lgamation of Greek and Roman culture which had begun in the previous
epoch. The resulting Graeco-Roman culture was a bi-lingual civilization
based upon Greek intellectual and Roman political achievement which it was
the mission of the empire to spread to the barbaric peoples of the western
provinces. The age was marked by many-sided, keen, intellectual activity
which brought Rome's intellectual development to its height. Yet this
Graeco-Roman culture was almost exclusively a possession of the higher
classes.

*The drama.* In the field of dramatic literature the writing of tragedy
practically ceased and comedy took the popular forms of caricature
(_fabula Atellana_) and the mime, or realistic imitation of the life of
the lower classes. Both forms were derived from Greek prototypes but dealt
with subjects of everyday life and won great popularity in the theatrical
exhibitions given at the public games.

*Poetry: Catullus, 87-c. 54 B. C.* The best exponent of the poetry of the
age is Catullus, a native of Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, who as a young man
was drawn into the vortex of fashionable society at the capital. This new
poetry appealed to a highly educated class, conversant alike with the
literature of the Greek classic and Hellenistic periods as well as with
modern production, and able to appreciate the most elaborate and
diversified meters. The works of Catullus show the wide range of form and
subject which appealed to contemporary taste. Translations and copies of
Greek originals find their place alongside epigrams and lyric poems of
personal experience. It is his poetry of passion, of love and hate, which
places him among the foremost lyric poets of all time.

*Lucretius, 98-53 B. C.* An exception among the poets of his time was
Lucretius, who combined the spirit of a poet with that of a religious
teacher. He felt a mission to free the minds of men from fear of the power
of the gods and of death. To this end he wrote a didactic epic poem, _On
the Nature of Things_, in which he explained the atomic theory of
Democritus which was the foundation of the philosophical teachings of
Epicurus. The essence of this doctrine was that the world and all living
creatures were produced by the fortuitous concourse of atoms falling
through space and that death was simply the dissolution of the body into
its component atomic elements. Consequently, there was no future existence
to be dreaded. True poetic value is given to the work by