Ending with World Destruction: a Closural Device in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and its Influence on Later Latin Poetry.

This paper will investigate a well-attested closural device in Lucretius' De rerum natura: the recurrence of world destruction scenarios as the conclusion both to single literary passages and to single books. The argumentation will be divided into two parts. The former will examine the most important examples of this literary scheme in Lucretius' poem (1.1104-1117; 2.1105-1174; 6.596-607) and will define their models, their aim and their features. The latter will give some further examples of "apocalyptic" closures in Latin literature between I century BC and I century AD. The analysis of these passages will show the persistent presence of allusions to Lucretius' poem, considered as an indisputable auctoritas of cosmic eschatological poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]