The Alexandrian Footnote in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura

Abstract This paper contributes evidence to support the widely accepted view that Lucretius may justly be regarded by the reader as a Callimachean poet by synthesizing and analyzing Lucretius’ use of the so-called ‘Alexandrian footnote’ in the DRN. Although most scholars have come to agree with Kenney that Lucretius embraces many of the same poetic ideals as his contemporaries, there are still some who remain skeptical of Kenney’s thesis, and, while Kenney adduces the most prominent parts of the DRN that show signs of Alexandrianism, in fact he only scratches the surface of the extent to which Lucretius practices his own version of Roman neo-Callimacheanism. Moreover, very few of those who accept Kenney’s results have followed his lead by adding corroborating evidence. It is still very much worthwhile, therefore, to explore this aspect of Lucretius’ poetic artistry; this paper’s analysis of the Alexandrian footnote provides further proof that Kenney’s argument is correct, and it expands on his thesis by showing how integral Alexandrian poetic techniques are to Lucretius’ philosophical purposes.