Motus animi voluntarius. The Ciceronian Epicurus from libertarian free will to free choice

Although the Epicurean thesis concerning indeterminism and ‘free will’ is well known, there are many problems connected to its interpretation. How does Cicero interpret the thesis? He clearly measures himself against the Epicurean doctrine in order to support his own thesis on ‘free will’ and ‘free choice’. According to Cicero, in order for an action to be free, it must be in nostra potestate (= ‘up to us’); but is it correct to connect this notion to the motus animi voluntarius introduced in De fato, which unequivocally refers to the Epicu-rean doctrine? This question is crucial to understanding Cicero’s reading of the Epicurean thesis (and then that of Epicurus himself). In any case, according to the texts available, if it was not Epicurus, it was Cicero who first – and, paradoxically, with a manifest anti-Epicurean aim – identified the problem of freedom with that of free choice