Description
Book SynopsisLucan, 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.
Trade Review'This has brief notes, but a good detailed introduction, excellent on, e.g. exemplarity ... and descriptions of death ... very good.' Greece & Rome, April 1993
'B.'s able introduction and over one hundred pages of notes will make her work specially useful in courses covering post-Augustan literature or epic. B. covers a lot of ground admirably . Very welcome are B.'s pages ... on Lucan's learning ... B. shows her usual poise in describing the poem itself.' Roland Mayer, King's College, London, The Classical Review
