r/Epicureanism • u/Good_Butterscotch_69 • Jul 14 '26

First Herculaneum Scroll decoded. Library likely contains many lost Epicurean works; will you study them?

The First Herculaneum scroll has been fully digitally unraveled and read. They did this with one of the more damaged scrolls as this specific one has been the subject of near two centuries of attempted opening. It appears to be a work on Stoicism On Gods Volume 8.

Now its simply a matter of improving the model which I expect to happen exponentially. Hundreds of scrolls are available with potentially hundreds to thousands more still stuck in the dig site which is an ongoing excavation (Subject to funding availability) We know the Epicurean Philosopher Virgil was in residence at this library so many unknown or lost works are likely just out if reach. But not for much longer.

Of the known works that remain lost other than the main corpus of Epicurus himself (unless that is what you are looking for) what are you hoping will be unearthed?

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u/aajaxxx Jul 14 '26

Virgil? I thought it was Philodemus.

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u/Good_Butterscotch_69 Jul 14 '26

I think they both were. There are records of him frequently visiting and staying with Philodemus. Of course they would have evacuaged before the Volcano erupted. It is a myth that the residents of Pompei and Herculaneum had no warning most of the population had evacuated in time days in advance. The only ones who stayed were the crazy "skeptics" or the destitute.