Photo: English Poet Ben Jonson's Copy of Lucretius with Acid Stain
Today is the anniversary of the traditional date of the death of Lucretius, which, according to the 4th century grammarian Aelius Donatus, occurred on the same day that Virgil assumed the Toga Virilis on his 17th birthday.
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari
Happy is he who is able to know the causes of things,
And who has trampled beneath his feet all fear,
Inexorable fate, and the din of the devouring underworld
-Publius Vergilius Maro
carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,
exitio terras cum dabit una dies
Then shall perish the verses of sublime Lucretius,
When that day shall consign the world to destruction
-Publius Ovidius Naso