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18 pages match ‘Lucretius’.

1. Epicurus and Lucretius

   Lucretius · Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet who lived in the middle of the first century BCE. Almost nothing reliable is known about his life …

   Epicureanism · people and books Epicurus and Lucretius The founder who wrote hundreds of books that mostly vanished, and the Roman poet who put his ideas into verse.

   Notes · … the traditional account allows. Not every scholar agrees. Donatus, Life of Virgil , and Jerome, Chronicle (the late sources for Lucretius's dates). David Sedley, 'Lucretius', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013). Sedley discusses the repetitions and th …

2. Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, Book III

   What Lucretius adds to Epicurus · … that the soul is a body of very fine particles that scatters at death, though he states this briefly in the Letter to Herodotus. Lucretius supplies the long proof that the soul is mortal, and much of the imagery. Several of the best-known moves in Book III ar …

   The library Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, Book III Lucretius argues that the mind is made of atoms and dies with the body, and that the …

   Notes · Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius, On the Nature of Things , trans. William Ellery Leonard (E. P. Du …

3. Lucretius: selected passages

   The library Lucretius: selected passages Seven short passages from the poem outside Book III: the opening hymn, the attack on religious fear, …

   The passages at a glance · … look it in the face. Iphigenia at Aulis I. 80–101 A father sacrifices his daughter so the Greek fleet can sail. Religion, says Lucretius, can lead to this. The darkness of the mind I. 146–150 Fear is cleared by understanding nature, not by daylight. The vie …

   Notes · Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius, On the Nature of Things , trans. William Ellery Leonard (E. P. Du …

4. Lucretius

   Epicureanism · people Lucretius first century BCE · Poet of On the Nature of Things The Roman poet who set Epicurus’s physics and his view of death in L …

   Notes · Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Donatus, Life of Virgil , and Jerome, Chronicle (the late sources for Lucret …

   On this site · Lucretius, Book III, with a reading guide Death and the gods Epicurus and Lucretius See also: Epicurus , Poggio Bracciolini . All …

5. Epicurus and the Stoics

   Notes · … University Press, 1993). Diogenes Laertius, 10.143. Diogenes Laertius, Book VII, 7.39–7.41. Diogenes Laertius, 10.41–10.45. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), 5.195–5.234. Diogenes Laertius, Book VII, 7.137–7.143. Dirk Baltzly, 'Stoici …

   Fate and what is up to us · … and that it would be better to follow the myths about the gods than to become a slave to the fate of the natural philosophers. Lucretius gives the physical reason: atoms sometimes swerve a little, so the future is not fixed from the start. The swerve does n …

   What the world is like · … of bodies and void, that it is unlimited, and that there are countless worlds, ours among them. The world was not made for us. Lucretius says that if he knew nothing about atoms, he would still doubt that a divine power made the world, because it has so man …

6. Changelog and corrections

   … in the English (‘as peace’ in saying 79) was left as supplied and noted. Update 57 · 11 November 2026 Two library additions. Lucretius: selected passages gives seven short passages from Books I, II and V in Leonard’s 1916 verse translation (the hymn to Ve …

7. Death and the gods

   Notes · … (Loeb Classical Library, 1925), 10.124–5 and PD 2 (10.139). Diogenes Laertius, 10.63–7. The Letter to Herodotus on the soul. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), 3.417–829. Lucretius's proofs that the mind and soul are mortal. Diogenes La …

   The symmetry argument · Lucretius adds a second argument in Book III of On the Nature of Things . Before you were born there was an endless stretch of tim …

   Try it · … feel overwhelming or sad, speak to someone you trust or a health professional. Read the Letter to Menoeceus passage on death, or Lucretius, Book III , from line 830. If you like, sit quietly and think of the time before your birth. Notice how it feels. Now th …

8. Epicurean and Stoic

   Notes · … 5 (10.140). Diogenes Laertius, Book VII, 7.127. Diogenes Laertius, 10.38–44 and 10.73–4. Diogenes Laertius, Book VII, 7.134–9. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), 2.216–93. Cicero, On Fate ( De fato ), 39–43. Diogenes Laertius, PD 1 (10.13 …

   Side by side · … A single rational order, often called logos or providence, that runs through everything. Fate and choice Rejects strict fate. Lucretius says atoms occasionally swerve, leaving room for free action. Everything is caused. Freedom means giving the right assen …

9. From Athens to Herculaneum: a timeline

   The timeline · … month. , The Twentieth Rome and the Greek-speaking world February 54 BCE A letter from Cicero to his brother Quintus shows that Lucretius’s poem On the Nature of Things was already being read in Rome. Lucretius’s own dates are uncertain; the traditional date …

   Notes · … Cicero, Letters to his brother Quintus ( Ad Quintum fratrem ) Letter 2.9 (February 54 BCE) is the earliest mention of Lucretius's poem. Modern works cited Karl Wotke, 'Epikurische Spruchsammlung', Wiener Studien 10 (1888) The article that published …

10. Epicureanism

    Where to read · One way in is the Letter to Menoeceus, which is about two pages, followed by Lucretius, Book III on death , and the Principal Doctrines. Any recent translation of Epicurus' surviving works will do. Read the …

    Notes · … three letters, then the Principal Doctrines. Karl Wotke, 'Epikurische Spruchsammlung', Wiener Studien 10 (1888). David Sedley, 'Lucretius', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013). Diogenes Laertius, 10.128–9. Diogenes Laertius, 10.136. A. A. Long and D. …

    The core ideas · … and a second collection, the Vatican Sayings, found in a Vatican manuscript in 1888. The Latin poem On the Nature of Things by Lucretius is the fullest surviving account of his thought. Ataraxia Freedom from mental disturbance. The main goal. Aponia Absence …

11. Epicureanism today

    Start a reading group · … This order suits a first-time group: The Letter to Menoeceus, about two pages. The Principal Doctrines, in two sittings. Lucretius, Book III, on death. Lucretius, Book I, on atoms and void. Diogenes of Oenoanda, the wall inscription, in extracts ( abo …

    A short history of revivals · … centuries in the ancient world and then faded as Christianity grew. Its main texts were lost or neglected. The rediscovery of Lucretius' poem in 1417 brought the school back into European discussion, and in the seventeenth century the French philosopher Pi …

12. People

    Epicureanism · Epicurus 341–270 BCE Founder of the Garden. Lucretius first century BCE Poet of On the Nature of Things . Philodemus of Gadara c. 110 – c. 30 BCE Epicurean philosopher and po …

13. Epicurus

    On this site · Epicurus and Lucretius The three letters Letter to Menoeceus The Principal Doctrines See also: Lucretius , Philodemus of Gadara . All people

    What to be careful about · … cannot check. The dates are the traditional ones. Much of what is said about his thought comes second hand, from admirers like Lucretius and critics like Cicero and Plutarch.

14. Poggio Bracciolini

    Epicureanism · people Poggio Bracciolini 1380–1459 · Finder of the Lucretius manuscript A Florentine humanist and papal secretary who searched monastery libraries for lost Latin books, and found Lu …

    On this site · Epicurus and Lucretius From Athens to Herculaneum See also: Lucretius , Pierre Gassendi . All people

    Notes · … Bracciolini'. Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (W. W. Norton, 2011). The exact monastery for the Lucretius find is uncertain; Fulda is often suggested. Britannica, 'Poggio Bracciolini'. Modern works cited Stephen Greenblatt, Th …

15. Glossary

    Swerve · Lucretius' word for the small, unpredictable deviation of atoms, which he uses to make room for free action. It is reported by Luc …

16. Reading paths

    … Epicureanism today 5 min Common misunderstandings, and how to try it with friends. A longer way in several evenings Epicurus and Lucretius 9 min The man, the community he built and the poet who carried his ideas to Rome. The three letters: a reading guide 8 m …

17. Epicurus' three letters: a reading guide

    Where to read them · … and he softened some passages. A modern translation reads more easily; the translations in the reading list on the Epicurus and Lucretius page are the ones I would reach for.

18. Herculaneum and the Villa of the Papyri

    The library · … name the man, and the identification with Philodemus is a later scholars’ inference. Philodemus was roughly a contemporary of Lucretius, whose poem you can read here in Book III . Between them they show Epicureanism being written about, in Greek and in Lat …