Our information about Lucretius’ life is very scanty. Jerome yr. Abr. 1922 = B.C. 95, ‘T. Lucretius poeta nascitur, qui postea amatorio poculo in furorem versus, cum aliquot libros per intervalla insaniae conscripsisset, quos postea Cicero emendavit, propria se manu interfecit anno aetatis xliiii.’ (B.C. 52 or 51).
Donatus, vit. Verg. 2, ‘Initia aetatis Cremonae egit [Vergilius] usque ad virilem togam, quam xv. anno natali suo accepit isdem illis consulibus iterum duobus quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet’ (October 15).
Teuffel thinks xliiii. is wrong, and would read xlii., thus giving the dates as B.C. 96-55, as he thinks that Jerome has fixed the date of birth one year too late. Munro (vol. ii. p. 1) accepts xliiii., but thinks that Jerome (as elsewhere) is a few years wrong in the date of Lucretius’ birth, and gives the dates as B.C. 99-55. It is impossible to decide as to the date of birth, but most authorities agree on B.C. 55 as the date of death, a view which is supported by the only contemporary reference to the poet: Cic. ad Q.F. ii. 11, 4 (written in February, B.C. 54), ‘Lucreti poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt: multis luminibus ingeni, multae tamen artis; sed cum veneris. Virum te putabo, si Sallusti Empedoclea legeris, hominem non putabo.’
The above extract is given in the reading of the MSS. Some editors read non before multis, others non before multae, but it is best to follow the MSS. (with Tyrrell), translating “But when you come (we shall talk about it). I shall consider you a hero, if you read Sallust’s Empedoclea; I shall not consider you a human being.”
As regards Lucretius’ madness, there is no absolute impossibility in the story. Munro (vol. ii. pp. 2, 3) accepts Jerome’s account of Cicero’s editorship; others, less probably, believe that Q. Cicero was editor. The first view is rendered probable by the high opinion Lucretius had of Cicero, as seen from the frequency with which he imitates his Aratea (Munro on Lucr. v. 619), and from the knowledge Cicero shows of Lucretius’ work, as in Tusc. i. 48.
The poet’s full name is given in the MSS. as T. Lucretius Carus.
This is all the direct evidence regarding Lucretius’ life.[32] The de rerum natura is addressed to C. Memmius.[33] From Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 1 (where Cicero tells us he employed his good offices with Memmius on behalf of Patro for the preservation of the gardens of Epicurus), it appears that he was not an Epicurean. Memmius is the only contemporary mentioned by Lucretius; i. 24,
‘Te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse
quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor
Memmiadae nostro, quem tu, dea, tempore in omni
omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus.’
Many, arguing from the fact that Carus is not known elsewhere as a cognomen of the gens Lucretia, think that the poet was a freedman or a freedman’s son, but from the tone of equality in which he addresses Memmius, it is more probable that he was a patrician; cf. i. 140,
‘Sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas
suavis amicitiae quemvis sufferre laborem
suadet.’