Vox Naturae: The Myth of Animal Nature in the Late Roman Republic

Abstract

The paper examines the representation of animals as embodiment of nature in the culture of the late Roman republic. By discussing a selection of passages from Sallust, Cicero and Lucretius in conjunction with other Greek and Latin sources, the paper shows that the typically Western myth of 'animal nature' - the cultural belief that animals mirror a perennial state of nature, as opposed to human society - played a very important role in the moral debate of the first century BC and took a form which was bound to influence the centuries to come.