This tendency probably began with Lucretius, whose didactic poem “De rerum natura” was, in terms of form, a Roman reworking of the didactic poem “Peri physeos” (About Nature), by Empedocles (ca. 494–434 BCE). Empedocles was a very widely read author. Cicero modeled his dialogues De oratore, De re publica, and De legibus on the tradition of Platonic dialogues and those of Aristotle.
