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Acknowledgements Gratitude to friends was of paramount importance in the Garden. Although I disagree with Epicurus’ basically self-centred motivation, I have no difficulty in admitting that I derived many Epicurean pleasures from the following paragraphs. First and foremost, my thanks are due to L. Van der Stockt, the supervisor of my PhD dissertation on Plutarch. I have benefited greatly, and continue to benefit, from his valuable and stimulating advice. In his respect for my own alterity, he far surpasses Plutarch’s high moral demands, in savoir vivre he is Epicurus’ equal. A significant part of this book has been written during a stay at Utrecht University. I am indebted to many members of the staff, especially to K. Algra and J. Mansfeld, with whom I could discuss the Epicurean position in detail. I am also much indebted to W. Evenepoel, h.G. Ingenkamp, J. opsomer , and C. Steel, all of whom read parts of an earlier draft and made many useful and pertinent suggestions. Special thanks are also due to Michael and Julianne Funk Deckard for having corrected my English. Needless to say, all shortcomings remain my own. It is a pleasure to extend thanks to my colleagues at the Department of Classical Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven and to the members of the De Wulf - Mansion Centre at the Leuven Institute of Philosophy. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium). Finally, I am glad to express my thanks to my parents, who offered me ζῆν and contributed a great deal to εὖ ζῆν as well, to my children, whose cheerful simplicity forms the perfect antidote to the complex vexations of the scholarly life, and to my wife Kristin, who had to share me with both Epicurus and Plutarch. It is clear that without her unconditional and generous readiness to do so, this book would never have been written. ...

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