I happened upon this, but haven't read very much yet. Has anyone else already seen this?
"Among Friends: Cicero and the Epicureans" Thesis by Nathan Gilbert
Quote"Cicero’s social relationships with a wide range of Greek and Roman Epicureans and his epistolary debates with them reveal how his overt and consistent hostility toward the Garden reflects far more than the standard practice of refuting a rival school (i.e. like certain anti-Epicurean discourses of Epictetus or polemical works of Plutarch). Cicero’s hostility, stretching from the preface of Book I of De Republica to the final paragraphs of De Officiis (3.116-20), amounts to nothing less than a consistent campaign to undermine and demolish the influence and popularity of Epicureanism in Italy and seeks simultaneously to establish his place in the history of Roman literature over his philosophical rivals, a group of early Latin authors of Epicurean treatises (including Lucretius)." ...
...."Finally, I also hope that my analysis of Cicero's anti-Epicurean polemics will offer clarification as to how he can be used responsibly in reconstructions of the school's doctrines."