SOURCE: Sedley, David. “The Empedoclean Opening.” In Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom, pp. 1-34. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

In the following excerpt, Sedley demonstrates that Lucretius based the proem of his De rerum natura on the work of Empedocles.

1. Cicero's Letter

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.

Writing to his brother in 54 bc, Cicero supplies two unique testimonies (Ad Q. fr. ii 9.4). In the first sentence he echoes Quintus' admiration for Lucretius' poem, thus providing the sole allusion to the De rerum natura likely to be more or less contemporary with its publication. In the second, he attests the publication of an Empedoclea by a certain Sallustius, presumably a Latin translation or imitation of Empedocles (compare Cicero's own near-contemporary use of the title Aratea for his...