Lucretius Italy (Rome)

We know nothing substantive about Titus Lucretius
Carus. He is known only through his poem De rerum
natura (On the Nature of the Universe), written c. 55 BCE.
The poem is dedicated to one Memmius, probably Gaius
Memmius, who was also associated with the ‘neoteric’
poets Catullus and Cinna.

Writing over four centuries later, the Church Father
Jerome in his Chronicon retails a story, possibly apocryphal,
that Lucretius was driven mad by a love potion and wrote
the De rerum natura during intervals of sanity. This story
probably arose from the quirky and often violent nature
of the poem.

Lucretius is however a sublime poet, and the only
extant epic poet of the Roman Republican era. His
influence can be seen in all later Latin epics, from Virgil
onwards. His poem became a major bone of contention
after its rediscovery by the Renaissance humanist Poggio
in 1417. It inspired both imitations and polemics, the latter
particularly by Christian writers who took exception to
Lucretius’ astringent atheism, such as Cardinal Polignac
in his Anti-Lucretius (1745).

(2020)