Lucan: De bello civili Book II

253 Pages·1992·3.527 MB·English

by  Elaine Fantham

INTRODUCTION
1. DE BELLO CIVILI: THE POET
AND THE POEM
The De hello civili1 of M. Annaeus Lucanus was composed in less than
six years, between the young man's recall from Athens at the invitation
of the Emperor Nero, his near contemporary, in A.D. 59 and his death
by his own hand on 30 March A.D. 65. All that we know about his brief
career is drawn from notices in Tacitus, from Statius' Genethliacon
Lucani2 and from two ancient lives preserved in several early manu-
scripts of the De hello civilly one composed by Suetonius for his set of
poets' lives in the lost work De viris illustribus, the other attributed to
Vacca, a grammarian of uncertain date - perhaps the sixth century.3
Lucan was brought up under the influence of his uncle M. Annaeus
Seneca, and trained in both rhetoric and Stoic philosophy, which he
studied with Annaeus Cornutus.4 On his return from Athens Lucan
became one of Nero's official cohors amicorum and received a quaestorship
ahead of his age.5 At Nero's new cultural festival, the JVeronia of A.D. 60,
the poet won public acclaim for his encomium of the Emperor (the
1 Both De bello civili (the title found in most manuscripts) and Bellum civile (as
cited by Suetonius, Vita Lucani 5 and Vacca 58, 68) are used by modern editors
as titles of Lucan's epic, but it was long known as Pharsalia, because scholars had
construed Lucan 9.985-6 venturi me teque legent. Pharsalia nostra \ vivet, et a nullo
tenebris damnabimur aevo, as a reference to his chosen title. See Ahl, Lucan 326-
42.
2 Silvae 2.7, written for Lucan's widow Polla Argentaria twenty years after the
poet's death. For Polla, and the circumstances of the poem, see R. G. M. Nisbet,
' Felicitas at Surrentum', J.R.S. 68 (1978) 1-11.
3 For the texts with commentary see A. Rostagni, Suetonius: de poetis (Turin
1944, repr. Arno 1979) 142-9 (Suetonius; the beginning of this life is lost) and
178-86 (Vacca).
4 On Cornutus see Glenn W. Most,' Cornutus and Stoic allegoresis\ A.N.R. W.
11 36.3 (1989) 2014-65; for his influence on Lucan, 2053-6.
5 On the date of Lucan's quaestorship see Griffin, Nero 158, with
notes.
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