Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThough immensely popular in late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, Lucan’s Pharsalia has languished in semi-obscurity for centuries. With the availability of Fratantuono’s excellent commentary, this grand Silver Age epic, with its stories of witches, ghosts, a headless Pompey, wild animals feasting on fallen soldiers, and a Rome poised to lose its cherished libertas, stands a good chance of making a long overdue comeback. It is the third in a series of commentaries Fratantuono has written in the last five years, and it may well be his best, which is saying a lot, since his earlier commentaries on the Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses get more use than most other books in my personal Latin library. Lucan’s intent in the Pharsalia was clearly to fashion an epic that would elicit comparanda with the works of his predecessors, and Fratantuono is the perfect guide to help us understand these many points of comparison. As in his books on Vergil and Ovid, Fratantuono shows an amazingly comprehensive knowledge of his poem and comes up with insights that are born of many years of a productive engagement with it. Madness Triumphant is surely a victrix causa for both the young Neronian poet and his 21st century interpreter. -- Blaise Nagy, College of the Holy Cross
Fratantuono gives a masterful reading of Lucan through close textual analysis. With great sensitivity to the poetics of tradition he leads the reader step by step through the minefields of Lucan’s poetry, uncovering a whole (and dark) philosophy of Roman imperial government. To experienced and non-experienced readers of Lucan alike this book is an interpretive gift; an erudite but friendly companion on the perilous journey Lucan enjoins. -- Holly Haynes, The College of New Jersey
Every turn of the page of Madness Triumphant fills the reader with anticipation and delight as Lee Fratantuono masterfully demystifies Lucan’s enigmatic allusions to his poetic predecessors and illuminates the Pharsalia’s haunting yet beautifully dark vision of Rome. -- Caroline Stark, Temple University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter I: Wars Worse Than Civil Chapter II: And Now the Wraths of the Gods Chapter III: As the South Wind Drove the Fleet Chapter IV: But at the Very Edge of the Earth Chapter V: Thus Did Fortune Preserve Chapter VI: After the Leaders Pitched Camps Chapter VII: Slower Than the Eternal Law Chapter VIII: And Now, Beyond the Gorges of Hercules Chapter IX: But Not in Pharian Ash Chapter X: As Soon As Caesar Trampled Select Bibliography
