On the Nature of Things

About this book

In six books of Latin verse, the Roman poet Lucretius sets out the philosophy of Epicurus: everything in the universe, including the human soul, is made of tiny, indivisible atoms moving through empty space; the world was not made by the gods and is not governed by them; and death is simply the end of sensation, so there is nothing in it to fear. He uses this vision to explain thunder, magnets, disease and the origins of life and civilisation, and ends with a terrible description of the plague of Athens.

Context and significance

Almost nothing is known of Lucretius (about 99–55 BC). His poem was nearly lost until an Italian book hunter, Poggio Bracciolini, found a manuscript in a German monastery in 1417, and its rediscovery influenced the thinkers of the Renaissance and the scientific revolution. Compare the Stoic Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.

About the author