Lucius Saufeius

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 2.8 §1 you may suppose I am Saufeius

  L. Saufeius, an Epicurean friend of Atticus famous for philosophical detachment and inactivity. Cicero jokes that in retiring to write history he is as idle as Saufeius --- then caps it: "Nothing is lazier than I."

• Ad Atticum 4.6 §1 Saufeius and your school

  L. Saufeius, a wealthy Epicurean friend of Atticus; 'your school' is the Epicureans, who held that death is nothing to the dead. Cicero says his own grief is not that detached creed but genuine sorrow tempered by a different consolation.

• Ad Atticum 15.4 §2 Saufeius let us keep in the dark about you

  L. Saufeius, a committed Epicurean and old friend of both Cicero and Atticus; the joke is that the strict Epicurean would disapprove of their fretting over politics instead of cultivating tranquillity.