Ancient · c. 99–55 BC
Who influenced Lucretius?
Influences and legacy
Turned Epicurean physics into the epic De rerum natura — atoms, void, and no fear of gods.
Lucretius was influenced by Epicurus, and went on to influence Michel de Montaigne. That is 2 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Designed by “T. C.” (possibly Thomas Creech, died 1700); drawn and engraved by M. Burghers, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Lucretius?
Lucretius was a Roman poet and philosopher whose only known work, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), sets out the philosophy of Epicurus in verse. Almost nothing is known of his life beyond his tie to Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem is addressed.
The poem shaped the Augustan poets, above all Virgil and Horace. It nearly vanished in the Middle Ages until Poggio Bracciolini found a copy in a German monastery in 1417, after which it fed the revival of atomism, notably through Pierre Gassendi.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Lucretius?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Epicurus 341–270 BC
Who did Lucretius influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Lucretius.
- Michel de Montaigne 1533–1592
The line of teachers behind Lucretius
The longest documented line of influence ending at Lucretius runs 6 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
Two steps away from Lucretius
Indirect influences
- Through Epicurus: Democritus, Aristippus
The second generation
Contemporaries of Lucretius
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Lucretius, with no direct line between them.
- Cicero 106–43 BC
Lucretius by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 12
- Thinkers downstream
- 135
- Wikipedia languages
- 81 — #21 of 54 among ancient philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Questions about Lucretius
- Who influenced Lucretius?
- Epicurus.
- Who did Lucretius influence?
- Michel de Montaigne.
- When did Lucretius live?
- c. 99–55 BC. The map files Lucretius under the ancient world.
- How rare is the Lucretius card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Lucretius in 81 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More ancient philosophers
- Confucius 551–479 BC
- Aristotle 384–322 BC
- Plato c. 428–348 BC
- Socrates c. 470–399 BC
- Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC
- Laozi c. 6th c. BC
- Cicero 106–43 BC
- Thales of Miletus c. 624–546 BC