SOURCE: Lorenzo Valla, "Book II" and "Book III," in On Pleasure (De voluptate), translated by A. Kent Hieatt and Maristella Lorch, Abaris Books, Inc., 1977, pp. 132-227, 228-327.

Valla, an Italian intellectual, served as the Librarian of the Vatican. His De vero bono, or On Pleasure, takes the form of a letter in which the writer, who identifies himself as an Epicurean, refutes the arguments of a friend who advocates stoicism. Cato appears pears in this work as an example of the stoic personality; in the excerpts below, Valla criticizes Cato in order to promote Epicureanism.

Here … [you] may meet my argument with authoritative instances (not being able to do so by reason), for we see that many besides those whom you mentioned believed that for the sake of virtue no pain should be avoided. Most outstanding among these are Cato, Scipio, and, above all, Lucretia. However, these examples...