Note 281 — CHAPTER 1. BEFORE QUINTILIAN—CICERO, HORACE, SENECA THE ELDER, VARRO.
Reading edition
It is one of Ovid’s titles (v. infra) to credit as a critic that he did see the value of Lucretius, and expressed it in the well-known couplet (Amor., i. 15. 25)—
“Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,
Exitio terras quum dabit una dies.”
Virgil’s still better known quit-rent for his borrowings (Georg., ii. 490) is a mere praise of the Lucretian free-thought, with no reference to poetry. But the praise (no mean one) of having appreciated Lucretius better than any other Roman is due to Statius (v. infra, pp. 268-270).