Sed breviter paucis praestat comprendere multa (Lucr. VI 1083): Epicurean Compendia in Latin

The paper aims to reconstruct the literary and communicative patterns of the earliest known Latin works on Epicureanism. It is argued that Roman Epicureans such as Amafinius, Rabirius and (probably with higher rhetorical ambitions) Catius endeavoured to cope with complex content by simplifying it into the form of a prose introduction (isagoge), in order to translate Epicurean teachings into Latin and at the same time make them comprehensible and accessible to a new audience that had neither sound knowledge of Greek nor high literary expectations. It is also suggested that one might compare this audience to the one Cornelius Nepos addresses in his biographies. Lucretius was aware of his predecessors’ attempts, but consciously distanced himself from their methods and turned poetry into his main tool for overcoming complexity. At the same time, Lucretius aimed to follow the path Epicurus himself once took with his own doctrinal compendia.