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Poetry and language

Lucretius

Lucretii

Lucretius is the Latin poet whose praise of Empedocles at A 21 is completed by the critical turn printed in Appendix I. The genitive Lucretii appears in Cicero’s discussion of his poems at A 27.

From the book

Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordLucretius is the Latin poet whose praise of Empedocles at A 21 is completed by the critical turn printed in Appendix I. The genitive Lucretii appears in Cicero’s discussion of his poems at A 27.
  • In this workThe two locations of Lucretius’ own verse should be read together.
  • In this editionThe source’s claims about the warmth, historical reach and uniqueness of this praise are editorial assessments.
  • A place to readMoves from the four constituents through the Sicilian landscape to the praise of Empedocles’ divine breast and songs.

Meaning

Lucretius is the Latin poet whose praise of Empedocles at A 21 is completed by the critical turn printed in Appendix I. The genitive Lucretii appears in Cicero’s discussion of his poems at A 27. His poetic images and Latin renderings belong to this reception, not to a recovered Greek text of Empedocles.

Use in the book

The two locations of Lucretius’ own verse should be read together. At A 21 the four constituents appear as fire, earth, breath and rain; the description then moves through the Sicilian landscape to a claim that its greatest marvel is the man himself. Etna and Charybdis provide the scale of comparison, while the divine breast and extraordinary songs intensify the praise. The appendix does not withdraw that praise when it announces failure over first principles. Instead, its language of an oracle from the heart makes intellectual authority and doctrinal criticism coexist. This is not a neutral summary of Empedocles and not a blanket endorsement of his physics. It is a later poet’s presentation of a predecessor as remarkable even where an explanation goes wrong. A 27 adds another level of reception: Cicero evaluates Lucretius and jokes about the difficulty of Sallustius’ Empedoclea. The works must remain distinct. Neither the title of the latter nor its comparison with Lucretius establishes that it preserves a Latin translation of Empedocles’ surviving poems.

Places to read

  1. A 21 (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things. Moves from the four constituents through the Sicilian landscape to the praise of Empedocles’ divine breast and songs.
  2. Appendix I Lucretius (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things I 734–741. Combines the heart-oracle comparison with the claim that the admired thinkers fell over the first principles of things.
  3. A 27 (reception)Cicero, Ad Quintum fratrem II 9,3. Names Lucretius’ poems separately from Sallustius’ Empedoclea and gives a literary judgment rather than Empedoclean doctrine.

Translation in this edition

The source’s claims about the warmth, historical reach and uniqueness of this praise are editorial assessments. The printed passages support a specific conjunction of admiration and criticism; they do not by themselves establish a readership statistic, a direct line of influence on every later reader, or a comparative ranking of all ancient witnesses.