vita
excedere venas sibi praecidit periitque pridie Kal. Maias Attico
Vestino et Nerva Siliano coss., xxvi. aetatis annum agens.'

Tac. _Ann._ xv. 70, 'Exin Annaei Lucani caedem imperat. Is, profluente
sanguine, ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab extremis cedere
spiritum fervido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit,
recordatus carmen a se compositum, quo volneratum militem per eius
modi mortis imaginem obisse tradiderat, versus ipsos rettulit, eaque
illi suprema vox fuit.'

Suetonius (corroborated by Tac. _Ann._ xv. 56) says that Lucan named
his mother as a fellow-conspirator.

'Verum detecta coniuratione nequaquam parem animi constantiam
praestitit. Facile enim confessus et ad humillimas devolutus preces
matrem quoque innoxiam inter socios nominavit, sperans impietatem sibi
apud parricidam principem profuturam.... Epulatus largiter brachia ad
secandas venas praebuit medico.'

Lucan married Polla Argentaria. Statius and Martial were her friends,
and seem to have kept up an observance of Lucan's birthday.

Cf. especially Statius, _Silvae_, ii. 7, on which the author, in his
preface to the book, says, 'Cludit volumen genethliacon Lucani, quod
Polla Argentaria, clarissima uxorum, cum hunc diem forte
consecraremus, imputari sibi voluit.'

Martial vii. 21, 22, and 23 are written on the subject of Lucan's
birthday.

(2) WORKS.

1. The only extant work of Lucan is _De Bello Civili_. This is the
title in the MSS., and in Petron. 118. The usual title comes from ix.
985, 'Pharsalia nostra vivet,' words which come after a list of places
in Greece and Asia immortalized by the poets, and which mean 'My story
of Pharsalus shall live.' There is no evidence that Lucan gave the
poem this title.

2. _Lost works._ Vacca mentions the following:

(_a_) In verse: Orpheus; Iliacon; Saturnalia; Catachthonion; Silvarum
x.; tragoedia Medea (imperfecta): Salticae Fabulae, xiv.; epigrammata.

(_b_) In prose: Oratio in Octavium Sagittam et pro eo; de incendio
urbis; epistulae ex Campania.

Suetonius also mentions 'Neronis laudes; famosum carmen in Neronem.'
Stat. _Silv._ ii. 7, 62, mentions another work--'allocutio ad Pollam'
(his wife).

Lucan's works became immediately popular.

Sueton. _ibid._, 'Poemata eius etiam praelegi memini, confici vero ac
proponi, non tantum operose et diligenter, sed et inepte quoque.'

Mart. xiv. 194,

'Sunt quidam qui me dicunt non esse poetam:
sed qui me vendit bibliopola