Diogenes of Oinoanda The Epicurean Inscrition (original) (raw)

Year 120 AD. Diogenes, a wealthy notable of the city of Oinoanda, province of Lycia, Turkey today, but then belonging to the Roman Empire, feels that his life comes to an end. In an event both genial and eccentric, spends his entire fortune to erect a wall, eighty metres long by four high to the portico of the city, where he make to engrave several texts to present the mainly tenets of philosophy that has made his life happy: Epicureanism.

With this extraordinary gift, Diogenes of Oinoanda want to share not only his citizens but also all the inhabitants of Lycia, and even foreigners, the philosophy that ensures the true happiness and free men from fear of the gods and death.

This website is devoted to Diogenes Oinoanda and Epicurean philosophy. Here you can find information about Diogenes and Oinoanda, Epicurus and Epicureanism, the translation of the inscription, photos of what remains of the city wall and the fragments recovered, the reproduction of some of them and bibliography on the inscription, Epicureanism and atomism and in general. You also can watch a lecture on Diogenes of Oinoanda here (in Catalan). If you want to see Oinoanda before, here's a informative video about the researches and another on Oinoanda in general.

κενὸς ἐκείνου φιλοσόφου λόγος, ὑφ᾽ οὗ μηδὲν πάθος ἀνθρώπου θεραπεύεται

«Vain is the word of the philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man». Epicurus