The latter claim has a bit of circumstantial (and inconclusive) evidence in the only certain contemporary mention of the poet. In a letter dated February of 54 B.C., Cicero wrote to his brother that "the poetry of Lucretius is, just as you say in your letter, filled with many flashes of native talent, but also with much literary art" (the exact meaning of Cicero's words is disputed). Some have argued that Cicero's remark proves that Lucretius was already dead by the beginning of 54 B.C.; this inference is far from certain. Interestingly, Cicero's philosophical works, written over the next decade, make no direct mention of Lucretius's poem. Jerome's other claim, that of Lucretius's madness, is in one sense easy to dismiss: no other surviving ancient author mentions it, including the earlier Christian apologist Lactantius, who wrote scathingly against Lucretius's philosophical arguments and who presumably would not have missed the opportunity to impute actual insanity to an author who denied the soul's immortality and the divine creation of the universe.
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