Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars

by Lucan

Now from the Casian rock looked forth the Sun
Flooding the land of Egypt with a day
Warm from its earliest dawn, when from the walls
Not wandering in disorder are they seen,
But drown in close array, as though to meet
A foe opposing; ready to receive
Or give the battle. Caesar, in the town
Placing no trust, within the palace courts
Lay in ignoble hiding place, the gates
Close barred: nor all the kingly rooms possessed,
But in the narrowest portion of the space
He drew his band together. There in arms
They stood, with dread and fury in their souls.
He feared attack, indignant at his fear.
Thus will a noble beast in little cage
Imprisoned, fume, and break upon the bars
His teeth in frenzied wrath; nor more would rage
The flames of Vulcan in Sicilian depths
Should Etna's top be closed. He who but now
By Haemus' mount against Pompeius chief,
Italia's leaders and the Senate line,
His cause forbidding hope, looked at the fates
He knew were hostile, with unfaltering gaze,
Now fears before the crime of hireling slaves,
And in mid palace trembles at the blow:
He whom nor Scythian nor Alaun (22) had dared
To violate, nor the Moor who aims the dart
Upon his victim slain, to prove his skill.
The Roman world but now did not suffice
To hold him, nor the realms from furthest Ind
To Tyrian Gades. Now, as puny boy,
Or woman, trembling when a town is sacked,
Within the narrow corners of a house
He seeks for safety; on the portals closed
His hope of life; and with uncertain gait
He treads the hails; yet not without the King;
In purpose, Ptolemaeus, that thy life
For his shall give atonement; and to hurl
Thy severed head among the servant throng
Should darts and torches fail. So story tells
The Colchian princess (23) with sword in hand,
And with her brother's neck bared to the blow,
Waited her sire, avenger of his realm
Despoiled, and of her flight. In the imminent risk
Caesar, in hopes of peace, an envoy sent
To the fierce vassals, from their absent lord
Bearing a message, thus: "At whose command
Wage ye the war?" But not the laws which bind
All nations upon earth, nor sacred rights,
Availed to save or messenger of peace,
Or King's ambassador; or thee from crime
Such as befitted thee, thou land of Nile
Fruitful in monstrous deeds: not Juba's realm
Vast though it be, nor Pontus, nor the land
Thessalian, nor the arms of Pharnaces,
Nor yet the tracts which chill Iberus girds,
Nor Libyan coasts such wickedness have dared,
As thou, with all thy luxuries. Closer now
War hemmed them in, and weapons in the courts,
Shaking the innermost recesses, fell.
Yet did no ram, fatal with single stroke,
Assail the portal, nor machine of war;
Nor flame they called in aid; but blind of plan
They wander purposeless, in separate bands
Around the circuit, nor at any spot
With strength combined attempt to breach the wall.
The fates forbad, and Fortune from their hands
Held fast the palace as a battlement.
Nor failed they to attack from ships of war
The regal dwelling, where its frontage bold
Made stand apart the waters of the deep:
There, too, was Caesar's all-protecting arm;
For these at point of sword, and those with fire (24)
He forces back, and though besieged he dares
To storm th' assailants: and as lay the ships
Joined rank to rank, bids drop upon their sides
Lamps drenched with reeking tar. Nor slow the fire
To seize the hempen cables and the decks
Oozing with melting pitch; the oarsman's bench
All in one moment, and the topmost yards
Burst into flame: half merged the vessels lay
While swam the foemen, all in arms, the wave;
Nor fell the blaze upon the ships alone,
But seized with writhing tongues the neighbouring homes,
And fanned to fury by the Southern breeze
Tempestuous, it leaped from roof to roof;
Not otherwise than on its heavenly track,
Unfed by matter, glides the ball of light,
By air alone aflame.

This pest recalled
Some of the forces to the city's aid
From the besieged halls. Nor Caesar gave
To sleep its season; swifter than all else
To seize the crucial moment of the war.
Quick in the darkest watches of the night
He leaped upon his ships, and Pharos (25) seized,
Gate of the main; an island in the days
Of Proteus seer, now bordering the walls
Of Alexander's city. Thus he gained
A double vantage, for his foes were pent
Within the narrow entrance, which for him
And for his aids gave access to the sea.

Nor longer was Pothinus' doom delayed, Yet not with cross or flame, nor with the wrath His crime demanded; nor by savage beasts Torn, did he suffer; but by Magnus' death, Alas the shame! he fell; his head by sword Hacked from his shoulders. Next by frauds prepared By Ganymede her base attendant, fled Arsinoe (26) from the Court to Caesar's foes; There in the absence of the King she ruled As of Lagean blood: there at her hands, The savage minion of the tyrant boy, Achillas, fell by just avenging sword. Thus did another victim to thy shade Atone, Pompeius; but the gods forbid That this be all thy vengeance! Not the king Nor all the stock of Lagos for thy death Would make fit sacrifice! So Fortune deemed; And not till patriot swords shall drink the blood Of Caesar, Magnus, shalt thou be appeased. Still, though was slain the author of the strife, Sank not their rage: with Ganymede for chief Again they rush to arms; in deeds of fight Again they conquer. So might that one day Have witnessed Caesar's fate; so might its fame Have lived through ages.

As the Roman Chief,
Crushed on the narrow surface of the mole,
Prepared to throw his troops upon the ships,
Sudden upon him the surrounding foes
With all their terrors came. In dense array
Their navy lined the shores, while on the rear
The footmen ceaseless charged. No hope was left,
For flight was not, nor could the brave man's arm
Achieve or safety or a glorious death.
Not now were needed for great Caesar's fall,
Caught in the toils of nature, routed host
Or mighty heaps of slain: his only doubt
To fear or hope for death: while on his brain
Brave Scaeva's image flashed, now vainly sought,
Who on the wall by Epidamnus' fields
Earned fame immortal, and with single arm
Drove back Pompeius as he trod the breach….

ENDNOTES:

(1) The body of Alexander was embalmed, and the mummy placed in
a glass case. The sarcophagus which enclosed them is stated
to be now in the British Museum.
(2) See Book III., 268.
(3) The kettledrum used in the worship of Isis. (See Book VIII,
line 974.)
(4) At the Battle of Actium. The island of Leucas, close to the
promontory of Actium, is always named by Lucan when he
refers to this battle. (See also Virgil, "Aeneid", viii.,
677.)
(5) Between Cleopatra and her brother.
(6) See Book IX., 507.
(7) Yet the Mareot grape was greatly celebrated. (See Professor
Rawlinson's note to Herodotus. ii., 18.)
(8) The calendar introduced by Caesar, in B.C. 45, was founded
on the Egyptian or solar year. (See Herodotus, ii., 4.)
Eudoxus seems to have dealt with this year and to have
corrected it. He is probably alluded to by Virgil,
"Eclogue" iii., 41.
(9) Herodotus was less fortunate. For he says "Concerning the
nature of the river I was not able to gain any information
either from the priests or others." (ii., 19.)
(10) It was supposed that the Sun and Moon and the planets
(Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus) were points
which restrained the motion of the sky in its revolution.
(See Book VI., 576.)
(11) Mercury. (See Book IX., 777.)
(12) That is, at the autumnal equinox. The priest states that
the planet Mercury causes the rise of the Nile. The passage
is difficult to follow; but the idea would seem to be that
this god, who controlled the rise and fall of the waves of
the sea, also when he was placed directly over the Nile
caused the rise of that river.
(13) So also Herodotus, Book ii., 22. Yet modern discoveries
have proved the snows.
(14) So, too, Herodotus, Book ii., 20, who attributes the theory
to Greeks who wish to get a reputation for cleverness.
(15) See on Book V., 709. Herodotus mentions this theory also,
to dismiss it.
(16) The historians state that Alexander made an expedition to
the temple of Jupiter Hammon and consulted the oracle.
Jupiter assisted his march, and an army of crows pointed out
the path (Plutarch). It is, however stated, in a note in
Langhorne's edition, that Maximus Tyrius informs us that the
object of the journey was the discovery of the sources of
the Nile.
(17) Sesostris, the great king, does not appear to have pushed
his conquests to the west of Europe.
(18) See Herodotus, iii., 17. These Ethiopian races were
supposed to live to the age of 120 years, drinking milk, and
eating boiled flesh. On Cambyses's march his starving
troops cast lots by tens for the one man who was to be
eaten.
(19) The Seres are, of course, the Chinese. The ancients seem to
have thought that the Nile came from the east. But it is
possible that there was another tribe of this name dwelling
in Africa.
(20) A passage of difficulty. I understand it to mean that at
this spot the summer sun (in Leo) strikes the earth with
direct rays.
(21) Reading "ibi fas ubi proxima merees", with Hosius.
(22) See Book VIII., 253.
(23) Medea, who fled from Colchis with her brother, Absyrtus.
Pursued by her father Aeetes, she killed her brother and
strewed the parts of his body into the sea. The king paused
to collect them.
(24) It was in this conflagration that a large part of the
library of the Ptolemies was destroyed. 400,000 volumes are
stated to have perished.
(25) The island of Pharos, which lay over against the port of
Alexandria, had been connected with the mainland in the
middle by a narrow causeway. On it stood the lighthouse.
(See Book IX, 1191.) Proteus, the old man of the sea, kept
here his flock of seals, according to the Homeric story.
("Odyssey", Book IV, 400.)
(26) Younger sister of Cleopatra.

PREPARER'S NOTES:

Lucan's "Pharsalia" (or, "Civil War", as many scholars now prefer to call it) was written approximately a century after the events it chronicles took place.

Lucan was born into a prominent Roman family (Seneca the Elder was his grandfather, and Seneca the Younger his uncle), and seems to have befriended the young Emperor Nero at an early age. He was for several years a poet of some prominence in the Emperor's court, and it is during this period that the "Civil War"/"Pharsalia" was probably begun. However, Nero and Lucan's friendship evidently soured, and in A.D. 65 Lucan joined Calpurnius Piso's conspiracy to overthrow Nero. When the conspiracy was discovered, Lucan was given the option of suicide or death; he chose suicide, and recited several lines of his poetry while he died (possibly Book III, l. 700-712).

Lucan's "Pharsalia" was left (probably) unfinished upon his death, coincidentally breaking off at almost the exact same point where Julius Caesar broke off in his commentary "On the Civil War". Ten books are extant; no one knows how many more Lucan planned, but two to six more books (possibly taking the story as far as Caesar's assassination in B.C. 46) seem a reasonable estimate.