Lucretius: Difference between revisions

'''Titus Lucretius Carus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|aɪ|t|ə|s|_|l|uː|ˈ|k|r|iː|ʃ|ə|s}} {{respell|TY|təs|_|loo|KREE|shəs}}, {{IPA|la|ˈtitus luˈkreːti.us ˈkaːrus|lang}}; {{circa|99}} – {{circa|55 BC}}) was a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Roman literature|poet]] and [[Ancient Roman philosophy|philosopher]]. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''[[De rerum natura]]'', a [[didactic]] work about the [[tenets]] and philosophy of [[Epicureanism]], which usually is translated into English as ''On the Nature of Things''—and somewhat less often as ''On the Nature of the Universe''.

Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certainty is that he was either a friend or [[Patronage in ancient Rome|client]] of [[Gaius Memmius (praetor 58 BC)|Gaius Memmius]], to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated.{{sfnp | Melville | Fowler | 2008 | p=xii }} ''De rerum natura'' was a considerable influence on the [[Augustan poetry|Augustan poets]], particularly [[Virgil]] (in his ''[[Aeneid]]'' and ''[[Georgics]]'', and to a lesser extent on the ''[[Eclogues]]'') and [[Horace]].<ref>Reckford, K. J. ''Some studies in Horace's odes[[ode]]s on love''</ref> The work was almost lost during the [[Middle Ages]], but was rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany{{sfnp|Greenblatt|2009|p=44 }} by [[Poggio Bracciolini]] and it played an important role both in the development of [[atomism]] (Lucretius was an important influence on [[Pierre Gassendi]])<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Pierre Gassendi|last=Fisher|first=Saul|year=2009|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2009/entries/gassendi/}}</ref> and the efforts of various figures of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment era]] to construct a new [[Christian humanism]].

Virtually nothing is known about the life of Lucretius, and there is insufficient basis for a confident assertion of the dates of Lucretius's birth or death in other sources. Another, yet briefer, note is found in the ''[[Chronicon (Jerome)|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."<ref name=chronicon>[[Jerome]], ''[[Chronicon (Jerome)|Chronicon]]''.</ref> If Jerome is accurate about Lucretius's age (43) when Lucretius died (discussed below), then it may be concluded he was born in 99 or 98 BC.{{sfnp | Bailey | 1947 | pp=1–3}}{{sfnp | Smith | 1992 | pp=x–xi }} Less specific estimates place the birth of Lucretius in the 90s BC and his death in the 50s BC,{{sfnp | Kenney | 1971 | p=6 }}{{sfnp | Costa | 1984 | p=ix }} in agreement with the poem's many allusions[[allusion]]s to the tumultuous state of political affairs in [[Rome]] and its [[Roman civil wars|civil strife]].

Lucretius probably was a member of the [[aristocratic]] ''[[Lucretia gens|gens Lucretia]]'', and his work shows an intimate knowledge of the luxurious lifestyle in Rome.{{sfnp | Melville | Fowler | 2008 | loc=Foreword }} Lucretius's 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.{{sfnp | Melville | Fowler | 2008 | loc=Foreword }}

A brief biographical note is found in [[Aelius Donatus]]'s ''Life of [[Virgil]]'', which seems to be derived from an earlier work by [[Suetonius]].{{sfnp | Horsfall | 2000 | p=3 }} 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 [[Roman consul|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 [[fl.|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 [[Marcus Licinius Crassus|Crassus]], stood together as consuls again in 55, not 53.

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 [[cosmology]]. Lucretius was the first writer known to introduce Roman readers to Epicurean philosophy.{{sfnp | Gale | 2007 | p=35 }} The poem, written in some 7,400 [[dactylic hexameter]]s, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through richly poetic language and metaphors[[metaphor]]s. 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 [[Religion in ancient Rome|traditional Roman deities]]<ref>In particular, ''De rerum natura'' 5.107 (''fortuna gubernans'', "guiding chance" or "fortune at the helm"): see Monica R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994, 1996 reprint), pp. 213, 223–224 [https://books.google.com/books?id=gf8k02Iud74C&q=%22there+is+no+divine+providence%22 online] and ''Lucretius'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 238 [https://books.google.com/books?id=mHadLr3QVUMC&dq=%22the+necessity+of+its+process+through+its+physics%22&pg=PA238 online.]</ref> and the religious explanations of the natural world.

Within this work, Lucretius makes reference to the cultural and technological development of humans in his use of available materials, tools, and weapons through prehistory to Lucretius's own time. He specifies the earliest weapons as hands, nails, and teeth. These were followed by stones, branches, and fire (once humans could kindle and control it). 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.<ref name=DRNV1200>{{cite book |last=Lucretius |author-link=Lucretius |title=De rerum natura, Book V, around Line 1200 ff. }}</ref> He had earlier envisaged a pre-technological, pre-literary kind of human whose life was lived "in the fashion of wild beasts roaming at large".<ref name=DRNV940>{{cite book |last=Lucretius |author-link=Lucretius |title=De rerum natura, Book V, around line 940 ff. }}</ref> From this beginning, he theorised, there followed the development in turn of crude huts, use and kindling of fire, clothing, language, family, and [[city-statesstate]]s. 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.<ref name=DRNV940/>

In a letter by [[Cicero]] to his brother [[Quintus Tullius Cicero|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."{{sfnp | Cicero | loc=2.9 }} In the work of another author in late Republican Rome, [[Virgil]] writes in the second book of his ''Georgics'', apparently referring to Lucretius,{{sfnp | Smith | 1975 | loc = intro }} "Happy is he who has discovered the causes of things and has cast beneath his feet{{efn|name=subiecit pedibus}} all fears, unavoidable fate, and the din of the devouring Underworld."{{sfnp | Virgil | loc=2.490 }}

* {{cite book |last=Horsfall |first=N. |year=2000 |title=A Companion to the Study of Virgil |publisher=BRILL |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsxUp4Cy3q8C |access-date=16 May 2012 |isbn=978-90-04-11951-2 }}