Illuminating Darkness Reading Virgils Aeneid Through Lucans Bellum
Illuminating Darkness: Reading Virgil’s Aeneid Through Lucan’s Bellum Civile Elaine C Sanderson elaine. sanderson@liverpool. ac. uk @Elaina. M 42
• Virg. Aen. 1. 1 -7 • ‘How much ‘anti-Virgil’ is there in Virgil? ’
John Henderson, Lucan: the word at war
• Born: Cordoba • Elder Seneca (grandfather) • Younger Seneca (uncle) • • Quaestor Quinquennial Neronia 60 AD Emperor Nero – Feud? Pisonian Conspiracy 65 AD • Reception in Flavian Epic
• Dactylic Hexameter • Bellum Civile • De Bello Civili • Pharsalia • (in)complete?
• Proem, invocation to Nero, origins of conflict, Rubicon, Rome abandoned, civil war portents • Reactions in Rome, Cato and Brutus, Corfinium, Brundisium, Pompey’s flight from Italy • Julia’s ghost, Caesar in Rome, Pompey’s forces, Massilia (siege & sea battle) • Caesar’s campaigns, fraternization, Vulteius’ suicide, Curio’s campaigns • The Senate in Greece, Appius consults the oracle, Caesar’s mutiny, the storm, Pompey’s separation from Cornelia
• Campaigns at Dyracchium, Scaeva, Thessaly, Sextus and Erictho, necromancy • Prelude, battle, aftermath • Pompey and Cornelia reunite, Pompey seeks Parthian support, Pompey leaves for Egypt, Pompey’s death • Aftermath of Pompey’s death, Cato’s command, Libya, Oracle of Ammon, snakes, Caesar at Troy, Caesar arrives in Egypt • Cleopatra, the Nile, plots, war in Egypt
• Successful leader • Highly destructive? • Past his prime… • Human/sympathetic? • Stoic - Reluctant participant • The ‘hero’? • Nero’s great-grandfather • Authorial intrusion/commentary • • Civil War Liberty and Tyranny Paradox Horrors of War (nefas) Imperialism Madness (furor) Stoicism
• Zientek & Thorne 2020
• Bella vs. arma • Magnum vs. maior • Divine communication breakdown • Heroism? • (un)founding of Rome? • Ahl 1976: 67
• Casali 2011: 83 • Narducci 1979: 35
• Casali 2011: 107 • Virgil’s Underworld in Lucan’s Underworld • Landscapes of (Civil) War • Lucan’s Vulteius, Virgil’s Drances
• Virg. Aen. 6. 243 -64 • Luc. 6. 420 -4 • Virg. Aen. 6. 98 -155, 236 • Luc. 6. 667 -774 • Virg. Aen. 6. 38 -97 • Luc. 6. 590 -603, 605 -23, 695 -718, 730 -49 • Virg. Aen. 6. 679 -702 • Luc. 6. 775 -820 • Luc. 6. 777 -84 • Luc. 6. 784 -92 • Luc. 6. 793 -802
Drusos Gracchos • Luc. 6. 795 -6
Decios Drusosque • Virg. Aen. 6. 824
Livius Drusus • Horsfall 2013: 562 notorious trib. pleb. M.
Gracchi Scipiadas • Virg. Aen. 6. 842 -3
entire family and we are not in any way invited to try to answer the ‘riddle’ of ‘which? • Horsfall 2013: 573
Drusos Gracchos • Luc. 6. 795 -6
• Caesar attacks Ilerda • • • Luc. 1. 24 -32 Luc. 7. 392 -9 Virg. Aen. 1. 267 -71 Virg. Aen. 6. 771 -6 Virg. Aen. 8. 42 -8 • Caesar's camp floods • Fighting continues • Temporary Peace • Fighting resumes
anfractu faucibus tutae uiae Luc. 4. 157 -62 opaco
anfractu fauces tuti Virg. Aen. 11. 522 -7 semita receptus atrum
suggesting the correspondence between present fratricidal conflict and that between Trojans and Italians • Thompson & Bruère 1970: 155.
• Virg. Aen. 8. 630 -45 • Virg. Aen. 8. 671 -13 • Virg. Aen. 8. 702
• Caesarian • Leader of Latin embassy • Captain of the Raft • Politically shrewd • Drances vs. Turnus
foederibus ueniam • Luc. 4. 507 -12 salutem
foedere veniam • Virg. Aen. 11. 354 -9
salus • Virg. Aen. 11. 360 -3
• Concurrunt alii totumque in partibus unis bellorum fecere nefas. • There, the horrors of civil war were enacted in full by one faction alone. • Illi haec inter se dubiis de rebus agebant certantes • Contesting amongst themselves, they debated issues in doubt.
• Casali 2011: 107
- Slides: 32