Lucan - Civil War

penguin classics CIVIL WAR MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS ( A.D . 3965) was the nephew of the philosopher Seneca and close friend of the young emperor Nero, until a poetic rivalry and possibly political differences led to their falling out and Lucan being banned from both reciting his poetry in public and pleading in the law courts. He was a prolific and popular poet, but his only work to survive is his Civil War, a trenchantly anti-Caesarean epic about the fateful struggle between the rival leaders Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, which ended in disaster for the Roman Senate at Pharsalus in 48 B.C ., the battle which forms the poems dramatic climax. In A.D . 65, after the great fire had ravaged Rome and with much discontent against Nero simmering across the empire, Lucan joined the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate the emperor, which failed and resulted in the execution by forced suicide of many of those involved. Along with his uncle, the author Petronius, and many other prominent Romans, Lucan took his own life, reputedly dying while reciting defiant verses from his epic.

Since antiquity Lucans poem has been read as part of the classical canon, alongside the works of Virgil and Ovid. Its influence on the literary tradition from medieval to modern times is considerable, while Lucans death created a legacy of literary-political martyrdom that fired the imagination of revolutionary thinkers from the Renaissance to the many revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. MATTHEW FOX studied Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oregon and earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Classics at Princeton. He has taught classics, anthropology, humanities, and writing at Princeton, St. Peters College (NJ), Deep Springs College (CA), where he held the Robert B.

Aird Chair in Humanities, and Rutgers University, and now teaches at Whitman College (WA). His research focuses on the classical epic tradition and ancient cultures of poetic and musical performance. ETHAN ADAMS received his Ph.D. in Classics at the University of Washington. He has taught at his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. LUCAN Civil War Translated by
MATTHEW FOX Introduction and Notes by
MATTHEW FOX and ETHAN ADAMS PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. LUCAN Civil War Translated by
MATTHEW FOX Introduction and Notes by
MATTHEW FOX and ETHAN ADAMS PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

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Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This translation first published in Penguin Books 2012 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Translation copyright Matthew Fox, 2012 Introduction and notes copyright Matthew Fox and Ethan T. Adams, 2012 All rights reserved Map illustration: Ancient World Mapping Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Lucan, 3965. [Pharsalia. English] Civil war / Lucan ; translated by Matthew Fox ; introduction and notes
by Matthew Fox and Ethan Adams. p. cm.(Penguin classics) Includes bibliographical references.

EISBN: 9781101575000 1. Epic poetry, LatinTranslations into English. 2. Pharsalus, Battle of, Farsala, Greece, 48 B.C. Poetry. 3.

RomeHistoryCivil War, 4945 B.C.Poetry. I. Fox, Matthew
(Matthew Aaron) II. Adams, Ethan. III. Title.

PA6479.E5F69 2012 873.01dc23 2011041074 Printed in the United States of America Set in Sabon Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. LUBENS DEDICO MERITO R.F. nec cinis exiguustantam conpescuit umbramprosiluit busto

The project has been a collaborative effort, with intensive work sessions, reviewing the text and writing or drafting notes, spread over several summers. I am largely responsible for the translation, but Ethan Adams and I vigorously reviewed Books One through Six together, a rewarding process that, unfortunately, our busy schedules prevented us from continuing for the last four books, and instead we had to fall back on e-mail exchanges. We both contributed to the notes and introduction, and Adams has translated and annotated Petronius Civil War parody in the appendix. The following people have helped along the way in some form or other and deserve thanks: T. Corey Brennan, Tom Figueira, Mark DeStephano, Bill Thayer, Andrew Smith, and Ross and Kay Peterson; Michael Millman, Lorie Napolitano, and Elda Rotor at Penguin, for patience and assistance; Ilaria Marchesi for friendship and constant encouragement. The thirty-one undergraduate students of my spring 2009 Latin Poetry course at Rutgers University kindly and eagerly test-drove the translation, and supplied five weeks of invigorating discussion of Lucan and Caesar that carried me through review and revisions.

Elaine Fantham first shared Lucan with me and graciously read the first rough drafts of portions long ago. Denis Feeney and Simone Marchesi of Princeton each kindly read and offered helpful criticisms on the introduction. Beena Kamlani has read, and helped rework as necessary, the entire manuscript with diligence and great skill. The participants at the conference on the civil war in Roman history and literature, held at Amherst College in the fall of 2008, offered rich and timely food for thought. Elizabeth Robinson, Brian Turner, and Richard Talbert of the Ancient World Mapping Center at UNCChapel Hill courteously took on the task of preparing the handsome map. A whole phalanx of scholars, critics, and historians have also contributed through their works to the making of this book, and the Further Reading list may serve doubly to acknowledge some, but by no means all, of their worthy labors.

My hearty appreciation goes also to Ethan Adams for sharing the march through Lucans fields, for his command of Latin poetry, and for the rollicking hours spent together enjoying the solemn absurdities of Lucans vision and trying to capture it in worthy English. To my parents, and to Dianna Shea, for their selfless love and support over the years, a formal bow of gratitude is long overdue. And my wife, Kathleen Shea, has sacrificed much free time and sleep watching our two children in order to give me breathing space to devote to Lucan, for which I cant possibly thank her enough. Finally, without the bountiful support and superlative example of Robert Fagles, this translation would not have seen the light of day. Among many other concrete instances of help, he found funds to pay for the retrieval of the first four books from a crashed hard drive, which foolishly I had failed to back up. M.F. M.F.