A Roman poet of whose personal history nothing is known, only that he was the author of a poem entitled "De Rerum Naturâ," a philosophic, didactic composition in six books, in which he expounds the atomic theory of Leucippus, and the philosophy of Epicurus; the philosophy of the work commends itself only to the atheist and the materialist, but the style is the admiration of all scholars, and has ensured its translation into most modern languages (about 95-31 B.C.).