A cultural hero Lucretius was a Prometheus in Greek mythology, and in the 20th century Robert Oppenheimer was called a modern Prometheus.1 There must have been many admirers of Prometheus during the time of Caesar as the famous Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC) praised De Rerum Natura as “Poetry of Lucretius is rich in brilliant genius, yet highly artistic.” The greatest Roman poet Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) was about 15 years old when Lucretius died and he must have read De Rerum Natura, judging from his youngster-style acclamation, “Blessed is he who has succeeded in finding out the cause of things”.
The influence of the ancient Greeks at that time can be seen everywhere in Italy. The current name of Naples arises from Nea Polis (new city in Greek) due to Gordon Semenoff’s interpretation, showing that Greek influenced so much in this region. From the remains in Pompei, archeologists find the influence of Greek philosophers in Rome. Lucretius belonged to the school of Epicurus, although Greenblatt’s 2019 book The Swerve2 cites that Philodemus (a Greek invited to Rome since Greek classicism was admired there) stayed in Rome at the time of Lucretius. So, the Epicurus school seems to be a Greek school at the time of Greek supremacy, specialising in Natural Laws.
The original Latin poem must have been admirable to Romans in the classical period even as the English translation with 7–9 words in a line muses beautifully:
“Whilst human kind
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
Before all eyes beneath Religion–who
Would show her head along the region skies
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face–
A Greek it was who first opposing dared
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning’s stroke
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky
Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.”
It is not known to what extent actually Lucretius intended to convey the philosophy of Epicurus because this poem is through the 6th-century prodigeous pagan writer Simplicius. Still, Democritus was a generation earlier than Epicurus. This poem was given much publicity and importance in the book The Swerve by Steven Greenblatt published in 2011 and winner of a 2012 Pulitzer prize. Greenblatt suggested that the De Rerum Natura played a significant role in seeding the Renaissance. Whether true or not, the poem does contain in Lines 113–140 of Book II a truly remarkable atomistic description of Brownian motion, which was understood only two millennia later by Boltzmann (1872) and Einstein (1905), and which Lucretius regarded as proof of the existence of atoms.
Not surprisingly, his other scientific musings were less accurate. Although he suggested the idea that Nature experiments across aeons and that organisms have the best chance of survival when they best adapt in terms of strength, speed, and intellect, he did not anticipate what we now know as evolution. He did not recognise the superiority of humans to animals, which is a strong motive among God’s plan of the universe.
Poggio’s discovery of De Rerum Natura was made toward the end of Dark Ages or it may be better to say that it ended the Dark Ages. The reason that it was hidden so long was because Epicureanism was regarded as pagan by Christian leaders. For the book De Rerum Natura to be known to the masses, it must have been copied to a great extent. If purchase of De Rerum Natura were allowed, merchants must have copied it to get profit with whatever its cost. But, forbidden by Church elders, it was copied only in isolated monasteries in the Dark Ages. Copying it was not given preference in the isolated monasteries and there must have been some errors or puported corrections by scribes in the monasteries. In The Swerve, Stephen Greenblatt imagines a possible scene in a monastery scriptorium:
“The monastery was a place of rules, but in the scriptorium there were rules within rules. Access was denied to all non-scribes. Absolute silence reigned. Scribes were not allowed to choose the particular books that they copied or to break the dead silence by requesting aloud from the librarian such books as they might wish to consult in order to complete the task that had been assigned them. An elaborate gestural language was invented in order to facilitate such requests as were permitted. If a scribe wanted to consult a psalter, he made the general sign for a book–extending his hands turning over imaginary pages–and then, by putting his hand on his hand in the shape of a crown, the specific sign for the Psalm of King David. If he was asking for a pagan book, he began, after making the general sign, to scratch behind his ear, like a dog scratching his fleas. And if he wished to have what the Church regarded as a particularly offensive or dangerous pagan book, he could put two fingers into his mouth, as if he were gagging.”
In the middle of the Dark Ages, it must have not been possible for scribes to copy De Rerum Natura with ease, as only a few remaining ones today testify. In the early Roman Empire, alternatively called the late classical period, “paganism” was used for practicing polytheism, with gods of Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, etc. The early Christians in the 4th century practiced polytheism because it was practiced in rural and provincial areas compared to the Christian population in the big cities. In the late classical period, Christians used to judge one as a pagan if he practiced a ritual sacrifice as in the carnivals.
A pivotal Emperor leading to the Dark Ages was Constantine the Great (272–337), who legalised Christianity in February 313 as a compromise with the rival Emperor Licinius (263–325), authoring the Edict of Milan. The Edict stated that Christians should be allowed to follow their faith without oppression along with all other religions/cults in the Roman Empire. He chose the Greek city Byzantium (later known as Constantinople) as the Capital of the Empire and opened the millenium-lasting Byzantine Empire. Since then, the city was the capital of the East Roman Empire (better known as Byzantium) and the Ottoman Empire, now called Istanbul. The Emperor must have favoured Greece out of all the candidates for the capital. As Yannis Rizos commented, Istanbul in Greek means “To the City”, saying that his mother always said ‘istanbul’ when she went out to Corfu city. Istanbul was The City in the Byzantine Empire.
The Edict of Milan, allowing pagans the same rights as Christians, was allegedly reneged by Licinius, not favouring Christians, in the year 320, and Licinius was made a private man in the great civil war of 324. So, the Christian-prone Constantine convened the first Council of Nicaea in 325, declaring the Nicene Creed, God the Trinity, and the statement of Christian belief. In contrast to Trinity, the non-trinitarian doctrine Arianism, proposed by Arius (c. 256–336) of Alexandria in Egypt, was made illegal. Since then, Constantine the Great heavily promoted the Christian Church, which even seeded in the High Middle Ages the Papal claim to temporal power based on the forged Donation of Constantine. Constantine ordered Old Saint Peter’s Basilica to be built, which took over 30 years to complete. For this, he went to great lengths to erect the basilica on top of St. Peter’s resting place, even allowing changes of the initial design of the basilica. He became the patron of Christianity with Licinius absent.
Even before becoming the only Emperor of the whole Roman Empire, Constantine dealt a blow to Donatists, whose doctrine derives the name from the North African bishop Donatus (?–c. 355). Donatism had flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries. It had its roots in the Christian community of the Roman African province (now Algeria and Tunisia), which was ruled by Constantine in 311. Donatism was a heresy leading to a schism in the Church of Carthage from the 4th to the 6th centuries. The Roman governor of North African, lenient to the large Christian minority under his rule throughout the persecutions, was satisfied with Christians handing over their scriptures as a token