Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 BC)

Now, as in Tullias tombe, one lampe burnt cleare,
Unchang’d for fifteene hundred yeare,
May these love-lamps we here enshrine,
In warmth, light, lasting, equall the divine.

[J. Donne, Poetical Works, p. 125]

After the death of his daughter Tullia in 45 BC, the celebrated Roman lawyer, orator and statesman retreated from public life.[*] When her tomb was excavated in the Renaissance, it is alleged that a single lamp was found still burning in the airless gloom.

[Compendium of World History, p. 274]


Fun to be thirsty

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[*] See >Short-term Memory Impairment.