[51] Lucr. had a great veneration for his genius, see ii. 723: Quae (Sicilia) nil hoc habuisse viro praeclarius in se Nec sanctum magis et mirum carumque videtur. Carmina quinctiam divini pectoris eius Vociferantur, et exponunt praeclara reperta, Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus.
[52] In his treatise de Poetica he calls him physiologon mallon i poiaeten.
[53] A French writer justly says "L'utilité c'est le principe créateur de la littérature romaine."
[54] Some one has observed that the martial imagery of Lucretius is taken from the old warfare of the Punic wars, not from that of his own time. He speaks of elephants, of Scipio and Hannibal, as if they were the heroes most present to his mind.
[55] The eros philosuphus, so beautifully described by Plato in the Symposium.
[56] A Scotch acquaintance of the writer's when asked to define a certain type of theology, replied, "An interminable argument."
[57] Philetas wore himself to a shadow by striving to solve the sophistic riddle of the "Liar." His epitaph alludes to this: Xeine, Philaetas eimi, logon d' o pseudomenos me olese kai nukton phrontides esperioi.
[58] iii. 3. "Te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus!"
[59] v. 8, where, though the words are general, the reference is to Epicurus.
[60] By Sulla, 84 B.C.