Lucretius: De Rerum Natura, Book I (Lines 161–257)

Lucretius

16 Lucretius: De Rerum Natura, Book I (Lines 161–257)

1. Module Introduction: The Endurance of the Poem

The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius stands as a monumental achievement in Western thought, uniquely fusing the rigorous logic of Epicurean atomism with the heights of Latin hexameter. For the modern scholar, the text serves as a vital bridge between ancient speculative philosophy and the foundations of the scientific method. Its significance is perhaps best articulated by two twentieth-century icons: the physicist Albert Einstein and the naturalist David Attenborough.

For Einstein, Lucretius was a kindred spirit who found order in a seemingly chaotic world. He noted that the poem possesses a unique “magic” for the independent observer of history. Central to Einstein’s appreciation was the poet’s unwavering commitment to the “causal connectedness” of the natural world—a worldview where all life, including the soul and mind, is governed by the regular motion of immutable atoms possessing only geometric-mechanical qualities.

Albert Einstein’s Perspective: “For anyone who is not completely submerged in the spirit of our age, who feels instead like a spectator as the world goes past him, especially, from time to time, vis-à-vis the intellectual attitudes of his contemporaries — on him will Lucretius’s poem work its magic… The firm confidence that Lucretius, as a faithful disciple of Democritus and Epicurus, places in the intelligibility, in other words, in the causal connectedness of everything that happens in the world, must make a profound impression.”

The physical transmission of this wisdom is a narrative of survival. David Attenborough identifies the text as a crucial “meme”—a vessel for human experience and wisdom to be handed down outside the biological body. He draws particular attention to the 1515 Aldine edition, a masterpiece of early printing that ensured Lucretius’s survival into the modern era.

David Attenborough’s Perspective: “One of my most precious books is Lucretius. It was published in Venice in 1515 by Aldus Manutius… in a small book in a wonderfully elegant italic script typeface… [Books] are things in which the human experience is embedded and handed down from generation to generation, outside the body. And they are the way in which one generation passes on experience and knowledge and wisdom over generations.”

2. Section I: DE NIHILO NIHIL (Lines 161–230)

In this section, Lucretius presents his first fundamental principle of physics: nothing can be created from nothing. He argues that if things arose without seeds, the order of nature would collapse, and any species could emerge from any environment without regularity or season.

Diels’ Critical Latin Text

English Translation

e mare primum homines, e terra posset oriri squamigerum genus et uolucres erumpere caelo; armenta atque aliae pecudes, genus omne ferarum, incerto partu culta ac deserta tenerent; 165 nec fructus idem arboribus constare solerent, sed mutarentur, ferre omnes omnia possent. quippe, ubi non essent genitalia corpora cuique, qui posset mater rebus consistere certa? ad nunc seminibus quia certis quaeque creantur, 170 inde enascitur adque oras in luminis exit, materies ubi inest cuiusque et corpora prima; adque hac re nequeunt ex omnibus omnia gigni, quod certis in rebus inest secreta facultas. praeterea cur uere rosam, frumenta calore, 175 uites autumno fundi suadente uidemus, si non, certa suo quia tempore semina rerum cum confluxerunt, pate fit quod cumque creatur, dum tempestates adsunt et uiuida tellus tuto res teneras effert in luminis oras? 180 quod si de nilo fierent, subito exorerentur incerto spatio atque alienis partibus anni; quippe ubi nulla forent primordia, quae genitali concilio possent arceri tempore iniquo. nec porro augendis rebus spatio foret usus 185 seminis ad coitum, si e nilo crescere possent: nam fierent iuuenes subito ex infantibus paruis, e terraque exorta repente arbusta salirent; (quorum nihil fieri manifestum est, omnia quando paulatim crescunt, ut par est semine certo) 190 crescentesque genus seruant; ut noscere possis quicque sua de materie grandescere alique. huc accedit uti sine certis imbribus anni laetificos nequeat fetus submittere tellus, nec porro secreta cibo natura animantum 195 propagare genus possit uitamque tueri; ut potius multis communia corpora rebus multa putes esse, ut uerbis elementa uidemus, quam sine principiis ullarn rem existere posse. denique cur homines tantos natura parare 200 non potuit, pedibus qui pontum per uada possent transire et magnos manibus diuellere montis multaque uiuendo uitalia uincere saecla, si non, materies quia rebus reddita certast gignundis, e qua constat quid possit oriri? 205 nihil igitur fieri de nihilo posse fatendumst, semine quando opus est rebus, quo quaeque creatae aeris in teneras possint proferrier auras. postremo quoniam incultis praestare uidemus culta loca et manibus melioris reddere fetus, 210 esse uidelicet in terris primordia rerum, quae nos fecundas uertentes uomere glebas terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus; quod si nulla forent, nostro sine quaeque labore sponte sua multo fieri meliora uideres. 215 Huc accedit, uti quicque in sua Corpora rursum dissoluat natura neque ad nihilum interemat res. nam siquid mortale e cunctis partibus esset, ex oculis res quaeque repente erepta periret: 220 nulla ui foret usus enim, quae partibus eius discidium parere et nexus exsoluere posset. quod nunc, aeterno quia constant semine quaeque, donec uis obiit, quae res diuerberet ictu aut intus penetret per inania dissoluatque 225 nullius exitium patitur natura uideri. praeterea quae cumque uetustate amouet aetas, si penitus peremit consumens materiem omnem, unde animale genus generatim in lumina uitae redducit Venus, aut reductum daedala tellus 230 unde alit atque auget generatim pabula praebens?

First, men could arise from the sea, and from the earth the race of scaly fish, and birds could burst forth from the sky; herds and other cattle, and every kind of wild beast, would occupy both cultivated and desert places with uncertain birth. Nor would the same fruits be constant to the trees, but they would change, and all trees could bear all things. Indeed, since there would be no generative bodies for each thing, how could a certain mother remain for all things? But as it is, because each thing is created from certain seeds, it is born and comes forth into the borders of light from the place where its own matter and first bodies reside. For this reason, all things cannot be born from all things, because there is a hidden power within certain things. Furthermore, why do we see the rose in spring, the corn in the heat, and the vines at the persuasion of autumn, unless it is because the certain seeds of things have flowed together at their own time, and whatever is created is disclosed while the seasons are present and the living earth brings forth tender things safely into the borders of light? But if they were made from nothing, they would suddenly spring up at uncertain intervals and in alien parts of the year; for there would be no primordia which could be restrained from generative union at an unfavorable time. Nor again would there be need of time for the growth of things upon the meeting of the seed, if they could grow from nothing: for youths would suddenly be made from tiny infants, and trees, arising from the earth, would leap up in a moment; but it is manifest that none of these things happen, since all things grow little by little, as is proper, from a certain seed, and in growing they preserve their kind; so that you may know that everything grows and is nourished from its own proper matter. To this is added that without the certain rains of the year the earth cannot put forth her gladdening yields, nor can the nature of living things, if deprived of food, propagate their kind and preserve life; so that you should rather think that many first bodies are common to many things, as we see letters common to words, than that any thing can exist without first principles. Finally, why could nature not produce men so great that they could pass through the sea on foot and tear apart great mountains with their hands and outlast many generations of the living, if not because a certain matter has been assigned for the birth of things, from which it is determined what can arise? Therefore, it must be confessed that nothing can be made from nothing, since things need a seed from which, when created, they may be brought forth into the tender breezes of the air. Lastly, since we see that cultivated places surpass the uncultivated and return better yields to our hands, it is evident that there are in the earth primordia of things, which we, turning the fertile clods with the plow and subduing the soil of the earth, stir into birth; for if there were none, you would see each thing becoming much better of its own accord without our labor. To this is added that nature dissolves each thing back into its own bodies and does not destroy things into nothing. For if anything were mortal in all its parts, each thing would suddenly perish, snatched away from our eyes: for there would be no need of a force to bring about a separation of its parts and loosen their bonds. But as it is, because each thing consists of eternal seed, nature does not suffer the destruction of anything to be seen, until a force comes which shatters it with a blow or penetrates within through the void and dissolves it. Furthermore, whatever things time removes through age, if it utterly destroys them by consuming all their matter, from what source does Venus bring back the race of living things, kind by kind, into the light of life, or once brought back, from what source does the ingenious earth nourish and increase them, providing food kind by kind?

3. DE RERVM IMMORTALITATE (Lines 231–257)

QVARTAM SINE NOMINE ANIMAM

Note: While the draft above discusses the immortality of matter, the philological tradition, including the Diels edition, uses this section to establish the permanence of atoms as the underlying “summa” of the universe.

Diels’ Critical Latin Text

English Translation

unde mare ingenuei fontes externaque longe flumina suppeditant? unde aether sidera pascit? omnia enim debet, mortali corpore quae sunt, infinita aetas consumpse ante acta diesque. 235 quod si in eo spatio atque ante acta aetate fuere e quibus haec rerum consistit summa refecta, inmortali sunt natura praedita certe, haut igitur possunt ad nihilum quaeque reuerti. denique res omnis eadem uis causaque uolgo 240 conficeret, nisi materies aeterna teneret, inter se nexu minus aut magis indupedita: tactus enim leti satis esset causa profecto; quippe, ubi nulla forent aeterno corpore, quorum contextum uis deberet dissoluere quaeque. 245 at nunc, inter se quia nexus principiorum dissimiles constant aeternaque materies est, incolumi remanent res corpore, dum satis acris uis obeat pro textura cuiusque reperta. haud igitur redit ad nihilum res ulla, sed omnes 250 discidio redeunt in corpora materiai. postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether in gremium matris terrai praecipitauit; at nitidae surgunt fruges, ramique uiresunt arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque grauantur. 255 hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum, hinc laetas urbes pueris florere uidemus, frondiferasque nouis auibus canere undique siluas, hinc fessae pecudes pingui per pabula laeta

From what source do the native springs and the rivers from far without supply the sea? From what source does the ether feed the stars? For infinite time past and the days that have gone by ought to have consumed all things that are of mortal body. But if in that space and in the time that has passed there were those things from which this sum of things consists and is refashioned, they are certainly endowed with an immortal nature; therefore, they cannot each return to nothing. Furthermore, the same force and cause would commonly destroy all things, unless eternal matter held them together, being more or less entangled by mutual bonds: for the touch of death would surely be cause enough; since there would be nothing of eternal body whose texture a force would have to dissolve. But as it is, because the bonds of the first principles are dissimilar and their matter is eternal, things remain with their bodies intact until a sufficiently sharp force comes to meet them, according to the texture of each. Therefore, no thing returns to nothing, but all things by dissolution return to the bodies of matter. Lastly, the rains perish when father ether has cast them into the lap of mother earth; but shining crops spring up, and branches grow green upon the trees, the trees themselves grow and are weighed down with fruit. From this, moreover, our race and the race of wild beasts are nourished, from this we see happy cities flower with children, and the leafy woods sing on every side with new birds, from this the weary cattle lay down their bodies in the rich pastures…

4. Critical Apparatus: Testimonia and Codices

The following notes are specific to lines 161–257 of Book I, as established in the Diels critical edition.

TESTIMONIA

Line 186: Mar. Plot. Sacerd., Gr. l. VI 448,10; Mar. Victorin., Gr. l. VI 216,9; Diomed., Gr. l. I 430,2; [Prob.] de ult. syll., Gr. l. IV 263,13; Donat., Gr. l. IV 392,14; Pompeius, Gr. l. V 109,18 (noting the omission of ‘s’ in infantibu paruis).
Line 191: Non. 115,7.
Lines 205–207: Lact. d. ira 10,16.
Line 210: Ecl. Sangall. p. 10.
Line 227: Charis. Gr. l. I 62,13; 117,19.
Line 257: Iun. Philargyr. in Georg. III 124 (Serv. III 1, 287,9 Thilo).

CODICES

161: Et mare Q; et terra GQ1.
166: omnes om. G*.
168: consistere certa O1.
170: enascitur O; nascitur QG2.
172: haec G.
174: Praeterea O; Propterea Q*G.
176: quia L; qui OQ*G.
177: creatur O1.
179: offert G*.
185: nilo O*QG.
191: quicque O*QG; quidque Non.; quaeque O1.
198: principibus Q.
203: quia O; qua Q*G.
230: ingenuei QGO*.
240: nexus OQ*G; nexu Q1.
257: hic Philargyrius; pingui Philargyrius; pinguis OQG1.

5. Technical Commentary: The Diels Edition

Diels (1923)

The Latin text presented in this module is drawn from the seminal edition of Hermann Diels (1848–1922), a titan of classical philology. Diels’ work represents a rigorous effort to reconstruct the Lucretian archetype through a meticulous comparison of the primary Carolingian manuscripts: the Codex Oblongus (O) and the Codex Quadratus (Q), along with the fragmentary Schedae Haunienses (G) and Vindobonenses (V). Diels died in June 1922 before the final volume reached the press; the edition was brought to completion by Johannes Mewaldt in 1923, who served as a professor at Greifswald and later Königsberg.

Einstein’s Endorsement

The philological precision of Diels’ edition earned the specific praise of Albert Einstein. In his foreword to the German translation, Einstein remarked that “Diels’s verses read so naturally that one forgets it is a translation.” For Einstein, Diels was not merely a grammarian but a scholar who captured the “causal connectedness” of the Epicurean universe. This edition remains a foundational resource for university students seeking to engage with the mechanical-atomistic worldview that Lucretius so fiercely defended against the “slavish fear” of superstition.

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