  Philodemus does not claim to be an original philosopher. He insists that his views are based on the doctrines of Epicurus and of his first generation of pupils—Metrodorus, Colotes, Polyaenus, Hermarchus (cf. PHerc. 1005 III 8–17 and fr. 107.9 ff.), whose works he cites constantly as proof of the correctness of his claims about Epicurean doctrine and its proper interpretation, often in opposition to the interpretations of other Epicureans contemporary with or somewhat older than himself. The death of Hermarchus marks, for Philodemus, the end of the authoritative generation of Epicureans. To Hermarchus were bequeathed the books of Epicurus—perhaps some of the very copies eventually owned by Philodemus and found in the Villa—and he was the last of the disciples to have participated in philosophical discussion with and, thus, in the formation of the philosophy of the founder.