HEAD MASTER OF THE PROPRIETARY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STOCKWELL. TO WHICH IS ADJOINED THE POETICAL VERSION OF JOHN MASON GOOD. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLI. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE DAY OF NORWOOD PENYE HALLOWELL JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY." PREFACE. My business has been to give, in the following pages, a literal translation of the six books of Lucretius. This task I have carefully performed; and it will, I trust, be no presumption to say, that he who wishes to know what is in Lucretius, without perusing the original, will learn it from this volume with greater certainty than from any other previously offered to the English reader. The text immediately followed is that of Forbiger, which may, indeed, be rather called Wakefield's, for the one varies but little from the other. But I have not dismissed a single page of the translation without consulting the texts of Lambinus, Creech, and Havercamp, which are substantially the same, and, in many instances, far more satisfactory than Forbiger's. Concerning all disputed or obscure passages, I have diligently examined the commentators, especially Lambinus, who is almost instar omnium, Creech, and Wakefield; and have added explanatory notes, respecting either the subject matter, or the translation of particular words or phrases. The words which it has been found necessary to supply are distinguished by Italics. Where a participle and a verb, having a similar signification, come together in construction, they have occasionally been rendered as two verbs. Thus sparsus disjicitur would be translated is scattered and dispersed. The particle jam is sometimes omitted, and where a succession of copulative conjunctions occurs, which Lucretius uses superabundantly, one has occasionally been left out in the translation, or been rendered by while, as well as, or in some similar way, for the sake of variety. Any other deviations from the structure of the text, which in the least concern the student, are pointed out in the notes. Tu and tuus, in the addresses of the poet to Memmius or the general reader, are sometimes translated by thou and thine, and sometimes by you and your. Where Lucretius seemed to be particularly earnest, I have adopted the former mode, and in other cases the latter. J. S. W. REMARKS ON THE LIFE AND POEM OF LUCRETIUS. OF the life of Lucretius but little information has reached us. Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. That he was a Roman by birth, is inferred from the passages in his poem in which he speaks of the Roman world as his country,' and of the Roman language as his native tongue.2 As to the time of his birth, it is stated by Eusebius in his Chronicon, that he was born in the second year of the hundred and seventy-first Olympiad, or ninety-five years before Christ. At this period, Ennius had been dead about seventy years; Cicero was in his twelfth year; twenty-five years were to elapse before the birth of Virgil, and four before that of Julius Cæsar. His style, indeed, would make him seem older, but its antiquated character may be partly affected, in imitation, perhaps, of Ennius, for whom he expresses great veneration.3 Concerning his family nothing is known. The name of Lucretius, from the time of Lucretia downwards, occurs frequently in the history of Rome, with the surnames Tricipitinus, Cinna, Ofella, and others, attached to it; but with whom the poet was connected, or from whom descended, it is impossible to discover. There was a Lucretius Vespillo contemporary with him, a senator, mentioned by Cicero and Cæsar,5 of whom Lambinus conjectures that he may have been the brother; suggesting that the one brother, by engaging in public life, might have attained senatorial dignity, while the other, devoting himself to literature and retirement, might have 1 Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo, etc. i. 42. 2 I. 31; iii. 259. 3 I. 118. Cic. Brut. c. 48. 5 B. C. i. 18; iii. 7. 4 |