the school as an authoritative work is clear if we consider the presence of an apparently complete edition in the Herculanean Library and is confirmed through an examination of the citations of the work which are found in texts by more recent Epicureans. Through the examination of the testimonia and results of recent studies on the fortunes of Epicureanism in the Imperial period and Late Antiquity, the author holds that the original writings of the school founder, including his magnum opus, were still copied, read, and preserved until at least the third century CE, and could have been available in libraries around the Mediterranean basin, at Athens but also in peripheral areas, like Syria, Egypt, and Rhodes.