Hermarchus

Hermarchus of Mytilene was a Greek philosopher of the Epicurean school, the disciple and successor of Epicurus as head of the Garden around 270 BC. He matters chiefly as the first direct continuator of the master, and as a writer who shaped the school's debate with rival philosophies.

The son of Agemarchus, a poor man from Mytilene, he was first trained as a rhetorician, a career he gave up to follow Epicurus, with whom he stayed for many years. Epicurus named him his successor and left him the Garden. He died at an advanced age, with a reputation as a great philosopher.

None of his writings survives. According to Diogenes Laertius, he wrote a polemical work Against Empedocles in twenty-two books, along with On the Mathematicians, Against Plato and Against Aristotle. One substantial fragment, preserved by Porphyry and probably drawn from the Empedocles treatise, argues that criminal laws grew out of a rational recognition that murder harms society, and that punishment was reserved for those who could not be taught this. Philodemus also records his views on the gods, whom he held to breathe and converse, since they are living beings and conversation brings pleasure.