(W. Y. S.)
Authorities.—The two most ancient manuscripts of Lucretius, O and Q, are both at Leiden, one being a folio (oblongus) and the other a quarto (quadratus). Upon these alone the modern texts are founded. The scientific editing of the text began with C. C. Lachmann (1852) whose work still holds the field. The most important commentary is that of H. A. J. Munro (4th ed., 1886) with a prose translation. For the earlier editions it is sufficient to refer to the account in Munro’s Introduction, vol. i. pp. 3 sqq. Giussani’s complete edition (with Italian notes, 1896) and R. Heinze’s edition of book iii. (1897) are also of value. So too are A. Brieger’s numerous contributions in German periodicals and his text in the Teubner series (2nd ed., 1899).
The philosophy of Lucretius has been much studied in recent times. Amongst special treatises may be mentioned K. H. Usener’s Epicurea (1887); J. Woltjer’s Lucretii philosophia cum fontibus comparata (1877); John Masson’s Atomic Theory of Lucretius (1884) and Lucretius: Epicurean and Poet (1909); and several papers and treatises by Brieger and Giussani.
On the characteristics of the poet as a whole, C. Martha’s Le Poème de Lucrèce (4th ed., Paris, 1885) and W. Y. Sellar in chaps. xi. sqq. of the Roman Poets of the Republic, may be consulted. There are useful bibliographies in W. S. Teuffel’s History of Roman Literature (English trans. by G. C. W. Warr) and Martin v. Schanz’s Geschichte der römischen Litteratur.
The following translations into English verse are known: T. Creech (1683), J. M. Good (1805), T. Busby (1813), C. F. Johnson (New York, 1872), T. C. Baring (1884). There is also a translation by Cyril Bailey (Oxford, 1910).
[1] Ad Q. Fratr. ii. 9 (11), 13. Both sense and words have been much disputed. The general sense is probably that given by the following restoration, “Lucretii poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt multis hominibus ingenii multae etiam (MSS. tamen) artis, sed cum ad umbilicum (omitted in MSS.) veneris, virum te putabo, si Sallustii Empedoclea legeris, hominem non putabo.” This would concede Lucretius both genius and art, but imply at the same time that he was not easy reading.
LUCRINUS LACUS, or Lucrine Lake, a lake of Campania, Italy, about ½ m. to the N. of Lake Avernus, and only separated from the sea (Gulf of Pozzuoli) by a narrow strip of land, traversed by the coast road, Via Herculanea, which runs on an embankment, the construction of which was traditionally attributed to Heracles in Strabo’s time—and the modern railway. Its size has been much reduced by the rise of the crater of the Montenuovo in 1538. Its greatest depth is about 15 ft. In Roman days its fisheries were important and were let out by the state to contractors. Its oyster-beds were, as at the present day, renowned; their foundation is attributed to one Sergius Orata, about 100 B.C. It was also in favour as a resort for pleasure excursions from Baiae (cf. Martial i. 63), and its banks were covered with villas, of which the best known was Cicero’s Academia, on the E. bank. The remnants of this villa, with the village of Tripergola, disappeared in 1538.
See J. Beloch, Campanien, ed. 2 (Breslau, 1890), 172.