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Lucilia is believed to have been the wife of the Roman philosopher Lucretius, though there is little evidence of their relationship, let alone marriage. Moreover, the name 'Lucilia' was not associated with Lucretius until many centuries after his death. In Walter Map's twelfth century work titled De nugis curialium, 'Lucilia' is the name of a woman who murders her husband by giving him a potion that causes him to go insane. It wasn't until 1511, in Pius's vita, that the name 'Lucilia' became associated with Lucretius. Some have even questioned whether this association was made-up for the sake of writing, that is, to maintain poetic form.

St. Jerome
St. Jerome contributed to our understanding of Lucretius's death when he wrote:

''The poet Titus Lucretius was born. In later life he was sent mad by a love potion; in the intervals of his madness he composed a number of books, later edited by Cicero. He died by his own hand at the age of forty-four.''

Whether this account of Lucretius's death is historically accurate is a matter of dispute. What is certain, however, is that St. Jerome's biographical account of Lucretius influenced later writers.

Walter Map
Walter Map mentions a woman named 'Lucilia' though he does not mention her in connection with Lucretius. Instead, he describes Lucilia as a woman who accidentally gives her husband a deadly potion when she had intended to give him a love potion. Day writes (in Latin):

''Liuia uirum suum interfecit quem nimis odit; Lucilia suum quem nimis amauit. Illa sponte miscuit aconiton, hec decepta furorem propinauit pro amoris poculo. Amice, contrariis contendunt uotis iste; neutra tamen defraudata est fine fraudis feminee, proprio id est malo. Variis et diuersis incedunt semitis femine; quibuscunque anfractibus errent, quantiscunque deuient inuiis, unicus est exitus, unica omnium viarum suarum meta, unicum caput et conuentus omnium diuersitatum suarum, malicia. Exemplum harum experimentum cape, quod audax est ad omnia queccunque amat vel odit femina, et artificiosa nocere cum vult, quod est semper; et frequenter cum iuuare parat obest, unde fit ut noceat et nolens. In fornace positus es; si aurum es, exibis aurum.''

Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Writers
Vincent of Beauvais, Walter Burley , and Guglielmo da Pastrengo are known to have written about the death of Lucretius. Though antedating Walter Map, they do not mention Lucretius in connection with Lucilia. Rather, their accounts of Lucretius's death parallel that of St. Jerome's.

A medieval scholar attributed an epigram to Lucretius on verse 419 of Ovid's Ibis. In the epigram, Lucretius, speaking through a character named 'Almenicus' talks about a boy named Asterion, who might have been a possible lover. He wrote:

''Cur puer Asterion crudelis? ne fuge amantem. Ne fuge, non equidem est effugiendus amor. Crudeli puero nihil est crudelius umquam. Crudeli puero nil mihi peius obest. Vis verum dicam? Sum mitis: ne fuge amantem. Ni fugias, nil te mitius esse potest. Sed iam non puer es, puero nil mitius umquam. Crudeli puero mihi peius obest.''

Girolamo Borgia
Girolamo Borgia was the first to associate Lucretius's death with a female figure. There was, however, no mention of a woman named 'Lucilia.' He wrote:

[Lucretius] lived forty-four years, and at last, driven mad by the noxious potion of an evil woman, he resolved to take his own life by hanging himself or else, as others think, he fell on his sword.

Johannes Baptista Pius
Johannes Baptista Pius was the first to associate a woman named 'Lucilia' with the death of Lucretius. He wrote:

''Morbi vi, iit fit, consiimtiin esse, sed, ut ejus obitiim faciant, scribunt, eum sibi ipsum manus attulisse: aliitaedio vitae, quod patriara suam ambitionc, avaritia, luxuria, discordia, etsimilibus civitatuin, qiiap diu floruerunt, et jam senescunt, morbis aestuare atque afflictari videret: alii aegritudine animi, quod memmii sui, qui in exilium pulsus erat, tristem casum aequo animo ferre non posset: alii iurore percitum, in quem Lucilia, sive uxor sive amica, amatorio poculo porrecto, eum imprudens adegerat, cum ab eo amari, non ei necem inferre, aut bonam mentem adimere, vallet. Quoniam autem de numero libronim a nostro poeta scriptorum nonnulli dubitarunt, et, levissiniis argumentis adducti, plures, quam sex, ab eo scriptos esse existimarunt, videturhic error minuendus, atque haec dubitatio tollenda. Omino igitur sex libros duntaxat de natura rerum scripsit T. Lucretius Carus''...

Tennyson
In his poem "Lucretius", Tennyson follows the tradition that Lucretius was driven mad by a love-potion, which was given to him by Lucilia, and perished by his own hand, His poem first imagines Lucilia greatly dissatisfied with the cooling of her husband's ardor for her after the first bloom of their marriage has passed, and her scheme to reinvigorate that flame: She brook'd it not; but wrathful, petulant, Dreaming some rival, sought and found a witch Who brew'd the philtre which had power, they said. To lead an errant passion home again. And this, at times, she mingled with his drink, And this destroy'd him; for the wicked broth Confused the chemic labour of the blood,...
 * 1) ^ Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1908). Works of Tennyson: Poems. London: Macmillan. p. 198. OCLC 8466953. 