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LUCRETIUS

The Ciceronian period—Lucretius, 99(?)-55(?) BC—Philosophy at Rome—The poem of Lucretius—Its purpose, contents, and style.

It was in the dictatorship of Sulla, 81 BC, that Cicero made his first appearance as an orator, and almost from that time until his death, in 43 BC, he was the most prominent orator and man of letters in Rome. The age of Cicero a time of unrest. It is but right that in the history of literature this period of nearly forty years is called the age of Cicero. In political and external matters this was a time of great unrest. Sulla’s dictatorship, which seemed to put an end to strife, served only to strengthen the power of the senate, not to diminish its abuses; the increase of the slave population of Italy still continued to drive the freeborn farmers to Rome to swell the number of the city rabble; the slaves themselves broke out into open war; the provinces were discontented on account of the extortions of their governors; the Cilician pirates became so powerful that their suppression was a matter of some difficulty; Mithridates aroused a war in the east, and was overcome only by great exertion; while in Rome itself the conspiracy of Catiline and the struggle between Pompey and Cæsar clearly foreshadowed the end of the republic.

This period was at the same time one of great material prosperity at Rome. In spite of disturbing influences, wealth increased, interest in art and literature was wide-spread, and there was, alongside of much vulgar extravagance and display, a steady growth in culture and refinement. Wealth and culture. Progress of literature. By the beginning of this period the Latin language had become a proper medium of expression in prose and verse, though its natural qualities of rigidity and precision made it always better adapted to the needs of the commander, orator, jurist, and historian than to the lighter and more varied uses of the poet. Among the poets of the time, some followed in the footsteps of Ennius, while others imitated the poems of the Alexandrian Greeks, characterized by mythological learning, elegance of execution, and emptiness of contents. Of this latter school Catullus was the only one who rose to greatness, breathing into his verse the fire of poetic genius, while Lucretius stands out as the one great and commanding figure among the poets who continued the technical traditions of Ennius.

Of the life of Lucretius little is known. Life of Lucretius. Jerome, under the year 95 BC, says: “Titus Lucretius, the poet, was born, who afterwards was made insane by a love potion, and, when he had in the intervals of his madness written several books, which Cicero corrected, killed himself by his own hand in the forty-fourth year of his age.”18 Donatus, in his Life of Virgil,19 says that Lucretius died on the day when Virgil was fifteen years old, i.e., October 15, 55 BC This does not agree with the statement of Jerome. Cicero, in a letter written in February, 54 BC,20 mentions the poems of Lucretius, but says nothing about correcting or editing them. This is the only contemporary reference to Lucretius or his work. Now the great poem of Lucretius was evidently never entirely finished by its author, who was therefore probably dead when Cicero wrote this letter. The date (55 BC) for his death is thus corroborated. The date of his birth must remain uncertain, but it was probably not far from 99 BC Jerome’s statement that Lucretius was insane and committed suicide is not in itself improbable. His work shows him to have been a man of passionate and intense feelings, and gives some ground for the belief that in the course of his life he was subjected to great emotional strain. Of his friends and his daily life we know nothing. His poem is dedicated to Memmius, who is generally supposed to be the Gaius Memmius who was proprætor in Bithynia in 57 BC

The only work of Lucretius is a didactic poem of six books, in hexameter verse, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), in which he expounds the doctrines of Epicurus. Philosophy known to the Romans. The Romans had been for many years acquainted with Greek philosophical teachings, especially with those of the Stoic and Epicurean schools. The Stoic doctrines had been taught by one of the most eminent philosophers of the second century BC, Panætius, the friend of the younger Scipio Africanus, and were clearly congenial to the Roman temperament; for the Stoics taught that virtue is the highest good, that nothing else is worth striving for, and that the ordinary pleasures of life are mere interruptions of the philosopher’s peace. The Epicurean doctrine, that pleasure is the highest good, was popular only with those who wished to devote themselves to selfish and physical enjoyment, for the higher aspects of the doctrines of Epicurus were not understood. As early as 161 BC the senate had passed a vote banishing philosophers and rhetoricians from Rome, and six years later, when three famous philosophers—Diogenes the Stoic, Critolaus the Peripatetic, and Carneades of the Academic school—came to Rome, they aroused so much interest that the senate decided to remove them from the city as soon as possible. Greek philosophy was, then, not a new thing at Rome, but the poem of Lucretius is the first systematic presentation of the Epicurean doctrines.

The purpose of the poem is to free men from superstition and the fear of death by teaching the doctrines of Epicurus. The reason for writing in verse. This is a most serious purpose, and Lucretius is thoroughly in earnest. If he adopts the poetic form, it is in order to make his presentation of the doctrines more attractive, in the hope that it will thus have greater influence. This point of view, and at the same time the poet’s sense of the difficulty of his theme and his power to cope with it, is clearly expressed in the following passage:

Come now, and what remaineth learn and hear

More clearly. Well in my own mind I know

The doctrine is obscure; but mighty hope

Of praise has struck my heart with maddening wand,

And with the blow implanted in my breast

The sweet love of the Muses, filled with which

I wander with fresh mind through pathless tracts

Of the Pierides, untrod before

By any mortal’s foot. ’Tis sweet to go

To fountains new and drink; and sweet it is

To pluck new flow’rs and seek a garland thence

For my own head, whence ne’er before a crown

The Muses twined for any mortal’s brow.

’Tis first because I teach of weighty things

And guide my course to set the spirit free

From superstition’s closely knotted bonds;

And next because concerning matters dark

I write such lucid verses, touching all

With th’ Muses’ grace. Then, too, because it seems

Not without reason; but as when men try

In curing boys to give them bitter herbs,

They touch the edges round about the cups

With yellow liquid of the honey sweet,

That children’s careless age may be deceived

As far as to the lips, and meanwhile drink

The juice of bitter herb, and though deceived

May not be harmed, but rather in such wise

Gain health and strength, so I now, since my theme

Seems gloomy for the most part unto those

To whom ’tis not familiar, and the crowd

Shrinks back from it, have wished to treat for thee

My theme with sweetly speaking poetry’s verse

And touch it with the Muses’ honey sweet.21

The arrangement of the poem is as follows: Book i sets forth the atomic theory, invented by Democritus and held by Epicurus, that the world consists of atoms—infinitely small particles of matter—and void, i.e., empty space. Arrangement and contents of the poem. The theories of other Greek philosophers, such as Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras, are refuted. In Book ii it is explained how the atoms combine to form the various things in the world, because as they fall through space they depart from a straight line and come in contact with each other. It is also shown that the atoms, although infinite in number, are limited in variety. In Book iii the mind and the soul, or principle of life, are shown to be material and to die when the body dies. Religion and the fear of death, which Lucretius regards as a result of religion, are attacked. Since the soul dies with the body, there is no reason to fear death, because after death we shall feel no lack of anything, shall have no troubles, but shall be as if we had not been born, or as if we lay wrapped in dreamless sleep:

So death to us is naught, concerns us not,

When the soul’s nature is as mortal known.22

Book iv shows how the impressions made upon our senses are caused by minute images detached from the objects about us. We see, for instance, because minute images of the object seen strike our eyes. Dreams and love are also treated in this book. In Book v the origin of the earth, sun, moon, and stars is described, the beginning of life is explained, and the progress of civilization, from the time when men were savages, is depicted. Some passages in this book anticipate in a measure the modern doctrine of the survival of the fittest. Since our world was not created, but came into being naturally by the combinations of atoms, it will also come to an end at some time by the separation of the atoms. In Book vi various striking phenomena are treated, such as thunder, lightning, earthquakes, tempests, and volcanoes. The book ends with a description of the plague at Athens, derived from the account of Thucydides.

Ethical doctrine.Since the main purpose of the poem is to free men from religion and the fear of death by showing that all things, including the soul, came into being and are to pass away without any action of the gods, ethical doctrines are not systematically treated. Lucretius accepts, however, the Epicurean dogma that pleasure is the chief good, “the guide of life,”23 but the pleasure he has in mind is not the common physical pleasure, but the calm repose of the philosopher: