Untangling a legend
Separate the dates, the love potion, the madness and Cicero’s editing in Jerome’s brief notice, and weigh each claim against earlier evidence.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Jerome translated and continued the chronicle of Eusebius around 380 CE, probably taking his notices on Latin poets from Suetonius. Written more than four centuries after the events by a Christian author, the story is widely treated as legend; manuscripts also differ on the year. Under a year around 94 BCE, Jerome’s Latin Chronicle records the birth of the poet Titus Lucretius and adds that a love potion drove him mad, that he wrote several books in intervals of sanity which Cicero later corrected, and that he took his own life in his forty-fourth year.
Following the arguments
Dates : The entry implies a birth around 94 BCE and a death around 51 BCE, which conflicts with the Life of Virgil linking the poet’s death to 55 BCE. Madness : The love potion and the intervals of insanity may reflect polemic against a poet who attacked passion and religion rather than reliable biographical memory. Editor : The claim that Cicero corrected the books is unconfirmed; scholars still debate which Cicero is meant and whether any editing took place at all.
Continuing the reading
Read the short Latin entry, separate each claim, and ask which details could derive from Suetonius and which from later moral polemic. Jerome translated and continued the chronicle of Eusebius around 380 CE, probably taking his notices on Latin poets from Suetonius. Written more than four centuries after the events by a Christian author, the story is widely treated as legend; manuscripts also differ on the year.
A late notice can preserve genuine dates while wrapping them in moral polemic, so each claim must be weighed separately.
Your turn to think.
- Which elements of Jerome’s notice can be checked against an earlier source, and which cannot?
- How might a Christian chronicler’s view of Epicureanism shape the story of a poet’s madness and suicide?
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