Lucan

Lucan's great poem, Pharsalia, recounts events surrounding the decisive battle fought near Pharsalus in 48 B.C. during the civil war between the forces of Pompey and Julius Caesar. Though the subject of this unfinished masterpiece is historical, many of its features are characteristic of epic poetry: Rousing battle scenes; tales of witches, monsters, and miracle; detailed catalogues; intricate similes; and speeches with a high degree of rhetorical elegance. However, Lucan's deft mix of humor and horror, of political satire, literary parody, history, and epic is entirely his own. Jane Wilson Joyce's superb translation conveys the drama and poetry of the original. Her use of natural English rhythms in a loose six-beat line comes close to matching the original Latin hexameters, wile her language preserves Lucan's sequence of images. An enlightening introduction, notes, and a full glossary augment the translation.

Pharsalia

Lucan,

Susan H. Braund

Lucan, grandson of Seneca the Rhetorician, and nephew of Seneca the Philosopher, was a remarkable and precocious product of the stimulating literary climate promoted by Nero. His epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, unfinished at the time of his death, stands beside the poems of Virgil and Ovid in the first rank of Latin epic. The work is a powerful condemnation of civil war, and Lucan emphasizes the stark, dark horror of the catastrophes which the Roman state inflicted upon itself. This new translation in free verse conveys the full force of Lucan's writing and his grimly realistic view of the subject. The Introduction sets the scene for the reader unfamiliar with Lucan, and explores his relationship with earlier writers of Latin epic, and his interest in the sensational.

Civil War

Lotus

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus

Susanna Morton Braund

Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (unfinished at the time of his early death), stands beside the poems of Virgil and Ovid in the first rank of Latin epic. This powerful poem has its fans and its critics - but no reader can fail to be impressed by the stark power ofLucan's condemnation of civil war.This important new translation uses English and free verse with the same number of lines as the Latin, for easy cross-reference, and will be of use to anyone interested in Lucan, in Latin epic, and the development of aepic poetry through the ages.The notes and glossary explain all names, places, customs, and allusions to mythology, history, literature, and astronomy in the poem. The substantial introduction sets the scene for the reader unfamiliar with Lucan. It covers the poet and his times; the events of the civil war as a theme of poetry;and the characteristics of Lucan's poem - in particular his relationship with earlier writers of Latin epic and his interest in the sensational.

Alexander Lobov

Imie Kent-Muller

Elizabeth Lyle

Joshua Line

Pharsalia

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