Lucretius

Carey Seal (University of California, Davis)

Ed. by Jula Wildberger, The American University of Paris
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

Dates

Born c. -99
Died c. -55
Activity c. -79-c. -55

Places

Born in Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire)
Active in Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire)

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

The Roman poet Titus Lucretius Carus produced a single masterpiece, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), an exposition of Epicurean views about nature and one of the finest and most influential works of Latin literature.

Life

Virtually nothing is known about Lucretius’ life. Aside from whatever we might want to infer from the De rerum natura itself, there are only four pieces of evidence about him that stem or present themselves as stemming from sources other than the poem. One is an entry for the year 94 B.C.E. in a chronology compiled by the fourth- and fifth-century Christian writer Jerome, which states “Titus Lucretius the poet is born, who afterwards, having been driven into …

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5357 words

Citation: Seal, Carey. "Lucretius". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 December 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2814, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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