c. 99-c. 55 BC · Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, author of De Rerum Natura
Posthumous or imagined likeness of Lucretius. Source · CC0
About Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99–c. 55 BCE) was a Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher about whose life little is securely known. His De Rerum Natura expounds Epicurus’ atomism in Latin hexameters. The poem aims to free readers from fear of gods and death by explaining nature without providential terror.
On the Nature of the Universe, better known as De Rerum Natura, is a philosophical poem that tries to cure fear by explaining the world. Lucretius addresses Memmius and invokes Venus, then argues that religion has driven human beings to cruelty, as in the sacrifice of Iphigenia.
