Epicurus purchased the property known as the Garden in Athens in 307 BCE. This location became the physical home for his school of thought and the gathering place for students like Hermarchus, Metrodorus, and Polyaenus.
Epicurean physics holds that the universe consists of matter and void. Matter is composed of atoms with unchanging qualities of shape, size, and weight that move constantly through the infinite void.
The central goal of Epicurean ethics was achieving ataraxia, which is a state of tranquility and freedom from fear. This state also included aponia, meaning the absence of bodily pain, where pleasure reaches its maximum limit when all sources of pain are removed.
Titus Lucretius Carus wrote a didactic poem called De Rerum Natura around 91 BCE to 51 BCE. This work presented Epicurean arguments in unified poetic form to liberate readers from fear of gods and death.
Some scholars argue these gods existed as material objects made of atoms residing outside the mind while others suggest they only existed as idealized forms within human consciousness representing the best life possible. A debate between realist and idealist positions continues among modern philosophers like A.A. Long and David Sedley.