Marius the Epicurean

"Marius the Epicurean" is an imaginary historical portrait in which Marius, the detached observer, is offered as a kind of self-portrait of Pater transferred to the Rome of Marcus Aurelius. Marius speculates on vario us views of art and life, with the love of art for art's sake advocated, as is the moral obligation to lead a good and ordered life. The importance of the work today is perhaps mainly as an example of Pater's highly wrought prose style - which many have tried to imitate.