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Very little is known directly about his life. The only contemporary reference to him is in Cicero’s letter of Feb. 54 BC to his brother Quintus (''QFr''. 2.10(9).3) in which he praises the poems of Lucretius for showing flashes of genius and great artistry.  This suggests strongly that ''DRN'' was already published by this date.  

Very little is known directly about his life. The only contemporary reference to him is in Cicero’s letter of Feb. 54 BC to his brother Quintus (''QFr''. 2.10(9).3) in which he praises the poems of Lucretius for showing flashes of genius and great artistry.  This suggests strongly that ''DRN'' was already published by this date.  

''DRN'' has been one of the most influential of all works of ancient philosophy in the Western world, and was for long the main source for knowledge of Epicureanism.  As such it has been one of the chief representatives of the anti-teleological view of the Universe: a view which denies any purpose in the world, and removes from the gods any authority or role in human affairs.  In Epicureanism, there is no fate or pre-destination and any divine plan for the world is denied.  All things happen through chance and physical necessity, but even physical determinism is rejected, and free will placed at the centre of the ethics.  Thus, Lucretius has been one of the foremost influences in the development of the liberal temper in Western thought.  He was deeply involved in the rise of Renaissance Humanism, and later strongly informed the work of Erasmus, Montaigne, Rousseau, Gassendi, and others.  Lucretius’ fiercely anti-religious polemics and his anti-teleological account of creation inspired many anti-Lucretian Christian works, among them Sir Richard Blackmore’s ''Creation'' of 1712 and Cardinal Polignac’s ''Anti-Lucretius'' of 1745.  His account of the origin of life by the random formation of creatures without any divine plan, and adaptation of species by extinctions in a struggle for life, remained the chief opponent of the creationist view until supplanted in the role by Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859.

''DRN'' has been one of the most influential of all works of ancient philosophy in the Western world, and was for long the main source for knowledge of Epicureanism.  As such it has been one of the chief representatives of the anti-teleological view of the Universe: a view which denies any purpose in the world, and removes from the gods any authority or role in human affairs.  In Epicureanism, there is no fate or pre-destination and any divine plan for the world is denied.  All things happen through chance and physical necessity, but even physical determinism is rejected, and free will placed at the centre of the ethics.  Thus, Lucretius has been one of the foremost influences in the development of the liberal temper in Western thought.  He was deeply involved in the rise of Renaissance Humanism, and later strongly informed the work of Erasmus, Montaigne, Rousseau, Gassendi, and others.  Lucretius’ fiercely anti-religious polemics and his anti-teleological account of creation inspired many anti-Lucretian Christian works, among them Sir Richard Blackmore’s ''Creation'' of 1712 and Cardinal Polignac’s ''Anti-Lucretius'' of 1745.  His account of the origin of life by the random formation of creatures without any divine plan, and adaptation of species by extinctions in a struggle for life, remained the chief opponent of the creationist view until supplanted in the role by Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859.