“The flaming ramparts of the world”

Abstract

The present article analyses Walter Pater’s novelMarius the Epicurean(1885), focusing particularly on the nexus between the story’s setting in Ancient Rome and its treatment of religion. Even though the abrupt ending of Marius’sBildungsuggests that Pater had not yet succeeded in reconciling his aesthetic philosophy with a religious life in community, the novel encourages its readers to adopt an eclectic religious consciousness. By examining Pater’s references to Lucretius’sDe Rerum Natura, the article investigates how Pater used the Roman poet to reinforce this message, and to react against the materialism of post-Darwinian Britain. Moreover, it shows howMarius the Epicureanincorporates and subverts some of the motifs that can be found in popular Victorian novels set in Rome.