Physics as Political Theory in Imperial Roman Literature

Abstract This article examines the use of political metaphors and analogies in ancient discussions of Epicurean atomism, ranging from the philosophical dialogues of Cicero in the 1st century BC to Claudian’s epic invective In Rufinum in the 390s AD. Building on earlier scholarship that traces the emergence of monarchical and imperial analogies for the Greco-Roman pantheon in Post-Hellenistic philosophy, I argue that ancient critics of atomism shared a common tendency to depict Epicurean physics as the conceptual opposite of a well-ordered state. In particular, depictions of Epicurean theology as a form of divine ‘banishment’ and of atomic cosmology as a form of cosmic ‘democracy’ or ‘anarchy’ appear in texts by a wide range of Greek and Roman authors, revealing the great extent to which philosophical disagreements over atomic physics were influenced by political and social ideas.