Notes onFam.,XXIV, 11,to Vergil
[101]. An allusion by Petrarch to the statement which he himself makes in the second letter to Cicero,Fam., XXIV, 4. (Consult n. [17]of that letter.)
[102]. St. Jerome,Chron., (Migne, Vol. XXVII, coll. 453, 454): “M. Annaeus Lucan of Cordova, a poet, having been detected as participating in the conspiracy of Piso, held out his arm to the physician that his veins might be opened.” This statement was taken from Suetonius (Rel., p. 299, ll. 10-12 [Teubner]), who gives the further detail that Lucan committed suicide at the close of a splendid banquet—“epulatusque largiter” (op. cit., p. 300, ll. 3, 4; Reifferscheid,Rel., p. 52, ll. 1, 2). The statement of the commentator Vacca on the subject—“venas sibi praecidit” (Reiff.,op. cit., p. 78, l. 6)—cannot be considered the source of Petrarch’s “arterias medico dedit ille cruento” (Vol. III, p. 291, l. 2), because the word “medicus” does not appear therein, as it does in the passage cited from St. Jerome (Suetonius).
[103]. Again St. Jerome is the authority.Chron.,(Migne, Vol. XXVII, coll. 425, 426): “Titus Lucretius the poet is born, who in later years went mad because of a love philter. And although in the intervals of lucidity he composed several books (which Cicero afterward corrected), he committed suicide in the forty-fourth year of his age.”
[104].Aeneid, vi, 898, and Conington’s translation, p. 215:
Conversing still, the sire attendsThe travellers on their road,And through the ivory portal sendsFrom forth the unseen abode.
Conversing still, the sire attendsThe travellers on their road,And through the ivory portal sendsFrom forth the unseen abode.
Conversing still, the sire attends
The travellers on their road,
And through the ivory portal sends
From forth the unseen abode.
[105]. Queen Joanna (the granddaughter and successor of King Robert, who died January 19, 1343) had been espoused while still a child to her cousin Andrew. The latter’s manners were rough and uncouth and “more worthy of his native country, than of that polished court wherein he had been bred.” After being tolerated for some time, he was one night seized, strangled, and thrown out of a window of the Castle of Aversa (September 18, 1345). Queen Joanna was at once accused of having been privy to the crime, although there was no actual proof to that effect. To avenge Andrew’s death, his brother, Louis I the Great, king of Hungaryand Poland, successfully invaded the kingdom of Naples in the end of 1347. The Black Death obliged him to return to his own country the following year, whereupon Queen Joanna returned, and carried on a desultory warfare with the Hungarian party in Naples. In 1350 King Louis made a second expedition against Naples, but he soon found it more difficult to retain the kingdom than it had been to conquer it. And since affairs at home required his presence, he agreed to a treaty in 1351 and left Naples. The city was soon recovered by Queen Joanna (in 1352) whose reign continued for many years, undisturbed by any attack of a foreign enemy (Hallam, Vol. I, pp. 347, 348, and Lodge,The Close of the Middle Ages, pp. 152, 153). The period of suspense mentioned by Petrarch must, therefore, have been from the assassination of King Andrew (1345) to the treaty agreed upon in 1351, which accords fully with the date 1349 assigned to this letter by Fracassetti (Vol. 5, p. 182).
[106]. The family of the Gonzaga. After the murder of Rinaldo Buonacolsi (surnamed Passerino) and after the defeat of his followers (1328), Luigi Gonzaga became captain-general of Mantua. This dignity was confirmed asa hereditary title by Louis IV of Bavaria, who in 1329 nominated him imperial vicar. Luigi thus became Louis I, the founder of a new ducal house which furnished the lords of Mantua uninterruptedly for four centuries. The direct line became extinct in 1708.
In 1348 the sons of Louis I of Mantua, Filippino and Guido, defeated the allied forces of the Visconti, Scaligeri, and Estensi, under the command of Lucchino Visconti at Borgoforte, a village fourteen kilometers south of Mantua, and beat back the Milanese a second time in 1357. The praise bestowed by Petrarch must have been due to the victory won by the Gonzaga in 1348. And a truly remarkable victory it was, considering the great success which attended the efforts of the Visconti to bring the ruling houses of Italy under the power of the Viper (cf. J. A. Symonds,The Age of the Despots[London 1897], pp. 113, 114).
[107]. Petrarch was most sadly disappointed in Rienzo’s failure and the consequent anarchy at Rome.
Rome was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who detested each other and despised the commons; their hostile fortresses, both in town and country, again rose and were again demolished; and the peacefulcitizens, a flock of sheep, were devoured, says the Florentine historian, by these rapacious wolves. But, when their pride and avarice had exhausted the patience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary protected or avenged the republic; the bell of the Capitol was again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled in the presence of an unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of the altar (Gibbon, Vol. VII, p. 276).
Rome was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who detested each other and despised the commons; their hostile fortresses, both in town and country, again rose and were again demolished; and the peacefulcitizens, a flock of sheep, were devoured, says the Florentine historian, by these rapacious wolves. But, when their pride and avarice had exhausted the patience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary protected or avenged the republic; the bell of the Capitol was again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled in the presence of an unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of the altar (Gibbon, Vol. VII, p. 276).
And with equal eloquence, Gregorovius exclaims (Vol. VI, Pt. I, pp. 318, 319):
The unlucky fugitive (Rienzo), however, cherished one satisfaction; this was the state of wild anarchy to which the city had reverted, after having enjoyed peace and order under his government. Disunion prevailed among both people and nobility; family wars both within and without; robbery and crime in every street.
The unlucky fugitive (Rienzo), however, cherished one satisfaction; this was the state of wild anarchy to which the city had reverted, after having enjoyed peace and order under his government. Disunion prevailed among both people and nobility; family wars both within and without; robbery and crime in every street.
[108]. The story of Vergil’s dying wish to burn theAeneidis well known. Petrarch learned it from Donatus. Also the statement concerning the command of Augustus is to be found in Donatus (Vita Verg., XV, 56, p. 63 R), who cites the verses by Sulpicius containing the allusion to the rescue of theAeneidfrom these “second flames” (op. cit., 57, p. 63 R: “et paene est alio Troia cremata rogo.” Compare Baehrens,Poetae latini minores, Vol. IV, p. 182,No. 184, where the lines are ascribed to Servius Varius).
Petrarch, moreover, knew the story of the rescue also from the famous poem “Ergone supremis,” to which he makes two distinct references: one inEpistolae Poeticae, II, 3, last 2 verses,Opera, III, p. 90 (P. de Nolhac, I, p. 125, n. 1, and Sabbadini,Rend. del R. Ist. Lomb., [1906], p. 197); the other in a marginal note to Servius’ life of Vergil, at the words “hac lege iussit emendare,” where Petrarch says, “Super hoc elegantissimo carmine se excusans.” This is a clear reference to the poem “Ergone supremis” (Sabbadini,op. cit., p. 194).
This oft-mentioned poem is cited in the interpolated version of Donatus’ life of Vergil (XV, 58, p. 63 R). But it has already been proved doubtful whether Petrarch was acquainted with this version. (See above, second letter to Cicero,n. [17].) Hence it is more probable that Petrarch knew the “Ergone supremis” directly from theAnthologia(Baehrens,op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 179, No. 183, and Sabbadini,op. cit., p. 198).
Petrarch knew of two additional sources for the story. He refers to Macrobius (I, 24, 6), in a marginal note to Servius’ “praecepit incendi.Augustus vero,” saying, “de hoc Macrobio” (Sabbadini,op. cit., p. 193). And lastly, though Petrarch nowhere makes direct reference to it, he may have used also Pliny,N. H., vii, 30, 31.
Summary of sources in order of importance: Anthologia Latina, Macrobius, Donatus.