DELL’USO (FILOSOFICO) DEL PASSATO: LUCREZIO ESEGETA DI TUCIDIDE

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is not primarily to compare Lucretius and Thucydides on the episode of the plague of Athens; it will be to try to understand, as far as possible, what really pushed Lucretius to keep in mind so closely the Thucydides model. My hypothesis is that it was also genuinely philosophical reasons (i.e.: closely related to the philosophy of Epicurus) that pushed the poet to take into account with particular attention Thucydides’ report on the plague of Athens.