An open library of thought
Understanding nature to free the mind from fear.
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
These notices cover the poem and two ancient testimonies about its author, Cicero’s letter and Jerome’s Chronicle. The Life of Virgil attributed to Donatus, later ancient readers, the manuscripts and modern commentaries are discussed in the biography but not indexed separately; this is a selection, not a complete bibliography.
01written c. −60 / −55
Probably composed in the decade before Cicero mentions it in early 54 BCE, the poem appears unfinished: some passages are repeated, announced discussions are missing and Book 6 breaks off with the plague of Athens. Its text rests on two ninth-century manuscripts.
02−54
The remark belongs to a private correspondence published after Cicero’s death and numbered 2.9 or 2.10 depending on the edition; some editors have emended its transmitted wording. Cicero never names Lucretius in his philosophical dialogues, even where he attacks Epicurean doctrine.
03written c. 380
Jerome translated and continued the chronicle of Eusebius around 380 CE, probably taking his notices on Latin poets from Suetonius. Written more than four centuries after the events by a Christian author, the story is widely treated as legend; manuscripts also differ on the year.