Epicureanism was the first and only real missionary philosophy produced by Greeks.
Plato had founded his Academy despite the absence of any (known) model for a school.
The model the Greeks were most familiar with was the city-state, and this model was pursued by Pythagoras.
The Cynics had escaped the political obsession of Plato and similar Greeks. So did Epicurus.
Epicurus believed a certain modicum of governmental control was necessary but rejected doctrine of Plato and others that the state stood in the place of a parent.
A closer model probably in Epicurus’ mind was the example of Aristotle, whose school was more of a research institution and less of a one-man enterprise than Plato’s Academy. Epicurus had with himself three colleagues from the beginning, and those left in Lampsacus continued to study and write separately.
Most likely model for Epicurus was the Hippocratic medical fraternity. Epicurus saw his mission as extending to all mankind, not just within a certain political limit.
If philosophy is to heal maladies of soul, must be divorced from politics…healing was for all people, regardless of political affiliation.
Every Epicurean convert was a missionary. Philosophy should begin at home and be disseminated from the home. Thus the philosophical movement was independent of schools and tutors.
Epicurus is falsely denounced as effeminate and moral invalidism, but the truth is that Epicurus had a crusading spirit that endowed Epicureanism with a tenacity unequaled by rival creeds, leading it to flourish for almost seven centuries, in contrast to Stoicism which was in vogue for a much shorter time.