Abstract
Titus Lucretius Carus wrote On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) in the first half of the first century BC in six books and (at least) 7409 hexameters to free his friend Memmius and everybody else who happened to read his poem, from the fear of gods and death, and so be able to live a happy life. On the Nature of Things is both a didactic poem and an epic, hailing Lucretius’ philosopher hero Epicurus as the first man (or rather god!) to give a complete, atomistic and irrefutable explanation of everything going on in the world. Lucretius’ literary model was Quintus Ennius, “father of Roman poetry,” and his verses have a weight and majesty and a depth of passion, which have caused critics to rank him as the equal of Virgil, if not his superior
There is an engraving that portrays the grave of Napoleon. Two large trees overshadow the grave. There is nothing else to be seen in the picture, and the immediate spectator will see no more. Between these two trees, however, is an empty space, and as the eye traces out its contour Napoleon himself suddenly appears out of the nothingness, and now it is impossible to make him disappear. The eye that has once seen him now always sees him with anxious necessity.
S. Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony (1841, p. 56)
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Notes
- 1.
Friendship was highly valued in Epicureanism: “Friendship goes dancing round the world proclaiming us all to awake to the praises of a happy life” (Epicurus, Bailey 1926, p. 115). On the shithead Memmius see Smith, pp. xlvi ff.
- 2.
Kleve (1979). Cf. Kubbinga pp. 19 ff.
- 3.
Kleve (1999).
- 4.
On Epicurus in general cf. Rist. Short, but modern and instructive is Kubbinga, pp. 8–13.
- 5.
Formulations borrowed from Bailey in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1950, s. v. “Lucretius.” For Cicero’s high valuation of the poem cf. Smith p. xi.
- 6.
On St. Jerome’s statement cf. Smith pp. xviii ff.
- 7.
On the manuscripts of Lucretius cf. Smith pp. liv ff.
- 8.
On Isaac Beeckman see Kubbinga pp. 33ff.
- 9.
Kleve (1976).
- 10.
On the aftermath in general see Boyancé pp. 316ff. More literature in Der kleine Pauly s. v. “Lucretius,” section VI. On atomism in the tradition see Kubbinga pp. 29ff.
- 11.
Diels pp. VIa-b.
- 12.
On the method of Piaggio cf. Sider pp. 46ff.
- 13.
Gigante (1990).
- 14.
Kleve (1989).
- 15.
Kleve 1991. Before his death Fosse started experiments to read scrolls without actually opening them, by means of roentgen and ultra sound. D. Delattre (Paris) is conducting similar experiments today.
- 16.
Gigante-Capasso.
- 17.
Smith; Flores.
- 18.
Capasso (2003).
- 19.
Kleve (2007), cf. Delattre.
- 20.
Tjäder pp. 124–127 follows the cursive until the fourth century AD. For Roman script types in Herculaneum see Kleve (1994 p. 316); Sider p. 65.
- 21.
Lead from the water pipes in the Papyrus Villa has been found on the scrolls, cf. Störmer.
- 22.
Capasso (1991 pp. 223ff).
- 23.
- 24.
Kleve (2007, pp. 349, 351, 352).
- 25.
Capasso (1991, pp. 219f.).
- 26.
Crusius pp. 49 f.
- 27.
Bailey (1950) ad loc.
- 28.
Cf. Der Kleine Pauly s. v. “Lucretius,” section V.
- 29.
The last part of the “fourfold remedy” (τετραφάρμακος), the first part being: “God is not to be dreaded/death not to be feared,” Arrighetti [196].
- 30.
- 31.
Gigante (2002).
- 32.
Kleve (1997).
- 33.
Sedley.
- 34.
Gigante (1979, p. 53).
- 35.
Internet: http://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/Lucretius-Herculaneum/PHerc0395 (The pictures in the present article are my own. They are mostly clearer than the official ones because they are in colors and taken at a closer range.)
- 36.
Beer pp. 76f.
- 37.
Beer pp. 76, 82.
- 38.
The vertical clefts in the papyri are a result of compression from rubble, ashes and lava during the eruption of Vesuvius. On how they can be helpful in text reconstruction see Nardelli.
- 39.
On the spelling graemina for gramina see Kleve (2007, pp. 349, 352).
- 40.
- 41.
On the metrically impossible tum see Kleve (2007, pp. 349, 352); Flores ad loc.
- 42.
Bibliography and Abbreviations
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Bailey 1950 = Titi Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex, ed. C. Bailey, Vol. I–III, Oxford: Clarendon 1950.
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Boyancé, P., Lucrèce et l’épicurism, Paris: Loūvain 1963.
Capasso 1991 = M. Capasso, Manuale di papirologia ercolanese, Congedo Editore 1991.
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Diels = Lucretius, De rerum natura : lateinisch und deutsch von Hermann Diels, Bd. 2, Berlin: Weidmann 1924.
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Kleve 2007 = K. Kleve, Lucretius Book II in PHerc. 395, Akten des 23. internationalen Papyrologenkongresses 2001, Vienna 2007, 347–354.
Kleve 2010 = K. Kleve, Lucretius Herculanensis, PHerc. 395, and disegno oxoniense 1615, Cronache Ercolanesi 40, 2010 (in press).
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Nardelli, M. L., Ripristino topografico di sovrapposti e sottoposti in alcuni papiri ercolanesi, Cronache Ercolanesi 3, 1973, 104–115.
PHerc. = Papyrus Herculanensis (Naples).
PHerc.Paris. = Papyrus Herculanensis Parisinus (Paris).
Rist, J. M., Epicurus: An Introduction, Cambridge 1972. CUP Archive.
Sedley, D., How Lucretius Composed the De rerum natura, in: K. A. Algra, M. H. Koenen and P. H. Schrijvers (eds.), Lucretius and His Intellectual Background, Amsterdam 1997, 1–19.
Sider, D., The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, Los Angeles: Getty 2005.
Smith = Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (Loeb Classical Library), trans. W. H. D. Rouse, rev. M. F. Smith, London: Harvard U.P. 1992.
Sottoposto = lower papyrus layer (belonging nearer the beginning of the scroll).
Sovrapposto = higher papyrus layer (belonging further inside the scroll).
Störmer, F. C., Kleve, K., Fosse, B., What happened to the papyri during the eruption of Vesuvius? Cronache Ercolanesi 16, 1986, 7–9.
Tjäder, J. O., Skrift, skrivande och skrivkunnighet i det romerska världsriket, in: Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala, Årsbok 1981–82, 83–127 (Italian version: Considerazioni e proposte sulla scrittura latina nell’età romana, Palaeographica diplomatica et archivista, Studi Battelli I, Roma 1977, 31–60).
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Kleve, K. (2011). The Puzzle Picture of Lucretius: A Thriller from Herculaneum. In: Buchwald, J. (eds) A Master of Science History. Archimedes, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2627-7_6
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