Reading Order
On the Nature of Things Reading Order
On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura, ca. 50 BCE) by Lucretius is the only surviving complete ancient Epicurean philosophical text, and also one of the great Latin poems — a six-book didactic epic arguing that the universe is composed entirely of atoms moving through void, that the soul is mortal and dies with the body, that the gods exist but take no interest in human affairs, and that the greatest human good is ataraxia (tranquility, freedom from fear, particularly fear of death). Lucretius wrote in the tradition of Hesiod and Empedocles — philosophy in verse — and his poem is simultaneously a rigorous philosophical argument and a work of literary ambition, with set pieces of lyrical beauty (the proem invoking Venus, the passage on spring, the description of the plague at Athens) that are among the finest in Latin literature. The poem was essentially lost in medieval Europe (only two manuscripts survived) and rediscovered in 1417 by the humanist Poggio Bracciolini in a German monastery — an event that Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve (2011) argues was one of the turning points of the Renaissance. Lucretius's atomic materialism, his rejection of divine providence, his claim that death is nothing to be feared (because after death there is simply nothing), and his account of human civilization as emerging from random atomic collisions rather than divine design all anticipate modern scientific and secular views in ways that were deeply controversial when the poem was rediscovered. Jefferson owned a copy; Marx wrote his doctoral dissertation on ancient atomism; Einstein praised it. Lucretius's central image — the clinamen, the tiny swerve of atoms that introduces freedom into a deterministic universe — gave Greenblatt his title and has fascinated philosophers from Epicurus to contemporary materialism.
Where to start
On the Nature of Things — the A.E. Stallings Penguin Classics translation (2007) is a masterpiece of modern verse translation; the W.H.D. Rouse Loeb Classical Library version has the Latin facing. Start with Books 1–2 (atoms and void) and Book 3 (the soul is mortal).
Complete On the Nature of Things Book List
- 1Buy
On the Nature of Things (trans. A.E. Stallings)
Lucretius·2007·Stallings's verse translation — the finest modern version; brings Lucretius's philosophical verse alive in English. - 2Buy
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Stephen Greenblatt·2011·Greenblatt's Pulitzer Prize-winning account — the story of how Lucretius's poem was rediscovered in 1417 and its influence on the Renaissance and modern thought. - 3Buy
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius·180·Marcus Aurelius's Stoic reflections — the Stoic response to the same questions about death, nature, and the good life that Lucretius addresses from the Epicurean side. - 4Buy
The Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius·524·Boethius's late antique philosophical poem — fortune, fate, and the good; a Christian response to the same questions about providence and necessity that Lucretius asks. - 5Buy
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson·2003·Bryson's popular science survey — the modern scientific worldview that Lucretius anticipated; atoms, the void, and the indifference of the universe. - 6Buy
The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins·1986·Dawkins's argument for unguided natural selection — the modern scientific counterpart to Lucretius's argument that design in nature requires no designer. - 7Buy
Epicurus: The Extant Remains
Epicurus·-300·Epicurus's surviving letters and fragments — the philosophical source that Lucretius is explicating and defending; brief and essential. - 8Buy
The Poem of the Cid
Anonymous·1200·A medieval epic preserved through manuscript survival, as Lucretius was — both texts remind us how fragile classical and medieval literature is.
On the Nature of Things — Frequently Asked Questions
What is On the Nature of Things about?
On the Nature of Things is a six-book Latin philosophical poem in which Lucretius presents and defends the Epicurean atomic theory of the universe. Book 1 argues that all matter is composed of atoms moving through void and that nothing is created from nothing or destroyed into nothing. Book 2 describes the motions and properties of atoms, including the clinamen (the tiny swerve that introduces freedom into the deterministic system). Book 3 argues that the soul is material and mortal, and uses this to argue that death is nothing to be feared (because when we are dead, we are simply absent — there is no 'us' to suffer). Book 4 covers sensation, perception, and the emotions (including love, which Lucretius treats as a dangerous frenzy). Book 5 presents an account of the cosmos and the emergence of human civilization from primitive origins. Book 6 discusses meteorological and geological phenomena and ends with a description of the plague at Athens.
Why is On the Nature of Things important?
On the Nature of Things is important for several overlapping reasons. It is the only complete surviving text of ancient Epicurean philosophy (most of Epicurus's own writings are lost). It is one of the great Latin poems, by any literary measure. Its arguments about atomic materialism, the mortality of the soul, and the absence of divine providence anticipated modern scientific and secular worldviews by almost two millennia. Its rediscovery in 1417 by Poggio Bracciolini is argued by Stephen Greenblatt to have been a decisive event in the emergence of Renaissance humanism. And its central image — the clinamen, the atom's tiny swerve — has been used by philosophers, scientists, and literary theorists (including Harold Bloom) to think about creativity, freedom, and the possibility of novelty in a deterministic universe.
What is the clinamen and why is it famous?
The clinamen (from the Latin clinare, to swerve) is Lucretius's term for the tiny, unpredictable swerve that atoms sometimes make as they fall through the void. In a strictly deterministic atomic universe, atoms falling in parallel lines would never collide, never combine, and no world would ever form. The clinamen introduces a minimal but absolute freedom into the system: atoms swerve, collide, combine, and worlds emerge from their collisions. Philosophically, the clinamen is Epicurus's answer to Democritus's rigid determinism — it opens space for free will in a material universe. Literarily and culturally, the clinamen became one of the most generative images in Western thought: Harold Bloom used it as his central metaphor in The Anxiety of Influence (1973) for the way poets swerve from their predecessors; Louis Althusser built an 'aleatory materialism' around it; physicists have compared it to quantum indeterminacy.
How does Lucretius argue against the fear of death?
Lucretius's argument against the fear of death in Book 3 of the poem is one of the most influential philosophical arguments in Western thought. His core claim is that death is simply the dissolution of the atoms that compose the soul — after death, the soul does not survive in any form, and there is therefore no 'us' to experience death or its aftermath. The argument takes several forms: the symmetry argument (we were not present before our birth and did not suffer for it — death is simply the same non-existence, symmetrically placed at the other end of life); the dissolution argument (the soul is mortal, made of atoms, and disperses at death just as the body does — there is no Underworld, no judgment, no punishment); and the satiety argument (as Epicurus's last letter says: a life fully lived has nothing more to desire — death is not a deprivation but a completion).
What should I read after On the Nature of Things?
After On the Nature of Things, Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve (2011) tells the story of the poem's rediscovery and its influence on the Renaissance — an engaging and important account. For the Epicurean tradition Lucretius represents, Epicurus's surviving letters and the Vatican Sayings are essential. For the Stoic alternative — a different ancient response to the same questions about death and the good life — Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is the most beautiful text. For Lucretius's influence on modern thought, Michel Serres's The Birth of Physics (1977) traces the connection between Lucretius's clinamen and modern chaos theory and fluid dynamics.
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