Titus Lucretius Carus, the great Latin poet, is the most famous Epicurean. Little is known of his life except that he came from a wealthy Roman family, and that he may have committed suicide as the result of insanity due to the consumption of a love potion. The
main aim of his poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), which is divided into six books, is to liberate people from superstitious fears of the gods and of death, and thereby to attain peace of mind. Such liberation requires a proper understanding of
nature.
