A slightly worldly philosopher, who enjoyed the patronage of the Pisones, a rich Roman family. He taught an Epicurean philosophy, and wrote elegant homosexual love poetry. He is important philosophically for his aesthetics, which contained an early version of the doctrine of art for art’s sake. The villa in which he housed his library is that which was reconstructed as the J. Paul Getty museum at Malibu, and his papyri are an important ongoing source for Hellenistic thought.