Garden of Epicurus
Dates
4th century BCE and later (mentioned in 79 BCE and the 3rd century CE)
Garden Description
In the 4th century B.C., the schools and gardens of the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastos and Epicurus were built in the vicinity of the gymnasia in the suburbs of Athens. Like the gymnasia, these schools were held in especially high esteem by members of the wealthy, educated class of Roman society who eagerly absorbed Greek culture and often completed their education in Athens. It is difficult to say in exactly what condition these schools were at this time, but the memory of them in their prime was still vivid. The educational institutions of Athens were maintained until the emperor Justinian decreed that the schools be closed in 529 A.D.
Many dialogues and descriptions of private villas of Roman aristocrats reveal that parts of their estates were landscaped and designed to evoke Greek gymnasia and schools, where, in theory at least, hours could be spent discoursing and philosophizing. Parts of the villas, such as those of Cicero and the emperor Hadrian, were occasionally named 'Academy' and "Lykeion" after the gymnasia and schools of Athens.
Cicero set the scene in De finibus (5.1.3) for a group of men in the Academy near the gardens of Epicurus in 79 B.C., and he mentioned the garden of Plato in the same suburb (Fin. 5.1.2). Roman statues of Epicurus and the Epicurean philosopher Colotes found outside the Dipylon gate on the road to the Academy may reflect some rebuilding prompted by Hadrian. Heliodoros (Aethiopica 1.16.5), writing in the 3rd century A.D., mentioned a gathering of men near the garden of Epicurus.
Bibliography
- E. Vanderpool, "The museum and garden of the peripatetics," Archaiologikē Ephemeris, 1953-1954, pt. 2: 126-28. (worldcat).
- M. Carroll-Spillecke, "The gardens of Greece from Homeric to Roman times," Journal of Garden History 12.2, 1992: 91. (worldcat).