CHAPTER II 



LUCRETIUS 



Lucretius lived in the decadent days of Caesar and 

 Cicero, when Rome stood between two worlds, 

 " one dead, the other powerless to be born." No 

 longer did thinkers believe in the old gods. 

 Cicero, though hoping in immortality, was an 

 agnostic. Caesar, even when Pontifex Maximus, 

 dared to assert, in the consecrated Temple of 

 Concord, that the nations were ruled by the 

 caprice of fortune — Fortuna cujus libido gentibus 

 moderatur. The unlettered mob, who did still 

 in some sort believe, were dupes of the priests, 

 slaves of superstition, and an easy prey to exor- 

 cisers, diviners, soothsayers. Corrupt in her 

 creeds, Rome was equally corrupt in her morals. 

 Agriculture was neglected ; civil war devastated 

 the land ; vice was rampant ; brutality was a 

 commonplace, and six thousand slaves on crosses 

 on the road to Capua were signs of the times to 

 every passer-by. 



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