The following chapter deals with the poet . Lucretius mentions female dress only once in his philosophical poem De rerum natura (On Nature). His remarks are largely based on Epicurus' writings. He was perhaps also influenced by some other Greek text, a philosophical diatribe, when composing this 'satirical' section. All in all, we seem to be entering a Graeco-Roman world in it. On the one hand, we find in it all items of what appears to be a Greek lifestyle. On the other hand, we are faced with

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... intellectual conceptions, such as patrimonium (inherited property) and officium (duty), which one would rather connect with the Roman elite. The pertinent passage (4.1121-1130) has already been extensively discussed and commented on.¹ The following remarks therefore focus on the problems of transmission and discuss the garments referred to in the text. In contrast to other poets, for example Catullus (A 12), Lucretius does not talk about elegant dress in order to illustrate and to augment the beauty of an individual woman. The woman and her body instead remain completely invisible. The text therefore offers a seeming paradox: How does one describe women's dress without a woman wearing it? Lucretius' remarks on dress form part of a section dealing with the negative consequences that love (amor) has for men. Among these, Lucretius does not only count the weakening of the physical energy of the man, but also the waste of his wealth and the endangerment of his social position. It is a literary commonplace that we also encounter in Greek New Comedy and Roman Palliata: Male lovers, especially young ones, indulge in banquets with their mistresses instead of pursuing their duties (officia); they waste their money on lavish gifts, including luxurious clothes. But to no avail: As is often the case with this trope, bitterness is felt even at the very height of the party (4.1134). Lucretius' version is tinged by Epicurean thought and reads as follows:²