Titus Lucretius Carus

Table of Contents

  • c. 99–c. 55 BC (dates disputed). Italy (city of birth unknown). Wrote in Latin. Author of De Rerum Natura ("On the Nature of Things"), the longest and fullest surviving exposition of Epicurean physics, written as a didactic poem addressed to Gaius Memmius.

    c. 99–c. 55 BC (dates disputed). Italy (city of birth unknown). Wrote in Latin. Author of De Rerum Natura ("On the Nature of Things"), the longest and fullest surviving exposition of Epicurean physics, written as a didactic poem addressed to Gaius Memmius.

    1. Key Texts

    Quote from Lucretius 1.62-79

    (1) When human life lay foul to see and groveling upon the ground, crushed by the weight of Religion, who displayed her head from the regions of heaven, lowering over mortals with horrible aspect, (2) a man of Greece dared first to raise his mortal eyes against her, first to make a stand against her; for neither fables of the gods could quell him, nor thunderbolts, nor heaven with menacing roar, but all the more they goaded the eager courage of his soul to long to be the first to burst through the close-set bolts of nature's gates. (3) Therefore his vigorous mind won through, and he passed on far beyond the fiery walls of the world, and in mind and spirit traversed the boundless universe; (4) whence returning victorious he reports to us what can arise, what cannot, and by what principle each thing has its powers limited and its deep-set boundary stone. (5) Therefore Religion is now in turn cast down and trampled underfoot, while we by the victory are exalted high as heaven. (tr. Long & Sedley)

    Quote from Lucretius 3:1-17 (Praise of Epicurus as Liberator)

    O thou who first amid such murky darkness didst raise aloft so bright a light, illuminating the blessings of life, thee I follow, glory of the Greek nation, and in thy deep footprints now I plant my own, not so much eager to rival thee as for love's sake, since the swallow contends not with the swan, nor can kids with staggering legs compete in speed with the strong horse. Thou, father, art discoverer of things; thou suppliest us with a father's precepts; and like bees on flowery meadows we feed from thy pages, feeding on thy golden words, golden and ever worthy of everlasting life. For as soon as thy philosophy, born from thy godlike mind, begins to proclaim the nature of things, the terrors of the mind are dispersed, the walls of the world part asunder, I see things moving on through all the void. (Bailey)

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