Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/51

Rh L U C L U C 37 Lucan, together with Statius, was preferred even to Virgil in the Middle Ages. So late as 1493 his com mentator Sulpitius writes : &quot; Magnus profecto est Maro, magnus Lucanus ; adeoque prope par, tit quis sit major possis ambigere.&quot; Shelley and Southey, in the first trans port of admiration, thought Lucan superior to Virgil ; Pope, with more judgment, says that the fire which burns in Virgil with an equable glow breaks forth in Lucan with sudden, brief, and interrupted flashes. In general, notwith standing the enthusiasm of isolated admirers, Lucan has been unduly neglected, but he has exercised an important influence upon one great department of modern literature by his effect upon Corneille, and through him upon the classical French drama. The most celebrated editions of Lucan are those by Oudendorp (1728), Burmann (1740), and Weber (1829). Bentley s emendations are brilliant, but unsafe. The most elaborate criticism is that in Nisard s Etudes sur Ics Poetes Latins de la Decadence, stern to the poet s defects and unkind to his deserts. Dean Merivale has some excellent observations in his History of Imperial Rome, chaps, liv. and Ixiv. Brebeuf s French version is celebrated. Christopher .Marlowe, a kindred spirit, translated the first book of the 1 harsalia into English, and there are other old versions by Sir Ferdinand Gorges and Thomas May. The latter s supplement is one of the best examples of modern Latin versification. Gorges s translation is in octosyllabic verse, and very curious. The standard English version, by Rowe, is one of the most successful translations in our language. It is somewhat too diffuse, but as a whole reproduces the vehemence und animation of the original with a spirit that leaves little to be desired. (R. G.) LUCANIA, in ancient geography, was the name given to a province of Southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west to the Gulf of Tarentum on the east, while to the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium, and Apulia, and to the south was separated by a comparatively narrow isthmus from the province of Bruttium, which forms the southern extremity of Italy. It thus comprised the modern province of the Basilicata, together with the greater part of the Principato Citeriore and a small portion of Calabria. The precise limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on the north-east; while the two little rivers L.IU3 and Crathis, flowing from the ridge of the Apennines to the sea on the west and east, marked the limits of the province on the side of Bruttium. Almost the whole of the province thus limited is occupied by the rugged masses of the Apennines, which in this part of Italy can hardly be said to constitute a range of mountains so much as a group of lofty masses, huddled together in a very irregular manner. The main ridge, however (if it be taken as determined by the watershed), approaches much more nearly to the western sea than to the Gulf of Tarentum, and is continued from the lofty knot of mountains immediately on the frontiers of Samnium, nearly due south, till it approaches within a few miles of the Gulf of Policastro, and thenceforward is separated from the sea by only a narrow interval till it enters the province of Bruttium. Just within the frontier of Lucania rises the very lofty group of Monte Pollino, the highest summit of which attains to an elevation of above 7000 feet, the greatest that is found in the southern Apennines. Towards the east the mountains descend by a much more gradual slope to the Gulf of Tarentum, constituting long ridges of hills which subside by degrees to the strip of plain that immediately adjoins the shores of the gulf. This narrow strip is somewhat wider from the mouth of the Bradanus to that of the Siris, and again expands to a considerable extent at the mouth of the Crathis, but between the two a group of rugged hills descends quite to the sea, and forms the headland of Roseto. The consequence of this constitu tion is that while the rivers which flow to the Tyrrhenian Sea are of comparatively little importance, those that descend towards the Gulf of Tarentum have much longer courses, and attain to a considerable magnitude. Of these the most important are the Bradanus (still called Bradano), which rises near Potentia, and enters the gulf just to the north of the ruins of Metapontum ; the Casuentus (Basiento), which has a course almost exactly parallel with the preceding ; the Aciris or Agri ; and the Siris or Sinno. The Crathis, which forms at its mouth the southern limit of the province, belongs almost wholly to Bruttium, but it receives a tributary, the Sybaris (Coscile), which flows from the mountains of Lucania. The only considerable stream on the western side of Lucania is the Silarus or Sele, which constitutes its northern boundary, and has two important tributaries in the Gal or or Galore, and the Tanagrus, which joins it from the south, after flowing through one of those trough-like upland valleys so characteristic of the Apennines. The province of Lucania was so called from the people of that name, by whom it was conquered about the middle of the 5th century B.C. Previous to that period it was included under the general name of Q^notria, which was applied by the Greeks to the whole of the southernmost portion of Italy. The mountainous regions of the interior were occupied by the tribes known as (Eootrians and Chones, while the coasts on both sides were occupied by Greek colonies, which attained to great power and pro sperity, and doubtless exercised a kind of protectorate over the interior also. (See GKJECIA MAGNA.) The Lucaninns were a Sabellian race, an offshoot of the Samnites of Central Italy, who pressed downwards towards the south until they gradually conquered the whole country (with the exception of the Greek towns on the coast) from the borders of Samnium and Campania to the southern extremity of Italy. Subsequently, however, the inhabitants of the peninsula which forms the extreme south (now known as Calabria) broke out into insurrection, and under the name of Bruttians succeeded in establishing their independence, after which the Lucanians became confined within the limits already described. After this time we find them engaged in hostilities with the Tarentines, and with Alexander, king of Epirus, who was called in by that people to their assistance, 326 B.C. It was immediately after this that they first entered into relations with Rome, with which they were sometimes in alliance, but more frequently engaged in hostilities, during the long-continued wars of the Romans with the Samnites. On the landing of Pyrrhus in Italy (281 B.C.) they were among the first to declare in his favour, and in consequence found themselves exposed to the full brunt of the resentment of Rome when the departure of Pyrrhus left his allies at the mercy of the victorious Romans. It was not, however, till after several campaigns that they were reduced to complete subjection (272 B.C.). Notwithstanding this lesson, the Lucanians again espoused the cause of Hannibal during the Second Punic War (216 B.C.), and their territory became the theatre of war during several successive campaigns, and was ravaged in turn by both contending armies. It is clear that the country never recovered the effects of these disasters, and under the Roman government Lucania fell into a state of complete decay, to which the Social War (90-88 B.C.) appears to have given the finishing stroke. In the time of Strabo the Greek cities on the coast, once so rich and flourishing, had fallen into utter insignificance, and the few towns of the interior were poor places of no importance. A large part of the province was given up to pasture, and the mountains of the interior were covered with vast forests, which abounded in wild boars, bears, and wolves. The towns on the east coast, adjoining the Gulf of Tarcntnm, were Metapontum, a few miles south of the Bradanus ; Heraclca,