Editing Lucretius (section)

== ''De rerum natura'' ==
{{main article|De rerum natura}}

His poem ''De rerum natura'' (usually translated as "On the Nature of Things" or "On the Nature of the Universe") transmits the ideas of [[Epicureanism]], which includes [[atomism]] and [[cosmology]]. Lucretius was the first writer known to introduce Roman readers to Epicurean philosophy.{{sfnp | Gale | 2007 | p=35 }} The poem, written in some 7,400 [[dactylic hexameter]]s, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through richly poetic language and [[metaphor]]s. Lucretius presents the principles of [[atomism]], the nature of the mind and [[soul]], explanations of sensation and thought, the development of the world and its [[phenomena]], and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial [[phenomena]]. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by ''fortuna'', "chance", and not the [[divine intervention]] of the [[Religion in ancient Rome|traditional Roman deities]]<ref>In particular, ''De rerum natura'' 5.107 (''fortuna gubernans'', "guiding chance" or "fortune at the helm"): see Monica R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994, 1996 reprint), pp. 213, 223–224 [https://books.google.com/books?id=gf8k02Iud74C&q=%22there+is+no+divine+providence%22 online] and ''Lucretius'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 238 [https://books.google.com/books?id=mHadLr3QVUMC&dq=%22the+necessity+of+its+process+through+its+physics%22&pg=PA238 online.]</ref> and the religious explanations of the natural world.

Within this work, Lucretius makes reference to the cultural and [[history of technology|technological development]] of humans in his use of available materials, tools, and weapons through prehistory to Lucretius's own time. He specifies the [[history of weapons|earliest weapons]] as hands, nails, and teeth. These were followed by stones, branches, and fire (once humans could kindle and control it). He then refers to "tough iron" and copper in that order, but goes on to say that copper was the primary means of tilling the soil and the basis of weaponry until, "by slow degrees", the iron sword became predominant (it still was in his day) and "the bronze sickle fell into disrepute" as iron ploughs were introduced.<ref name=DRNV1200>{{cite book |last=Lucretius |author-link=Lucretius |title=De rerum natura, Book V, around Line 1200 ff. }}</ref> He had earlier envisaged a pre-technological, pre-literary kind of human whose life was lived "in the fashion of wild beasts roaming at large".<ref name=DRNV940>{{cite book |last=Lucretius |author-link=Lucretius |title=De rerum natura, Book V, around line 940 ff. }}</ref> From this beginning, he theorised, there followed the development in turn of crude huts, use and kindling of fire, clothing, language, family, and [[city-state]]s. He believed that smelting of metal, and perhaps too, the firing of pottery, was discovered by accident: for example, the result of a forest fire. He does specify, however, that the use of copper followed the use of stones and branches and preceded the use of iron.<ref name=DRNV940/>
 
Lucretius seems to equate copper with [[bronze]], an alloy of copper and tin that has much greater resilience than copper; both copper and bronze were superseded by iron during his millennium (1000 BC to 1 BC). He may have considered bronze to be a stronger variety of copper and not necessarily a wholly individual material. Lucretius is believed to be the first to put forward a theory of the successive uses of first wood and stone, then copper and bronze, and finally iron. Although his theory lay dormant for many centuries, it was revived in the nineteenth century and he has been credited with originating the concept of the [[three-age system]] that was formalised from 1834 by [[Christian Jürgensen Thomsen|C. J. Thomsen]].<ref>Barnes, pp. 27–28.</ref><gallery>
File:T. Lucretii Cari De rerum natura.tif|''De rerum natura'' (1570)
File:Carus-3.jpg|alt=|1754 copy of ''De rerum natura''
File:Carus-4.jpg|alt=|Frontispiece of a 1754 copy of ''De rerum natura''
File:Carus-1.jpg|alt=|1683 English translation of ''De rerum natura''
File:Carus-2.jpg|alt=|Title page of a 1683 English translation of ''De rerum natura''
</gallery>

===Reception===
In a letter by [[Cicero]] to his brother [[Quintus Tullius Cicero|Quintus]] in February 54 BC, Cicero said: "The poems of Lucretius are as you write: they exhibit many flashes of [[genius]], and yet show great mastership."{{sfnp | Cicero | loc=2.9 }} In the work of another author in late Republican Rome, [[Virgil]] writes in the second book of his ''Georgics'', apparently referring to Lucretius,{{sfnp | Smith | 1975 | loc = intro }}  "Happy is he who has discovered the causes of things and has cast beneath his feet{{efn|name=subiecit pedibus}} all fears, unavoidable fate, and the din of the devouring Underworld."{{sfnp | Virgil | loc=2.490 }}