While Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil have long vied for first place in the classical curriculum, Lucretius' treatment of universal human matters rightfully earns him a place in their company.Ĭatto's annotated text of Lucretius' De rerum natura provides 53 unadapted Latin passages in 1,294 lines (with macrons marked), spanning all 6 books of the epic. 3.1-2, 5.11-12.There are few ancient authors as compelling as Lucretius: scientist, poet, philosopher, passionate observer of nature. cFor the darkness of ignorance from which Epicurus rescued mankind, cf.1.19.62 (of the wise man as represented by Epicurus): cum stultorum vitam cum sua comparat, magna afficitur voluptate. O pitiable minds of men, O blind intelligences! In what gloom of life, c in how great perils is passed all your poor span of time! not to see that all nature barks for is this, that pain be removed away out of the body, and that the mind, kept away from care and fear, enjoy a feeling of delight!

But nothing is more delightful than to possess lofty sanctuaries serene, well fortified by the teachings of the wise, whence you may look down upon others and behold them all astray, a wandering abroad and seeking the path of life:-the strife of wits, the fight for precedence, all labouring night and day with surpassing toil to mount upon the pinnacle of riches b and to lay hold on power. Pleasant is it also to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in the peril. Trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another’s great tribulation: not because any man’s troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive what ills you are free from yourself is pleasant. Pleasant it is, when on the great sea the winds The serene sanctuaries of philosophy.

5-6 transposed by Avancius and all recent editors except Büchner, who, like Merrill and Bailey, overlooks the fact that the transposition was rejected by ed.

o miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! 15 qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest! nonne videre nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utqui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mensque fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?

sed nil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere edita doctrina sapientum templa serena, despicere unde queas alios passimque videre 10 errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae, certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate, noctes atque dies niti praestante labore ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri. 6 5 suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri 5 per campos instructa tua sine parte pericli. Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas, sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.

Lucretius de rerum natura