Say ye I gained the laurelled Phœbus’ love, So that Rome hails me servant of her Jove. The latter, by his popularity, acquired great influence at court, but his profligacy proved his ruin. He intrigued with the empress Domitia; and Domitian consequently divorced his wife, and caused Paris to be assassinated. He has furnished a plot and a hero to Massinger’s play of the “Roman Actor.” The simple and beautiful epitaph written to his memory by Martial is as follows:— Quisquis Flaminiam teris, viator, Noli nobile præterire marmor. Urbis deliciæ, salesque Nili, Ars et gratia, lusus et voluptas; Romani decus et dolor theatri, Atque omnes Veneres, Cupidinesque, Hoc sunt condita, quo Paris, sepulchro. Whoe’er thou art, O traveller, stay! Mark what proud tomb adorns the way. The town’s delight, the wit of Nile, Art, grace, mirth, pleasure, sport and smile: The honour of the Roman stage, The grief and sorrow of the age: All Venuses and Loves lie here Buried in Paris’ sepulchre. CHAPTER II. LUCRETIUS A POET RATHER THAN A PHILOSOPHER—HIS LIFE—EPIC STRUCTURE OF HIS POEM—VARIETY OF HIS POETRY—EXTRACTS FROM HIS POEM—ARGUMENT OF IT—THE EPICUREAN DOCTRINES CONTAINED IN IT—MORALITY OF EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS—TESTIMONIES OF VIRGIL AND OVID—CATULLUS: HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND POETRY—OTHER POETS OF THIS PERIOD. LUCRETIUS CARUS (BORN B. C. 95.) Lucretius Carus might claim a place amongst philosophers as well as poets, for his poem marks an epoch both in poetry and philosophy. But his philosophy is a mere reflexion from that of Greece, whilst his poetry is bright with the rays of original genius. A delineation, therefore, of his characteristics as a writer of the imagination, will present the more accurate idea of the place which he occupies amongst Roman authors. It was no empty boast of his, that, as a poet, he deserved the praise of originality—that he had opened a path through the territory of the muse, untrodden before by poet’s foot—that he had drawn from a virgin fountain, and culled fresh flowers whence the Muse had never yet sought them to wreathe a garland for the poet’s brow.[470]