Amafinius

C. (probably Gaius) Amafinius (or Amafanius) was one of the earliest Roman writers in favour of the Epicurean philosophy. He probably lived in the late 2nd century and early 1st century BCE. [Smith, M., (2001), "On the Nature of Things", page x. Hackett Publishing.] He wrote several works, which are censured by Cicero as deficient in arrangement and style. He is mentioned by no other ancient writer but Cicero. [Cicero, "Academica", i. 2, "Tusculanae Quaestiones", iv. 3.] In the "Academica", Cicero reveals that Amafanius translated the Greek concept of atoms as "corpuscles" ("corpusculi") in Latin. In the "Tusculan Disputations", Cicero disapprovingly notes that Amafanius was one of the first philosophers writing in Latin at Rome:

"(C)um interim illis silentibus C. Amafinius extitit dicens, cuius libris editis commota multitudo contulit se ad eam potissimum disciplinam, sive quod erat cognitu perfacilis, sive quod invitabantur inlecebris blandis voluptatis, sive etiam, quia nihil erat prolatum melius, illud quod erat tenebant."

"But, during this silence, C. Amafinius arose and took upon himself to speak; on the publishing of whose writings the people were moved, and enlisted themselves chiefly under this sect, either because the doctrine was more easily understood, or because they were invited thereto by the pleasing thoughts of amusement, or that, because there was nothing better, they laid hold of what was offered them." [Cicero, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc4.shtml#6 "Tusculan Disputations"] ]

More recently, he was alluded to by Michel de Montaigne in his "Essais", book 2, chapter 17, "De la presumption" ("On Presumption.") Montaigne writes:

". . . un jargon populaire, et un proceder sans definition, sans partition, sans conclusion, trouble, à la façon de celuy d'Amafanius et de Rabirius."

. . ."a popular jargon, a proceeding without definition, division, conclusion, perplexed like that Amafanius and Rabirius." [Michel de Montaigne, [http://www.bribes.org/trismegiste/es2ch17.htm "De la presumption"] ]

It is unlikely that Montaigne ever read Amafanius or Rabirius in the original, and is repeating only what he learned from Cicero.

References

Bibliography

* "Cicero’s Social and Political Thought", Wood, Neal, University of California Press, 1988 (paperback edition, 1991, ISBN 0-520-07427-0).
* "Amafinius, Lucretius and Cicero", Howe, H.H., American Journal of Philology, 77, 1951, pp57-62