The Nature of Things

Written by the Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99–55 BCE), is a didactic poem in six books that expounds the materialist philosophy of Epicureanism. Likely composed in the 50s BCE and preserved through a single manuscript discovered in 1417, it was translated into English by various scholars, with a notable version by A.E. Stallings in 2007. The work aims to free readers from fear of the gods and death by explaining the natural world through atomistic principles, offering a scientific and philosophical worldview for its time.