A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Polla Argentaria

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POLLA ARGENTARIA,

Wife of Lucan, the Latin poet, who wrote a poem on her merits, which is now lost, but her name is immortalized by two other poets of that age. Martial and Statins. Lucan was condemned to death by Nero; but the tyrant allowed him to choose the way in which he would die. He chose the warm bath and an open artery; but entreated his wife to live, and transcribe his great poem, the "Pharsalia;" which she promised him to do. It is said that, after his mournful death, she shut herself up in a solitary retreat, with the bust of Lucan beside her, and there carefully revised the three first books of the "Pharsalia."