Neocles, Epicurus' father
From Epicurus Wiki
Neocles, was the father of Epicurus and three other sons. His wife, Epicurus' mother, was Chaerestrate. Necoles originated from the small village (Gr.: Dêmos) of Gargettos, about seven miles northeast of Athens. As a Philiad aristocrat, he was the distance decendent of Miltiades.
In the years approaching Epicurus' birth, there was great depression both in the public and private finances of Athens, and the opportunity of finding relief in a colony was too tempting to be resisted. Neocles was one of two thousand Athenian cleruchs who hoped to find an allotment of land on the island of Samos in 351 BCE. [1]
The family evidently was not in a brilliant position. By profession, Neocles was a schoolmaster. According to the gossip of a later day, the youthful Epicurus was his father's assistant, and helped to prepare the ink for the use of the pupils.
Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BCE, Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers from Samos. By this time, the 18-year-old Epicurus was already at or on his way to Athens to serve his compulsory two years of military training. The family resettled at Colophon, in Ionia, where Epicurus rejoined them in 321 BCE.
[edit] References
- ↑ Emigration date of 351 BCE given by Jones 1992
