The happiness of the pair was suddenly destroyed, for Lucretius found himself named in the fatal lists.[246] He seems to have been in the country, not far from Rome, when he received a message from his wife, telling him of impending peril that he might have to face at any moment, and warning him strongly against a certain rash course--perhaps an attempt to escape to Sextus Pompeius in Sicily, a course which cost the lives of many deluded victims.
She implored him to return to their own house in Rome, where she had devised a secure hiding-place for him.

She meant no doubt to die with him there if he were discovered.
He obeyed his good genius and made for Rome, by night it would seem, with only two faithful slaves.

One of these fell lame and had to be left behind; and Lucretius, leaning on the arm of the other, approached the city gate.

Suddenly they became aware of a troop of soldiers issuing from it, and Lucretius took refuge in one of the many tombs that lined the great roads outside the walls.

They had not been long in this dismal hiding when they were surprised by a party of tomb-wreckers--ghouls who haunted these roads by night and lived by robbing tombs or travellers.