Atomic Pioneers ----- From Ancient Greece to the 19th Century

Chapter - 8
LUCRETIUS

Lucretius (llo-kree-shus), whose full name was Titus Lucretius Carus, was a Roman poet and philosopher. He was born in Rome about 95 B.C. and died there about 55 B.C.

Biological Details 

Lucretius came from a good Roman family and was well educated. He is known today chiefly for one work, a very long poem called De Rerum Natura ("On the Nature of Things").

It is said that he committed suicide when he was 44 years old, but this may have been gossips passed along the ages by his enemies. 

Scientific Achievements 

Lucretius was not a scientist or an original thinker. Like many great Romans, his greatness was not in having the kind of originality that the Greek had, but rather in being able to transmit and popularize the originality of the Greeks.

De Rerum Natura was an effective and poetic defense of Epicurean philosophy, particularly of atomism. Lucretius praised Epicurus and showed that he was well-acquainted with the ideas of Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and the other atomists.

He hed that all things were composed of atoms, even immaterial objects, such as mind and soul. He did not deny the existence of God, but even God was made out of atoms. To the very religious, such ideas were impious, and his work was not highly g regarded among religious leaders.

Contribution to Atomic Science

Lucretius' poem preserved the ideas of the atomists, but for more than 1000 years, serious study of atoms was driven underground by religious teachers during the middle age.