Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of past scholarship on the subject of Lucretian allusions in Virgil’s Aeneid, identifying three broad camps of interpretation: (1) studies that focus on the stylistic implications of allusions to Lucretius, (2) attempts to claim the Aeneid as an Epicurean poem, and (3) investigations of adversarial allusions to Lucretian philosophy. Within this third category, previous studies have focused largely on polemical allusions to Lucretius in which Virgil inverts or displaces the original philosophical content, while in many cases neglecting allusions that engage with the philosophy of the source text. This book aims to fill these gaps by providing a global reading of allusions to Lucretian atomism and cosmology in the Aeneid, with a focus upon imagery that evokes Epicurean atomism.

Turnus and the End of the Epicurean World

This chapter examines the role of atomic imagery in the final book of the Aeneid, particularly with respect to Turnus’ killing of the Trojan warrior Eumedes and his final defeat by Aeneas. It argues that a web of allusions to Lucretian atomism in each of those scenes connects Turnus’ opposition to Trojan colonization with the non-teleological worldview of atomism. Thus, Turnus’ defeat marks not just the rejection of Italian political power, but also of the Epicurean cosmology with which Turnus is allusively associated. However, a number of details linking Aeneas’ killing of Turnus to Turnus’ killing of Eumedes subtly undermine this victory for Rome’s imperial teleology, suggesting that the two heroes act in fundamentally similar ways, angrily inflicting violence upon their enemies to achieve a desired political outcome.

Atomism and the Worldview of the Aeneid

This chapter summarizes the findings of the various chapters, noting that, by the end of the Aeneid, the putative disorder of atomism yields, on the whole, to Roman rule and a divinely organized cosmos. It argues that this conclusion reveals an important preference for teleology and hierarchy in the world of the poem, which is starkly opposed to the worldview of Epicurean atomism. In terms of Virgil’s biography, the poem’s endorsement of an anti-atomist perspective also indicates a level of intellectual seriousness to his philosophical allusions beyond what is often supposed for the Aeneid. Last, the chapter calls for further study of anti-atomist discourse in authors after Virgil, noting similar treatments of atomism as a symbol of disorder in later periods of Greek and Roman literature.

Characterizations of Epicurean Atomism

This chapter relates the history of atomism from Democritus to Lucretius and provides a survey of major opponents of atomism from Aristotle to Cicero, the latter of whom provides valuable evidence for Hellenistic responses to atomism. Early Epicureans, including Epicurus himself, were suspicious of figurative language. In contrast, opponents of atomism, most notably Cicero, made frequent use of tendentious metaphors and analogies to associate atomic physics with the disorder of rioting crowds and failed states. It is likely that Virgil adopted his own negative attitude toward atomic imagery in the Aeneid, where atomic motion symbolizes political and cosmic disorder, from these earlier anti-atomist writers.

Non-Trojans under the Influence of Atomism (Epic Losers)

This chapter examines scenes in the Aeneid in which non-Trojan characters are associated with atomism and atomic imagery. It argues that prominent non-Trojan antagonists are described in atomistic terms in order to associate their opposition to the Trojans with the chaotic, non-purposeful motion of atoms. Lucretian atomic imagery appears in the description of Dido’s death at the end of Book 4, and in the fighting that takes place in the Italian countryside in Book 10, including Turnus’ removal from the battlefield by Juno and Mezentius’ defeat by Aeneas. By depicting the defeat of these characters with the language of atomic phenomena, Virgil aligns the enemies of Rome’s historical and imperial teleology with an Epicurean cosmology that is similarly opposed to narratives of fate and fixed authority, both national and divine.

Trojans under the Influence of Atomism (Epic Winners)

This chapter examines scenes in the Aeneid in which Trojan characters are associated with Lucretian atomic imagery. It argues that atomic imagery is used to portray moments of hesitation, difficulty, and doubt for the poem’s protagonists, when they risk straying from their fated mission to found a new city in Latium. Atomic imagery appears during the sack of Troy in Book 2, during the plague on Crete in Book 3, and in descriptions of Aeneas’ indecision in Books 4, 5, and 8. Atomic imagery serves an important thematic function in these scenes, connecting Aeneas’ confusion to Epicurean cosmology in a way that emphasizes both its randomness and its incompatibility with Rome’s imperial destiny.