http://www.jstor.orgTraining in Frugality in Epicurus and SenecaAuthor(s): Ivars AvotinsSource: Phoenix, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 1977), pp. 214-217Published by: Classical Association of CanadaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1087101Accessed: 21/08/2008 07:18Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cac.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with thescholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform thatpromotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.TRAININGINFRUGALITYINEPICURUSANDSENECA IVARSAVOTINS INSENECA Ep. 18.91 we read that Epicurus habitually setaside a number of daysduring whichhesatisfiedhis hungercheaply: Certos habebat diesille magistervoluptatisEpicurusquibusmaligne famemextingueret, visurus an aliquid deesset ex plena et consummata voluptate,vel quantum deesset,et an dignum quod quismagno labore pensaret. Hoccerte iniis epistulis ait quasscripsit Charino magis- tratuad Polyaenum; et quidem gloriatur nontoto asse [se] pasci, Metrodorum qui nondum tantum profecerit, toto. Scholarsdonotseemtohave attempted, asfar asI know, torelatethis practice to any ofthe major tenetsofhisethics. Schottlaender, for ex- ample, thinksthatitwas merely asortof competition in frugality between Epicurus andMetrodorus.2 However, ifoneconsidersits similarity to parts of Epicurus's sectionon avTapKeLa inthe Epistula ad Menoeceum3 (henceforth Ep. ad Men.), theexerciseof Epicurusmay havebeen more thana private amusementbetweenhimandhis disciple. InthisarticleIwishto propose that practicingfrugality onstated days may havebeen part of Epicurus's, and hence of the Epicureans',training4 toattainand strengthenaradpKeta, to Epicureans a Le'yaa'yatov (Ep. ad Men. 130). Before Ep. 18.9is compared withother Epicureanwritings, itsown meaning mustbeestablished.Twofacts clearlyappear.First, the magistracy ofCharinusdatestheletterto291-290B.C.5Inthis year Epicurus was50 years oldandhad taughtphilosophy since311 B.c.; hehadestablishedhisschoolinAthensin306B.c.6 Secondly, theletter statesthat Epicurus didnot normally liveas cheaply as was possible for him. Maligne famemextinguere wasthe exception ratherthantherule. Itis likely thatatthis stage inhis life Epicurus had perfected his philos- ophy in all its detailsof theory and practice. In consequence, it is plausible 'L.D. Reynolds, ed., L.Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 1 (Oxford 1965). 2R. Schottlaender, "Epikureisches bei Seneca," Philologus 88 (1954) 141. SEpicuro.Opere. A cura di G. Arrighetti (Turin 1973) 113, 115. 4The concept ofmemorization and repetition is quite familiar to Epicureanism(see, e.g., W. Schmid, "Epikur,"Reallexikonfiir Antike und Christentum5 [1961] 743 ff. and I. Hadot, Seneca [Berlin1969] 59 ff.). Thereseemstobe no difference in principle between mental practice and practice that also involves a physical element. 6B. D. Meritt, "Greek Inscriptions,"Hesperia 26 (1957) 53-54. 6J. M. Rist, Epicurus. An Introduction (Cambridge1972) 1-9. 214 PHOENIX, Vol. 31 (1977) 3. TRAININGINFRUGALITYINEPICURUSANDSENECA toassume thattheactivitiesdescribed in Ep. 18.9 constitutedestablished practice ratherthan experimentationrecentlybegun.7 A question arises.Ifhe didnotliveas cheaply as possible all the time, why did he livesoat all, evenif only atintervals?Whatwasthe purpose ofthese days of frugality? Theanswer liesintheboastof Epicurus that hecouldfeed himselfnon toto assewhereasMetrodorusneededan entire assis.Thisboast revealsthat frugality on the certi dies kept increasing the ability ofa mantosubsistonless expense.Why didMetrodorus require more money? Becausehehadnot yet madeasmuch progress: ... qui nondum tantum profecerit...(Ep.18.10). It is unlikely thatthe superiority of Epicuruslay inhis beingable,throughlongpractice, toliveonfewer caloriesthanwere needed by Metrodorus.Theminimumamountoffood onwhicha givenperson cansurviveisnotthat flexible, andcanbedis- covered quickly. Gradual progress in frugality musthaveresidednotin eating lessand lessbutrather in learning tofind voluptas in progressively vilerfoods. Whatwasthe purpose of learning tobesatisfiedwith cheap foods? Intermsof Epicureanphilosophy, the only answerseemstobe:to becomeself-sufficientor airapKrsO:kXcFr\waae vrv avTrapKeLavoix o7rwsroZs eureXTo-L Ka' XrTO?Sravr'7TXpcwEOaa,6XX' 6'ors Oappwic ev rpbsabra (Arrighetti 58). In Ep. ad Men. 130, too,abraipKeta is describedas the ability to liveon little: Kai Tr7v av'rapKe&av 68 &yab6vAe-ya voAtlolev, obx 'Lva tiVrwvs rossoS6XL7o Xpoeoa ...K\X. AbrapKeLa, then, isa disposition ofmindthatallowsusto face straitened circumstances, actualor potential, withconfidence. Now, the purpose ofthe frugality sessionsin Ep. 18.9 appears tobe precisely the acquisition ofthis disposition of mind, because learning tolike cheap foodsis synonymous withr6 Oappeiv 'rp6s dr evreAXfiKai XLra. Atthis point, then, itcanbe provisionally assumedthatin Ep. 18.9 Epicurus was eatingpoorly atintervalsinordertoincreasehis self-sufficiency. The boastof Epicurus thathecouldliveonlessthanMetrodorus shows, as onewould expect, thatthereweredifferentlevelsof self-sufficiency. Becauseofnaturalendowmentor length of training, some Epicureans couldbe satisfiedwithlowerstandardsthanothers. Theconnectionbetween Ep. 18.9andthe concept of avrapKcra is strengthenedby anotherobservation.Themethod employed in Ep. 18.9 tolearntofind voluptas in cheap fare isthesameasthemethodusedto attain avrTcpKeLa in Ep. adMen. 131, ourmainsourceofinformationon this concept. Themethod is, of course,training. In Ep. 18.19thewords certidiesindicatethat progress in frugality involved regularpractice sessions.In Ep. ad Men.131 theassociationof training withthe acquisi- 7Rist (above, n. 6) 8feelsthatmostofthe major positions of Epicureanism were probably already reached by 310 B.C. 215 tionof atTr&pKea isfoundinthesentencerb avvelELevW orvrvralsa&rXaTsKaLoO TroXvTrXafL 56aLs...l.STroXvTEXaovY K 6LaXE\lacTUwvTrpoa-epxo,Ievots(vel rpoaepXo#,uvovs; the variationdoes not affect the present argument)KpeLTTOv ri,as 6rLaTrL......Ibelievethatin thistextr6 avveOtflev referstothetrain- ing in frugality, hencein aivrapKeta. The &8aXeLAilaara arethe periodsduring whichthis training takes place.Bydefinition,they constituteinter- ruptions inthenormalstandardof living.Theycorrespond tothecerti diesof Ep. 18.9.The phrase roLs 7roXvreXMaL referstothe normal, more abundant, diet.8 This, of course, isnotthe interpretation of Bailey.9 To him, rT avveOiLeLv appears tomeana permanentchange toa simple life (336,n., and 337). Butthis interpretation, ifIhaveunderstoodit correctly, seemstometo be inconsistentwith Epicurus's own words, which stated clearly in Ep. ad Men.130that having aTrapKELadidnotmeanthatwe ought tolive by all means (or"always") onra& oXya, but ought todoso only ifwedidnot haveraroXXa. Bailey'sinterpretation alsofailsto agree with Epicurus in Seneca,Ep.18.9, wherethelatterstatesthat frugality wasobserved only atintervals. Moreover, the acquisition of arTapKEcia, far from imposing mandatoryfrugality onan Epicurean,gave additional spice toiroXurTXeta: 7i6LaTraTroXvrTeXla aroXavovatvol 7KLa-TaTraVrfs6eo6evoL... (Ep. adMen. 130). Those ?rjKaTaTavtrrls c6,evoL are, no doubt, the avrapKELs. With respect totherelative length ofthe trainingperiods andthe periods ofmore generousliving,Epicurus'sphrase certi dies appears to indicatethatthe trainingperiods were theshorter ones.Andinthesame letterSenecaadvisesLuciliusto continue frugality for three or four days, sometimes longer (18.7). So evenif Bailey did notmean that simple living wastobethe permanentstandard, butratherthatthe trainingperiods (r6 avvEOtIetV) shouldbe much longer thantheencounterswith ToXUkXeLa, hewouldstillbe wrong. The points Ihavebeen making seemtometobe strengthenedby the Senecancontextofthe Epicurean sectionin Ep. 18.From18.5to18.13 Seneca urges Luciliustosetasidea certainnumber of daysduring which heshallbe contentwiththescantiestand cheapest fare (18.5). The pur- 8Thattheword7roXvreXlneednotrefertoalevelof prosperityunbefitting an Epi- cureanisclear from two phrases inthis very letter: iav A7r)EXo,iev T&L7roXXaandI6L-Ta TroXvTerXelasaroXoavovarv. R. Muller,"Geschichtsphilosophische Problemederlukre- zischen Kulturentstehungslehre," ictaConventusXI"Eirene"1968 (Warsaw1971) 373-375, hasadduced456Us.toshowthatra TroXVTreX7 neednot alwaysbelong tothe classof things unnaturaland unnecessary.Rist,too, remarksthatthere may havebeen onedistinctionbetweendifferent types of TroXVTreXj([above, n. 6]118, n. 2). 9CyrilBailey,ed.,Epicurus, TheExtantRemains (Oxford1926) 89and336-337. J.Bollack, LaPenseedu plaisir.tpicure: textes moraux, commentaires (Paris1975) 77 and 126-127, understandstheGreek quitedifferently from everyone else.Itisdifficult to see,however, howhistranslationcanbeextractedfromtheGreekasitstands. 216PHOENIX TRAININGINFRUGALITYINEPICURUSANDSENECA pose ofthesesessionsisforarichmantolosehisfearofareversalof fortune:Exerceamur...ne inparatos fortunadeprehendat, fiat nobis paupertas familiaris; securiusdiviteserimussiscierimus quam nonsit gravepauperes esse (18.8-9). Also: quarum (sc. divitiarum) possessionem tibi noninterdico sed efficere volo utillas intrepide possideas(18.13).Now, it can hardly bedoubtedthatthe regime recommended by Senecato Lucilius corresponds in nearlyevery detailtothe Epicureantraining for acquiringavbrpKELa. ItisalsoreasonabletoassumethatSenecawould nothaveinsertedtheletterof Epicurus to Polyaenus inhisownletter unlesshe had thought thatitwas pertinent tohis exhortationtoLucilius and strengthened it.Anditwouldnotbe pertinent unlessconnected withthemain topic ofSeneca:todiscover throughpracticing itthat poverty isnotaburdenandthata richmanneednotfear it. Ifthis interpretation is correct, information suppliedbyEp. 18.9has addedto our knowledge of a part of Epicureanphilosophy. We now know that training in abrapKLera, i.e., ro avveQOLetl evraTsairXaTs &6aLraLs, was intendednot only toaccustomustora a7rXabutalso tomake uslearn to derive pleasure from them. Moreover, this training took place at regular intervals (certi dies), in sessionsof a few days'duration; and one's degree of avTaipKELa couldbe progressively increased throughtraining.Finally, if Epicurus himselfatthe age of50 still persisted inthis training, itcanbe fairly concludedthatitwasa regular and permanentpart ofthe Epicureans'way oflife. UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO, LONDON 217