Varro's Demonstration of Human Eternity in Light of Lucretius: Philosophy and Politics at the End of the Republic

In late roman republic the philosophical discussion on the eternity of the world and of humanity was entwined with the political debate about Rome’s future. This paper attempts a reconstruction of Varro’s stance on this ontological issue by gathering different textual evidence from the Saturae Menippeae, the Rerum rusticarum libri and a passage of Plinius’ Naturalis historia. Probably shaped by Plato’s Timaeus, Varro’s demonstration of human eternity seems to be based on his concept of humanitas as ‘human memory’. The comparison to Lucretius’ De rerum natura shows that the two roman philosophers likely shared specific topics and even lexical items but had opposite ideas on the subject.