This article is about the Roman poet and philosopher. For other people named Lucretius, see Lucretia gens. For the impact crater on the far side of the Moon, see Lucretius (crater).
Titus Lucretius Carus
Lucretius pointing to the casus, the downward movement of the atoms. From the frontispiece to Of the Nature of Things, 1682.
Born
c. 99 BC
Died
c. 55 BC (aged around 44)
Era
Hellenistic philosophy
School
Epicureanism Atomism Materialism
Main interests
Ethics, metaphysics, atomic theory[1]
Titus Lucretius Carus (/ˈtaɪtəsluːˈkriːʃəs/TY-təs loo-KREE-shəs, Latin:[ˈtitusluˈkreːti.usˈkaːrus]; c. 99 – 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, 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 client of Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated.[2]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.[3] The work was almost lost during the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany[4] by Poggio Bracciolini and it played an important role both in the development of atomism (Lucretius was an important influence on Pierre Gassendi)[5] and the efforts of various figures of the Enlightenment era to construct a new Christian humanism.
^Cite error: The named reference DRNV1200 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Melville & Fowler (2008), p. xii.
^Reckford, K. J. Some studies in Horace's odes on love
^Greenblatt (2009), p. 44.
^Fisher, Saul (2009). "Pierre Gassendi". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
when Lucretius died (discussed below), then it may be concluded he was born in 99 or 98 BC. Less specific estimates place the birth of Lucretius in the...
that Lucretius goes on to argue that the gods are removed from human life, many have thus seen this opening to be contradictory: how can Lucretius pray...
classical Latin. In the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the phrase is attributed to Lucretius in his De rerum natura where he used the term as an epithet to describe...
Decimus Lucretius Valens, mentioned in a graffito from Pompeii. Titus Lucretius Tricipitinus, father of the consuls of 509 and 508 BC. Spurius Lucretius T....
Charaxes lucretius, the violet-washed charaxes or common red charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Ch. lucretius Cr. male. Wings above black...
Hostus Lucretius Tricipitinus was a consul of the Roman republic in 429 BC. Lucretius belonged to the ancient patrician Lucretia gens whose ancestors had...
poet Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC), passionately assailed popular religion in his philosophical poem On the Nature of Things. In this poem, Lucretius declares...
Titus Lucretius Tricipitinus was a politician and military leader in the early days of the Roman Republic. Twice, in the years 508 and 504 BC, he was...
to replace Brutus, and Lucretius was chosen as suffect consul in the same year, 509 BC. However, being of advanced age, Lucretius died a few days afterwards...
Lucius Lucretius Trio was a Roman moneyer, who minted two denarii in c. 76 BCE. His coin showing the laureate head of Neptune is in the collections of...
Fragments 1-19". Lexundria.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 1.148–156 Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 1.159–173 Shakespeare, William (1603–1606)...
Gnaeus Lucretius Trio was a Roman moneyer, who minted denarii in Rome c. 136 BC. He may be an ancestor of Lucius Lucretius Trio. One of his denarii shows...
we do not have his filiation, the name of Lucretius' father is unknown, but he may have been Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, who was consular tribune in...
son of a Titus Lucretius, and grandson of Titus Lucretius Tricipitinus, consul in 508 and 504 BC. His complete name was Lucius Lucretius T.f. T.n. Tricipitinus...
Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, and Gorgias. Roman philosophers include Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca the Younger, Musonius Rufus, Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius...
derived from this town. Collatinus married Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus. According to legend, while Collatinus was away from home...
The epic poem De rerum natura (Latin for "On the Nature of Things") by Lucretius presents the core arguments and theories of Epicureanism in one unified...
Quintus Lucretius Afella was a Roman general who served under the command of Lucius Cornelius Sulla during Sulla's second march on Rome. A loyal legate...
Quintus Lucretius Vespillo was a Roman senator and consul, whose career commenced during the late Roman Republic and concluded in the reign of emperor...
Roman Epicurean poet Lucretius opened his didactic poem De rerum natura by addressing Venus as a veritable mother of nature. Lucretius used Venus as "a personified...
Republic and Roman Empire. Important early Latin-language writers include Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca the Younger. Greek was a popular language for writing...
including the writings of Aristophanes, Aristotle, Grattius, Horace, Lucan, Lucretius, Martial, Nemesianus, Oppian of Apamea, Plautus, Seneca, Statius, Ovid...