Titus Lucretius Carus (; c. 15 October 99
BC – c. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher.
His only known work is the philosophical poem
De rerum natura, a didactic work about the
tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and
which is usually translated into English as
On the Nature of Things. Lucretius has been
credited with originating the concept of the
three-age system which was formalised from
1834 by C. J. Thomsen.
Very little is known about Lucretius's life;
the only certain fact is that he was either
a friend or client of Gaius Memmius, to whom
the poem was addressed and dedicated.De rerum
natura was a considerable influence on the
Augustan poets, particularly Virgil (in his
Aeneid and Georgics, and to a lesser extent
on the Eclogues) and Horace. The work virtually
disappeared during the Middle Ages, but was
rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany
by Poggio Bracciolini and it played an important
role both in the development of atomism (Lucretius
was an important influence on Pierre Gassendi)
and the efforts of various figures of the
Enlightenment era to construct a new Christian
humanism.
== Life ==
Virtually nothing is known about the life
of Lucretius, and there is insufficient basis
for a confident assertion of the date of Lucretius's
birth or death in other sources. Another yet
briefer note is found in the Chronicon of
Donatus's pupil, Jerome. Writing four centuries
after Lucretius's death, he enters under the
171st Olympiad: "Titus Lucretius the poet
is born." If Jerome is accurate about Lucretius's
age (43) when Lucretius died (discussed below),
it can then be concluded he was born in 99
or 98 BC. Less specific estimates place the
birth of Lucretius in the 90s BC and death
in the 50s BC, in agreement with the poem's
many allusions to the tumultuous state of
political affairs in Rome and its civil strife.
Lucretius was probably a member of the aristocratic
gens Lucretia, and his work shows an intimate
knowledge of the luxurious lifestyle in Rome.
Lucretius' love of the countryside invites
speculation that he inhabited family-owned
rural estates, as did many wealthy Roman families,
and he certainly was expensively educated
with a mastery of Latin, Greek, literature,
and philosophy.A brief biographical note is
found in Aelius Donatus's Life of Virgil,
which seems to be derived from an earlier
work by Suetonius. The note reads: "The first
years of his life Virgil spent in Cremona
until the assumption of his toga virilis on
his 17th birthday (when the same two men held
the consulate as when he was born), and it
so happened that on the very same day Lucretius
the poet passed away." However, although Lucretius
certainly lived and died around the time that
Virgil and Cicero flourished, the information
in this particular testimony is internally
inconsistent: If Virgil was born in 70 BC,
his 17th birthday would be in 53. The two
consuls of 70 BC, Pompey and Crassus, stood
together as consuls again in 55, not 53. Another
yet briefer note is found in the Chronicon
of Donatus's pupil, Jerome. Writing four centuries
after Lucretius's death, Jerome contends in
the aforementioned Chronicon that Lucretius
"was driven mad by a love potion, and when,
during the intervals of his insanity, he had
written a number of books, which were later
emended by Cicero, he killed himself by his
own hand in the 44th year of his life." The
claim that he was driven mad by a love potion,
although defended by such scholars as Reale
and Catan, is often dismissed as the result
of historical confusion, or anti-Epicurean
bias. In some accounts the administration
of the toxic aphrodisiac is attributed to
his wife Lucilia. Regardless, Jerome's image
of Lucretius as a lovesick, mad poet continued
to have significant influence on modern scholarship
until quite recently, although it now is accepted
that such a report is inaccurate.
== De rerum natura ==
His poem De rerum natura (usually translated
as "On the Nature of Things" or "On the Nature
of the Universe") transmits the ideas of Epicureanism,
which includes atomism and psychology. Lucretius
was the first writer to introduce Roman readers
to Epicurean philosophy. The poem, written
in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided
into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean
physics through richly poetic language and
metaphors. Lucretius presents the principles
of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul;
explanations of sensation and thought; the
development of the world and its phenomena;
and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial
phenomena. The universe described in the poem
operates according to these physical principles,
guided by fortuna, "chance", and not the divine
intervention of the traditional Roman deities.Within
this work, Lucretius makes reference to the
cultural and technological development of
man in his use of available materials, tools
and weapons through prehistory to Lucretius'
own time. He specifies the earliest weapons
as hands, nails and teeth. These were followed
by stones, branches and, once man could kindle
and control it, fire. He then refers to "tough
iron" and copper in that order, but goes on
to say that copper was the primary means of
tilling the soil and the basis of weaponry
until, "by slow degrees", the iron sword became
predominant (it still was in his day) and
"the bronze sickle fell into disrepute" as
iron ploughs were introduced. He had earlier
envisaged a pre-technological, pre-literary
kind of man whose life was lived "in the fashion
of wild beasts roaming at large". From this
beginning, he theorised, there followed the
development in turn of crude huts, use and
kindling of fire, clothing, language, family
and city-states. He believed that smelting
of metal, and perhaps too the firing of pottery,
was discovered by accident: for example, the
result of a forest fire. He does specify,
however, that the use of copper followed the
use of stones and branches and preceded the
use of iron.Lucretius seems to equate copper
with bronze, an alloy of copper and tin that
has much greater resilience than copper; both
copper and bronze were superseded by iron
during his millennium (1000 BC to 1 BC). He
may have considered bronze to be a stronger
variety of copper and not necessarily a wholly
individual material. Lucretius is believed
to be the first to put forward a theory of
the successive usages of first wood and stone,
then copper and bronze, and finally iron.
Although his theory lay dormant for many centuries,
it was revived in the nineteenth century and
he has been credited with originating the
concept of the three-age system which was
formalised from 1834 by C. J. Thomsen.
=== Reception ===
In a letter by Cicero to his brother Quintus
in February 54 BC, Cicero said: "The poems
of Lucretius are as you write: they exhibit
many flashes of genius, and yet show great
mastership." In the work of another author
in late Republican Rome, Virgil writes in
the second book of his Georgics, apparently
referring to Lucretius, "Happy is he who has
discovered the causes of things and has cast
beneath his feet all fears, unavoidable fate,
and the din of the devouring Underworld."
The use of inane is often overlooked, but
it contributes depths to the work that reach
far beyond not only De Rerum Natura, but into
the rest of Roman philosophy as well.
== Natural philosophy ==
An early thinker in what grew to become the
study of evolution, Lucretius believed nature
experiments endlessly across the eons, and
the organisms that adapt best to their environment
have the best chance of surviving. Living
organisms survived because of their strength,
speed, or intellect. In contrast to modern
thought on the subject, he did not believe
that new species evolved from previously existing
ones and denied that modern animals, which
dwell on land, derived from marine ancestors.
Lucretius challenged the assumption that humans
are necessarily superior to animals, noting
that mammalian mothers in the wild recognize
and nurture their offspring as do human mothers.
== See also ==
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, a
modern historiography by Stephen Greenblatt
List of English translations of De rerum natura
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Bailey, C. (1947). "Prolegomena". Lucretius's
De rerum natura.
Barnes, Harry Elmer (1937). An Intellectual
and Cultural History of the Western World,
Volume One. Dover Publications. OCLC 390382.
Cicero. "Letters to his brother Quintus".
tr. Evelyn Shuckburgh. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
Costa, C. D. N. (1984). "Introduction". Lucretius:
De Rerum Natura V. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-814457-1.
Dalzell, A. (1982). "Lucretius". The Cambridge
History of Classical Literature. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Gale, M.R. (2007). Oxford Readings in Classical
Studies: Lucretius. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926034-8.
Greenblatt, Stephen (2009). The Swerve. New
York: WW. Norton and Company.
Horsfall, N. (2000). "A Companion to the Study
of Virgil". ISBN 978-90-04-11951-2. Retrieved
16 May 2012.
Kenney, E. J. (1971). "Introduction". Lucretius:
De rerum natura. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-29177-4.
Melville, Ronald; Fowler, Don and Peta, eds.
(2008) [1999]. Lucretius: On the Nature of
the Universe. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-162327-1.
Reale, G.; Catan, J. (1980). A History of
Ancient Philosophy: The Systems of the Hellenistic
Age. SUNY Press.
Santayana, George (1910). "Three philosophical
poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe". Retrieved
16 May 2012.
Smith, M. (1992). "Introduction". De rerum
natura. Loeb Classical Library.
Smith, M. F. (1975). De rerum natura. Loeb
Classical Library.
Smith, M. F. (2011) [2001]. "Lucretius, On
the Nature of Things". Hackett. ISBN 978-0-87220-587-1.
Retrieved 16 May 2012.
Stearns, J. B. (December 1931). Lucretius
and Memmius. The Classical Weekly. 25. pp.
67–68. doi:10.2307/4389660. JSTOR 4389660.
Virgil. "Georgics". Retrieved 16 May 2012.Editions
Hutchinson, Lucy (b. 1620 d. 1681) De Rerum
Natura.
Lucretius. De rerum natura. (3 vols. Latin
text Books I-VI. Comprehensive commentary
by Cyril Bailey), Oxford University Press
1947.
On the Nature of Things, (1951 prose translation
by R. E. Latham), introduction and notes by
John Godwin, Penguin revised edition 1994,
ISBN 0-14-044610-9
T. Lucreti Cari De rerum natura (1963). Edidit
Joseph Martin (Bibliotheca scriptorvm Graecorvm
et Romanorvm Tevbneriana).
Lucretius (1971). De rerum natura Book III.
(Latin version of Book III only– 37 pp.,
with extensive commentary by E. J. Kenney–
171 pp.), Cambridge University Press corrected
reprint 1984. ISBN 0-521-29177-1
Lucretius (2008 [1997, 1999]), On the Nature
of the Universe (tr. Melville, Robert) (introduction
and notes by Fowler, Don; Fowler, Peta). Oxford
University Press [Oxford World Classics],
ISBN 978-0-19-955514-7
Munro H. A. J. Lucretius: On the Nature of
Things Translated, with an analysis of the
six books. 4th Edn, Routledge (1886). Online
version at the Internet Archive (2011).
Piazzi, Lisa (2006) Lucrezio e i presocratici.
Edizioni della Normale.
Stallings, A.E. (2007) Lucretius: The Nature
of Things. Penguin Classics. Penguin.Commentary
Strauss, Leo. "Notes on Lucretius," in Liberalism:
Ancient and Modern (Chicago, 1968), pp. 76–139.
Erler M. "Lukrez," in H. Flashar (ed.), Die
Philosophie der Antike. Bd. 4. Die hellenistische
Philosophie (Basel, 1994), 381–490.
Esolen, Anthony M. Lucretius On the Nature
of Things (Baltimore, 1995).
Deufert, Marcus. Pseudo-Lukrezisches im Lukrez
(Berlin-New York, 1996).
Melville, Ronald. Lucretius: On the Nature
of the Universe (Oxford, 1997).
Sedley D. Lucretius and the Transformation
of Greek Wisdom (Cambridge, 1998).
Fowler, Don. Lucretius on Atomic Motion: A
Commentary on De rerum natura 2. 1–332 (Oxford,
Oxford UP, 2002).
Campbell, Gordon. Lucretius on Creation and
Evolution: A Commentary on De rerum natura
Book Five, Lines 772–1104 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003).
Rumpf L. Naturerkenntnis und Naturerfahrung.
Zur Reflexion epikureischer Theorie bei Lukrez
(Munich: C.H. Beck, 2003) (Zetemata, 116).
Sedley, David N. Lucretius and the Transformation
of Greek Wisdom (Cambridge, CUP, 2003).
Godwin, John. Lucretius (London: Bristol Classical
Press, 2004) ("Ancient in Action" Series).
Gale Monica R. (ed.), Oxford Readings in Classical
Studies: Lucretius (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007).
Garani, Myrto. Empedocles Redivivus: poetry
and analogy in Lucretius. Studies in classics
(London; New York: Routledge, 2007).
Marković, Daniel. The Rhetoric of Explanation
in Lucretius’ De rerum natura (Leiden, Brill,
2008) (Mnemosyne, Supplements, 294).
Beretta, Marco. Francesco Citti (edd), Lucrezio,
la natura e la scienza (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki,
2008) (Biblioteca di Nuncius / Istituto e
Museo distoria della scienza, Firenze; 66).
DeMay, Philip. Lucretius: Poet and Epicurean
(Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2009) (Greece & Rome: texts and contexts.
== External links ==
"Lucretius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17
(11th ed.). 1911.
Works by Lucretius at Project Gutenberg
On The Nature Of Things
Works by or about Lucretius at Internet Archive
Works by Lucretius at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Works by Lucretius at Perseus Project
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
by David Simpson
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
Lucretius's works: text, concordances and
frequency list
Bibliography De rerum natura Book III
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections,
University of Oklahoma Libraries High-resolution
images of works by Lucretius in .jpg and .tiff
format.
Lucretius: De rerum natura (1475–1494),
digitised codex at Somni
Titi Lucretii Cari De rerum natura libri sex,
published in Paris 1563, later owned and annotated
by Montaigne, fully digitised in Cambridge
Digital Library
