Between Lucilius and the poets of the Augustan age lived Lucretius and Catullus, two of the greatest--perhaps the greatest--of all the Roman poets. T. LUCRETIUS CARUS was born B.C. 95, and died about B.C. 51. He is said to have been driven mad by a love-potion, and to have perished by his own hand. The work which has immortalized his name is a philosophical didactic poem, in heroic hexameters, entitled _De Rerum Natura_, divided into six books, and addressed to C. Memmius Gemellus, who was praetor in B.C. 58. Its object is to state clearly the leading principles of the Epicurean philosophy in such a form as might render the study attractive to his countrymen. He attempts to show that there is nothing in the history or actual condition of the world which does not admit of explanation without having recourse to the active interposition of divine beings. The work has been admitted by all modern critics to be the greatest of didactic poems. The most abstruse speculations are clearly explained in majestic verse, while the subject, which in itself is dry and dull, is enlivened by digressions of matchless power and beauty. VALERIUS CATULLUS was born at Verona or in its immediate vicinity, B.C. 87. He inherited considerable property from his father, who was the friend of Julius Caesar; but he squandered a great part of it by indulging freely in the pleasures of the metropolis. In order to better his fortunes, he went to Bithynia in the train of the Praetor Memmius, but it appears that the speculation was attended with little success. It was probably during this expedition that his brother died in the Troad, a loss which he deplores in the affecting elegy to Hortalus. On his return he continued to reside at Rome, or at his country seats on the promontory of Sirmio and at Tibur. He died about B.C. 47. His poems are on a variety of topics, and composed in different styles and metres. Some are lyrical, others elegies, others epigrams; while the Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis is an heroic poem. Catullus adorned all he touched, and his shorter poems are characterized by original invention and felicity of expression. His _Atys_ is one of the most remarkable poems in the whole range of Latin literature, distinguished by wild passion and the noblest diction. Among the poets of the Augustan age Virgil and Horace stand forth pre-eminent.