Catius ( fl. c. 50s–40s BC) was an

Epicurean Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism. Few writings by Ep ...

philosopher, identified ethnically as an Insubrian Celt from Gallia Transpadana. Epicurean works by

Amafinius Gaius Amafinius (or Amafanius) was one of the earliest Roman writers in favour of the Epicurean philosophy. He probably lived in the late 2nd and early 1st century BC. He wrote several works, which are censured by Cicero as deficient in arrangement ...

, Rabirius, and Catius were the earliest philosophical treatises written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Catius composed a treatise in four books on the physical world and on the

highest good ''Summum bonum'' is a Latin expression meaning the highest or ultimate good, which was introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero to denote the fundamental principle on which some system of ethics is based — that is, the aim of actions, which, ...

(''De rerum natura et de summo bono'').

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

credits him, along with the lesser prose stylist Amafinius, with writing accessible texts that popularized Epicurean philosophy among the '' plebs'', or common people.

Sources

In a letter dated January 45 BC, Cicero speaks of Catius as having died recently. The letter is addressed to Cassius Longinus, one of the future assassins of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

and a recent convert to Epicureanism. Cicero prods Cassius about his new philosophy, and jokes about ''spectra Catiana'' ("Catian apparitions"), that is, the εἴδωλα or material images which were supposed by the Epicureans to present themselves to the mind and to call up the idea of absent objects: Although Cicero's purpose is ridicule, the passage is an important source for understanding the Epicurean theory of

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

. Catius's ''spectrum'' is equivalent to ''simulacrum'' in

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

, but the term ''spectrum'' does not appear again in

until the 17th century and must represent Catius's attempt to create a specialized vocabulary. Quintilian characterizes Catius briefly: . Early commentators on Horace assert that the philosopher should be identified with the Catius addressed in the fourth

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

of the poet's second book. This Catius is introduced as delivering a grave and sententious lecture on various topics connected with the pleasures of the table. It appears from the words of Cicero, however, that the satire in question could not have been written until several years after the death of Catius. Horace may have intended to designate some gourmand of the court under a recognizably Epicurean nickname; given the poet's own Epicurean leanings, the passage should probably be read as a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of the kind of false Epicureanism that disguised mere hedonism.

Emily Gowers Emily Joanna Gowers, ( Thomas; born 27 September 1963) is a British classical scholar. She is Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. She is an expert on Horace, Augustan li ...

, ''The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 14
online.
/ref>

Notes

{{Epicureanism Roman-era Epicurean philosophers Gaulish people Philosophers of Roman Italy 1st-century BC philosophers Catii

Sources

See also

Notes