Epicurus was born on Samos in 341 BCE to Athenian settlers, taught in Mytilene and Lampsacus, and bought the Garden in Athens around 306. The school he built was unusual in admitting women and enslaved people as full members — Leontion wrote philosophy, and the will frees several slaves by name — which drew a steady stream of sexual innuendo from rivals who could not otherwise explain it. He suffered for years from kidney stones and wrote on his last day that the pain was balanced by the memory of past conversations. The will is the best evidence we have that the Garden was a household as much as a school.