lder
was his grandfather, and Seneca the Younger his uncle), and seems
to have befriended the young Emperor Nero at an early age. He
was for several years a poet of some prominence in the Emperor's
court, and it is during this period that the "Civil
War"/"Pharsalia" was probably begun. However, Nero and Lucan's
friendship evidently soured, and in A.D. 65 Lucan joined
Calpurnius Piso's conspiracy to overthrow Nero. When the
conspiracy was discovered, Lucan was given the option of suicide
or death; he chose suicide, and recited several lines of his
poetry while he died (possibly Book III, l. 700-712).

Lucan's "Pharsalia" was left (probably) unfinished upon his
death, coincidentally breaking off at almost the exact same point
where Julius Caesar broke off in his commentary "On the Civil
War". Ten books are extant; no one knows how many more Lucan
planned, but two to six more books (possibly taking the story as
far as Caesar's assassination in B.C. 46) seem a reasonable
estimate.

It should be noted that, as history, Lucan's work is far from
being scrupulously accurate, frequently ignoring historical fact
for the benefit of drama and rhetoric. For this reason, it
should not be read as a reliable account of the Roman Civil War.
However, as a work of poetic literature, it has few rivals; its
powerful depiction of civil war and its consequences have haunted
readers for centuries, and prompted many Medieval and Renaissance
poets to regard Lucan among the ranks of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.

---DBK

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ORIGINAL TEXT --

Duff, J.D.: "Lucan: The Civil War" (Loeb Classics Library,
London, 1928). Latin text with English translation.

OTHER TRANSLATIONS --

Braund, Susan H.: "Lucan: Civil War" (Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1992). NOTE: Highly Recommended Translation!

RECOMMENDED READING --

Fuller, J.F.C.: "Julius Caesar -- Man, Soldier, and Tyrant"
(DaCapo Press, New York, 1965)

Gardner, Jane F. (Trans.): "Caesar: The Civil War" (Penguin
Classics, London, 1967). Also contains "The Alexandrian War",
"The African War", and "The Spanish War", all anonymous.

Getzer, Matthias: "Caesar, Politician and Statesman" (Harvard
University Press, Cambridge MA, 1968).

Holmes, T. Rice: "The Roman Republic" (Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1923). 3 Volumes.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the
Civil Wars, by Lucan

*** END OF THI