New Project: Returning the Eternal Light of Epicureanism to England! And Your Help is Needed!

**New Project:  Returning the Eternal Light of Epicureanism to England!**  The Roman coin pictured here contains the inscription “Redditor Lucis Aeterna,” which can loosely be translated as “Rebringer of the Eternal Light.”  The location depicted on the right represents London, England (Londinium), and the coin is described as “The Trier Medallion – Paris, Louvre Museum. Minted in Trier, it depicts a woman – or the genius loci of Londinium – kneeling at the city wall welcoming Constantius Chlorus, who is on horseback, while a galley full of Roman soldiers is sailing up the Thames. Constantius went in London just in time to stop the sack of the city by Frankish mercenaries in 296 CE.”

In 296, Rome and Londinium had not yet been converted to Christianity, and the influence of prior Emperors with Epicurean leanings, such as Trajan (whose wife Pompeia Plotina had avowed interest in Epicureanism in about AD 120, must still have existed in at least some parts of the Empire.  We have no way of definitely establishing any Epicurean involvement in 296, but the allegory of Romans bringing back the eternal light to Rome is an apt one for a new project:  reinvigorating Epicureanism in Britain today!

Within the last several months, a spark of new activity has been struck in England in the form of the “Epicurean Philosophy Today” web forum, located at http://epicurus.englishboards.com/ but created and maintained by a webmaster in England itself.  Many of you who read these posts have probably visited, and you know that the proprietor has invested much work in getting it off the ground.  The forum is not currently targeted to England itself, but we know that there are many Englishmen and Englishwomen who follow Epicurean posts on the Facebook pages and assorted websites, so a critical mass is beginning to build for further activity.

The purpose of this post is not only to remind you about the web forum, but to ask for your assistance in developing it further.  We’d especially like to ask for input from those who either live in England or have a special interest in English affairs.  Content is building well on the forum, but we are not where we’d like to be graphically with the forum, or with an associated England-based web page, or in terms of features we’d like to implement.  Our web proprietor “Mequa” would welcome your assistance in making the forum a more inviting place.

If you have graphic design or web design talents, we ask that your consider letting us know.  As a start, we would welcome your comments in response to this post (on the Facebook pages) with any suggestions you may have.  Suggestions alone will be helpful, so please offer them, and if you can offer assistance on how to implement them that’s all for the better.

Just as each Epicurean is an individual who values his own personal freedom and happiness, our Epicurean websites operate independently and with no obligations expressed or implied.  Our “Society of Epicurus” page headquartered in Chicago has aspirations to help as a unifying force across the internet, but there will always be a need for local points of presence.  The internet is great, but in the end there is no substitute for personal contact.  We are far from being able to offer local “Meetup” groups as in Chicago, but for all who might be interested in seeing that offered one day, the first step is to set up a “local web presence” in each country or region.

Of course you incur no obligation by offering your suggestions or support.   Anonymous assistance works just as well as personal contact for projects such as this.  We are not seeking “members” or “followers” —  frankly, we’re not seeking anything from anyone, other than the opportunity to make new friends while we have fun sharing the philosophy of Epicurus.  If you have  graphics or web development skills that would be of assistance in bringing back the eternal light of Epicureanism to England, please let us know by emailing or commenting below!

“All  at  the  same  time  we  must  laugh  and  practice  our philosophy,  applying  it  in our own  households,  taking  advantage  of  our other  intimacies  to  this  end,  and  under no circumstances  whatever  falter  in  making  our utterances  consistent  with  the  true philosophy.”

PS – England today, tomorrow, the world! 😉  If you would like assistance or advise or simply encouragement in setting up a web presence for the promotion of the study of Epicureanism in your region, please let us know that too!