On The Nature Of Things

We know surprisingly little about Lucretius, the author of this work. His full name was Titus Lucretius Carus, and he was likely born at the beginning of the 1st century BC (some scholars suggest 99 BC). Though we can’t say with certainty whether he was aristocratic, his family must have had enough money to give him a good education. He shows a mastery of both Latin and Greek literature, and of the rhetorical devices commonly used by politicians and lawyers. At some point in his life, he became a devotee of Epicureanism.

We can’t even say where Lucretius lived, though there are hints in this work that he was familiar with the city of Rome; he specifically references the Campus Martius, a military training ground just outside the city. Lucretius’ lengthy descriptions of the Italian countryside show that he must have been familiar with rural life as well, perhaps owning a villa in the country.

Lucretius lived at a pivotal time in Roman history, when the state was racked with civil war, Julius Caesar was rising to power, and the statesman Cicero was trying to save the Republic. Though many important figures from this time followed Epicurean principles, there is no indication that Lucretius had any personal involvement with Roman public matters or the major political players of his time. He died in roughly 55 BC; by the following year, Cicero had read On the Nature of Things, which was left incomplete and published posthumously.