Epicurus was born in the island of Samos, B.C. 341. When in his thirty-second year, he first opened a school at Mitylene, where, and at Lampsacus, he taught for five years. This was at the time when sophists and sensualists were wanted at Rome, and they were brought there as part of the spoils of the conqueror, to march, like other slaves, in his triumph, and furnish an additional luxury. When Rome had become politically dominant to the largest extent, she yet remained in arts and letters the humble pupil of Greece. Augustan literature, in all of its departments, was to a great degree borrowed from the Greek, but with every kind of derivative process, from servile translation to the most adroit adaptation. Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Cicero, were all indebted to Greek models, as well as Terence, Ovid, and Seneca, but each to a graduated extent. They all borrowed according to their wants, each one transforming his plunder with more or less originality, according to the powers of his mind. Philosophy at Rome emitted many sparks of light, fragments of moral truth, but left behind no symmetrical and consistent system except that of Epicurus, a creed formed on a plain so low that no declination could be made to appear. It has been remarked, that while of the eight teachers in the Porch, from Zeno to Posidonius, every one modified the doctrines of his predecessor; and while the beautiful philosophy of Plato had degenerated into dishonorable scepticism, the Epicurean system remained unchanged. This has been accounted for on the ground just mentioned, and also with reference to the power of that mental indolence which disposes the mind to rest contented with views that are comprehensible without reflection, and which are not inimical to the indulgence of lust. The more thoughtful Romans were obliged to take what they could get, and they adopted the late and degenerated systems of Greek philosophy for two reasons: first, they had a natural affinity for them, and secondly, they were incapable of appreciating the earlier and better schools. The doctrine of Epicurus attracted a crowd of partisans in the martial metropolis, in consequence of its accommodating character, and the indulgence it afforded to the most groveling desires. But very few of the Roman Epicureans distinguished themselves as philosophers, and not one advanced a step beyond the doctrines of his master. Lucretius Carus, born B.C. 95, claims a place among philosophers as well as poets. In his time, the Epicurean principles obtained the greatest popularity, and that in no small degree through his own splendid talents. Consistently with his frigid atheism, and proud rejection of a superintending Providence, the perverted child of genius, who had risen on the breath of popular favor to the equestrian rank, died a wretched suicide when only forty-four years old.