Lucan

This book makes available in convenient form a selection of seminal articles on the Roman poet Lucan's grim epic, written in the time of Nero, on the world-changing civil war between Caesar and Pompey in the mid first century BC. The essays enable the reader of Lucan's work to trace the emergence of vital critical perspectives and controversies and the diverse approaches that have been applied to them. Topics covered include the poem's place in the epic tradition, its style, rhetoric, and narrative technique, the poet's political stand-point, his attitude to civil war, and his presentation of Caesar and Pompey. Five essays appear in English for the first time, and quotations from Latin and Greek have been translated. A specially written Introduction, by Susanna Braund, provides an up-to-date guide to scholarship on Lucan and to the history of the reception of the poem.