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Lucretius: De Rerum Natura V

edited with translation and commentary by Monica R Gale

For a work written more than two thousand years ago, in a society in many ways quite alien to our own, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura contains much of striking, even startling, contemporary relevance. This is true, above all, of the fifth book, which begins by putting a strong case against what it has recently become fashionable to call 'intelligent design', and ends with an account of human evolution and the development of society in which the limitations of technological progress form a strong and occasionally explicit subtext. Along the way, the poet touches on many themes which may strike a chord with the twenty-first century reader: the fragility of our ecosystem, the corruption of political life, the futility of consumerism and the desirability of limiting our acquisitive instincts are all highly topical issues for us, as for the poem's original audience. Book V also offers a fascinating introduction to the world-view of the upper-class Roman of the first century BC. This edition (which complements existing Aris and Phillips commentaries on books 3, 4 and 6) will help to make Lucretius' urgent and impassioned argument, and something of his remarkable poetic style, accessible to a wider audience, including those with little or no knowledge of Latin. Both the translation and commentary aim to explain the scientific argument of the book as clearly as possible; and to convey at least some impression of the poetic texture of Lucretius' Latin. 200p (Classical Texts, Aris & Phillips, an imprint of Oxbow Books 2008)

Review Quote

"...a significant addition to the Lucretius bibliography... merits high praise as a splendid achievement by a distinguished Lucretian [...] offers exactly what students need to appreciate one of the longest and finest achievements of Latin epic."

Lee Fratantuono, Ohio Wesleyan University
Bryn Mawr Classical Review (May 2009)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations

Introduction
I. Lucretius and the Late Republic
II. Epicurus and his Philosophy
III. The Didactic Epic
IV. De Rerum Natura V Cosmology and Human Prehistory
V. Language and Style
VI. The Transmission of the text

Note on references to the Presocratic Philosophers
De Rerum Natura V
Commentary
Bibliography

Author Biography

Monica R. Gale is Associate Professor in Classics at Trinity College, Dublin. She is the editor of Oxford Readings in Lucretius (2007) and Latin Epic and Didactic Poetry (2004) and the author of Lucretius and the Didactic Epic (2001) and other books and articles on poetry of the late Roman Republic and the Augustan period.

Related Titles

• Lucretius De Rerum Natura VI
  edited with translation and commentary by J. Godwin

• Lucretius: De Rerum Natura IV
  edited with translation and commentary by J. Godwin

• Lucretius: De Rerum Natura III
  with an introduction, translation and commentary by Michael Brown

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