Talk:Atedius Melior

sPublius Papinius Statius (50 - after 95 C.E. from Naples  and of Greek-speaking descent) hands down of Atedius Melior ("doctus alumnus Epicuri") , whose Hortus (Garden) was in Caelius hill in Rome. He chose the free elective - adoptive paternity, as more reasonable (see Democritus, and perhaps Epicurus). Adoptions were however widespread among Roman notables, when natural sons weren't up, or were unworthy. Martial quotes many times the "cultivated Melior", faithful and reminiscent of friend [VIII, 38: “this shall be your tribute while life shall last, and after you are dust”; II, 69, 7; IV, 54, 8; VI, 28; 29]

"Our friendship wherein I take such pleasure, my excellent Melior, who are as faultless in your literary judgment as in every phase of life"[Silvae, II, Introd.]. Your "time off is without idleness ... prospects aren't unlimited desires ... mid-path between prudence and pleasure ... even tempered disposition thanks to moderate virtue ... you don't care the fickle mob ... nor positions ... nor erudite literature ... nor literary competitions ... ready to look down on the gold, but wise estate manager. You have reached a safe harbor, while others get dashed by the swell" [Silvae II, 3, 66; see the Epicurean 'harbor' of Virgile].

The poet Statius, placed in Divine Comedy's Purgatory, where he enlightens Dante on the nature of the soul, was believed to be Christian, but obviously he was more acquainted with Epicurus (from a fragment of his plays, 171, Warm: vivas ut possis, quando non quis ut velis, “ live so as to be effective, when you don't get what you want”), whom Dante placed in the flaming Hell (Hell, X 15); D. is guided by (Epicurean...) Virgil who deprecates Epicureans' bestiality. Bracciolini rediscovered the Silvae later in 1417. And Virgil was no Christ's prophet, of course. It is no accident that Caecilius Statius' Obolostates, sive Foenerator: The Moneylender (PHerc. 78) was sorted out in Herculanean Epicurean Library [imminent digitalized reading and publication]. He quoted also the docti furor arduus Lucreti [Silvae, II, 7, 76].

Plinius hands down the sprout of Epicurean Gardens in Italy, whose added value was intellectual, not certainly lucrative: " First Epicurus, master of distance from business and politics, started [...] to live off the land in the town. [...] By now (Epicureans) have the comforts of the country in the town and they name it hortos (Gardens)", [Iam quidem hortorum nomine in ipsa urbe delicias agros villasque possident. Primus hoc instituit Athenis Epicurus otii magister; usque ad eum moris non fuerat in oppidis habitari rura [Plin.]]. Literary examples are:

• The villa/garden, with Amalthaeum spring cave, of Titus Pomponius Atticus at Boythrôtos, in Epirus.
• Pollius Felix, a learned man, remembered in a Pozzuoli's (Naples) inscription. Statius commends him and his villa in Sorrento, with calidaria and Hercules statue [Statius II,2:], (near sirens temple "sirenum quondam sede" [Strabo 5.4.8], with view of Naples), where he " ponder on precept of Gargettius scholarch (from the name of Epicurus' deme), surrounded by Greek object and population, and busts of ancients wises"; " from your mind's raised citadel you look down upon our wanderings" [Silvae, II, 2, 113]. His poetry was also "sweeter than even the songs of the Sirens"... [II, 2, 116]. His villa likens oddly to Papyri villa, which also has been attributed to him by some archaeologists.
• Epicurean Papirius Paetus, Verrius, C. Camillus, Stallius Gaius Hauranus of Puteolis (Naples) had for sure their philosophical villa (not found) in this ideal hot spring health resort.
• Lucius Marcus Philippus, a comrade of Piso Caesoninus (perhaps in Hor. Epi. I. 7. 45), owned a villa near Cuma and Puteoli (marble slab publ. in 1959).
• Horace's villa of Tibur (today precisely Licenza); traces of his villa in Sabina Valley (thirty-metre of facade and eighty of porticoed garden) have endured. "This fills my desires [...] here don't bothers deadly ambition" [Serm. II, 6]
• Manilius Volpiscus, optimas of Trier, sought refuge in his villa of the fertile Tibur (Latium) as he was a man of literary tastes (vir eruditissimus), and Epicurean [Silvae I, Introd. 26]; no trace of his villa has endured to modern times.

  "here silence shrouds a fruitful quiet and grave virtue tranquil-browed, plain elegance and comfort that is not luxury, such as the Gargettian sage / had himself preferred and and he would have left his own Athens and his garden behind him [Silvae. I. 3. 71]

• Horti Maecenatiani on Esquilino (one of Rome' seven hills) with residence hidden among trees to passers-by. the most influential circle of the capital city.
• The villa of Epicurean Marcus Fadius Gallus at Erculaneum.
• The villa of P. Vedius Pollio ( Roman equestrian of the 1st century BC) on the promontory of Pausilypon (Posillipo), frequented by Virgil, described by Ovid, [Fasti, 6.641].
• The villas of Vibius Maximus, Claudius Etruscus [Ibid I. 1.5: The Baths of ... ; and 3.3], Blesus, all 'Epicurean' with aesthetic leanings; Sallustius (writer and Pytagorean but open to Epicurus).
• The villa of Hadrian, and its library - the Odeon, a centre of Greek culture at Tibur (near Rome).

Cicero - criticizing Epicurus until politician, owned no less that nine villas.
For virtual images see: http://www.capware.it/index.html . Computer technology can be used to understand the villa scopes through the symbolic and communicative role in Epicureanism of spatial arrangements and variations in distance, depending on the degree of intimacy between masters and followers; e.g. the Belvedere and Melites.

Pondering that Papyri's villa was 3300 sq. m., with a front of 250 m. (Malibu's peristyle is smaller) - and possibly the very pattern, the Athenian Garden, that is peristyle-gardens with pond for air conditioning and aerobic purpose [teaching and walking (peripatêsis) despite hot summer dog-days, rain, snow] - it might seem size and decoration of those villas not to be in harmony with a plain life style, but let's remember that they were veritable public boarding-schools, and they must attract public interest like temples, forums, nursing homes (Epikouros meant helper); their canteens and dormitories perhaps didn't. [Philodemus, Anth. Pal. 9.412 (Sider 29): "chickpea , cabbage, curd, sardines" eaten at Herculaneum's Belvedere... the cool summer sea and spa warm baths of nearby Baiae, that looked like the Gadara's ones, were free of charge, and natural desires]. Most debate of Horace and Cicero, for instance, were set in their own villas of Tibur, Tusculum, with audience, of course. The pattern of large garden/peristyle went on with cloisters, church squares (lat campus, field), Arab palaces (e.g. Al·ham·bra , Spain), Edens, Universities campuses.
To Statius' valuable descriptive power we owe much of our knowledge of Roman society in the Flavian era; he announced also in advance our nostalgia of those model of propriety:

Will future generations believe, when once more crops and these deserted places will grow green again, that cities and people are buried below and that (their) ancestral lands have disappeared, being engulfed totally by maelstrom? (toto mari) [Silvae 4,4, 80]

Sensitive writers of 'future generations' have just given deeper poetic expression: En passant auprès de ces cendres que l'art parvient à ranimer on tremble de respirer, de peur qu'un souffle n'enlève celle poussière où de nobles idées sont peut-être encore empreintes [Mme de Staël]”

"O ye, who patiently explore / the wreck of Herculanean love, / what rapture, could you seize..." [Wordsworth, 1820].
Wright, Frances, (1795-1852) A few days in Athens; being the translation of a Greek manuscript discovered in Herculaneum. [London 1822; a novel on Epicurean life].
J. Paul Getty himself has written a novel (1955) A journey from Corinth, where he portrays Piso as “a kind-hearted individual always ready to give happiness”.