MC576. The disease in my bladder and stomach are pursuing their course, lacking nothing of their natural severity: but against all this is the joy in my heart at the recollection of my conversations with you. Similarly, we only need a natural measure of friends and community, a natural measure of wealth, etc. He found fault with his brother for not admitting that the belly was the test and measure of every thing that pertained to a happy life.
A young man that loves glory, that is precocious wickedness. Epicurus died of a stone in the bladder, as Hermarchus also says in his letters, after an illness of fourteen days.
Metrodorus defended the doctrine that pleasure is the end that our own nature seeks; Timocrates rejected this view, and was defending traditional Greek virtues instead, which were often considered as empty virtues by the Epicureans.
Perhaps he called for the teaching of philosophy in the public sphere? For him to have been considered an important foundational figure, we can surmise that he must have greatly influenced–and brilliantly exemplified–the Epicurean practice of parrhesia (frank criticism) softened with suavity (gentle speech).
For they do not admit static pleasure, but only that which consists in motion.
Only the wise man could discourse rightly on music and poetry, but in practice he would not compose poems. We must begin with the first letter, but I will first speak briefly about the divisions of his philosophy. They hold that love is not sent from heaven, as Diogenes says in his . On Internal Sensations, maxims addressed to Timocrates, 25. And he will gather together a school, but never so as to become a popular leader. Every Twentieth, it is they (as well as other Epicureans of importance who came after them) who are the reason for the season! This last fragment reminds me of Will Durant‘s materialist conception of identity: he said “We are what we repeatedly do. Together with his brother Timocrates of Lampsacus he joined the school Epicurus had set up in their home town. He found fault with his brother for not admitting that the belly was the test and measure of every thing that pertained to a happy life. The house in Melite, Amynomachus and Timocrates shall assign for a dwelling to Hermarchus and to those who study philosophy with him, as long as Hermarchus shall live. But does it not make sense that healthy eating also correlates to healthy psychological states, a healthy philosophy of life, and a healthy sense of self-worth? Hiram Crespo is the author of 'Tending the Epicurean Garden' (Humanist Press, 2014), 'How to Live a Good Life' (Penguin Random House, 2020), and Epicurus of Samos – His Philosophy and Life: All the principal Classical texts Compiled and Introduced by Hiram Crespo (Ukemi Audiobooks, 2020). Hermarchus of Mitylene, son of Agemortus, succeeded to the headship of the school. In Athens, Epicurus bought a property for his school called "Garden", later the name of Epicurus' school. Timocrates, however, soon fell out with both his brother and Epicurus and devoted the rest of his life to spreading malicious slander about them.
He adds that Epicurus was profoundly ignorant of philosophy, and still more so of practical life, that his body was miserably weak, so that for many years he was unable to rise from his portable couch.
– Metrodorus of Lampsacus. For, he says, all sensation is irrational and does not admit of memory; for it is not set in motion by itself, nor when it is set in motion by something else, can it add to it or take from it.
Indeed, he says, they were satisfied with half a pint of wine, and for the most part drank water. I believe that the controversy between the two brothers serves as a lesson in who can be an Epicurean and who can not be one. There were three other Epicuruses, the son of Leonteus and Themista, another, who was a Magnesian, while the fourth was a drill-sergeant. Timocrates may have argued that desiring to have a public life (or perhaps teaching in public in order to be recognized for one’s wisdom) was natural and/or necessary. Habit is born of small things, but (bad habits) gain vigor through (our) neglect. And the visions of the insane and those in dreams are true, for they cause movement, and that which does not exist cannot cause movement.