The nature of love has long been a subject of philosophical reflection. No doubt you are thinking of Plato’s Symposium, which devotes an entire dialogue to the subject, or of Aristotle’s reflections on relationships in the Nicomachean Ethics.

Yet what many might not realise is that not ancient thinkers spoke of love in glowing terms.

In fact, some of them openly warned against it… especially the ancient Roman Epicurean philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus (popularly known as Lucretius).