Life (39 -- 65 CE)

Born in Cordoba, Spain and educated at Rome, Lucan studied philosophy with the Stoic Cornutus. He was the grandson of Seneca the Elder and the nephew of Seneca the Younger. Nero invited him to join his literary circle before 60 CE. Lucan was involved in the Pisonian Conspiracy and was forced by Nero to commit suicide in 65 CE along with his father and both uncles.

Works

• Extant: De Bello Civili - Pharsalia (infinished, an epic in IO books)
• Fragments: Calacthonion, lliaca, Orpheus, Epigrammata
• Lost: Laudes Neronis, Silvae, Saturnalia, Salticae fabulae, De incendio urbis, Epistulae ex Campania, Prosa oratio in Octavium, Sagittam.

Bibliography

Ahl, F. M. Lucan, An Introduction (New York, 1976).

Brisset, J. Les idees politiques de Lucain (Paris, 1964).

Champin, E. " The Life and Times of Calpurnius Piso, " MH XLVI, 1989,1-124.

George, David B. "Lucan's Cato and Stoic Attitudes to the Republic," Classical Antiquities, XX, 1991, 237-258,

Johnson, W, R. " Momentary Monsters: Lucan and his Heroes," AJPH, CX, 1989, 371-375, Morford, M. P. 0. The Poet Lucan (Oxford 1967).

Thompson, L. and Bruere, R. T. "Lucan's Use of Vefgilian Reminiscence," Classical Philology, (1968) 1-21.

Style

Strengths

• straightforward, use of prosaic words
• new slant to epic form, political and historical
• adds personal point of view
• composed with speed and fluency

Weaknesses

• personal speeches in his own voice as if declaiming
• "has all the faults of a man who never blots a line"

Innovations

• Eliminated the "deorum ministerium from his epic
• The help of the gods was replaced with magic, omens, and witchcraft
• Fatum and fortuna and generalized dei provided theological basiss for his epic.

Models

• Homer and Ennius; rebelled against ornamentation of the time and of Vergil

Concrete, ordinarylanguage:

Uses vivid colors: red is his favorite color: blood!

Philosophy of Rome's present state: Nature and man suffer when human values are reversed. He preaches about the imminent rupture ol lex and ius.

First lines ol the poem:

Bella per Emathios plus quam civilia campos
iusque datum sceleri canimus...

Of wars more than civil on the plains of Thessaly I sing, ol right granted to crime...