Michael Marullus (c. 1453/4&ndash;1500), born in Greece, began life as a mercenary soldier but became a prominent Neo-Latin poet and scholar who worked in Florence and Naples. He married the beautiful and learned Alessandra Scala, daughter of the humanist Bartolomeo Scala, chancellor of Florence, and his <i>Epigrams</i> bring alive the circle of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de&rsquo;Medici. Among Marullus&rsquo; influences were ancient Greek texts such as the Homeric and Orphic hymns, the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i>, the hymns of Proclus, Cleanthes, and Callimachus, and Julian the Apostate&rsquo;s <i>Hymn to the Sun</i>. Marullus was particularly important, however, as one of the first Renaissance poets to imitate the works of Lucretius, and one witness reported that, after his death by drowning, a copy of the Roman poet&rsquo;s works was found in his saddlebag. Later poets imitated him in vernacular love poetry, especially Ronsard; he even appears as a shadowy figure in the pages of George Eliot&rsquo;s <i>Romola</i>, where he is depicted as a confirmed pagan. This edition contains Marullus&rsquo; complete Latin poetry. All of these works appear in English translation for the first time.