NOTES

I. potis is an indecl. adj.; cf. 1. 560 quid potis est, 1. 719 nec potis est cerni. The form pote, which is also used by Lucretius, is merely a weakened form of potis and is not the neuter. For instance we find qui potis est? Catull. 72. 7, how is it possible?' and conversely nec quisquam pote dicere, Catull. 67. 11, no one is able to say'. We also find potis used with plural auxiliary verbs. For the weakened form pote Duff aptly cites mage and magis.

potis pollenti pectore: notice the alliteration of thep and t: always be on the watch for alliteration in reading Lucretius: he often uses it when he wishes to drive a point home; cf. ll. 11-12 below, and 1. 53.

...

dignum. pro: the usual construction after dignum is the plain ablative, but it is followed also, though rarely, by pro and ad in Cicero and the poets: perhaps pro has the force 'in considera

tion of'.

pectore: the heart, not the head, was considered by Lucretius to be the seat of the intellect. See ll. 18, 103.

2. repertis here a subst., as in l. 13 below.

3. qui... possit: qui consecutive followed by the subj.

4. eius qui: Epicurus, the great master of Lucretius. His philosophy was based upon that of Democritus, mentioned in terms of great reverence 1. 622. See Introduction: The Philosophy of Epicurus.

5. parta... quaesita are probably synonymous terms; we shall find that Lucretius frequently employs repetition of words of similar meaning even where he does not intend to convey any especial force or meaning; cf. 1. 314. Others have taken it as a case of hysteron proteron, obtained and sought,' but this is most unlikely.

liquit: left to his intellectual heirs.

6. cretus, from cresco, has here the meaning 'sprung from ', with no sense of the meaning of increase usually conveyed by cresco. 7. si ut: an instance of hiatus: the quantity of si is shortened here; cf. 1. 74 qui in orbi. Duff: 'This hiatus is very common in Plautus and Terence and is even found in Horace si mě amas and Vergil tě amice.

8. deus ille fuit: deus as used by Verg. Ecl. v. 64 deus, deus ille, Menalca. For a similar expression cf. 1. 622 Democriti sancta sententia. See note, 1. 19.

Memmi: Gaius Memmius was a Roman noble of distinguished birth after holding the praetorship he served as propraetor of Bithynia. It was to this Memmius that Lucretius dedicated his poem. Whether he was actually worthy of the honour is open to doubt. The passage deus ille fuit, deus, qui princeps (= primus)

LUCR. v*

4I

vitae rationem invenit, Lucretius' praise of Epicurus, is perhaps imitated by Vergil in his praise of Lucretius, Georg. ii. 490 felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. Epicurus was in Lucretius' opinion the first to discover the truly wise method of living. The vocative appeals for special attention on the part of the reader. Cf. ll. 93, 164.

11-12. For the alliteration see note, 1. 1.

12. tranquillo: subst. So too in Verg. Aen.v. 127 tranquillo silet. 13. reperta: subst. as in 1. 2. Notice the omission of the copula; there are other instances (11. 24, 32, 295-6, 663).

15. vitigeni: the poetical form of the prose adjective vitigineus. instituisse orig. to plant, secondly to establish, institute, thirdly to teach: all three meanings are combined here. Notice the polysyllabic word at the end of the hexameter, very frequent in Lucretius contrast 1. 25.

16-18. We could live without corn or wine, substitutes might be found: we cannot live in the highest sense of the word without a pure heart.

17. Flesh-eating tribes which had not yet reached the pitch of civilization when agriculture is practised.

etiam nunc: see ll. 332, 333.

18. bene vivere, 'live a good life,' i.e. that of the truly wise man. pectore: here of the moral qualities; cf. 1. 1.

puro pectore: cf. 1. 43 at nisi purgatumst pectus.

19. hic: Epicurus.

deus: as in 1. 8, of persons. See L. & S. deus II, deus ille noster Plato, in Cicero. Cf. too the use of rex implying a great L. & S. rex B. 2. See note, 1. 8.

man.

20. didita dido (disdo) is used chiefly in the poets.

quo refers to Epicurus.

nunc etiam: for etiam nunc see l. 332.

21. vitae depends of course on solacia.

solacia: the contentment rising from a good conscience and the possession of a pure heart.

22. Herculis: if Hercules who was originally a hero, born of a god and a mortal, was deified for the temporal benefits conferred on mankind by him, surely Epicurus who revealed spiritual blessings to the world should also win a place in Heaven. The emphasis laid on Hercules is due to the fact that the Stoics had selected him as their typical hero.

23. ratione, 'reasoning.'

ferēre: for ferēris; this termination is avoided when confusion with the pres. inf. act. would result.

24. Nemeaeus hiatus... leonis: for Nemeaei: cf. Verg. Aen. viii. 526 Tyrrhenusque tubae clangor.

25. sus here we have a monosyllable at the end of the line; contrast 1. 15.

horrens, 'bristly.'

obesset as Duff notes, the protasis is si viveret understood, as posset, 1. 27.

=

26. denique: here as often in Lucretius porro, praeterea, not 'lastly'.

27. vallata: a strong word, lit. surrounded by a vallum, a palisade, or entrenchment.

posset is practically equal in meaning to obesset here.

28. tripectora: åñaş λey.; cf. Verg. Aen. vi. 289 forma tricorporis umbrae. Aesch. Ag. 870 calls him rpioparos. Notice the archaic genit. Geryonai; cf. 1. 69 lunai.

tergemini: poetical for trigemini. Observe how Lucretius piles up his epithets almost to redundance.

This line was supplied by Munro: he suggests that it may have fallen out from the fact that it began with quid as the preceding line.

29. officerent: as obesset above, 1. 25. These may be the Harpies.

30. Imitated by Verg. Georg.ii. 140 tauri spirantes naribus ignem. 31. propter: Duff observes that propter, meaning 'near', is frequently found, as here, after the word it governs; cf. 11. 623, 738. But contrast 1. 35. Cf. eum contra, l. 708, loca. . . inimica per, 1. 770.

32. aurea... fulgentia: see note, l. 13.

33. asper, acerba tuens: another line imitated by Verg. Aen. ix. 794. Observe the adverbial use of the adj. Cf. 1. 91 plura.

35. pelagi: genit. depending on severa used as a subst.; cf. 1. 417 pontique profunda. Others read pelage, a Greek plur, as in vi. 619. Cf. mele and cete from μέλος and κῆτος.

36. noster is opposed to barbarus and therefore is obviously for the prose nostras. With audet sc. adire.

37. de genere hoc: for huius generis: so too 1. 164.

38. In this line we have an apodosis with a double protasis si... forent... viva (= si viverent).

39. ita, 'to such an extent.'

satiatem: metri gratia for satietatem. Cf. 1. 184.

40. scatit: as in ll. 598, 952 scatère. Lucretius uses this verb both in the second and third conjugation; cf. l. 1095 fulgere. The proper construction is with the abl.

41. profundas: running deep back into the hills; nemora and silvas are practically the same; cf. note, l. 5.

42. quae translate as et ea.

est nostra potestas: Lucretius uses this periphrasis for possumus more than once.

43. purgatumst: purgatum est; the combination of these two syllables in crasis was less offensive to the Roman ear than actual elision in poetry, especially in the case of monosyllables as in the next line, tumst; cf. l. 131. The phrase is like puro pectore, l. 18. 43-4. proelia... pericula: note the use of the gerund in the active, instead of the passive gerundive, which would be the construction in prose. Lucretius uses the former construction not infrequently. It is found in Cic. de Senect. 2. 6 viam quam nobis ingrediendum sit. Duff: 'This construction was dropped by later writers, though

it was always kept in Greek, peλntéov tηv tóλw being as good as ὠφελητέα ἡ πόλις. For insinuandum at the end of the line see note, l. 15.

44. ingratis: contr. for ingratiis, from ingratia, not from ingratus. Both forms are used in prose and verse.

45. cuppedinis: used by Lucretius for cupido.

47. Observe the unusual, halting rhythm of the line; this is emphasized still further by the a of superbia before the sp of spurcitia being short. Poets of the golden age, for the most part, do not place a short vowel before sc, sp, st: it is not uncommon in Propertius, but cf. Ov. Her. v. 26 nostri littera scripta memor, and the still stronger instance, Lucretius vi. 195 pendentibu' structas. 1. 79 libera sponte.

48. luxus: probably plural, like desidiae, 'different instances of...' 49-50. subegerit... expulerit: perf. subj. after qui = cum is.

51. Surely this man is a true hero and deserves the name of god far more than the gods who are supposed to bestow temporal blessings on mortals.

numero divum : 1. 123 in deum numero.

dignarier : archaic for dignari, from the active verb digno, not the deponent dignor. Cf. 1. 166 largirier, 1. 475 labier, 1. 716 volvier, 1. 730 amplectier, 1. 766 perlabier.

53. immortalibu': a favourite suppression of final s in Lucretius: the usage is common also in the earlier Latin poets: final s, especially in short syllables, was sounded very lightly. Cf. 11. 456, 627.

de divis dare dicta: notice the alliteration; see note, 1. 1. Cicero tells us that Epicurus wrote a book Teрì Oev: we have only a few letters and some fragments and quotations left (kúpiai dóĝai, the creed of Epicurus).

suerit: perf. subj. for sūeverit. Cf. 1. 912 sŭēsse, but consuerunt, ll. 189, 661, 702.

54. rerum naturam: i.e. natural science.

dictis is more than mere words; it means 'sayings', 'doctrines', cf. l. 113.

55-75. Duff gives a useful hint for translating this long sentence: 'It may be split up into three sentences of four (55–8), five (59– 63), and twelve (64-75) lines each. In this case dum must not be translated.

56-7. quo quaeque ... rearrange for translation doceo quam necessum sit quaeque (from quisque) durare in eo foedere (law) quo creata sint.

durare is intransitive as in 1. 356.

necessum: archaic for necesse (neut. adj.); necessus is also found, see 1. 351.

58. nec: Munro, i.e. quamque non

tion of v.

59. Translate as a new sentence.

; notice the allitera

in primis primum, ' first and foremost,' cf. l. 336 primus cum

primis.

animi natura is nothing more than animus, the mind or reasoning, so in ll. 127, 132 and elsewhere in this book. See notes, 11. 69, 235, 239, 331, 370.

60. nativo: that had birth, and is therefore mortal and so must have an end = mortalis: so too in l. 66. Cf. iii. 417 nativos et mortales esse animos ut noscere possis. Cf. 11. 65–6, 238.

creta: as in 1. 6.

61. durare: intrans. as above, 1. 57.

incolumis: predicative.

62. simulacra solere : acc. and inf. after repertum est understood out of reperta.

62-3. Dreams do not prove that the soul is immortal just because we see in them persons that are dead: that is shown by the fact that we often dream of things happening to us which have never actually occurred.

63. cum videamur : cum is purely temporal, the subj. is probably due to the idea of repetition, properly it should be in the indic.; cf. 1. 681. Duff compares orav тOÛTO YévηTaι.

64-75. Translate as a fresh sentence.

quod superest: a favourite phrase of Lucretius (11. 91, 772), 'to proceed to what remains ', ' moreover'; rationis ordo, the logical sequence of my plan (or design),' sc. me with detulit.

65-6. mortali...nativum: see note, 1. 60.

nativum, as there, 'that had birth,' and therefore is mortali corpore,' of mortal body.'

reddunda: the archaic form of the gerundive; cf. the legal term res repetundae. Cf. gignundis, 1. 181, experiundo, 1. 428.

67. Compare ll. 416-17. congressus materiai, union of matter caused by the perpetual collision of atoms to which Epicurus attributed the creation of the world from chaos': see the Introduction: Philosophy of Epicurus. materies in Lucretius ὕλη.

ille is vivid, 'yon.'

materiai: archaic genit., cf. l. 354. Geryonai, 1. 28, and lunai, 1. 69, vitai, 1. 208, terrai, 1. 431, animai, l. 557, aquai, 1. 602, pilai, 11. 713, 720, 726, viai, l. 739.

68. fundarit: perf. subj. This subj. indirect questions after ratio reddunda sit. contrast 1. 115. See especially ll. 438–9.

and the following are Notice the asyndeton:

69. lunaique globum: a characteristic periphrasis for lunam; cf. animi natura, l. 59, and 1. 235 terrai corpus.

animantes as also in l. 431, this word is masc. to denote man, fem. to denote animals; it is also used in the neut. Observe the archaic genit.

70. nullo... tempore = numquam, but stronger; cf. 1. 878 sed neque Centauri, nec tempore in ullo esse queunt.

71. quove: for quoque, so too quidve for quidque. Munro believes this use of ve for que is due to a wish not to confuse the relative with quisque. So too in l. 776.

72. vesci = uti: cf. Pacuvius vesci armis, and Cic. Fin. v. 57