Excerpt from Lucretius on the Nature of Things: A Philosophical Poem, in Six Books

Of the life of Lucretius but little information has reached us.

Ad nos vix tenuis fam? perlabitur aura.

That he was a Roman by birth, is inferred from the passages in his poem in which he speaks of the Roman world as his country, and of the Roman language as his native tongue.

As to the time of his birth, it is stated by Eusebius in his Chronicon, that he was born in the second year of the hundred and seventy-first Olympiad, or ninety-five years before Christ. At this period, Ennius had been dead about seventy years; Cicero was in his twelfth year; twenty-five years were to elapse before the birth of Virgil, and four before that of Julius C?sar. His style, indeed, would make him seem older, but its antiquated character may be partly affected, in imitation, perhaps, of Ennius, for whom he expresses great veneration.

Concerning his family nothing is known. The name of Lucretius, from the time of Lucretia downwards, occurs frequently in the history of Rome, with the surnames Tricipitinus, Cinna, Ofella, and others, attached to it; but with whom the poet was connected, or from whom descended, it is impossible to discover.

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