putat.'

The epic poem _De Bello Civili_ in ten Books (the last incomplete)
carries the story of the Civil War down to the point where Caesar is
besieged in Alexandria. Vacca informs us that Lucan did not live to
correct the last seven Books.

'Ediderat ... tres libros quales videmus ... Reliqui vii. belli
civilis libri locum calumniantibus tamquam mendosi non darent, qui
tametsi sub vero crimine non egent patrocinio: in isdem dici, quod in
Ovidii libris praescribitur, potest: "emendaturus, si licuisset,
erat."'

_Lucan's political views._--The first three Books were published when
Lucan was still on good terms with Nero (cf. the gross flattery in i.
33-66), but practically the same view of the empire is taken
throughout the poem; only Lucan expresses his views with greater
vigour in the last seven Books; and, while in Books i.-iii. the
question is one between Caesar and Pompey, afterwards it is one
between Caesar and liberty. Even in Books i.-iii. Caesar is the
villain of the piece; Pompey embodies all that is good; Cato and
Brutus are highly spoken of; the former stands as the ideal Stoic. The
Senate, except in Book v. _ad init._, appears in a rather unfavourable
light, and so does the plebs. Lucan did not want the re-establishment
of the republican oligarchy, but acquiesced in the empire as being
ordained by fate. This is borne out by what we know of the Pisonian
conspiracy, the object of which was not to re-establish the republic,
but to put some leading man like Seneca on the throne. A few
quotations will exemplify these points:

(1) The empire; iv. 691,

'Libyamque auferre tyranno
dum regnum te, Roma, facit';

vii. 432,

'Quod fugiens civile nefas redituraque nunquam
libertas ultra Tigrim Rhenumque recessit';

vii. 442,

'Felices Arabes Medique eoaque tellus,
quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt fata tyrannis.
Ex populis qui regna ferunt, sors ultima nostra est,
quos servire pudet.'

(2) Pompeius; ii. 732-6,

'Non quia te superi patrio privare sepulchro
maluerint, Phariae busto damnantur harenae:
parcitur Hesperiae; procul hoc et in orbe remoto
abscondat fortuna nefas, Romanaque tellus
inmaculata sui servetur sanguine Magni.'

Cf. ix. 601-4 (where apotheosis is assigned him).

(3) Cato (the hero of Book ix.) and Brutus; ii. 234,

'At non magnanimi percussit pectora Bruti
terror';

ix. 554,

'Nam cui crediderim superos arcana daturos
dicturosque magis q