Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Empedoclean opening
- Chapter 2 Two languages, two worlds
- Chapter 3 Lucretius the fundamentalist
- Chapter 4 Epicurus, On nature
- Chapter 5 Lucretius' plan and its execution
- Chapter 6 The imprint of Theophrastus
- Chapter 7 The transformation of book I
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
- Index of modern scholars
Chapter 3 - Lucretius the fundamentalist
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Empedoclean opening
- Chapter 2 Two languages, two worlds
- Chapter 3 Lucretius the fundamentalist
- Chapter 4 Epicurus, On nature
- Chapter 5 Lucretius' plan and its execution
- Chapter 6 The imprint of Theophrastus
- Chapter 7 The transformation of book I
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
- Index of modern scholars
Summary
PHILOSOPHY IN ITALY
Virtually no facts about Lucretius' life have been determined by modern scholarship, beyond a consensus that it was spent mainly if not entirely in Italy, and that it terminated in the 50s bc. But for a Roman with philosophical leanings those two facts in themselves ought to speak volumes. He could hardly have chosen a better time to be alive. The last fifty years of the Roman Republic were a period of unsurpassed philosophical upheaval in the Graeco-Roman world. And for the first time ever the philosophical centre of gravity was shifting away from Athens, with Italy capturing more than its share of the action. The events of the Mithridatic War (91–86 bc) – in particular, by a curious historical irony, the regime of the Epicurean tyrant Aristion (88–86) – had driven many philosophers out of the city. The Athenian schools were no longer guaranteed the status of international headquarters for their respective movements. And in the resultant diaspora, many philosophers found their way to Italy. Here a ready-made audience awaited them, including plenty of Romans who had already trained at Athens in one or more of the philosophical schools.
The leading gures of the Academy, Philo of Larissa and Antiochus of Ascalon, conducted their well advertised rift over the true nature of their Platonic legacy not in Athens but from bases in Rome and Alexandria respectively. And both became important figures at Rome, where their influence on leading public figures was considerable.
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- Information
- Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom , pp. 62 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998