"What has death to frighten man,
If souls can die as bodies can?
When mortal frame shall be disbanded,
This lump of flesh from life unhanded,
From grief and pain we will be free--
We shall not feel for we shall not be.
But suppose that after meeting Fate
The soul still feels in its divided state.
What's that to us? For we are only we
While body and soul in one frame agree.
And if our atoms should revolve by chance
And our cast-off matter rejoin the dance,
What gain to us would all this bring?
This new-made man would be a new-made thing.
We, dead and gone, would play no part
In all the pleasures, nor feel the smart
To which that new man shall acrue
Whom of our matter Time molds anew.
Take heart then, listen and hear:
What is there left in death to fear?
After the pause of life has come between,
All's just the same had we never been."
-Lucretius (Trans. Steven Saylor)
Cassius is an Epicurean by philosophy, and an ardent admirer of Lucretius. He is a great reader in general, however. He has a particular fondness for the Iliad of Homer, and for the dramatic works of Euripides.
"I hate and love. If you ask me to explain
The contradiction,
I can't, but I can feel it, and the pain
Is crucifixion."
-Catullus
In 'Pax Inter Pares,' Cassius works closely with the poet Catullus in creating anti-Caesar propaganda. His attraction to Catullus may be a little more than intellectual.
