Note 2 — Chapter XI

Woltier in Phil. Jahrb. cxxix, referred to in Schmidt's Catullus, attempts to show by an examination of the dates assigned for the birth of Lucretius, that he was born in 97 b.c. and died in 53 b.c. But the most definite statement we have is that he died on the day in which Virgil assumed the toga virilis, and that was in the second consulship of Pompey and Crassus, i.e. 55 b.c. Besides both tradition and internal evidence lead to the conclusion that his poem was not given to the world till after his death, and it certainly had been read by both the Ciceros early in 54 b.c. F. Marx in the Rheinisches Museum, 'de aetate Lucretii,' holds that he was born in 97 b.c., and died in his 42nd year, b.c. 55. He makes a more important contribution to the controversy in the remark 'acceptissima vero Enniana Lucretii poesis fuisse putanda est Ciceroni.' Whether Lucretius died in his 44th or 42nd year cannot be of much consequence to anybody; and, in the general uncertainty of Jerome's dates, it seems impossible to determine it one way or other.