LUCAN.
(1) LIFE.
Besides references to Lucan in other writers, especially Statius, Martial, and Tacitus, we have three biographies of him: (1) a short and defective life, probably by Suetonius, and showing his well-known hatred of the Annaei; (2) one by Vacca, a commentator on Lucan, who lived probably in the sixth century, complete and favourable; (3) one in Codex Vossianus ii. The last two are in part derived from the first.
M. Annaeus Lucanus was born at Corduba in Hispania Baetica, and was the son of M. Annaeus Mela, a Roman knight, and nephew of M. Annaeus Novatus (the Gallio of Acts 18, 12-17) and L. Annaeus Seneca the philosopher.
Vacca, vit. Luc., ‘M. Annaeus Lucanus patrem habuit M. Annaeum Melam ex provincia Baetica Hispaniae interioris Cordubensem equitem Romanum, illustrem inter suos, notum Romae et propter Senecam fratrem, clarum per omnes virtutes virum, et propter studium vitae quietioris ... Matrem habuit et regionis eiusdem et urbis Aciliam nomine, Acilii Lucani filiam ... cuius cognomen huic inditum apparet.’
Tac. Ann. xvi. 17, ‘Mela, quibus Gallio et Seneca, parentibus natus ... Idem Annaeum Lucanum genuerat, grande adiumentum claritudinis.’
Lucan was born Nov. 3, A.D. 39, and was removed to Rome when eight months old.
Vacca, ibid., ‘Natus est iii. Non. Novembr. C. Caesare Germanico ii. L. Apronio Caesiano coss. Octavum mensem agens Romam translatus est.’
He had a successful school and college career. One of his teachers was Cornutus, through whom he knew Persius (see [p. 261]).
Vacca, ibid., ‘A praeceptoribus tunc eminentissimis est eruditus eosque intra breve temporis spatium ingenio adaequavit ... Declamavit et graece et latine cum magna admiratione audientium.’
His first literary success was the laudes Neronis in A.D. 60; this led to his political advancement.
Sueton. vit. Luc., ‘Prima ingenii experimenta in Neronis laudibus dedit quinquennali certamine.’
Vacca, ibid., ‘Ob quod puerili mutato in senatorium cultum et in notitiam Caesaris Neronis facile pervenit et honore vixdum aetati debito dignus iudicatus est. Gessit autem quaesturam, in qua cum collegis more tunc usitato munus gladiatorium edidit secundo populi favore; sacerdotium etiam accepit auguratus.’
Similarly Suetonius, who also tells us that Lucan had been in Athens.
Sueton. ibid., ‘Revocatus Athenis a Nerone cohortique amicorum additus atque etiam quaestura honoratus, non tamen permansit in gratia.’
The reason of the strained relations between Lucan and the emperor was, according to Suetonius, that Lucan had behaved rudely when reciting in public. Vacca says the reason lay in the jealousy felt by Nero, who forbade Lucan to write poetry or to plead causes.
Vacca, ibid., ‘Quippe et certamine pentaeterico acto in Pompei theatro laudibus recitatis in Neronem fuerat coronatus et ex tempore Orphea scriptum in experimentum adversum conplures ediderat poetas et tres libros, quales videmus. Quare inimicum sibi fecerat imperatorem. Quo ambitiosa vanitate, non hominum tantum, sed et artium sibi principatum vindicante interdictum est ei poetica, interdictum est etiam causarum actionibus.’
Cf. Tac. Ann. xv. 49, ‘Famam carminum eius premebat Nero prohibueratque ostentare, vanus adsimulatione.’
Lucan replied by a poem satirizing Nero and his court.
Sueton. ibid., ‘Sed et famoso carmine cum ipsum tum potentissimos amicorum gravissime proscidit.’
Lucan joined the conspiracy of Piso which was started A.D. 62, but was discovered, and compelled to commit suicide, 30th April, A.D. 65.
Sueton. ibid., ‘Paene signifer Pisonianae coniurationis extitit.’
Vacca, ibid., ‘A coniuratis in caedem Neronis socius adsumptus est, sed parum fauste. Deceptus est a Pisone ... Sua sponte coactus vita excedere venas sibi praecidit periitque pridie Kal. Maias Attico Vestino et Nerva Siliano coss., xxvi. aetatis annum agens.’
Tac. Ann. xv. 70, ‘Exin Annaei Lucani caedem imperat. Is, profluente sanguine, ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab extremis cedere spiritum fervido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit, recordatus carmen a se compositum, quo volneratum militem per eius modi mortis imaginem obisse tradiderat, versus ipsos rettulit, eaque illi suprema vox fuit.’
Suetonius (corroborated by Tac. Ann. xv. 56) says that Lucan named his mother as a fellow-conspirator.
‘Verum detecta coniuratione nequaquam parem animi constantiam praestitit. Facile enim confessus et ad humillimas devolutus preces matrem quoque innoxiam inter socios nominavit, sperans impietatem sibi apud parricidam principem profuturam.... Epulatus largiter brachia ad secandas venas praebuit medico.’
Lucan married Polla Argentaria. Statius and Martial were her friends, and seem to have kept up an observance of Lucan’s birthday.
Cf. especially Statius, Silvae, ii. 7, on which the author, in his preface to the book, says, ‘Cludit volumen genethliacon Lucani, quod Polla Argentaria, clarissima uxorum, cum hunc diem forte consecraremus, imputari sibi voluit.’
Martial vii. 21, 22, and 23 are written on the subject of Lucan’s birthday.
(2) WORKS.
1. The only extant work of Lucan is De Bello Civili. This is the title in the MSS., and in Petron. 118. The usual title comes from ix. 985, ‘Pharsalia nostra vivet,’ words which come after a list of places in Greece and Asia immortalized by the poets, and which mean ‘My story of Pharsalus shall live.’ There is no evidence that Lucan gave the poem this title.
2. Lost works. Vacca mentions the following:
(a) In verse: Orpheus; Iliacon; Saturnalia; Catachthonion; Silvarum x.; tragoedia Medea (imperfecta): Salticae Fabulae, xiv.; epigrammata.
(b) In prose: Oratio in Octavium Sagittam et pro eo; de incendio urbis; epistulae ex Campania.
Suetonius also mentions ‘Neronis laudes; famosum carmen in Neronem.’ Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 62, mentions another work—‘allocutio ad Pollam’ (his wife).
Lucan’s works became immediately popular.
Sueton. ibid., ‘Poemata eius etiam praelegi memini, confici vero ac proponi, non tantum operose et diligenter, sed et inepte quoque.’
Mart. xiv. 194,
‘Sunt quidam qui me dicunt non esse poetam:
sed qui me vendit bibliopola putat.’
The epic poem De Bello Civili in ten Books (the last incomplete) carries the story of the Civil War down to the point where Caesar is besieged in Alexandria. Vacca informs us that Lucan did not live to correct the last seven Books.
‘Ediderat ... tres libros quales videmus ... Reliqui vii. belli civilis libri locum calumniantibus tamquam mendosi non darent, qui tametsi sub vero crimine non egent patrocinio: in isdem dici, quod in Ovidii libris praescribitur, potest: “emendaturus, si licuisset, erat.”’
Lucan’s political views.—The first three Books were published when Lucan was still on good terms with Nero (cf. the gross flattery in i. 33-66), but practically the same view of the empire is taken throughout the poem; only Lucan expresses his views with greater vigour in the last seven Books; and, while in Books i.-iii. the question is one between Caesar and Pompey, afterwards it is one between Caesar and liberty. Even in Books i.-iii. Caesar is the villain of the piece; Pompey embodies all that is good; Cato and Brutus are highly spoken of; the former stands as the ideal Stoic. The Senate, except in Book v. ad init., appears in a rather unfavourable light, and so does the plebs. Lucan did not want the re-establishment of the republican oligarchy, but acquiesced in the empire as being ordained by fate. This is borne out by what we know of the Pisonian conspiracy, the object of which was not to re-establish the republic, but to put some leading man like Seneca on the throne. A few quotations will exemplify these points:
(1) The empire; iv. 691,
‘Libyamque auferre tyranno
dum regnum te, Roma, facit’;
vii. 432,
‘Quod fugiens civile nefas redituraque nunquam
libertas ultra Tigrim Rhenumque recessit’;
vii. 442,
‘Felices Arabes Medique eoaque tellus,
quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt fata tyrannis.
Ex populis qui regna ferunt, sors ultima nostra est,
quos servire pudet.’
(2) Pompeius; ii. 732-6,
‘Non quia te superi patrio privare sepulchro
maluerint, Phariae busto damnantur harenae:
parcitur Hesperiae; procul hoc et in orbe remoto
abscondat fortuna nefas, Romanaque tellus
inmaculata sui servetur sanguine Magni.’
Cf. ix. 601-4 (where apotheosis is assigned him).
(3) Cato (the hero of Book ix.) and Brutus; ii. 234,
‘At non magnanimi percussit pectora Bruti
terror’;
ix. 554,
‘Nam cui crediderim superos arcana daturos
dicturosque magis quam sancto vera Catoni?’
Cf. ix. 186-9.
(4) Caesar; ii. 439,
‘Caesar in arma furens nullas nisi sanguine fuso
gaudet habere vias’;
v. 242,
‘perdere successus scelerum’;
vii. 593,
‘nondum attigit arcem
iuris et humanum columen, quo cuncta premuntur,
egressus meruit fatis tam nobile letum.
Vivat et, ut Bruti procumbat victima, regnet.’
Caesar’s acts are sometimes unfairly represented, as in vii. 798 sqq., ix. 1035 sqq. (on viewing Pompeius’ corpse); ll. 1038-9,
‘lacrimas non sponte cadentis
effudit gemitusque expressit pectore laeto.’
Lucan’s philosophical and religious views.—His Stoicism comes out strongly in the poem, ix. 566-84 (speech of Cato), especially 578-80,
‘Estque dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aër
et caelum et virtus? Superos quid quaerimus ultra?
Iuppiter est, quodcumque vides, quodcumque moveris?’
vii. 814,
‘Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra
mixturus.’
Note especially the very frequent references to fate; i. 263-4,
‘cunctasque pudoris
rumpunt fata moras.’
The gods are not introduced as chief agents; cf. the censure of Petronius quoted below. Lucan prides himself on despising the gods, and substitutes for them his favourite divinity, Fortuna; i. 128,
‘Victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni’;
vii. 445,
‘Sunt nobis nulla profecto
numina; cum caeco rapiantur saecula casu,
mentimur regnare Iovem.’
Rhetorical treatment is seen in (1) the vast amount of hyperbole employed; cf. the account of the siege of Massilia, iii. 538-762; (2) the geographical and mythological learning introduced. This is sometimes inaccurate; the best known instance is his confusion of Pharsalus and Philippi; cf. i. 1 and 688.
Lucan’s models.—(1) For diction, chiefly Virgil.[77] Horace and Ovid are also imitated.
(2) For history Lucan is supposed to have used Livy mostly. How far he used other authorities is unknown. His history is sometimes inexact. In ii. 478 sqq. the character of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus is falsely portrayed. So the journey of Cato to the shrine of Hammon, ix. 511 sqq.
(3) Seneca is one of his authorities for science and philosophy. Thus in describing the Nile, x. 194-331, Lucan has used Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv. 1-2. The biographer of the Codex Vossianus ii. attributes (probably wrongly) the first seven verses of Book i. to Seneca.
‘Seneca, qui fuit avonculus eius, quia ex abrupto incohabat, hos vii. versus addidit: “Bella per Emathios” usque “et pila minantia pilis.”’
Criticisms of Lucan.—Petronius, in introducing his parody of Lucan, says, § 118, ‘Ecce belli civilis ingens opus quisquis attigerit, nisi plenus litteris, sub onere labetur. Non enim res gestae versibus comprehendendae sunt, quod longe melius historici faciunt, sed per ambages deorumque ministeria et fabulosum sententiarum tormentum praecipitandus est liber spiritus.’ See [p. 275].
Quint. x. 1, 90, ‘Lucanus ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus et, ut dicam quod sentio, magis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus.’