And although the vision he sets out of the universe is challenging, the way in which he presents it draws the reader in, sweetening the bitterness of philosophy with poetry. As a philosopher, Lucretius is seductive, in a way few philosophers are. One reason that Jerome was so sternly disapproving was because of the particular charm of Lucretius’s writing. Jerome’s scurrilous little tale is supposed to make us to imagine Lucretius as having both taken leave of his senses, and been overwhelmed by an unseemly passion. Because for Jerome, and for many later Christian writers, Lucretius’s decidedly this-worldly, materialistic philosophy of pleasure was pretty much the opposite of all their faith stood for. This story says more about Saint Jerome than about Lucretius himself. Saint Jerome in his study, thinking up mean things to say about Lucretius, while his lion (right) looks on.

And then, when he was done, he committed suicide. In brief moments of lucidity during his madness, Jerome tells us, Lucretius scribbled down his masterwork. According to Jerome, Lucretius drank a love potion that sent him mad. Other than this, we know almost nothing about him.īut where the historical record is silent, Jerome happily steps in to provide some lurid tales of his own.

Lucretius died in his forties, leaving only one work behind: his great poetic treatise called On the Nature of the Universe ( De Rerum Natura). The philosopher-poet was born some time after 100 BCE, a Roman citizen, and he became a follower of the atomism of Democritus and the materialist teachings of Epicurus, who emphasised the role of pleasure in human life. If you were to trust Saint Jerome – and you probably shouldn’t – the philosopher and poet Titus Lucretius Carus, better known simply as Lucretius, met an unfortunate end.

The swerve lucretius