Prosecuting Epicurus in the Emperor Julian's Court: A Reading of Himerius Oration 3

Himerius Or. 3 is a declamation in which a nameless prosecutor accuses the philosopher Epicurus of impiety for teaching doctrines that deny the existence of divine providence. This article argues that the declamation deliberately voices Himerius's contemporary religious concerns by reading Epicurus as a personification of Christianity, and Christian sophists in particular. In light of the speech's program of alignment with the emperor Julian's religious and philosophical agenda, as well as Himerius's rivalry with the Christian sophist Prohaeresius, this paper also proposes that Or. 3's delivery was in 362 before the emperor himself.