Kleve, Knut

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Phoenix from the Ashes: Lucretius and Ennius in Herculaneum

University of Bergen

PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES:LUCRETIUS AND ENNIUS IN HERCULANEUMKnut KleveOtto Skutsch in memoriamThe Library in HerculaneumWhen the king of Naples dug for art treasures under the lava inHerculaneum in the 1750's, he also came upon a library consisting of twothousand heavily carbonized and petrified papyrus scrolls. By means of aglue method invented by A. Piaggio eight hundred scrolls were unrolledin the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The remaining one thousandand eight hundred scrolls were regarded as hopeless.1 In the 1980's,however, Piaggio's method was refined by the Norwegian Brynjulf Fosseand the opening of the scrolls has now started again in the NationalLibrary of Naples, where they are housed.2The papyri aroused great expectations when they were found. Onelooked forward to new tragedies of Euripides, the Annals of Ennius, andunknown books of Tacitus. The disappointment was great when whatcame to light were dry, philosophical works in Greek. The so-calledPapyrus Villa, where the library was found, turned out to be an Epicureanschool on Roman soil with Philodemus of Gadara, a contemporary ofCicero, as head master. Scores of treatises under his name were unrolled:"On Rhetoric", "On Signs", "On Death", "On Music", "On Economy", "OnPiety", "On the Gods", etc.3 When Fosse resumed the opening, ProfessorM. Gigante, who is the director of the international papyrus centre inNaples, prayed:"no more Philodemus!" There was, of course, morePhilodemus, but also something different and interesting which indicatesthat the old expectations had not been all that unrealistic.Some fifty Latin papyri had been unrolled using Piaggio's method butthey were so damaged that practically nothing could be read; an exceptionwas a poem by an unknown author on Octavian's victory at Actium.4 Newworks by Philodemus, on slander and on other philosophical schools,have come to light with Fosse's method, but also fragments from twoLatin authors: Lucretius and Ennius.LucretiusThe remains of the Lucretius papyri, crushed into numerous pieces, hadbeen stored away, without numbering, in a drawer. The pieces containedtext from De Rerum Natura , Books 3, 4, and 5 (an example is given in fig.1). This means that the whole of Lucretius had once been present in the li-brary of the Papyrus Villa.5The Norwegian Institute at Athens, 1991 (ISBN 960-85145-0-9)Knut Kleve41.Fig. I. Reconstruction of PHerc. senza numero from casetto CXIV, fr. A. Measuring rod = 0.5cm. Interpunction between words in the first line helps to identify the text as Lucretius V,1301-1302:let quam falciferos armaltum esclendere currus.IIinde boves lucas turritol corIpore, taetras.I«j›Fig. 2. Reconstruction of PHerc. 21, pezzo 2, fr. 1, lower part. Measuring rod = 0.5 cm.Transcript:IMUNDI >[1TUR•[1S[Distinction mark at end of first line. Interpunction after word ending second line.This discovery links Lucretius firmly with the Epicurean school inHerculaneum. Modern and popular theories advocating that Lucretius wasa lone wolf having no contact with contemporary Epicureanism have suf-fered a serious set-back. The exceptionally large letters in the Lucretiuspapyri6 as well as the thin quality of the papyrus7 point to the central po-sition of Lucretius in the school.The Microscope MethodA microscope method was of help in reading the blackened and tinyLucretius fragments.58Phoenix from the AshesThe text was microphotographed with colour slides, the slides putunder a stereomicroscope with an illumination from below, and thenstudied in magnification. The handwriting was copied by means of a draw-ing device attached to the microscope which gave an accurate representa-tion of the letters (cf. figs. 1-4).8This method is of general palaeographical interest and has also helpedgreatly in deciphering the Ennius text (figs. 2-4)./-1/".•:,111; \UFig. 3. Reconstruction of PHerc 21, pezzo 1, fr. 1. Measuring rod = 0.5 cm. Interpunction insecond line helps to identify line 2-4 as Ennius, Annales VI, 183-185 (Skutsch). An importanttool of identification was I. Vahlen's Ennianae poesis reliquiae, Index sermonis, which isvirtually a concordance, giving "non cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes."The Annals of EnniusPapyrus Herculanensis no. 21 was partly opened in 1965 by A.Fackelmann.9 In 1988 the unrolling of the papyrus was resumed by T.Starace using the method developed by B. Fosse.10The identification of the text was hampered by the state of the papyrusand the archaic forms of the Latin letters (cf. figs. 2-4). Before the unrollingwas resumed, the material was also too scanty to allow any certain identifi-cation. Professor F. Sbordone, who was the first to read the papyri in 1965,took it to be a sacred text,11 and for a while we thought it was a Romancomedy.12 That was before, however, a distinction mark (>) had been ob-served in one of the new fragments (see fig. 2). This sign is known fromthe Actium poem as indicating the end of a hexameter. In addition, inanother new fragment (see fig. 3) one could read the left part of verses 183-185, Book VI (Skutsch) from the Annals of Ennius. The verses containKing Pyrrhus" answer to Fabricius when the consul came to ransom theprisoners after the Battle of Heraclea:59›r"Knut KleveNam [[Ne]c mi [aurum posco nec mi pretium dederitisl. .Non c[auponantes bellum sed belligerantes]Ferro, n[on auro vitam cernamus utrique.113. ."Gold for myself I ask not; no, to me ye shall not pay a price. No chafferingwar, but waging war, not with gold, but with iron - thus let us of both sidesmake a trial for our lives" (Warmington's translation).When Lucretius has been found in Herculaneum, it is not surprisingthat Ennius should also be there.14 Ennius was Lucretius' master of poetry(cf. Lucr. I, 117, 121), and it is not impossible that it is Lucretius' own copyof Ennius we now see before our eyes.The Inglorious End of King PyrrhusThe theme of Book IV of Ennius' Annales was the war with Pyrrhus.Some of the new fragments appear to come from this book. The king's no-torious impudence (petulantia ) seems to be mentioned. Decius Mus de-votion in the Battle of Ausculum has apparently been described. The bookseems to end with the very name of Pyrrhus, in its Archaic form "Burrus",together with the coronis or the concluding sign which is known fromseveral Greek papyri from Herculaneum.15The papyrus is badly broken and most of the fragments are deplorablytiny. Best preserved is fragment 1 from pezzo (piece) 7 (cf. fig. 4). It has anextension that may give hopes of regaining something new of the Pyrrhusstory. The transcript runs as follows:12 lNUMQU[.]3 ]I;(-1-UR'. ir.JORAH.>[4 ]NT.ETAGiSI[.]S[5 ][.1NTRAg?[..]i[.]1ZA[6 ]AU'ERUNT. A;UR[7 ]REGES.SUD.[. ' •8 ]NTUR NEFizAT .[9 11 4MORSESTSETA[10 JERUNT.INDUP[ •11 ]..ETUIM'AR[12 ]ikei[.]A[Worth noticing are the interpunctuation (cf. fig. 1) between words inlines 3,4,6,7,8,10, and the distinction mark (cf. fig. 2) after line 3. The secondE in line 9 is inserted under the preceding T (cf. fig. 4). Lines 11 and 12 havebeen lost since 1965. They have been reconstructed from a photographtaken by Professor Sbordone (cf. note 11).60Phoenix from the AshesIn my presentation of the papyrus fragment in  Cronache Ercolanesi, Ihad restricted myself to just this transcript. But in a lecture which is whatthis paper started out as, it is tempting to let the imagination flow a littlemore freely.There is a certain story about Pyrrhus, related by Dionysos ofHalikarnassus, Appian, Diodorus Siculus, Cassius Dio, Livy, Plutarch, andothers,16 which could fit the expressions found in the transcript. It is thestory of how Pyrrhus, bankrupt after his Sicilian campaign, robbed thetemple of Porserpina in Locri and the dire consequences this sacrilege hadfor him.Already in line 1 we seem to be in the realm of death; ([0]rci) mightpoint to the temple of Porserpina at Locri. The ancient authors W.rite thatthe enormous wealth of the temple had never (numqu[a]rn, line 2) beentouched but was buried out of sight (in ora[s], line 3). of the multitude.17Pyrrhus had his scruples (cf. c[o]ntrar[ia] 'ilulra, line 5), but his financialneed was more (magis, line 4) presing.18.He plundered the temple andplaced the gold (aur[uml, line 6) in ships which he sent along toTarentum.19Then something happened which could scare even a king (regessuda[sse], line 7):20 a storm sprang up and, although the seamen perishedin *flie waves (cf. vi rnar[is], line 11), the ships laden with the treasures weredriven back safely.ahOre on to the beaches at Locri.21Pyrrhus tried to appease Porserpina with numerous sacrifices, even let-ting his own comrades (fratre[s], line 8), who had assisted him in thetemple robbery, be killed ([neca]ntur, line 8), but the goddess remainedinexorable.22r-•1114., •)11 1 ; å drIF iLt„,;ar=1.JEYLI,  #"1 ""1  121Fig. 4. Reconstruction of PHerc. 21, pezzo 7, fr. 1, lower part, left side = text lines 7-10.Measuring rod = 0.5 cm.61Knut KleveIt was because of this sacrilege, and not for any military reason, thatPyrrhus was defeated by the Romans.23 That Pyrrhus himself was notunaware of the wrath of the goddess, is shown by his own memoirs.24Porserpina even demanded his death which he met in Argos.25 In ourEnnius-text, the goddess seems to reveal herself (in a dream?) in order totell the king of his imminent end (lialm mors est, es et, line 9).Pyrrhus' last campaign (cf. inclup[ei.ator], line 10) took place in the Pelo-ponnesus against Antigonus.26 I3lutarch reports that Pyrrhus "saw thestormy sea that surged about him" 27 during a street fight in Argos,although in Argos he must have been on dry land indeed. Presumably hehad a vision of the storm which Porserpina had sent against his ships out-side of Locri (et vi mar[isl, line 1 1). The king was lightly wounded by anArgive soldier and turned upon the man. The soldier's old mother, whowas watching from the housetop, lifted up a tile and threw it at Pyrrhus.The king's neck was crushed, he fell from his horse and was beheaded byone of Antigonus's men.28We may perhaps add that this mother was Porserpina in disguise andclad in black (at[r]a, line 12).The Future of Herculaneum StudiesIn 1985 the Piaggio Laboratotry was established in the Officina dei Papiri inthe National Library in Naples. This has greatly forwarded the new gluemethod of unrolling the papyri.29A method of removing so called svrapposti by means of an alcohol so-lution has also been developed by B. Fosse.30 Sovrapposti are layers ofpapyrus which conceal the underlying text. New texts have been revealedin Epicurus' On  Nature, Philodemus' On  Rhetoric and other works.Under the surveillance of F. C. Stormer the insects which house in thepapyrus collection,31 the ink used in the papyri,32 and the curious whitecovering which can be observed on a large number of the scrolls, havebeen examined.33 The white stuff tells something about what happened tothe books during the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79; a cloud rose fromthe ground and covered the papyri, among other things with particles oflead. Lead does not regularly appear in lava. An obvious theory is that itstems from the plumbing system in Herculaneum.There already exists a computer-compiled concordance to Philodemusin the Officina.34 Two computer methods for the reconstruction of textshave been developed in pilot projects, mainly under the surveillance of E.S. Ore.35 So far, however, it has not been possible to put them to practicaluse owing to lack of funds and personnel. It is to be hoped that this situa-tion will not last very much longer. The methods may revolutioniseHerculaneum studies.The greatest difficulties for the text reconstruction are the numerouslacunae and the fragmentarily preserved letters. The one method can betermed lacunology; the computer can present possible supplements to thelacunae drawn from the whole of preserved Greek and Latin literature.62Phoenix from the AshesThe other method can be termed  literalogy;  by comparing fragmentary let-ters to whole letters from the same hand, the computer can assist in recon-structing the original letters.The possible applications of the methods go beyond the Herculaneumpapyri to papyrology in general, to epigraphy, to the reconstruction of allfragmentarily preserved texts, and even to the reconstruction of partiallypreserved artefacts.NotesI Cf. M. Capasso: Storia fotografica dell'Officina dei papiri ercolanesi ; Napoli, 1983, 116f f .2 B. Fosse, K. Kleve, F. C. Störmer: "Unrolling the Herculaneum Papyri"; CErc. 14, 1984, 9-15; M. Capasso: Nuovi esperimenti di svolgimento dei papiri ercolanesi ; Napoli, 1987; M.Capasso, A. Angeli: "Papiri aperti col metodo Osloense (1983-1989): descrizione eclassificazione"; CErc. 19, 1989, 265-269.3 Complete bibliography can be found in M. Gigante: Catalogo dei papiri ercolanesi ;Napoli, 1979.4 Cf. M. Gigante: op. cit. ; W. M. Lindsay: "The Bodleian Facsimiles of Latin Papyri fromHerculaneurn"; CR 4, 1880, 441-445.5 K. Kleve: "Lucretius in Herculaneum"; CErc 19, 1989, 5-27.6 Compare the size of the letters in fig. 1 with the Latin letters in figs. 2-4. The letters inthe Greek papyri are even smaller.7 Cf. the carta regia of Catullus 22.6.8 K. Kleve, E. S. Ore, R. Jensen: "Letteralogia: computer e fotografia"; CErc. 17, 1987, 141-150 (English version SO 62, 1987, 109-129).9 Fackelmann made some experiments in opening the papyri during the 1960's, buteventually gave up. Cf. M. Capasso: Op. cit., 1983, 122 ff.113K. Kleve: Ennius in Herculaneum ; CErc. 20, 1990.11 F. Sbordone: "Nuovi frammenti dei papiri ercolanesi"; PP 103, 1965, 107-113, esp. 108-110.12 K. Kleve: op. cit. , 1989, 6, n.9.13 A dot beneath a letter indicates that the letter can only be read partially.14 Cf. M. Gigante: Introduction to "La Villa dei Papiri" ; Second Supplement to CErc. 13,1983, 5; "La biblioteca di Filodemo" ; CErc. 15, 1985, 5.15 K. Kleve: op. cit., 1990.16 See D. Kienast: "Pyrrhus vom Epeirus"; RE XXIV, 47, Halbband, SP. 153, 49-63. Accordingto our reconstruction Plut. Pyrr. 34 should be added to the sources mentioned there (cf.Kienast: Sp. 161, 17 ff.). In relating the story we have used Cary's translation of Dionysos,White's of Appian, Moore's of Livy, and Perrin's of Plutarch.17 D. H. 20.9 (19.9); D. S. 27.4.2; Liv. 29.8.9, 18.4.18 D. H. loc. cit.; App. Sam. 12.1.19 D. H. loc. cit.;D. H. loc. cit., (19.10); App. Sam. 12.2; D. S. 27.4.3.21 D. H. loc. cit.; App. Sam. loc. cit.; Liv. 29.8.10-11, 18.5. The reason why the expression "vimaris" appears so late will be made clear below.22 App. loc. cit.; D. S. loc. cit.; Liv. 29.18.6; D. H. /oc. cit.; (9-10).23 D. H. loc. cit. 10 (19.11); Liv. loc. cit.24 D. H. loc. cit.25 Liv. loc. cit.26 Plut. Pyrrh. 22 ff.; Liv. loc. cit.; Aur. Vic. Vir ill. 35.10.27 Plut. Pyrrh. 34.1. B. Perrin's translation.28 Plut. loc. cit. 2f.63Knut Kleve29 Cf.  the article by Capasso, Angeli mentioned in note 2 and M. Gigante, M. Capasso: "Ilritorno di Virgilio a Ercolano";  SIFC, S.flI,  vol. 7.3° see the forthcoming issue of  Cronache Ercolanesi.31 F. C. Störmer  et  a/.: "Insects in Herculaneum Papyri";  CErc  16, 1986, 159.32 F. C. Störmer et. a/.: "Ink in Herculaneum";  CErc  20, 1990.33 F. C. Störmer et. a/.: "What Happened to the Papyri during the Eruption of Vesuvius?";CErc  16, 1986, 7-9.34 K. Kleve, J. Songstad:  A Concordance to Philodemus;  1975.35 K. Kleve, I. Fonnes: "Lacunology. On the Use of Computer Methods in Papyrology"; SO 56,1981, 157-170.64

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Phoenix from the Ashes: Lucretius and Ennius in Herculaneum

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