Lucan

Julius Caesar, one of the protagonists of Lucan’s Pharsalia, disappears from the scene for a long time after the Battle of Pharsalus. He reappears at the end of Book 9, when he pays a visit to the ruined city of Troy. The function and the source of this historically unsupported scene are both worth examining. Earlier research disclosed as the literary source of the Troy scene the episode in Aeneid Book 8, when Evander shows Aeneas the future site of Rome. While fully accepting that, I would like to present another possible source that might have as much effect on the constructing of Lucan’s Troy as the Evander–scene: the katabasis in Book 6 of the Aeneid. Definite parallelisms can be identified between the two scenes on both motivic and textual levels. Furthermore, the connection between these three scenes can be proved on the level of content, since by examining them together the real purpose of the Troy scene can be decoded: Lucan predicts Rome’s destruction in this episode.

In Lucan’s Bellum civile furor is the topical element for the representation of the civil war and it plays a key role in the understanding of the epic’s message. This is the basic assumption of a recent monograph by Lee Fratantuono. His research aims at analysing the entire poem in order to offer a fascinating, although monothematic reading of the epic that allows to reconstruct a renewed relationship of inter-independence between Lucan and Virgil through Ovid’s intermediation.
The object of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the volume in relation with the most recent trends of Lucan studies by highlighting the peculiarities of Fratantuono’s work and reconstructing its methodology. Some points of his research are specifically discussed with the purpose of proposing revisions and additions. In this regard, particular attention has been paid to the main features of Lucan’s intertextuality and to the representation of Pompey’s character.

Nel Bellum civile di Lucano il tema del furor è elemento topico per la rappresentazione della guerra civile ed assume un’importanza fondamentale per la comprensione del messaggio del poema. È questo l’assunto alla base di una recente monografia di Lee Fratantuono. Ancorando la propria ricerca ad un’analisi dell’intero poema, egli offre una suggestiva, ancorché monotematica, lettura dell’epica lucanea che gli consente di ricostruire un rinnovato rapporto di inter-indipendenza tra Lucano e Virgilio attraverso l’intermediazione di Ovidio.
Inquadrando il suo studio all'interno delle più recenti tendenze della critica lucanea, si fornisce una presentazione ragionata del volume con lo scopo di coglierne le peculiarità e di ricostruirne la metodologia e la logica informatrice. Si discutono in maniera critica alcuni punti del lavoro proponendo revisioni ed integrazioni con particolare attenzione ai meccanismi dell’intertestualità lucanea e alla rappresentazione del personaggio di Pompeo.

This article attempts to show whether, and if so, to what extent, John Milton’s portrayal of Sin in Paradise Lost is underlain by Lucan’s so-called “Medusa excursus”. Scholars have shown beyond reasonable doubt that Milton’s depiction of Sin alludes to one particular English hypotext, namely Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. However, although the Lucanian character of Milton’s epic is now generally acknowledged, the “Medusa excursus” has, to date, not been considered to be a possible Latin hypotext for Milton’s depiction of Sin.

Leaving aside the indisputable similarities between Spenser’s Error and Milton’s Sin, the author shows that for all their apparent differences, Sin and Medusa actually have much more in common than it would seem at first glance. Firstly, both monsters are allegories of some primeval evil that, having set in motion a never-ending process of destruction, is portrayed as being a deadly, oxymoronic fertility that brings forth death instead of life. The morbid procreative prolificacy of both Medusa and Sin is triggered by a crime, which, once it has violated their bodies, renders them eternally “fertile in death”. While Medusa, having been mutilated by Perseus, posthumously “gives birth” to poisonous snakes, Sin, violated by Satan, literally becomes the mother of Death.

Although it is highly likely that the motif of monstrous fertility has itself been taken directly from Spenser, it would seem that Milton may also have been inspired by Lucan. The name of Cerberus, which is present in Milton and Lucan, but absent in Spenser, is a telling detail. Milton’s depiction of Death, which is described as being shapeless and similar to a substance, brings to mind Medusa’s poisonous blood. The subsequent rape of Sin by Death results in the birth of a pack of infernal dogs. This element also follows the Lucanian pattern of a crime triggering a deadly procreation by a wronged party.

Interestingly, Spenser’s depiction of Error itself contains certain motifs (for example that of “black poison” or that of the killing of a monster by a warrior) that are also present in Lucan’s Medusa excursus. This, together with some possible allusions to Hesiod’s legend of the rape of Medusa, as well as Ovid’s account of Scylla, leads us to conclude that the relationship between the discussed passages of Paradise Lost and their Lucanian and Spenserian hypotexts are quite complex, as they seem to reflect a process of elaborate contamination.

It is shown that Lucan’s depiction of Medusa may also have inspired Spenser himself. The connection between the portrayals of Medusa and Sin is not limited to the seemingly vague and superficial similarities that mainly concern the physical appearance of the two monsters, but is deeply rooted in the moral concept of a crime that triggers a perpetuum mobile of destruction. Although Milton and Spenser both share Lucan’s idea that one wrong leads to the “birth” of innumerable wrongs, only Milton consistently follows this line of thought by providing his monster with horrendous procreative powers that are also eternal and (literally) deadly. Seen against the background of Milton’s familiarity with the work and ideas of the Roman poet, it would seem that all the similarities between Sin and Medusa are far too striking to be attributable to mere coincidence.

Memory was a major issue in education and civic life in ancient Rome. It mostly preserved the city’s moral tradition through the imitation of exemplary behaviors within political and social interactions. Thus, memory was a pivotal feature of Roman identity, which was closely related to the regulation of power, knowledge and speech. The literary reconstructions of the later Republic’s civil wars make clear the link between memory and the collective past. Moreover, early on internal struggle became a cultural theme associated with the mythical motif of katabasis: the symbolic topography of the underworld and its traditional topoi provided useful material for the narration of social disorder. In the Neronian age, Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile exploited the foundational Roman myth of fratricide. Indeed, Lucan’s poem reshaped some martial epic topoi and the conventional underworld imagery in order to stress the horror of a historical sacrilege. This essay analyses how Lucan’s description of the battle at Pharsalus in book VII (460‒646) presents the civil war as a metaphorical deathscape. The blurring of boundaries between human and hellish spheres in the battleground aims to underline the unnatural confusion between identity and otherness (Romanus and hostis) in a military event. Lucan refuses to comply with Rome’s official, forgetful self-narrative. Instead, he gathers memories of the past and retells the city’s history from a perspective critical of Roman power. His ‘poetic journey’ into the underworld of history functions simultaneously as a metaphor for identity reconstruction and generic experimentation.

When the Early Imperial Roman writers imagined the cultural processes taking place in the newly-conquered Gaul, they frequently had recourse to a rhetoric that can appear strikingly similar to some later, colonial narratives of civilizational improvement and the abolition of nefarious ritual life. I will focus on the possible local informants of those Romans who, according to our literary sources (e.g. Pliny, Suetonius), rooted out the Druidic rites from Gaul. How did a Roman administrator recognize the forbidden ‘Druidic’ parts of Gallic ritual life? Who acted as the subaltern middlemen for the Romans in this process, and did they have any influence on the direction of the Roman gaze? This paper seeks to explore whether we might be able to use colonial analogies, particularly from British India, to aid us in distinguishing the knowledge-generation practices of the Roman administrators in the Early Imperial religious ‘middle grounds’ of Gaul.

Partindo das reflexões de Rao, Shulman e Subrahmanyam sobre a textura das narrativas históricas e do que aponta Vieira acerca dos princípios da épica romana como textos de caráter eminentemente historiográficos, procuramos neste  artigo  observar  de  que  forma  a
Guerra civil  de Lucano  se  aproxima mais de uma narrativa historiográfica romana, a partir do que Laird chama de “retórica da historiografia romana”, do que da epopeia vergiliana, tomada
como  exemplar.  Para  tanto,  analisaremos trechos da obra de
Lucano em contraste com outras, como as de Plínio o Velho, Tito Lívio e Veleio Patérculo. Com isso,  pretendemos  trazer  um exemplo de como gêneros entendidos como eminentemente ficcionais, como a  epopeia,  podem  ser  considerados historiográficos em outras sociedades.

No historian has left so deep an imprint on the way the events he has described, as has Thucydides, son of Olorus. In the opening pages of his History of the Peloponnesian War, he lays down his research methodology, and makes the claim that his is the first authentic history, sweeping aside all those who had written about the past prior to him.

En este trabajo se examinan varios pasajes de las estorias alfonsíes (General estoria y Estoria de España) que son traducción de los mismos textos latinos para comprobar qué cambios sufren los textos en el proceso de traducción y en el de redacción definitiva de la obra, así como para intentar decidir si puede asegurarse o no que los alfonsíes realizaron siempre una traducción de sus fuentes sobre la cual trabajaron posteriormente los redactores de diferentes segmentos e incluso de diferentes obras, sin necesidad de volver a la fuente latina. El análisis se realiza sobre textos de la Estoria de España y de distintas partes de la General estoria que son traducción de segmentos de la Farsalia, de la Historia regum Britanniae y de la Heroida VII.

Questo lavoro si propone essenzialmente come un commento. Ringrazio vivamente Paolo Esposito per averne seguito lo sviluppo sin dall'inizio con grandissima attenzione e competenza, senza farmi mai mancare il suo incoraggiamento. Sono molto grato a Lucio Ceccarelli, Marco Fucecchi e Luigi Galasso per i preziosi consigli e i ricchi contributi migliorativi. Profondo è il mio debito intellettuale nei confronti di Gian Biagio Conte, a cui esprimo la mia sincera riconoscenza. 00I_00X_Lanzarone_principi.indd 9 11/10/16 11:36 00I_00X_Lanzarone_principi.indd 10 11/10/16 11:36

Guerra giusta e guerra ingiusta nella Pharsalia di Lucano Là, nel deserto della loro Tebaide, gli uomini lavorarono d'accordo, con le mani, così spensero il fuoco tutti insieme. R. Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 Esiste una guerra giusta? 1 Difficile rispondere in maniera univoca dal momento che su un quesito talmente complesso si sono succedute innumerevoli risposte, nella storia del pensiero antico come in quello moderno, spesso sollecitate da eventi destinati a scuotere nel profondo gli assetti politici. Il caso più recente è quello forse determinato, sulla soglia degli anni '90, dall'invasione del piccolo e indifeso Kuwait da parte del rais iracheno Saddam Hussein. Si ricorderà come sulla scia di quel clima si innescò un dibattito molto intenso, che, per limitarci all'Italia, vide frequentemente citate posizioni autorevoli come quella di Norberto Bobbio, che, scagliandosi contro quelli che definì "pacifisti da strapazzo", giustificò la guerra come risposta legittimata da una aggressione e decisa da una deliberazione dell'Onu. 2 Ma, in fondo, i termini essenziali della questione erano già nel pensiero latino, se tra i grandi teorici del diritto che hanno rinnovato in pieno '900 il dibattito sul tema Hans Kelsen, celebre giurista austriaco poi docente a Berkeley, impostò i termini del problema partendo dalle norme del diritto romano. Nel suo Teoria generale della legge e dello stato Kelsen infatti fonda la propria teoria sulla guerra giusta, cioè originata e consentita dalla norma, alla luce del diritto di guerra latino.

in avanti N.), con questo ampio volume, ricco e documentatissimo, torna a Lucano, autore cui aveva dedicato, oltre a numerosi e importanti contributi pubblicati su riviste specialistiche, un ben noto saggio d'insieme nel 1979 -La provvidenza crudele. Lucano e la distruzione dei miti augustei -opera che, a buon diritto, ha trovato un posto di rilievo nella bibliografia lucanea e dove fino dal titolo, così icasticamente e felicemente orientativo, si pone l'accento sul carattere anomalo, pessimistico e antifrastico, della personalità del giovane poeta stoico. Una rottura con la tradizione che si può leggere naturalmente su due piani diversi, ma convergenti: quello ideologico-politico, che vede incarnata nel principato la tirannia e l'oppressione, quello puramente letterario, che considera Virgilio non solo una sorta di 'anti-modello', ma anche un punto di riferimento costante da cui attingere ispirazione poetica (c'è infatti una venatura di pessimismo antiprovvidenzialista anche in Virgilio, come sottolinea più volte il N. riallacciandosi anche ad interpretazioni avanzate da La Penna), per riscrivere però una storia diversa non più segnata da istanze celebrative. Tanto più significativa la scelta di Lucano se si considera che era proprio l'epica storica quella più soggetta al rischio della celebrazione, ma naturalmente Lucano sgombrava il campo subito da ogni dubbio già con l'opzione per un tema ancora così scottante e 'pericoloso'.

Lucan, Between Art and Poetry: a Cross-fertilization?
About Patria and Erichthô in the Pharsalia
By focusing on the witch Erichthô in Book VI and the Patriae imago of Book I, I will point out how Hellenistic aesthetics may influence the poetic writing of Lucan. The verbal intensity and power of expression, emotionally-charged, recall the manner of Pergamum’ and Rhodes’ artists. But the narratives discontinuities give each episode a touch of slenderness in a very Callimachean way, while also recalling novelists’ writings. The Pharsalia is a reflection upon the nefas of the civil war and an engagement with epic poetry, setting forth the hidden beauty of Evil.

L’étude de deux épisodes de longueur différente – celui de la sorcière Erichthô, au chant VI, et celui de la brève apparition de la Patrie à César, au livre I – permet de mettre en lumière l’influence de l’esthétique hellénistique sur l’écriture poétique de Lucain. L’emphase rhétorique, vectrice d’une émotion pathétique forte, proche de la manière des artistes de Pergame ou de Rhodes, se déploie en petits tableaux juxtaposés avec « légèreté » et se double d’une distance ironique, de nature callimachéenne et romanesque. Méditation sur l’horreur de la guerre civile et réflexion sur le processus de création littéraire, la Pharsale donne à voir, d’une façon très moderne, la secrète beauté du mal

Publié in R. Poignault et F. Galtier (org.), Présence de Lucain, Clermont-Ferrand, coll. Caesarodunum-Présence de l'Antiquité, n°48-49 bis, 2016, p. 211-234

This doctoral dissertation on Book 4 of the Constantinopolis by Ubertino Posculo represents the first completed English translation of a book in an epic poem that has hitherto been only available in Latin, French, or Italian. The commentary also holds the distinction of being the first to systematically reach beyond historiographical questions with a specific interest in intertext and allusion. This document summarizes the central arguments and observations I make about the poem in the commentary and opening chapter.

Kisah sengsara Yesus Kristus sampai kebangkitan-Nya dituliskan di dalam keempat Injil-injil sinoptik. Tulisan yang memiliki genre Narasi Injil ini secara unik dikisahkan oleh para penulis-penulis Injil yang diinspirasikan oleh Roh Kudus. Keunikan dari masing-masing Injil ini disampaikan oleh penulis sesuai dengan tujuan penulisan mereka masing-masing, demikian pula Lukas dan keunikannya. Lukas menulis Injil dengan tujuan sebagaimana disampaikan oleh Marshall yaitu menyampaikan bahwa Anak Manusia itu datang untuk mencari dan menyelamatkan mereka yang terhilang. Injil Lukas menekankan bagaimana keselamatan ini diberikan kepada mereka yang miskin juga membutuhkan dan bagaimana Injil ini memberikan dampak untuk menunjukkan betapa besarnya belas kasihan Tuhan. Mereka yang merespons pesan tentang Yesus, Anak Allah, akan menerima berkat dari Kerajaan Allah, dan mereka dipanggil untuk hidup dalam penyangkalan diri dan ketekunan selagi mereka menanti akan kedatangan dari Anak Manusia.

This doctoral dissertation on Book 4 of the Constantinopolis by Ubertino Posculo represents the first completed English translation of a book in an epic poem that has hitherto been only available in Latin, French, or Italian. The commentary also holds the distinction of being the first to systematically reach beyond historiographical questions with a specific interest in intertext and allusion. This document summarizes the central arguments and observations I make about the poem in the commentary and opening chapter.

Scholia features critical and pedagogical articles and reviews on a diverse range of subjects dealing with classical antiquity, including late antique, medieval, Renaissance and early modern studies related to the classical tradition; in addition, there are articles on classical artefacts in museums in New Zealand and the J. A. Barsby Essay.

in P. Johnston and S. Papaioannou (eds.) Idyllic Poetic Landscapes in Antiquity: Arcadia, the Golden Age, and the Locus Amoenus. Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 53 (2013): 261-74.

Drawing on established connections between Roman identity and an agricultural landscape, this paper examines how the imagery of disrupted pastoral and agrarian landscapes and characters represent the effects of civil war on the Roman people in Vergil's Aeneid and Lucan's Bellum Civile.  While disturbance and turmoil are already a part of the natural landscape in Vergil's Eclogues and Georgics, in epic, a genre that concerns itself with how empire and imperial power mediate Roman identity, the displacement of shepherds and agriculture partially redefines Roman identity in militaristic terms.  Vergil's pastoral characters, written into military roles as civic landscapes displace agrarian ones in the Aeneid, survive but fail to find a place in Lucan's ruined and desolate Pharsalian landscape in the Bellum Civile.  There, the broken natural landscape, unfit for agriculture, pastoralism, or trade, mirrors the redefinition of what is "Roman" and the occlusion of Rome's link to an idealized bucolic past.

Unlike classic war epics such as the Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid, whose heroes fight against external enemies, Lucan’s Pharsalia tells the story of a civil conflict. This circumstance makes it virtually impossible to include any gods in the action of the poem, as doing so would require
them to take sides in the conflict, which would be highly inappropriate. Therefore, inspired perhaps by Aristophanes (or drawing on his own powers of invention), Lucan substituted the ‘traditional’ Graeco‑Roman
deities with the Thessalian necromancer Erichtho – who, though human, turns out to be more powerful than the gods themselves. Endowed with qualities that mirror those of the Civil War itself – as well as supernatural powers and a sinister kind of creativity (by means of which she destroys life in order to create death) – Erichtho proves to be the only appropriate ‘divine’ patron for an epic about civil conflict and – in effect – may be seen as an allegorical ‘goddess’ of the Civil War.

This article aims at analyzing the history of the Latin iunctura “machina mundi” since its original formulation (Lucretius, DRN 5.95-96). Lucretius’ use of the world-machine metaphor contains a clear polemical intent, directed against two complementary images: the Platonic view of the world as a divine creation and the widespread Hellenistic representation of the world as a perfect mechanism of spheres turning around an immobile Earth. The shadow of the original eschatological context in Lucretius’ poem hangs over its first quotations and reformulations (Manilius, Aetna, Lucan): an important role is played by Statius (later imitated by Avienus), who first interprets and transforms Lucretius’ machina mundi into a machina caeli, with emphasis on the rotation of celestial spheres. Another important turning point is the Christian appropriation of the iunctura, both in prose (Arnobius, Firmicus Maternus) and verse (Laudes Domini), since late III century AD. At the same time, the expression machina mundi becomes a commonplace formula to refer to the Vault of Heaven or to the world. However, its reuse during the IV Century AD seems often linked to Lucretius’ original context (with polemical intent). The analysis concludes with the work of Prudentius and Claudianus, which represents a perfect synthesis of the interpretations of the iunctura until late antiquity. In the final chapter, returning to Lucretius’ verses, it is suggested that in DRN 5.95-96 we find an allusion to the myth of Atlas and its allegorical interpretations.

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich im weitesten Sinne mit dem Verhältnis zwischen einem Text, seinen Lesern und deren Kritikern. Ihr Gegenstand sind Anspielungen auf zeitgeschichtliche Ereignisse in antiken literarischen Texten und die Vermutungen, die die Verfasser antiker exegetischer Literatur darüber äußern. Ziel ist dabei - anders als in den meisten einschlägigen Untersuchungen - nicht die Präsentation neuer Interpretationen zu den klassischen Texten, sondern die Analyse der aus Antike und Spätantike überlieferten Anspielungsdeutungen. An diese wird die Frage gestellt, welche Absichten, Ziele und Verfahren die Exegeten den von ihnen kommentierten Dichtern unterstellten und auf welchem Wege sie selbst zu ihrer Interpretation gelangten. Der Vergleich der einzelnen Interpretationen läßt typische Denkweisen und Interpretationsmuster hervortreten, ermöglicht einen Einblick in den geistigen Hintergrund der antiken Kommentatoren und schafft damit erst die Basis für die Beurteilung ihrer auch heute immer wieder diskutierten Vorschläge.

Ediciones Clásicas garantiza un riguroso proceso de selección y evaluación de los trabajos que publica. This volume has been peer reviewed through a process administered by the Editors-in-Chief. All reviews were conducted by external expert referees. Este volumen ha sido sometido a una revisión por pares realizada a instancias de los directores. Todas las revisiones se han realizado por evaluadores externos especializados. Esta publicación se realiza dentro de los trabajos financiados por la Universidad de Oviedo, así como por los Proyectos de Investigación "Falsificaciones y falsificadores de textos clásicos (grecolatinos) II" (PN-17 FFI2017-87034-P, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades), AVIPES-CM (H2019/HUM-5742). y UCM-PR87/19-22659, cofinanciados por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) y el Fondo Social Europeo. Esta publicación ha sido financiada por el Gobierno del Principado de Asturias con cargo a fondos provenientes del Plan de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (PCTI) de Asturias.

Scholars of eighteenth-century literature have long seen the development of the Gothic as a break from neoclassical aesthetics, but this article posits a more complex engagement with classical imitation at the origins of the genre. In Horace Walpole's formative Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, his Gothic drama The Mysterious Mother, and in the curiosities in his villa, classical elements are detached from their contexts and placed in startling and strange juxtapositions. His tendency towards the fragmentation of ancient culture, frequently expressed through the imagery of dismemberment, suggests an aesthetic not of imitation, but of collection. Moreover, rather than abandoning or ignoring the classical, Walpole reconfigures literary history to demonstrate elements of monstrosity and hybridity already present in Greek and Roman texts.

This article aims at giving an overall view of the real and mythical topography of the Abaton of Biggeh, which housed a relic, the left leg of the God Osiris, in connection with the rituals. After a geographical and archaeological presentation, I will stress in particular the different species of trees growing on and around the Abaton. A new French translation will be provided, with commentary, of the Abaton Decree, in relation to the depictions on the Gate of Hadrian in the temple of Philae. A discussion of all the classical sources in chronological order will follow, in order to draw comparisons with the Egyptian sources. Lastly, the possible location and spatial organization of the Abaton in comparison with other sacred mounds will be addressed.

In his poem, Lucan often employs the instruments of paradox and irony to expose the moral subversion of civil war. In this respect, his use of the semantic field of happiness, especially of terms such as felix, laetus, beatus or gaudium, is particularly emblematic. The lexicon of felicitas frequently appears in relation to cruel and tyrannical characters (primarly Caesar): while these enjoy the favor of Fortune undeservedly, the civitas as a whole can not be felix. An even more complex case is the one of Pompey. The psychological transformation he undergoes after the defeat of Pharsalus is accompanied by a meaningful semantic shift in the use of felix. This adjective progressively loses all negative connotations and instead comes to designate - in the last words of the general and then in the epitaph pronounced by Cato - true happiness, achieved only at the very moment of death.

Baniades setnper tota canîabitur orbe: qunmvis íngenio nonvalet, arte valet (Am. l.l5.L3-4) In questo famoso giudizio Ovidio riconosce a Callimaco la grande raffinatezzaformale, ma gli nega decisamente la fantasia creativa, la capacità inventiva, queLL'ingeníurn del quale invece abbondava lui stesso, definito ingeniosissímas da Seneca (Nat. Qwest.3.27.l4) e summí íngeníi vir da Quintiliano (8.5.6): rl suo ingeniuÍn ne costituiva però anche il limite, a detta di Seneca retore e soprattutto di Quintiliano (1).

Epopeea ."'Despre războia! civil''' sau "Parsalia*' este opera seriîl or ului latin Marcns Annaeus Lucarms. Date biografice asupra sa ire s-au păstrat foarte multe, iar cele transmise sînt confuze; şi con tradictorii! s-a păstrat, deci, o biografie, care, după cum afirmă Scaliger, aparţine lui Suetonius3, o alta aparţinînd unui biograf mai puţin cunoscut al lui Lucarms, Vacca5 şi o a treia, scrisă pe o filă lipită la al doilea manuscris Vossianns, socotită a fi o prescur tare a biografiei lui Suetonius, care mi conţine nici o informaţie nouă. asupra scriitorului Latin, în afara unei şcoli la primul vers al 1· arsalieî.

This chapter discusses two of the key programmatic functions performed by ghosts in the Bellum Civile: (I) ghosts' roles in the development of the relationship between the Bellum Civile and the earlier epic tradition represented principally (though not exclusively) by the Aeneid; and (II) ghosts' contribution to the epic's pessimistic vision of Roman history and of the imperial regime. I consider both the appearances of ghosts as actors in the narrative represented through direct mimesis as well as their evocation through the rhetorical figure of eidôlopoeia.

La figura di Serse e gli aspetti più sensazionali della sua impresa ritornano nella letteratura in testi diversi e con finalità diverse. Nel presente articolo vengono esaminati alcuni testi latini di diverse epoche storiche, da Cicerone a Orosio, per documentare il vario atteggiamento dei letterati nella costruzione del mito di Serse. Infatti quest'ultimo è spesso oggetto di un giudizio negativo, soprattutto quando si trattano argomenti etici, sia in età classica che in età cristiana, perché è considerato esempio di superbia nei confronti degli uomini e nei
confronti della natura (e di Dio). Ma il personaggio ha una sua vita anche avulso dal contesto storico: infatti entra presto nel repertorio utilizzato da poeti e prosatori come elemento ornamentale che partecipa di
luoghi comuni narrativi continuamente riprodotti dai letterati e che per questo sfugge a qualsiasi giudizio, fino a svolgere, in certe epoche, il ruolo idealizzato del sovrano assoluto.

This dissertation provides a new examination of the figure of Cato within Lucan’s epic poem Bellum Civile by focusing on the theme of memory within the epic and its interaction with Cato’s character specifically. It argues that one may read the epic as possessing the rhetorical function of a literary funeral monumentum, the purpose of which is to retell the death of Rome in the Roman Civil War, mourn its passing, and yet in so doing simultaneously preserve its memory so that future generations may remember the liberty Rome once possessed and may be influenced by that memory to action. In this reading, the epic itself—like Cato within the epic—offers a counter-memory of what the civil wars meant to Rome in competition with that promoted by Caesar and his descendants.
The study centers upon the speech of Cato found in Book 2 in which Cato states his two major goals for participation in the civil war: successfully commemorate a perishing Roma et Libertas and transform his own defeat into a self-sacrifice that is beneficial to his fellow Romans. The opening chapters place Cato’s speech into its larger context by arguing that it is an integral part of a narrative arc spanning most of the first two books. The image of national suicide within the epic’s proem reveals that gaining victory in civil war is what assures self-defeat. This economy of universal defeat pervades Lucan’s epic and stands as the greatest threat facing Cato in the successful achievement of his goals. Lucan also shows that the very nature of civil war poses a threat to the viability of memory, as evidenced by scenes in which Roman soldiers and citizens forget and abandon the social ties that bind their identity to that of Rome.
Cato’s speech illustrates that his chosen weapon against the epic’s economy of defeat will be the power of memory. A careful analysis of the speech reveals that Cato’s desired goal of enacting a self-sacrifice—a nod to his future suicidal martyrdom at Utica—can transform him into a monumentum of ‘Old Rome’ (the pre-Caesarian Rome that still retained its libertas) which will in turn ensure his second goal of achieving funeral commemoration of what Rome used to be—and could still be again. The closing chapter examines key passages in Book 9 in which the power of memory is explicitly connected with renewal even in the midst of defeat, suggesting that Cato’s (and the epic’s) mission to preserve memory can be ultimately successful. This reading of Lucan’s Cato has the benefit of showing that his success need no longer be based mainly upon whether or not he can be a virtuous sapiens but also upon what he can actually do for future generations of Romans by preserving the powerful memory of a Rome that still possessed her freedom from the Caesars.