David Auerbach
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Posts Tagged "lucan"
Check out all of the posts tagged with "lucan".
Lucan’s Civil War
Civil War (also known as the Pharsalia) must stand as a contender for the weirdest and craziest epic poem of all time. I recommend reading the introduction below first, then reading through the commentary posts in order. Commentary ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Last Thoughts
The last two and a half books of Civil War, while seemingly adrift and lacking the cumulative direction of the first seven, don’t make me think any less of the epic as a whole. Lucan’s ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Caesar’s Fall and the Ending
The Pharsalia … has no privileged center except for the energetic, bitter, and witty skepticism that devotes itself to demolishing the structures it erects as fast as it erects them; Lucan’s heroes lend their zestful ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Cato Hates Snakes
With Pompey dead, Book IX of Civil War, the action moves to Egypt, where Caesar will ally with Cleopatra. But most of Book IX is taken up by Cato and his army. Cato was a ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Pompey’s Death and Some Graverobbing
Like Caesar himself, who suddenly turns vulnerable and human in the wake of his victory, Civil War deflates after the climactic battle of Pharsalia. The waning of conflict results in the waning of tension, even ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Pharsalia’s Winner and Loser
Caesar became a leviathan, a monster, a deity during the battle of Pharsalia. But Caesar’s apotheosis is momentary. Lucan takes the time to flash forward to his future death, in order to remind us of ...
Lucan’s Civil War: Lucan’s Latin
J.C. Bramble has a 30-page section on Lucan in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature (edited by E.J. Kenney). Bramble makes some great remarks on Lucan’s Latin, and since I haven’t been able to comment ...