View source for Lucan

{{short description|Roman poet (AD 39–65)}}
{{About|the Roman poet}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Lucan
| image         = Busto de Lucano, Cordoba.JPG
| caption       = Modern bust of Lucan in [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]]. There are no ancient likenesses.
| birth_date    = 3 November AD 39
| birth_place   = [[Córdoba, Spain|Corduba]], [[Hispania Baetica]]
| death_date    = 30 April AD 65 (aged 25)
| death_cause   = [[Forced suicide]] 
| nationality   = Roman
| occupation    = Poet
| spouse        = [[Argentaria Polla|Polla Argentaria]]
| children      =
| father        = {{Interlanguage link|Marcus Annaeus Mela|ca|Marc Anneu Mela}}
| mother        = [[Acilia (mother of Lucan)|Acilia]]
| family        = [[Annaea gens|gens Annaea]]
}}

'''Marcus Annaeus Lucanus''' (3 November AD 39 – 30 April AD 65), better known in [[English language|English]] as '''Lucan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|uː|k|ən}}), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, [[Hispania Baetica]] (present-day [[Córdoba, Spain]]). He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the [[Classical Latin#Imperial Latin|Imperial Latin]] period, known in particular for his epic ''[[Pharsalia]]''. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets.

==Life==
Three brief ancient accounts allow for the reconstruction of a modest biography – the earliest attributed to [[Suetonius]], another to an otherwise unknown [[Vacca (grammarian)|Vacca]], and the third anonymous and undated – along with references in [[Martial]], [[Cassius Dio]], [[Tacitus]]'s ''Annals'', and one of [[Statius]]'s ''Silvae''.  Lucan was born in the Roman colony of Corduba into a wealthy family of central Italic origins; he was the son of {{Interlanguage link|Marcus Annaeus Mela|ca|Marc Anneu Mela}} and grandson of [[Seneca the Elder]]. He grew up under the tutelage of his uncle [[Seneca the Younger]]. He studied rhetoric at Athens<ref>{{cite book |last=Suetonius |author-link=Suetonius |title=The Life of Lucan |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/de_Poetis/Lucan*.html }}</ref> and was probably provided with a philosophical and [[Stoicism|Stoic]] education by his uncle.
[[File:LucanPharsaliaFrenchEd1657.jpg|thumb|left|Engraved title page of a French edition of Lucan's ''Pharsalia'', 1657]]
The 5th-century author [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] implies that [[Argentaria Polla|Polla Argentaria]]—Lucan's wife—may have assisted him in the creation of the ''[[Pharsalia]]'', though the philologist Peter White suggests that this story could easily be a later invention and denigrates the account as "sentimental fancy".<ref>[[Sidonius Apollinaris|Sidonius]]. ''Letters''. 2.10.6.</ref><ref name="hays">{{cite book|last1=Hays|first1=Mary|title=Female Biography, vol 3|date=1807|publisher=Philadelphia: Printed for Byrch and Small|page=95|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021270650;view=1up;seq=101|access-date=14 October 2017|chapter=Polla Argentaria}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=White |first=Peter |date=1975 |title=The Friends of Martial, Statius, and Pliny, and the Dispersal of Patronage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/311139 |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=79 |page=283 |doi=10.2307/311139 |issn=0073-0688|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

He found success under [[Nero]], became one of the emperor's close friends and was rewarded with a quaestorship in advance of the legal age. In AD 60, he won a prize for extemporizing ''Orpheus'' and ''Laudes Neronis'' at the [[quinquennial Neronia]], and was again rewarded when the emperor appointed him to the augurate. During this time he circulated the first three books of his epic poem ''[[Pharsalia]]'' (labelled ''De Bello civili'' in the manuscripts), which told the story of the [[Roman Civil War|civil war]] between [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Pompey]].

At some point, a feud began between Nero and Lucan. Two very different accounts of the events have survived that both trivialize the feud. According to Tacitus, Nero became jealous of Lucan and forbade him to publish his poems.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' XV.49</ref> According to Suetonius, Nero disrupted a public reading by Lucan, by leaving and calling a meeting of the senate, and Lucan responded by writing insulting poems about Nero.<ref>{{cite book |last=Suetonius |author-link=Suetonius  |title=The Life of Lucan |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/de_Poetis/Lucan*.html }}</ref>

Other works, though, point to a more serious basis to the feud. Works by the grammarian Vacca and the poet Statius may support the claim that Lucan wrote insulting poems about Nero. Vacca mentions that one of Lucan's works was entitled ''De Incendio Urbis'' (On the Burning of the City).<ref>Vacca, ''Life of Lucan''</ref> Statius's ode to Lucan mentions that Lucan described how the "unspeakable flames of the criminal tyrant roamed the heights of Remus."<ref>Statius, ''[[Silvae]]'' II.vii</ref> Additionally, the later books of ''Pharsalia'' are anti-Imperial and pro-Republic. This criticism of Nero and office of the Emperor may have been the true cause of the ban.

Lucan later joined the [[Pisonian conspiracy|conspiracy]] of [[Gaius Calpurnius Piso (conspirator)|Gaius Calpurnius Piso]] against Nero. The conspiracy was discovered and he was obliged, at the age of 25, to commit [[suicide]] by opening a vein, but not before incriminating his mother, [[Acilia (mother of Lucan)|Acilia]], among others, in the hopes of a [[pardon]].  According to Tacitus, as Lucan bled to death, "(he) recalled some poetry he had composed in which he had told the story of a wounded soldier dying a similar kind of death and he recited the very lines. These were his last words."<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' XV.70.1.  Scholars have vainly tried to locate Lucan's last words in his work but no passage in Lucan's extant poem exactly matches Tacitus's description at "Annals" 15.70.1.  See, e.g., P. Asso, "A Commentary on Lucan 'De Bello Civili IV.'" Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010, p. 9n38.</ref> An alternative interpretation of events is that his death was not by suicide, but was an execution carried out at Nero's command.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tucker |first1=Robert A. |title=Tacitus and the Death of Lucan |journal=Latomus |volume=46 |issue=2 | date=April–June 1987 |pages=330–337 |jstor=41534524}}</ref> 

His father was involved in the [[proscription]], but his mother escaped. Statius's poem about Lucan was addressed to his widow, Polla Argentaria, upon the occasion of his birthday during the reign of [[Domitian]] (''Silvae'', ii.7, the ''Genethliacon Lucani'').
{{Clear}}

==Works==
[[File:Pharsalia.tif|thumb|''Pharsalia'', 1740]]
According to Vacca and Statius, Lucan's works included:

Surviving work:
* ''[[Pharsalia]]'' or ''De Bello Civili'' (On the Civil War), on the wars between [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Pompey]]

Often attributed to him (but to others as well):
* ''[[Laus Pisonis]]'' (Praise of Piso), a panegyric of a member of the Piso family

Lost works:
* ''Catachthonion''
* ''Iliacon'' from the Trojan cycle
* ''Epigrammata''
* ''[[Adlocutio]] ad Pollam''
* ''Silvae''
* ''Saturnalia''
* ''Medea''
* ''Salticae Fabulae''
* ''Laudes Neronis'', a praise of Nero
* ''Orpheus''
* ''Prosa oratio in Octavium Sagittam''
* ''Epistulae ex Campania''
* ''De Incendio Urbis'', on the Roman fire of 64, perhaps accusing Nero of arson

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Lucan|volume=17|pages=91–92}}
* {{Cite journal |last=White |first=Peter |date=1975 |title=The Friends of Martial, Statius, and Pliny, and the Dispersal of Patronage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/311139 |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=79 |pages=265–300 |doi=10.2307/311139 |issn=0073-0688|url-access=subscription }}

==Further reading==
* Ahl, Frederick M.  ''Lucan:  An Introduction''. Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 39.  Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1976.
* Bartsch, Shadi.  ''Ideology in Cold Blood:  A Reading of Lucan's Civil War''.  Cambridge, Massachusetts:  Harvard Univ. Pr., 1997.
* [[Susanna Braund|Braund, Susanna M.]] (2008) ''Lucan: Civil War''. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press.
* Braund, Susanna M. (2009) ''A Lucan Reader: Selections from Civil War. BC Latin Readers.'' Bolchazy-Carducci.
* Dewar, Michael.  "Laying It On with a Trowel:  The Proem to Lucan and Related Texts."  ''Classical Quarterly'' 44 (1994), 199–211.
* [[Elaine Fantham|Fantham, Elaine]].  "Caesar and the Mutiny:  Lucan's Reshaping of the Historical Tradition in ''De Bello Civili'' 5.237–373." ''Classical Philology'' 80 (1985), 119–31.
* Fantham, Elaine (1992) ''De bello civili. Book II.'' Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge University Press.
* ———.  "Lucan's Medusa Excursus:  Its Design and Purpose." ''Materiali e discussioni'' 29 (1992), 95–119.
* Fratantuono, Lee.  "Madness Triumphant: A Reading of Lucan's Pharsalia."  Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2012.
* Henderson, John G. W.  "Lucan:  The Word at War." ''Ramus'' 16 (1987), 122–64.
* Johnson, Walter R.  ''Momentary Monsters:  Lucan and His Heroes''. Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 47.  Ithaca, New York:  Cornell Univ. Pr., 1987.
* Lapidge, M.  "Lucan's Imagery of Cosmic Dissolution."  ''Hermes'' 107 (1979), 344–70.
* Leigh, Matthew.  ''Lucan:  Spectacle and Engagement''.  New York:  Oxford Univ. Pr., 1997.
* Marti, Berthe.  "The Meaning of the Pharsalia."  ''American Journal of Philology'' 66 (1945), 352–76.
* Martindale, Charles A. "The Politician Lucan."  ''Greece and Rome'' 31 (1984), 64–79.
* Masters, Jamie.  ''Poetry and Civil War in Lucan's 'Bellum Civile'''. Cambridge Classical Studies.  New York:  Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1992.
* ———.  "Deceiving the Reader: The Political Mission of Lucan's Bellum Civile." ''Reflections of Nero:  Culture, History, and Representation'', ed. [[Jas Elsner|Jás Elsner]] and Jamie Masters.  Chapel Hill:  Univ. of North Carolina Pr., 1994. 151–77.
* Matthews, Monica (2008) ''Caesar and the Storm: A Commentary on Lucan, De Bello Civili, Book 5, lines 476-721''. Peter Lang.
* Morford, M. P. O.  ''The Poet Lucan''.  New York:  Oxford Univ. Pr., 1967.
* O'Gorman, Ellen.  "Shifting Ground:  Lucan, Tacitus, and the Landscape of Civil War."  ''Hermathena'' 159 (1995), 117–31.
* Rossi, Andreola.  "Remapping the Past: Caesar's Tale of Troy (Lucan ''BC'' 9.964–999)."  ''Phoenix'' 55 (2001), 313–26.
* Sklenar, Robert John. ''The Taste for Nothingness:  A Study of "Virtus" and Related Themes in Lucan's'' Bellum Civile.  Ann Arbor:  Univ. of Mich. Pr., 2003.
* Thomas, Richard F.  "The Stoic Landscape of Lucan 9." ''Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry:  The Ethnographic Tradition''. New York:  Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1982. 108–23.
* Wick, Claudia (2004) ''Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Bellum Civile, liber IX. I: Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung; II: Kommentar''. K.G. Saur.
* Wilson Joyce, Jane (1994) ''Lucan: Pharsalia''. Cornell University Press.

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Marcus Annaeus Lucanus}}
{{Commons category}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Lucan
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=316}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id=13715}}
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT237.HTM Marcus Annaeus Lucanus]:  text, concordances and frequency list

{{Ancient Rome topics|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus}}
[[Category:Lucan| ]]
[[Category:39 births]]
[[Category:65 deaths]]
[[Category:Annaei]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:Romans from Hispania]]
[[Category:Writers from Córdoba, Spain]]
[[Category:Silver Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:1st-century Roman poets]]
[[Category:Epic poets]]
[[Category:Members of the Pisonian conspiracy]]
[[Category:Forced suicides]]
[[Category:Suicides in Ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in Italy]]