Do Everything As Though Epicurus Were Watching

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“Epicureans swore an oath on entry to be faithful to the way of life taught by Epicurus (Philodemus, Peri Parresias 45.8-11): ‘We will be obedient to Epicurus, according to whom we have made it our choice to live.' [23] See also Seneca, Epist. 25.5: ‘Sic fac omnia tamquam spectet Epicurus'”] (Goodman, Jews in a Graeco-Roman World 99).

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“According to the 1st-century CE Stoic writer Seneca, the following was an Epicurean saying: ‘Do everything as though Epicurus were watching’ (Letter 25.5: sic fac omnia, tamquam spectet Epicurus). Reverence for Epicurus and close adherence to his teachings were essential aspects of Epicurean identity throughout the centuries-long history of the school as it spread across the Mediterranean, to Italy, and to Asia Minor” (Gordon, “Epicureanism in Rome, the Bay of Naples and Beyond”).

A Portrait of Epicurus from Ward and Lock's Illustrated History of the World (1882)