I began thinking about the fact that there are people who strive for immortality of fame by their deeds, writings, and such, also by sepulchral statues and other things. These things show that something was moving them to long for immortality, even though they knew they were going to die. Most of them hardly believed that they would live after death, as was certainly the case with the Romans, who were known to have striven for immortality more than others. They would expose themselves to death for the sake of their country, if only their name might live on after their death. Many of them hardly thought at all about immortality of the soul, or a life after death.