Citizenship

Epicurus was the son of Athenian parents, and thus an Athenian citizen; this was both beneficial and detrimental to him in his adult life, as political fortunes shifted during his lifetime. He did serve in the Athenian military before he relocated permanently to Athens, where he established his Garden.

Epicurus believed in the basic benefits of citizenship, such as security, joint defense against common enemies, and the rule of law; he disapproved, however, of the political jousting that came with the vigorous civic and political workings of Athens, as it fostered the desire for politial power -- a "3rd category" desire that was neither natural nor necessary, and inevitably causes more anxiety than it gives pleasure.

It would be difficult to reconstruct -- or construct at all -- a sense of "Epicurean civics". By all probability, the (historical) Greek Epicurean notion of citizenship meant acquiescence, combined with a fair degree of detachment. Roman Epicureans, on the other hand, were more eager than their Greek counterparts to find, or at least to seek, some applicability of their philosophical principles in the citizens' everyday life.