PHILOSOPHER

Lucretius

94 BC - 55 BC

Photo of Lucretius

Icon of person Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus ( TY-təs loo-KREE-shəs, Latin: [ˈtitus luˈkreːti.us ˈkaːrus]; c. 99 – c. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura, a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is translated into English as On the Nature of Things—and somewhat less often as On the Nature of the Universe. Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certainty is that he was either a friend or client of Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Lucretius has received more than 1,345,331 page views. His biography is available in 80 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 77 in 2019). Lucretius is the 49th most popular philosopher (up from 55th in 2019), the 56th most popular biography from Italy (up from 59th in 2019) and the 6th most popular Italian Philosopher.

Lucretius is most famous for his poem "De Rerum Natura" which is a long didactic poem about the nature of the universe and the development of life.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 79.25

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 80

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 16.25

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.74

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Lucretius ranks 49 out of 1,267. Before him are Laozi, Empedocles, Origen, Protagoras, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Amos Comenius. After him are Hannah Arendt, Anaxagoras, Plotinus, Michel Foucault, Thomas More, and Henri Bergson.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 94 BC, Lucretius ranks 1. After him are Emperor Zhao of Han, Clodia Pulchra, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. Among people deceased in 55 BC, Lucretius ranks 1. After him are Tigranes the Great, Berenice IV of Egypt, and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos.

Others Born in 94 BC

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 55 BC

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Italy

Among people born in Italy, Lucretius ranks 56 out of 5,161. Before him are Fibonacci (1170), Pope Leo XIII (1810), Giacomo Casanova (1725), Pope Clement VII (1478), Pope Gregory I (540), and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598). After him are Enrico Fermi (1901), Saint Lucy (283), Umberto Eco (1932), Pope Pius XII (1876), Saint Valentine (226), and Guglielmo Marconi (1874).

Others born in Italy

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among PHILOSOPHERS In Italy

Among philosophers born in Italy, Lucretius ranks 6. Before him are Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), Thomas Aquinas (1225), Parmenides (-501), Maria Montessori (1870), and Empedocles (-490). After him are Zeno of Elea (-490), Pliny the Elder (23), Antonio Gramsci (1891), Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463), Boethius (480), and Tommaso Campanella (1568).

Italian born Philosophers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous