PHILODEMUS, ON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
PHILODEMUS, ON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Translated with an introduction and notes by Voula Tsouna
Series: Writings from the Greco-Roman World
Copyright Date: 2012
Published by: Society of Biblical Literature
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m
Pages: 172
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n47m
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Book Info
PHILODEMUS, ON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Book Description:

Philodemus was an important Epicurean philosopher active in southern Italy in the first century B.C.E. His treatise On Property Management, whose surviving part is completely translated here into English for the first time, focuses primarily on the vices or virtues involved in the acquisition and preservation of property and wealth. The extant remains of the work contain the most extensive and thorough treatment of property management found in any Hellenistic author. Philodemus criticizes rival writings by Xenophon and Theophrastus on the subject of oikonomia, or property management, and defends his own Epicurean views on the topic. More systematic and philosophical than rival approaches, the treatise clarifies many moral issues pertaining to the possession and preservation of property and wealth and provides plausible answers to a cluster of moral questions.

eISBN: 978-1-58983-668-6
Subjects: Philosophy, Language & Literature
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.1
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.2
  3. Acknowledgements
    Acknowledgements (pp. vii-viii)
    VT
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.3
  4. Abbreviations
    Abbreviations (pp. ix-x)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.4
  5. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. xi-xlvi)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.5

    Philodemus is an important Epicurean philosopher of the first century b.c.e. (ca. 110–ca. 40 b.c.e.). Born in the city of Gadara in the Near East, he lived much of his life in Italy under the patronage of L. Calpurnius Piso and became the leader of a group of Epicureans located in one of Piso’s country houses at the town of Herculaneum, in southern Italy. That town was completely destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 c.e. In the mid-eighteenth century, archaeologists working in Herculaneum excavated the so-called Villa of the Papyri, which was plausibly identified with Piso’s...

  6. Φιλοδήμου περὶ κακιῶν καὶ τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀρετῶν καὶ τῶν ἐν οἷς εἰσι καὶ περὶ ἅ θ (= περὶ οἰκονομίας)
    Φιλοδήμου περὶ κακιῶν καὶ τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀρετῶν καὶ τῶν ἐν οἷς εἰσι καὶ περὶ ἅ θ (= περὶ οἰκονομίας) (pp. 1-78)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.6

    [… and in addition, he is skilled in the arrangement and in the use … and of possessions. For it is] for the sake of [these things that we need those things as well.¹ Moreover, [each must be distinguished, and “fruitful” possessions must be more than] “unfruitful” ones, [and the tasks must have been distributed] so as [not to endanger them all at once.] Regarding the preservation (sc. of property), it is profitable to use the Persian and the Spartan methods.² [As to the Attic method] of property management,³ it is useful as well (for the Athenians [purchase] at the...

  7. Notes
    Notes (pp. 79-102)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.7
  8. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 103-106)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.8
  9. Index Verborum
    Index Verborum (pp. 107-126)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n47m.9
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