Philodemus was a Greek philosopher and poet who lived in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, from approximately 110 to 40 BCE. He was born in the city of Gadara, in the Hellenistic Near East, and became a devoted follower of the Epicurean school of philosophy. He studied under Zeno of Sidon, the head of the Epicurean Garden in Athens, before moving to Italy around the 70s BCE. There, he became part of the Roman elite, living and teaching at a villa in Herculaneum owned by a Roman statesman named Lucius Calpurnius Piso.

Philodemus was a prolific writer on a wide range of subjects. His works, many of which survive only in fragments, include treatises on ethics, theology, poetry, music, and rhetoric. Major titles include On Poems, On Music, On Rhetoric, On Anger, and On the Gods. He also composed short, witty poems known as epigrams. The survival of his work is a historical accident of extraordinary importance. His entire personal library, consisting of papyrus scrolls, was buried and carbonized during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. These texts, known as the Herculaneum Papyri, have been painstakingly recovered and deciphered since the 18th century.

According to modern scholars, Philodemus is a figure of immense significance. He provides a crucial link for understanding how Greek Epicurean philosophy was transmitted and adapted in Roman intellectual circles. His recovered library offers a rare, direct look at a philosopher's working texts and the debates within his school. Furthermore, his theories on poetry and criticism are believed to have influenced later Roman poets, including Horace. Through both his life and his preserved writings, Philodemus offers a unique window into the philosophical and cultural exchange between the Greek and Roman worlds.