Lucilia

Lucilia is believed to have been the wife of the Roman philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC), though there is little evidence of their relationship, let alone marriage. Moreover, Lucilia was not identified with the wife of Lucretius until many centuries after the latter's death. In Walter Map's twelfth-century work De nugis curialium, "Lucilia" is the name of a woman who murders her husband by giving him a potion that causes him to go insane.

Chronological development of the story of Lucilia Fourth century St. Jerome contributed to our understanding of Lucretius's death when he wrote:

The poet Titus Lucretius was born. In later life he was sent mad by a love potion; in the intervals of his madness he composed a number of books, later edited by Cicero. He died by his own hand at the age of forty-four.

Whether this account of Lucretius's death is historically accurate is a matter of dispute. What is certain, however, is that St. Jerome's biographical account of Lucretius influenced later writers.

Thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Vincent of Beauvais (Spec. Hist. 5.95), Pseudo-Walter Burley, and Guglielmo da Pastrengo, copy Jerome's account of Lucretius's death. Although writing after Walter Map, they merely copy Jerome's earlier account, without mentioning the name "Lucilia."

A medieval scholar attributed an epigram to Lucretius on verse 419 of Ovid's Ibis. In the epigram, Lucretius, speaking through a character named 'Almenicus', talks about a boy, perhaps a lover,

In the Wife of Bath's Tale, the Wife retells the stories of Livia and Lucilia (as well as several others) which her husband had read from his copy of "Valerie" (that is, Walter Map's Dissuasio Valerii mentioned above ).

In other manuscripts, "Lucilia" appears in place of "Lucia."

Fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the first to associate Lucretius's death with a female figure, albeit without using the name "Lucilia." He wrote:

[Lucretius] lived forty-four years, and at last, driven mad by the noxious potion of an evil woman, he resolved to take his own life by hanging himself or else, as others think, he fell on his sword.

was the first to associate a woman named 'Lucilia' with the death of Lucretius.

and Lambin speculated on the nature of the relationship between Lucilia and Lucretius.

Pomponio Leto also speculated on the nature of Lucretius's love life, though he offered a different story.