[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 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 Hungary and 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 as a 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 peaceful citizens, 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.
[108]. The story of Vergil’s dying wish to burn the _Aeneid_ is
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 the _Aeneid_ from 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 in _Epistolae 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 the
_Anthologia_ (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.