SUDA entry epsilon 2405:  

̓Επίκουρος (Epicurus, Epikouros)

This man assigned no importance to religion;[1] but there were three brothers [sc. of his],[2] who died
in the most pitiful way, struck down by countless diseases.[3] As for Epicurus, although still young, he
was not able to easily descend from his bed by himself, but he was short-sighted and fearful of facing
the sunlight, for he disliked the most brilliant and shining of the gods. And indeed he turned his eyes
away even from the light of fire, and from his lower orifices blood used to drip down, and such was
the consumption of his body that he was not even able to carry the weight of his own clothes.[4] And
Metrodorus[5] and Polyaenus[6], both of them his companions, died in the worst way men can die,
and indeed they took for their impiety a requital that nobody might ever blame. So easily overcome by
pleasure was Epicurus that in his last moments he wrote in his will a disposition that a sacrifice be offered
once a year to his father, his mother and his brothers, and to the previously mentioned Metrodorus and
Polyaenus, but twice a year to himself;[7] so that even in this the sage honored the higher degree of
profligacy. And he had some tables of stone built, and gave orders that these be put in his tomb, this
greedy and gluttonous man. He devised these things not because he was rich, but because his appetites
had driven him mad, as if those things should die along with him. They banished the Epicureans from
Rome by a public senatorial decree.[8] And also the Messenians, the ones who live in Arcadia, expelled
those reputed to be members of this, let us say, "manger", saying that they were corrupters of the youth
and attaching to their doctrine the stain of infamy because of their effeminacy and impiety; and they gave
orders that, before sunset, the Epicureans be out of the borders of Messenia and that after they had left,
the priests purify the temples and the timouchoi (this is the name Messenians give to their magistrates)
purify the whole city, as delivered from some filthy contaminations and offscourings. [Note] that in Crete
the citizens of Lyktos[9] chased away some Epicureans who had come there. And a law was written
in the local language, stating that whoever thought of adhering to this effeminate and ignominious and
hideous doctrine were enemies of the gods and should be banished from Lyktos; but if anybody dared to
come and neglect the orders of the law, he should be bound in a pillory near the office of the magistrates
for twenty days, naked and with his body spread with honey and milk, so that he would be a meal for
bees and flies and the insects would in the stated time kill them. After this time, if he were still alive, he
should be thrown from a cliff, dressed in women's clothes.

Notes

For Epicurus see already epsilon 2404 (and again epsilon 2406). The present entry is Aelian fr. 42a
Domingo-Forasté (39 Hercher), from On Divine Manifestations; cf. epsilon 715, eta 630, kappa 2800,
omicron 773, pi 2870, sigma 1637, tau 510, phi 132.

Following a scheme familiar in Christian writers (e.g. Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum), Aelian shows
in this work the effects of divine punishment -- essentially, in terms of physical ailments -- on individuals
guilty of being an "enemy of the gods"; this means, in the surviving fragments, people held to adhere to the
Epicurean school. The attitude towards Epicurean doctrine that Aelian displays is based on the common
perception of Epicureans as atheists and effeminates -- one stemming from the misunderstanding of
the ethical aspect of Epicureanism, determining pleasure as the highest goal (see Epicurus, Epistula ad
Meneceum 132 for the definition of pleasure). Like Plutarch and especially Athenaeus, Aelian essentially
sees the Epicurean notion of pleasure as over-indulgence in food, and effeminacy.

[1] On Epicurus' indifference to popular religion see also Aelian fr. 64a D-F, 61 Hercher (also from On
Divine Manifestation).

[2] Neokles, Chairedemos and Aristoboulos: see under epsilon 2040.

 [3] Neither the diseases which killed Epicurus' brothers nor the physical ailments that afflicted the
philosopher himself are attested elsewhere.

[4] The cause of Epicurus' death (in 270 BCE) was a urinary blockage and associated dysentery.

[5] Metrodorus of Lampsacus (c.331-278), a disciple and close friend of Epicurus, described as a "second
Epicurus" by Cicero (De Finibus 2.28.92). After Metrodorus' death, Epicurus took care of his family and
recommended his children to be cared for in his last will. Only fragments of his work survive.

[6] Polyaenus of Lampsacus (?340-278), a mathematician, whose friendship with Epicurus started when
the philosopher opened a school in Lampsacus in 307-306. Both Polyaenus and Metrodorus, together with
Hermarchus, had the rank of kathegemones, "secondary leaders", in the hierarchically-based Epicurean
school.

[7] Epicurus' birthday was celebrated each year; the twentieth day of each month was celebrated in honor
of Metrodorus. On the flattering attitude of the members of the school towards Epicurus cf. Plutarch,
Against Colotes 1117AB.

[8] The reference is to the expulsion of the Epicureans Alcaeus and Philiscus in 154 BCE as a result of their
ethical teaching.

[9] An ancient city in Crete, a former Lacedaemonian colony mentioned by Homer and Hesiod as
participating to the Trojan War. See Stephanus of Byzantium s.v., and lambda 831.

Keywords: biography; Christianity; clothing; constitution; ethics; food; geography; law;

medicine; philosophy; religion; zoology
Translated by Antonella Ippolito; edited by Catharine Roth and David Whitehead.
This is the version of the Suda On Line entry created 9 September 2017; the current
version, at http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/epsilon/2405,
may be different.