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Titus Lucretius Carus (died mid to late 50s BCE) was an Epicurean poet of the late Roman republican era.
His six-book Latin poem De rerum natura (On the nature of things) survives virtually intact, although it is
disputed whether he lived to put the finishing touches to it. As well as being a pioneering figure in the
history of philosophical poetry, Lucretius has come to be our primary source of information on Epicurean
physics, the official topic of his poem. His defence of the Epicurean system is deftly and passionately
argued, and is particularly admired for its eloquent critique of the fear of death in book 3.
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1
Back to its primal bodies, when withdrawn
From out man's members it has gone away.
For, sure, if body (container of the same
Like as a jar), when shivered from some cause,
And rarefied by loss of blood from veins,
Cannot for longer hold the soul, how then
Thinkst thou it can be held by any air-
A stuff much rarer than our bodies be?