THE LIFE OF LUCAN

MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS of Corduba made his first appearance as a poet with a "Eulogy of Nero" at the emperor's Quinquennial Contests," and then gave a public reading of his poem on the "Civil War waged between Pompey and Caesar. kind of introduction to the latter, comparing his time of life and his first essays with those of Vergil, he had the audacity to ask :

In a

"How far, pray, do I fall short of the Culex b "? In his early youth, learning that his father was living in the remote country districts because of an unhappy marriage. He was recalled from Athens by Nero and made one of his intimate friends, besides being honoured with the quaestorship; but he could not keep the emperor's favour. For piqued because Nero had suddenly called a meeting of the senate and gone out when he was giving a reading, with no other motive than to throw cold water on the performance, he afterwards did not refrain from words and acts of hostility to the prince, which are still notorious. Once for example in a public privy, when he relieved his bowels with

a See Nero, xii. 3.

Or perhaps, "How much younger am I than the author of the Culex?" Lucan compares his great epic, written at an earlier age, with Vergil's early work. Cf. Stat. Silv. 2. 7. 73, haec (=Pharsaliam) primo iuvenis canes sub aevo, Ante annos culicis Maroniani. c Cf. Claud. xli. 1.

clariore cum strepitu1 ventris emissi 2 hemistichium Neronis magna consessorum fuga pronuntiarit :

"Sub terris tonuisse putes."

Sed et famoso carmine cum ipsum tum potentissimos amicorum gravissime proscidit. Ad extremum paene signifer Pisonianae coniurationis exstitit, multus 3 in gloria tyrannicidarum palam praedicanda ac plenus minarum, usque eo intemperans ut Caesaris caput 5 proximo cuique iactaret. Verum detecta coniuratione nequaquam parem animi constantiam praestitit; facile enim confessus et ad humillimas devolutus preces matrem quoque innoxiam inter socios nominavit, sperans impietatem sibi apud parricidam principem profuturam. Impetrato autem mortis arbitrio libero codicillos ad patrem corrigendis quibusdam versibus suis exaravit, epulatusque largiter brachia ad secandas venas praebuit medico. Poemata eius etiam praelegi memini, confici vero ac proponi venalia non tantum operose et diligenter sed inepte quoque.

2

1 strepitu, B; crepitu, P; trepitu, M.

Regarded by Reiff. as due to dittography.

3 multus, Omnibonus; multis, mss.

praedicanda, some late mss.; praedicenda, MBP. 5 Genthe marks a lacuna; so Francken.

an uncommonly loud noise, he shouted out this half line of the emperor's, while those who were there for the same purpose took to their heels:

"You might suppose it thundered 'neath the earth.”

He also tongue-lashed not only the emperor but also his most powerful friends in a scurrilous poem. Finally he came out almost as the ringleader in the conspiracy of Piso, publicly making great talk about the glory of tyrannicides, and full of threats, even going to the length of offering Caesar's head to all his friends. But when the conspiracy was detected, he showed by no means equal firmness of purpose; for he was easily forced to a confession, descended to the most abject entreaties, and even named his own mother among the guilty parties, although she was innocent, in hopes that this lack of filial devotion would win him favour with a parricidal prince. But when he was allowed free choice of the manner of his death, he wrote a letter to his father, containing corrections for some of his verses, and after eating heartily, offered his arms to a physician, to cut his veins. I recall that his poems were even read in public, while they were published and offered for sale by editors lacking in taste, as well as by some who were painstaking and careful.

a

Literally, standard-bearer.

That is, lectured on by grammarians; see Gr. i.

VITA PLINII SECUNDI 1

PLINIUS SECUNDUS Novocomensis equestribus militiis industrie industrie functus procurationes quoque splendidissimas et continuas summa integritate administravit, et tamen liberalibus studiis tantam operam dedit, ut non temere quis plura in otio scripserit. Itaque bella omnia, quae unquam 2 cum Germanis gesta sunt, XX3 voluminibus comprehendit, itemque "Naturalis Historiae XXXVII libros absolvit. Periit clade Campaniae; cum enim Misenensi classi praeesset et flagrante Vesubio ad explorandas propius causas liburnica 5 pertendisset, nec adversantibus ventis remeare posset, vi pulveris ac favillae oppressus est, vel ut quidam existimant a servo suo occisus, quem aestu deficiens ut necem sibi maturaret oraverat.7

:

4

1 Mss. various manuscripts of Pliny, dating from the eleventh to the fifteenth century. V cod. Vaticanus, 1951, fifteenth century; T = cod. Toletanus, thirteenth century. 2 umquam] undique, V. 3 XX], the mss. have XXXVII. clade, Hermolaus Barbarus; gades (gadis, V) or grades,

m88.

THE LIFE OF PLINY THE

ELDER

PLINIUS SECUNDUS of Novum Comum, after performing with energy the military service required of members of the equestrian order, administered several important stewardships in succession with the utmost justice. Yet he gave so much attention to liberal studies, that hardly anyone who had complete leisure wrote more than he. For instance, he gave an account in twenty volumes of all the wars which were ever carried on with Germany, besides completing the thirty-seven books of his "Natural History." He lost his life in the disaster in Cam- 79 A.D. pania. He was commanding the fleet at Misenum, and setting out in a Liburnian galley a during the eruption of Vesuvius to investigate the causes of the phenomenon from nearer at hand, he was unable to return because of head winds. He was suffocated by the shower of dust and ashes, although some think that he was killed by a slave, whom he begged to hasten his end when he was overcome by the intense heat.

6

5 laburnica, T; the other mss. have liburnicas (V) or liburnicam. pertendisset, Burmann; praetendisset, mss. 7 oraverat, mss.; oraverit, Vinetus.

a See Calig. xxxvii. 2.