[Sidenote: Literature in the fifty years before Cicero.] The life of Lucilius fell in a period of many changes. As a boy, he saw the Roman power established in the east, before he reached middle life he witnessed the destruction of Carthage, then he lived through the troublous years before and after the death of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 B. C. and that of his brother Gaius in 121 B. C., and in the year before his death he saw the consulship in the hands of Gaius Marius. It was not until the long struggle between Marius and Sulla was over that any measure of tranquility returned to the Roman state. Then came the Golden Age of Roman literature. But for fifty years before the time of Cicero circumstances at Rome were not favorable to literary production of every kind. Lucilius, Accius, Afranius and a few other poets lived on until about the end of the second century B. C., but there was little new life in poetry. Gnæus Matius translated the Iliad, and Lævius Melissus imitated some of the lighter Greek poems. [Sidenote: Poetry.] The epic poem of Hostius on the Istrian war and that of Aulus Furius from Antium (Furius Antias) on an unknown subject have left hardly any traces. It is not worth while to mention in detail the occasional love songs and epigrams written by various authors. Aside from Lucilius and the dramatists already mentioned, there are no poets of note in this period. [Sidenote: History.] In history, the production was greater and more important. Fannius and Asellio were emulated by Cœlius Antipater, whose history of the second Punic war was of some importance, and he was followed by Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, who wrote a history of Rome in at least twenty-three books, coming down to the year 82 B. C. Another more voluminous but less trustworthy historian was Valerius Antias, who wrote annals in at least seventy-five books. His date is uncertain, but he seems to have lived early in the first century B. C. Two other historians of the latter part of this period were Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (119-67 B. C.), who wrote a history of his own times in an antiquated style, and Gaius Licinius Macer, whose annals, beginning with the earliest times, were probably continued until near the date of his death (66 B. C.). The dictator Sulla (138-78 B. C.) wrote memoirs, which must have possessed great historical value. Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus (consul in 129 B. C.) was not only an annalist, but also an antiquarian.[17] [Sidenote: Jurists.] Important writers on legal subjects were Publius Mucius Scævola (consul in 133 B. C.) and his brother Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus (consul in 131 B. C.), but more important than either was Quintus Mucius Scævola (consul in 95 B. C.), whose systematic treatment of Roman law served as the foundation for all later works on the subject. Quintus Scævola was also distinguished as an orator.