Lucretius c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC

Titus Lucretius Carus was a 1st-century BC Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, known for his sole surviving work, the long Latin poem De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of Things. Composed in six books of dactylic hexameter, the poem expounds Epicurean physics, atomism, the mortality of the soul, the gods' indifference to human affairs, and the path to a tranquil life through correct understanding of the natural world. His passionate naturalism, materialism, and critique of religious fear shaped subsequent thinkers including Montaigne, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the early modern scientific revolution. The rediscovery of his manuscript by Poggio Bracciolini in 1417 was a major moment of the Italian Renaissance. His poetry remains one of the masterpieces of Latin literature.