Paolo Asso

A Commentary on Lucan, De bello civili IV

TEXTE UND KOMMENTARE
Eine altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe

Herausgegeben von

Siegmar Döpp, Adolf Köhnken, Ruth Scodel

Band 33

De Gruyter
 A Commentary on
Lucan, De bello civili IV
Introduction, Edition, and Translation

by

Paolo Asso

De Gruyter
 ISBN 978-3-11-020385-1
e-ISBN 978-3-11-021651-6
ISSN 0563-3087

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Asso, Paolo, 1965-

A commentary on Lucan, "De bello civili IV" : introduction, edition, and translation /
by Paolo Asso.
p. cm. -- (Texte und Kommentare : eine altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe ; Bd. 33)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-11-020385-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia. Liber 4. 2. Rome--History--Civil War, 49-45 B.C.--
Literature and the war. 3. Epic poetry, Latin--History and criticism. 4. Caesar, Julius--
In literature. I. Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia. Liber 4. English & Latin. II. Title.
PA6480.A87 2009
873'.01--dc22
2009050252

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet
at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin
Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
∞ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
MATRI PATRIQVE AMATISSIMIS
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgements...............................................................................IX

Note to Readers...................................................................................... X

Introduction
I. Lucan’s life and times: Vitae and other evidence.............................2
II. Lucan’s ‘antiphrastic’ epos.............................................................10
Book IV and its place in the poem .................................................14
III. Language and Style ........................................................................18
Diction ............................................................................................19
Syntax and word order....................................................................24
Rhetorical devices ..........................................................................25
Meter ..............................................................................................30
IV. Note on the Latin Text....................................................................33
Conspectus siglorum ......................................................................36

Text and Translation .............................................................................38

Commentary
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401.................................................100
1–23 Caesar’s arrival at Ilerda......................................................104
24–147 Skirmish at the Hillock and Caesarians in the Storm ......116
148–253 Fraternizing....................................................................144
254–336 Pompeians in Trouble....................................................166
337–401 Pardon............................................................................181
 Table of Contents VIII

Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 .........189
Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 .......................................................213
581–8 From Vulteius’ aristeia in Illyricum
to Curio’s arrival in Africa.....................................................213
4.589–660 Hercules and Antaeus .................................................220
4.661–714 Curio defeats Varus ....................................................247
4.715–98 Curio and his army surprised
and annihilated by King Juba.................................................265
4.799–824 The final apostrophe ...................................................284

References and Abbreviations ............................................................295

Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque..........................................321

Index nominum et rerum ....................................................................331
 Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the institutions that supported my work: Princeton

University, Swarthmore College, Kenyon College, the Università degli
Studi di Napoli Federico II, and especially my home institution, the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Among all the individuals who offered their advice and feedback, I
should mention Nicholas Horsfall and my mentors, Enrico Flores,
Denis C. Feeney, Robert A. Kaster, and R. Elaine Fantham.
Last and by no means least I want to express my heartfelt gratitude
to my students Perot Bissel, Martin Halprin, Colin Keiffer, and Michael
McOsker, and to my colleagues J. Mira Seo, Ruth Scodel, and Freder-
ick F. Wherry.
 Note to Readers

In referring to Lucan’s poem, whose title for us is Bellum Ciuile,1 the

abbreviation BC is adopted. The text of Book IV has been established
for the present edition on the basis of Housman 1927.2
In the lemmata and the Latin text there is no graphic distinction be-
tween consonantal and vocalic u, but the remaining Latin quotations
follow the practice adopted in the editions of the individual authors as
reproduced in the Packard Humanities Institute database of Latin texts.
The names and titles of works of ancient authors are abbreviated
according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., 1996), with occa-
sional variations. Editions of fragmentary texts are identified by editor
name following the fragment number.
Works by modern authors, including translations as well as editions
of fragmentary ancient texts, are cited by abbreviation. All abbreviated
references and citations, including grammars, encyclopedias and lexica,
are listed at the end in the comprehensive list ‘References and Abbre-
viations.’

_____________
1 On the poem’s title, see the remarks and the discussion cited in Shackleton Bailey 1988,
iii.
2 See the ‘Note on the Latin Text’ on 33-5 below.
Introduction
I. Lucan’s life and times: Vitae and other evidence
The extant information on Lucan’s short life is of ancient date and not
especially scarce. The earliest sources are Statius, Martial, and Cassius
Dio,1 against which we need to evaluate what we learn from three biog-
raphies (Vitae). The earliest one of these is attributed to Suetonius,2 the
second to an otherwise unknown Vacca, a 6th century grammarian, and
the third is anonymous and undated, but seems to depend to a large
extent on the Suetonian life. The most reliable details reported in the
three Vitae are those that we can match with the sparse information we
find in other ancient authors.3
The facts are known and somewhat over-interpreted, but they bear
repeating.4 Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (henceforth L.) was born in Cor-
duba, capital of Hispania Baetica, on November 3, CE 39, to a promi-
nent family of Italian stock.5 L. received his cognomen from his mater-
nal grandfather, Acilius Lucanus, for his mother was Acilia,6
descendant from the illustrious local family,7 as confirmed by the in-
scriptions bearing the names of various Acilii that surfaced in some
Spanish towns of Baetica and Lusitania.8 L.’s father was M. Annaeus
_____________
1 St. Silvae 2.7; Mart. Epigr. 7.21-3, 10.64; Tac. Ann. 15.49, 56, 70; Dio 57.29.4.
2 The Suetonian authorship is confirmed by the similarity in phrasing with Jerome’s
excerpts in Chron. ad Ol. 210.3 (mistakenly referred to 65 instead of 63 CE): M. An-
naeus Lucanus Cordubensis poeta in Pisoniana coniuratione deprehensus, bracchium
ad secandas uenas medico praebuit (see Gagliardi 1989, 13); which very closely corre-
sponds with the Suetonian life, 401.31-2 Badalì bracchia ad secandas uenas praebuit
medico.
3 Notably, Statius, Martial, Tacitus, Petronius, Fronto. Still valuable is Heitland’s discus-
sion of Lucan’s biography and its sources found in Haskins 1887, xiii-xx; see also
Wuilleumier/Le Bonniec 1962, 1-3; Marx in RE I.2.2226-36.
4 My extensive debts to scholars will be dutifully noted infra. Elaine Fantham’s chapter
‘A Controversial Life,’ which will open the forthcoming Brill Companion to Lucan,
constitutes yet one more milestone in the continuing debate.
5 Vacca Vita Lucani 402.14-16 Badalì natus est III Nonas Nouembris C. Caesare Ger-
manico II L. Apronio Caesiano coss.
6 RE I.1.259 Nr. 59.
7 Roman colonists of prominent families were settled on the site of Corduba on the river
Baetis (= Guadalquivir) by the consul M. Claudius Marcellus in 152 BCE; see Strabo
3.2.1; Griffin 1972, 17-19; Heitland 1887, xxiii.
8 The Acilii in CIL II 2016-20 are from Singili[a] Barba (= modern El Castillon) not far
from Anticaria (= modern Antequera) in Baetica (Barr. Atlas 26F4-27A4); CIL II 2234
 Introduction 3

Mela, youngest child of the rhetorician L. Annaeus Seneca the Elder

and younger brother of the famous tragic poet and Stoic philosopher L.
Annaeus Seneca the Younger. The Elder Seneca’s oldest child was L.
Annaeus Novatus, to whom Seneca dedicated two of his philosophical
treatises.9
Scholars tend to agree that the Annaei were constantly engaged in
what we would term ‘continuing their education’, and the family at-
mosphere of learning exerted a great influence on the poet. Taken to
Rome as an infant of barely eight months, L. was brought up in high
circles, receiving his education first and foremost from the members of
his extended family. The Stoic philosopher, grammarian and rhetori-
cian, L. Annaeus Cornutus was probably among L.’s teachers.10 In his
consolation for his own exile addressed to his mother Helvia, Seneca
singles out the little Marcus Annaeus Lucanus among his mother’s
grandchildren as surely a source of incessant joy:
Look at your grandchildren: Marcus, the greatest source of joy (blan-
dissimum puerum), in whose presence no sadness may last. No one’s
heart can be afflicted by any sorrow so great or so recent that Marcus’
embrace would not soothe.11
The emperor Claudius exiled L.’s uncle for alleged adultery with Julia
Livilla (daughter of Germanicus and sister of the emperor Gaius Ca-
ligula), but the actual motivation was probably of a political nature and
_____________
is from Corduba itself (Barr. Atlas 26F4), whereas 2188 is from Sacili, also in Baetica;
3840 and 3871 are from Saguntum (Barr. Atlas 27E2); see RE I.1.259 s.v. Acilius Nr.
53. The prominence of the Annaei is also attested in epigraphic sources; see the index
of gens names in CIL II s.v. ‘Annaei, Annei, Annii, etc.’; for the variant spellings, see
RE I.2.2225.3-7.
9 The three books De ira and the De vita beata; Duff 1960, 170-1. Novatus was adopted
by the rhetorician L. Junius Gallio and changed his name to Junius Annaeus Gallio.
Under emperor Claudius he became proconsul of the newly constituted senatorial prov-
ince of Achaea. During his tenure of office (in CE 53) he dismissed the charge brought
by the Jews against the apostle Paul (Acts xviii).
10 OCD 94; Nock in RE Suppl. 5.995 thinks that Cornutus might have been one of L.’s
father’s freedmen; cf. Mayer 1982, 316. Probus Vita Persii 5; [Persius] cognouit per
Cornutum etiam Annaeum Lucanum, aequaeuum auditorem Cornuti.
11 Sen. Ad Helv. 18.4-5 ad nepotes quoque respice: Marcum blandissimum puerum, ad
cuius conspectum nulla potest durare tristitia; nihil tam magnum, nihil tam recens in
cuiusquam pectore furit quod non circumfusus ille permulceat. Some assumed that the
Marcus in question was one of Seneca’s own sons (e.g., Kamp 1933), but scholars now
tend to identify him with Lucan; e.g., Griffin 1976, 58-9; Gagliardi 1976, 21; Duff
1960, 238; Cazzaniga 1955, 3.
4 Introduction

aimed at striking the opposition gathered around Germanicus’ closest

relatives.12 The Annaei seem to have been supporters of the Republic.
The socio-political import of the alleged Republican fervor of the An-
naei is very hard to establish, but the information we find in the two
Senecan corpora may either have arisen the unwarranted tradition of the
family’s Republican sympathy or faithfully preserved indubitable traces
of dissent.
In dedicating his Controuersiae to his elder son Novatus, the Elder
Seneca regrets not having been able to hear Cicero because the years of
civil war terror prevented him from leaving his Spanish hometown to
go to Rome.13 Clearly, it would be preposterous to claim that the Elder
Seneca’s caution says anything about his family members’ political
views. What is certain is that Corduba sided with Pompey during the
civil war,14 which perhaps could explain the Elder Seneca’s caution
about leaving town in the wake of so many Caesarian successes.
Another Corduba-related fact, which might be seen in relation to
the Corduban Republicanism of the Annaei, is that the theme of Civil
War had already been expounded in epic by Sextilius Ena, the Cordu-
ban poet mentioned in one of L.’s grandfather’s Suasoriae as reciting a
poem on the proscriptions of 43 BCE.15 Furthermore, in the biography
of his father, the Younger Seneca informs us that his father wrote a
history of Rome from the inception of the civil wars.16 It has been sug-
gested that these histories ‘started with the wars that killed the Repub-
lic, the wars after which truth could be said to have disappeared.’17 The
lone fragment we have of the Younger Seneca’s father’s biography
seems to say that the Younger Seneca published his father’s histories,
though perhaps they had been left incomplete, for the fragment suggests
_____________
12 Conte 1994, 408; Dio 60.8.5; see Griffin 1976, 61.
13 Sen. Contr 1.praef.11.
14 Caesar sacked the city in 45 BCE (Bell. Hisp. 59-60).
15 Sen. Suas. 6.27.
16 Sen. De Vita Patris frg. 1 (Peter 1906, HRR II.98) Si quaecumque composuit pater
meus et edi uoluit, iam in manus populi emisissem, ad claritatem nominis sui satis sibi
ipse prospexerat. […] quisquis legisset eius historias ab initio bellorum ciuilium, unde
primum ueritas retro abiit, paene usque ad mortis suae diem, magno aestimasset scire,
quibus natus esset parentibus ille qui res Roma<nas>…; after which the palimpsest
breaks off.
17 Griffin 1972, 9; for the meaning of bella ciuilia in Seneca’s fragment from his De Vita
Patris, see also Peter HRR II, 1906, cxviii.
 Introduction 5

that the Elder Seneca was writing until the very end of his life. Al-
though the Elder Seneca died when L. was still an infant, it is both
plausible and likely that the civil wars were a theme that the Annaei
discussed at home, and it is not impossible that L. actually studied his
grandfather’s historical work.
L. will have been exposed to the historical, scientific, and philoso-
phical interests of his family circle but it is fair to say that his uncle
exerted on him the largest influence. L.’s familiarity with Nero was
doubtlessly a direct result of uncle Seneca’s role as the emperor’s pre-
ceptor. Recalled from exile in 49 through Agrippina’s intervention, who
wanted him as her son’s teacher, Seneca exerted a beneficial influence
on Nero until the young emperor first deposed Burrus in 55 and then
succeeded in killing his own mother in 59.18 All expectations of recov-
ering Nero from lapsing into tyrannical cruelty had vanished with the
matricide; and with the death of Afranius Burrus in 62 Seneca’s last
hopes had most certainly been killed.19
Crucial years in L.’s life were those between Nero’s accession to
the Principate in 54 and Burrus’ death in 62. Although uncle Seneca
never speaks of his nephew, scholars suppose that L. and his uncle
spent together the greater part of the last fifteen years of their lives from
49/50 until their execution in 65. The exact chronology of L.’s life and
works cannot be reconstructed with any degree of certainty, but the
broad lines can be reasonably sketched.
L. was ten years old when his uncle was recalled from exile and
barely fifteen when Nero, aged seventeen, became emperor. At some
point (presumably in 53, some months before emperor’s Claudius’
death), L. must have left Rome in order to pursue his studies in Athens,
as was customary for elite Roman young men between sixteen and
eighteen, and we know that Nero invited him to return to Rome in 55
and join his circle of friends.20 Tacitus explains the kind of activities in
which such a circle of friends would engage and depicts the literary
types that the emperor enjoyed not only as audience, but as the inspir-
_____________
18 Tacitus informs us that Nero’s reason in deposing Burrus was the latter’s complacency
toward Agrippina (Ann. 12.42), whose increasingly controlling behavior Nero was no
longer willing to endure.
19 Tacitus insinuates that Burrus’ illness might have been helped with poison (Ann. 14.51).
20 Suet. Vita Lucani 400.10-11 Badalì reuocatus Athenis a Nerone, cohortique amicorum
additu.
6 Introduction

ing milieu for his own artistic endeavors. Although Tacitus’ malicious-
ness is as impenetrable as entertaining, we gather that the talents Nero
selected were yet to be recognized, which suggests the young emperor’s
need to shine among and outdo the select group of literary and artistic
‘peers’.21 Nero must have been impressed by the young poet’s prolific
production.
For shortly after or somewhat around the time he was called from
Athens, L. had probably already composed the Iliacon, an epic on Hec-
tor’s death at Troy (allegedly inspired by Nero’s speech in favor of the
Trojans of CE 53).22 An Underworld (Catachthonion),23 and perhaps
some Saturnalia are also to be dated around the time of L.’s arrival to
court. We also hear of ten books of Siluae, which we can presume to
have been similar in generic composition and literary intent to Statius’
extant collection, and the Laudes Neronis, an encomium for the living
emperor that L. especially composed and recited for the Neronia of
60.24
At age twenty-one, the young poet’s skill must have been quite de-
veloped, if we are to believe that the epyllion Orpheus was composed
extempore.25 In 60, in other words, L. was already a court poet, and his
social stance benefited from the emperor’s favor with the special dis-
pensation he received to enter two magistracies, the quaestorship and
the augurate, before reaching the minimum legal age of twenty-five.26
Scholars have inferred from the sources that the Orpheus was extempo-

_____________
21 Tac. Ann. 14.16.
22 St. Silvae 2.7.54-7 ac primum teneris adhuc in annis | ludes Hectora Thessalosque
currus | et supplex Priami potentis aurum; cf. Schanz/Hosius 1935, 495; and most re-
cently Newlands 2010 (forthcoming) in Asso 2010 (forthcoming).
23 St. Silvae 2.7.57 et sedis reserabis inferorum.
24 Tac. Ann. 14.20.1; Dio 61.21.1; Suet. Nero. 12.3-4; St. Silvae 2.7.58-9 ingratus Nero
dulcibus theatris | et noster tibi proferetur Orpheus. Some scholars identify the Catach-
thonion with the epyllion Orpheus.
25 Vacca Vita Lucani 404.33-6 Badalì gessit autem quaesturam, in qua cum collegis more
tunc usitato munus gladiatorium edidit secundo pupuli fauore; sacerdotium etiam ac-
cepit auguratus (see Cazzaniga 1955, 10; cf. Ahl 1976, 37). If the practice of avoiding
the overlapping of offices was maintained, we should expect that L. held the two offices
subsequently rather than contemporaneously, starting from 61 until no later than 64, as-
suming that the quaestorship was a reward for the Laudes Neronis. The magistrates le-
gally took office upon the first day of the year after their election had been secured.
26 E.g., Rose 1966, 381.
 Introduction 7

rized at the Neronia of 60,27 and we might guess that the incomplete
tragedy Medea must have been begun somewhat later, along with the
first three books of the Bellum Ciuile. Finally, the list given by Vacca
mentions also fourteen pantomime librettos (fabulae salticae), Epi-
grams, Letters from Campania, and The Great Fire (De Incendio Ur-
bis),28 but these are only the works that Vacca could consult in his
day.29 The actual number of works, therefore, might have been higher.
Vacca does not mention the Adlocutio ad Pollam and a libelous poem
(carmen famosum),30 about which we know from the poetic catalog of
L.’s works extant in St. Silvae 2.7.54-72.31
L.’s productivity and literary output are impressive by any standard,
regardless of whether we consider the quality of his work in proportion
to his speed of composition. By virtue of his exceptional talent, he so
impressed the artistically ambitious emperor as to elicit his jealousy and
was thereby banned from public performances. Both Vacca and Sueto-
nius mention, as confirmed also by Tacitus, that the quarrel resulted in
the notorious ban.32 Shortly before, L. had published three books of his
_____________
27 Vacca Vita Lucani 403.39-404.45 Badalì cum inter amicos Caesaris tam conspicuus
fieret profectus <eius> [coni. Reiffersheid] in poetica, frequenter ostendebatur; quippe
et certamine pentaeterico acto in Pompei theatro laudibus recitatis in Neronem fuerat
coronatus et ex tempore Orphea scriptum in experimentum aduersum conplures edid-
erat poetas et tres libros, quales uidemus.
28 St. Silvae 2.7.60-1 dices culminibus Remi uagantis | infandos domini nocentis ignis.
29 Vacca’s date has been established as later than the beginning of the 5th century, that is,
after the abolition of the gladiatorial games in 404. This has been inferred from Vacca’s
statement that as quaestor L. gave lavish games more tunc usitato, but as has been
rightly observed, under Nero it was not customary at all for a quaestor to offer games:
‘If Lucan actually gave a gladiatorial show he was doing so of his own free will, not in
accordance with normal or required practice. A first century scholar would have known
this. […] Vacca is writing after the total abolition of the gladiatorial games in the sixth
consulate of Honorius in 404 and is pointing out to his reader that Lucan was not being
wantonly barbarous by giving such a display, but merely conforming to the usual prac-
tice of his times’ (Ahl 1976, 334).
30 Some scholars avow that the famosum carmen (a libelous poem) attributed to L. by
Suetonius (Vita Lucani 400.19 Badalì) was identical with the De incendio urbis, com-
posed after the ban, in which L. denounced the crimes of Nero and his entourage, and
blamed the emperor for setting Rome on fire; see Narducci 2002, 8, 10; Ahl 1976, 351;
Griffin 1984, 182-3.
31 Ahl 1976, 333. The chronology of the early works of L. has been reconstructed by Ahl
1971 (updated in Ahl 1976, 333-53, with a hypothesis on the composition of the BC).
32 See Gresseth 1957; Holmes 1999; Saylor 1999, 546 n. 1; Fantham 1992, 13-14; Conte
1994, 444-5; Ahl 1976, 47-9 and n. 54.
8 Introduction

epic ‘as we have them,’ quales uidemus, according to Vacca.33 In fact,

the first three books of the Bellum Ciuile were composed and published
sometime before the ban, which Dio dates at 65.34 The background for
the ban is impossible to reconstruct, because the sources only report
scant details but they all agree in relating the disagreement to artistic
matters, which scholars are often too quick to construe as relating to
L.’s revolutionary and anti-imperialistic poetics.35
The quarrel between L. and Nero, as it happens, has preserved for
us one of the few fragments of Nero’s poetry: sub terris tonuisse putes,
‘you would think that thunder broke out under the earth.’ Suetonius
reports these words as uttered by L. in a public latrine while breaking
wind gustily. L.’s derisory intent in quoting Nero’s poetry in such a
prosaic context is perhaps indicative of the poet’s abrasive personality,
and the fact that the sources link the ban with L. joining the conspiracy
to replace Nero with Calpurnius Piso should not surprise us. The ban
undoubtedly exacerbated L.’s feelings against the emperor. Given how
prolific L. was in the short life he lived, the ban on performing and on
appearing in public must have been hard to bear for a person with L.’s
artistic temperament.
The sources concur in reporting an episode that emphasizes not just
Nero’s artistic jealousy, but L.’s own pride and sense of self-worth as
an artist, a sentiment that L. surely displayed in his recitations and
which can only have worsened his relationship with his powerful
friend. Not long before the ban, Nero is reported to have abandoned one
of L.’s recitations with the pretext of summoning a senate meeting.
Whether historical or not, the excuse of the senate meeting is to be seen
not so much as a good excuse, in the sense that important affairs of
_____________
33 Vacca Vita Lucani 403.39-404.45 Badalì, quoted in full at n. 27 above.
34 Dio 62.29.4; Tac. Ann. 15.49.3; Gagliardi 1976, 80-5. Rose 1966 constructs an elabo-
rate and detailed chronology for the composition of the Bellum Ciuile and concludes
that L. had composed at least six books by 65. His argument largely relies on the fact
that L. does not sound any angrier against Caesar (and the Principate) in Books 4-6 than
he does in 1-3, whereas books 7-9 seem to contain the angriest anti-Caesarian utter-
ances.
35 The extreme in seeing L. as a Freiheit poet is represented by Schönberger 1957,
Schönberger 1958, and especially Schönberger 1964 (= Schönberger 1970 in Rutz
1970, 525-45). Still speculative but more rigorous in his reliance on the texts, is
Gagliardi 1976, 47-66, who sees L.’s ‘revolt against classicism’ within the context of
the contemporary trend in oratory and L.’s household inclination to the study of rheto-
ric.
 Introduction 9

State call the ruler’s attention’, but as intended to belittle and somewhat
disqualify L.’s poetic talent but putting the poet to his subordinate
place. Two Lives, Vacca and Suetonius, agree in seeing the senate
meeting as Nero’s excuse to leave. Whether we understand that Nero
was bored by L.’s poetry or that he acted deliberately out of jealousy,
the sources are adamant in showing that L. took Nero’s leaving as a
personal outrage.36 Suetonius, in fact, goes so far as to claim that Lucan
joined the Pisonian conspiracy and behaved as its standard-bearer in
response to Nero’s ban.37 Be that as it may, when the conspiracy was
unmasked, L. was ordered to open his veins and his last words seem to
have been those spoken by one of his own characters, a soldier who
bleeds to death.38 He died on April 30 of the year 65, a few months
short of his twenty-sixth birthday.39

_____________
36 Gagliardi 1976, 80-5.
37 Suet. Vita Lucani 400.19-401.22 Badalì ad extremum paene signifer Pisonianae coni-
urationis exstitit; ibid. 54-5 dum uindictam expetit, in mortem ruit.
38 Tac. Ann. 15.70.1 is profluente sanguine ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab
extremis cedere spiritum feruido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit, recordatus
carmen a se compositum quo uulneratum militem per eius modi mortis imaginem obisse
tradiderat, uersus ipsos rettulit eaque illi suprema uox fuit. Scholars have speculated
that the lines might have been 3.635-46, i.e., the death of the Massiliote Licydas, as first
proposed by Sulpitius, an early editor of Lucan (quoted by Oudendorp 1728), followed
by Iustus Lipsius in his commentary on Tacitus’ Annals (Antwerp 1627; see
Köstermann 1968, 320 ad Tac. Ann. 15.70.1; Gagliardi 1976, 31 n. 50). An alternative
passage is 9.805-14 (a soldier dying from snakebite, e.g., Wick 2004, 2.343-5 ad 9.805-
14); but see Hunink 1992b, 238 ad 3.638, on the fact that no passage in the Bellum
Ciuile exactly matches Tacitus’ description; full discussion in Hunink 1992a (in Deroux
1992).
39 Vacca Vita Lucani 404.54-405.57 Badalì sua sponte coactus uita excedere uenas sibi
praecidit periitque pridie Kal. Maias Attico Vestino et Nerua Silano coss. XXVI aetatis
annum agens. On the basis of the phrasing in Tac. Ann. 15.70.1 exim Annaei Lucani
caedem imperat, R. Tacker takes issue with Vacca’s sua sponte and argues that L.’s
death was staged as an actual execution rather than a forced suicide. The execution was
depicted by the Eighteenth century engraver of the title page of Nicholas Rowe’s Eng-
lish translation (Rowe 1718), who represented L. ‘sitting on the edge of a pool inside a
house […] submitting to three husky men who are opening his veins, while three armed
soldiers stand guard and a stern tribune gives orders’ (Tucker 1987, 330 and pl. VIII).
II. Lucan’s ‘antiphrastic’ epos
The list of L.’s lost works gives us nothing on the poet’s intellectual
journey from his first writings to the BC. Such a crucial question as ‘To
what extent does the BC break away from L.’s previous production?’
can be answered only hypothetically. The most persuasive hypothesis
sees the BC as a break from the supposedly heavily mythological poetry
of the Iliacon and the jocose adaptations of mythic materials in the
pantomime librettos. One can imagine a first phase in which L. re-
sponds to the taste of Nero and the Neronian court for the poetics of
entertainment, followed by a second innovative phase, inaugurated by
the BC, in which the traditional mythological apparatus has been aban-
doned and an enlightened critique of the Principate is expressed in a
style that remains nonetheless attuned to the contemporary taste for
highly rhetorical poetry.40
Whether we are to view L.’s approach to epic in the BC as the result
of gradual evolution or as a break from previous experiments, what is
certain is that L.’s epic reads as a profoundly innovative response to
Virgil’s Aeneid. An influential reading of the poem considers L.’s BC
as an anti-Aeneid,41 an intentional break away from the Augustan myth
of re-birth and restoration as propounded in the Aeneid.42 This view is
based on a careful scrutiny of L.’s allusive references to Virgil, an imi-
tation/emulation technique that the late Emanuele Narducci felicitously
terms ‘antiphrastic allusiveness.’ This technique relies on a kind of
allusivity that repeats the assertions found in the Virgilian model but
reverses them by radically subverting the original meaning.43 One
memorable example of this technique, that relies on close verbal corre-
spondences as well as L.’s incomparably creative use of rhetorical arti-
_____________
40 Cautious reservations against speculative reconstructions are voiced in Narducci 2002,
14, whose equally speculative albeit sound hypothesis, however, is that the BC repre-
sents a break in the evolution of L.’s poetics. Narducci is reacting against the exces-
sively idealized vision of L. as a poet for freedom, e.g., Gagliardi 1976, 28-9, and
Schönberger 1964, 32.
41 Thierfelder 1970; Narducci 1985, 1539 n. 1.
42 Still indispensable is the repertoire of Virgilian intertexts collected in Thompson/Bruère
1968 and Thompson/Bruère 1970.
43 Narducci 1979, summarized in Narducci 1985, and most clearly reformulated in
Narducci 2002, 76-8.
 Introduction 11

fice, occurs in L.’s BC during the preliminaries to the battle at Phar-

salus.
A seer prophesies that Rome’s ‘last day has come’ (uenit summa
dies), for Caesar and Pompey will finally clash with their armies on the
fields of Pharsalus.44 With a complex allusion to the fall of Troy as
foreseen in Hector’s speech to his wife Andromache at the Scaean
gates, ‘the day will come when sacred Troy shall perish,’45 L. repeats
verbatim the first words spoken by the seer Panthus to Aeneas in Ae-
neid 2.324-5, ‘the last day has come (uenit summa dies), the unavoid-
able end for Troy.’46 The important difference, however, is that while
Virgil and Homer talk of Troy’s last days, in L. the last day has come
for Rome.47 L.’s choice of subject matter, the civil war, is per se anti-
Virgilian and anti-epic because the BC narrates historical events that
are part of a relatively recent and much-feared past rather than distant,
mythic events that celebrate the origins of Rome. L. writes historical
epic about relatively recent events; but what is historical epic?
The Greeks thought of the Iliad as historical epic and the Aeneid
sings of the transformation of Trojan myth into Roman origins.48
Virgil’s double scope in the Aeneid, as Servius says, is to imitate
Homer and celebrate Augustus’ divine ancestry,49 whereas L. imitates
Virgil but his intent seems to have been to denigrate rather than praise.
The understanding that epic is a celebratory genre has prevented L.’s
early critics from appreciating the BC’s approach to the genre. In fact,
L. was accused of writing versified history rather than poetry.
Martial’s epigram in L.’s defense humorously exemplifies the
pragmatic consequences in marketing L.’s BC as a poem (Mart.
14.194):

_____________
44 BC 7.195-6 ‘uenit summa dies, geritur res maxima’ dixit | ‘inpia concurrunt Pompei et
Caesaris arma.’
45 Il. 6.448 ἔσσεται ἦµαρ ὅτ' ἄν ποτ' ὀλώλῃ Ἴλιος ἱρή.
46 Verg. Aen. 2.324-5 uenit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus | Dardaniae. L.’s interest in
the Trojan myth, and in the death of Hector as forestalling the ruin of Troy in particular,
had probably found an output in his lost Iliacon.
47 See Narducci 2002, 81; and Leigh 1997, 6-40, who reconstructs the tradition behind the
prophecy uttered at BC 7.195-6.
48 Fantham 1992a, 4.
49 Serv. Aen. 1.praef.70 intentio Vergilii haec est, Homerum imitari et Augustum laudare a
parentibus.
12 Introduction

Sunt quidam qui me dicant non esse poetam:

sed qui me uendit bybliopola putat.

There are some who say that I am not a poet:

but the bookseller who sells me thinks I am.
The humor in Martial’s epigram depends on the fact that even a book-
seller, whose interest in reading could be seen as subordinate to his
interest in selling, can recognize a poem when he sees one, because the
writing is obviously arranged differently on the scroll than in history
works; for poets write in verse.
The critique, however, is about whether the topic of civil war is
suitable for an epic, as gleaned from the scholiasts, because the BC
narrative follows too closely the historical events of the first two years
of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (49-8 BCE).50
The question, then, revolves not so much on whether the hexameter
is at all appropriate for recent war narrative, but on whether the civil
war can be the sole topic of an entire epic poem, for such a topic a pri-
ori thwarts the genre’s celebratory scope, especially when the civil war
theme had already been expounded in hexameters.
The pro-Virgilian view, in other words, must have been that there
was no need to retrace the horrors of the civil wars after Virgil com-
pressed them so admirably in Georgics 1.466-514.51 The Aeneid, too,
exploits the theme to some extent. Aeneas’ voyage from Troy to
Latium is a story of transformation from Trojan to Roman. This trans-
formation was far from painless. After escaping from burning Troy and
after many years of wandering on the seas, Aeneas has to face the in-
habitants of the fated place where divine will wants the new Troy to
rise. Latium is the place, but it does not come free. King Latinus rules
there and prince Turnus is to marry the woman who will eventually
become Aeneas’ wife – which exposes Aeneas to the controversial po-
tentiality of becoming both usurper and adulterer. And as if that were
not enough, the war between the Trojans and the Italians narrated in
Aeneid VII-XII, in other words, can be construed of as civil war, be-
_____________
50 The accusation against Lucan not being a poet is echoed by the scholiast in Comm.
Bern. 1.1 Lucanus dicitur a plerisque non esse in numero poetarum, quia omnino his-
toriam sequitur, quod poeticae arti non conuenit; cf. Serv. Aen. 1.382 Lucanus … ideo
in numero poetarum esse non meruit, quia uidetur historiam composuisse, non poema.
51 Fantham 1992, 7.
 Introduction 13

cause Turnus’ Italians and Aeneas’ Trojans share a progeny.52 The Ae-
neid, however, remains an epic centered on myth, and while its celebra-
tory intent can certainly be discussed problematically, the apparatus of
the genre, with divine interventions and gods and goddesses as charac-
ters, is prominent. L.’s choice of topic, by contrast, inevitably under-
mines the very possibility of epic as celebration because the civil war
theme entails, both implicitly and explicitly, an open critique of empire.
By L.’s time, the Romans had learned to welcome imperial domination
as a matter of Realpolitik, as the necessary price to pay for peace and
the end of civil war. The specter of civil discord makes it possible for
poets like Virgil and historians like Livy to support the Augustan re-
gime and what we understand as Augustan ideology.
The Augustan regime was the solution to the civil war, and for this
reason L. sometimes appears to be a nostalgic republican because of his
praise of liberty, but in fact the underlying ideology in L.’s poem is
much more nuanced.
Under Nero one could be a nostalgic Republican ideologically, but
in practice even L.’s co-conspirators had no illusions. If the Pisonian
conspiracy had been successful, Piso would have replaced Nero rather
than restoring the Republic. The Republican alternative had already
been discarded upon the accession of Claudius after the assassination of
Caligula. The militaristic character of the Julio-Claudian dynasty was in
fact in the Pretorian guard. They wanted an emperor, and probably
needed one in order to survive as a corps. Pretorians and Republic
could not coexist. It seems possible, however, that L. had hoped for
some degree of Republican liberty (i.e., libertas senatoria), in which
the Senate would have been able to contribute significantly to govern-
ment by freely expressing their views and directives as a political
body.53
The poem as we have it, however, does not endorse any particular
vision. No single character seems to embody the authorial views –
whatever they may be. Caesar and Pompey loom large as leaders of the
two factions opposed in the war, but it is impossible to identify Pompey
with the senatorial liberty cause, at least not before his death in Book
_____________
52 Fantham 1992, 6, citing Cairns 1989, 93.
53 The restoration of libertas senatoria is what Galba allegedly offered after Nero’s assas-
sination in 69 (Tac. Hist. 1.16.1-2): Martindale 1984, 71; MacMullen 1966, 28-39;
Wirszubski 1950, 136-8.
14 Introduction

VIII, when the leadership role is transferred to Cato. The character of

Cato unifies the anti-Caesarian opposition but the poem breaks off with
the tenth book. The incompleteness of the BC on the one hand frustrates
a comprehensive interpretation of the poet’s ideology and on the other
prevents us from evaluating the structure of the poem as a whole.

Book IV and its place in the poem

The question of the formal unity of the BC is settled by its topic: the
Civil War; but the fact that we are prevented from knowing how the
poem ends undermines our appreciation of the poem’s structure. In
other words, we do not even know whether L. planned to write a total
of twelve books or more. I espouse the view that L. intended to write a
total of twelve books to end with Cato’s death at Utica.54 The twelve-
book structure is the one that presents the fewest difficulties, and it
allows us to articulate the design of the extant narrative in book dyads,
triads, tetrads, and eventually in two six-book long halves, just like the
Aeneid. In order to situate the narrative of Book IV in its appropriate
context, it is necessary to provide a brief analysis of Books I-III and to
keep in mind that all of the events narrated in Book I-IV (with the ex-
ception of the flashbacks into the previous civil wars in Book II) oc-
curred between January and October 49 BCE:
I: Preliminaries and causes of the war. Caesar crosses the Rubicon:
Panic at Rome; Rubicon is crossed on January 10, 49 BCE
II: Flashback on previous civil wars. Pompey retires to Capua.
Domitius is defeated at Corfinium (February 21). Pompey
reaches Brundisium and passes into Epirus (March)
III: Caesar comes to Rome and robs the treasury (April), then crosses
the Alps toward Marseille, which his army takes after a siege
(April – October)
When the narrative reaches Book IV, Caesar and Pompey have already
been presented to the reader. Important events have taken place, but
most of the narrative in Books I-III contains dialogues and flashbacks,
with the exception of Book III, which is almost entirely filled with the
_____________
54 For a discussion of the many scholarly opinions on the poem’s structure, see Radicke
2004, 45-81; on the date up to which L. intended to bring his narrative, see Bruère 1950
(= Rutz 1970, 217-56).
 Introduction 15

war action at Marseille. After Marseille, Book IV opens with a brief

pause to describe the nature of the Spanish terrain and the preliminaries
to the battle of Ilerda, but whereas Book III has focused on the episode
of the siege at Marseille, Book IV is articulated into three plots of un-
equal length that cover three different theatres of war each with several
battles:
1-401 Caesar defeats Afranius and Petreius at Ilerda, in Spain
(August – October)
402-581 A small contingent of Caesarians in Illyricum kill one an-
other to avoid falling into Pompeian hands
581-824 Caesar’s legate Curio is defeated in North Africa
After a geographic introduction to the terrain, L. says that on the first
day of the Spanish campaign there was no battle. The Spanish cam-
paign, however, is one of the several campaigns of the larger war, a
bellum within a larger bellum. L. has called the total of the war bella
plus quam ciuilia (1.1).
In discussing Book IV, Masters’ clever argument surmises how L.’s
exordium of the battle narrative as a bloodless, and therefore non-battle
kind of event, is purposefully designed to delay the narrative until the
appropriate battle narrative of Pharsalus will be allowed to take place
(three books later in Book VII)—a technique that allegedly pits Lucan
in an anti-Callimachean polemic, for this poem is a big book and makes
no attempt to be lighter and shorter, but it conversely grows longer and
longer by means of calculated narrative delays (Masters 1992, 53-8).
Though superbly informed and sophisticated, Masters’ argument is
overstated, because what we see at 24 and ff. is a series of ritual moves
expected to take place before the battle (see note on 4.24 below).
The comparison with Caesar’s narrative in his BC is particularly
enlightening in appreciating L.’s narrative strategy. The Ilerda narrative
is presented by Caesar, BC Book I, in two substantial groups of chap-
ters (38-55 and 61-84), separated by two short chapters (59-60), in
which Caesar continues the narrative of the Marseille siege (left unfin-
ished in 34-7).55 Batstone and Damon have shown how Caesar in the
Civil War uses ‘structure as argument,’ as demonstrated by his deliber-
ate abandonment of the annalistic style used in the Gallic War, in which
_____________
55 After reporting his capture of Sicily and Sardinia (30-3).
16 Introduction

each book began and ended with the beginning and the end of the con-
sular year (January-December). Book II of Caesar’s Civil War begins
with the end of the narrative of the siege at Marseilles, while Book I
ends with the end of the battle at Ilerda. Book II, in other words, begins
with events that happened before those narrated at the end of Book I.
Caesar has varied the annalistic structure he used in the Gallic War
because the events of 49 BCE did not lend themselves to the annalistic
treatment. By placing Ilerda at the end of Book I, Caesar can conclude
the book with a victorious battle, but he will need to relate the (remain-
ing) facts of Marseille in the following book.56
Caesar’s purpose in structuring his narrative as described also
serves his propaganda, for it obscures Caesar’s blatant neglect of estab-
lished legality in leading his legions to Spain, where as proconsul of
Gaul he lacked the necessary legal authority to hold military command
(imperium) over the Roman legions. L., in fact, has the Pompeians refer
to Caesar as a priuatus, a private citizen, at 4.188, because his com-
mand for 49 BCE was as proconsul of Gaul and Illyricum, so his pres-
ence as a legion commander in Spain was illegal, a detail understanda-
bly unmentioned by Caesar in his BC. L. only minimally exploits
Caesar’s breach of legality in this case, and the reason for this could be
that in civil war the respect for legality expectedly becomes a moot
point in most cases, but especially when it comes to armies.
What L. does that is conspicuously different from Caesar’s narra-
tive is to alter its structure visibly enough to contain the whole narrative
of the siege at Marseille within the bounds of Book III and begin Book
IV afresh with the Ilerda campaign. The effect of L.’s choice to begin
with Ilerda is analogous to Caesar’s because both L.’s Book III and
Caesar’s Book I gain narrative closure by ending with a Caesarian vic-
tory. L.’s Book IV, however, ends with Caesarian defeat, that is, with
Curio’s disastrous campaign in North Africa, and Curio’s campaign
similarly occupies the final chapters of Caesar’s Book II (23-43). Cu-
rio’s defeat closes the narrative of an important phase of the war, but an
obvious difference lies in the absence of the entire episode of Vulteius
in Caesar. It has been proposed that the gap in Caesar is accidental, and
that originally Caesar included the Vulteius episode in Book II (Cae-
sar’s shortest), but it subsequently dropped out as an accident of the
_____________
56 Batstone/Damon 2006, 33-88, especially 75-6.
 Introduction 17

manuscript tradition.57 Whether or not this was the case, structurally

speaking Caesar’s and L.’s narratives are comparably similar in choos-
ing to end a book, and an important phase of the war, with the end of a
battle.58 In the case of L., furthermore, the end of Book IV as a major
narrative turn is marked by an extended apostrophe to dead Curio. L.’s
second tetrad ends with the death of Pompey, followed by the poet’s
apostrophe, and we might imagine that a similar apostrophe might have
been reserved to Cato at the end of Book XII had L. lived long enough
to complete his poem.

_____________
57 Avery 1993.
58 The point of L.’s calculated anti-Caesarian narrative has been exploited with a decon-
structionist approach by Henderson 1987 (= Henderson 1998, 165-211); see also
Henderson 1996, 262 n. 4 (= Henderson 1998, 38 n. 4). For a healthy (and at times un-
fair) critique of deconstructionist approaches to L., see Narducci 1999a; Narducci
1999b; Narducci 2002.
III. Language and Style
On L.’s style, one must begin with Quintilian’s famous judgment in
Inst. 10.1.90: Lucanus ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus et,
ut dicam quod sentio, magis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus. Quintil-
ian’s imitandus naturally means that L. is a model for the orator. The
most striking feature of L.’s style is indeed his command of rhetoric.
Scholars have repeatedly observed that L. was composing for the dec-
lamation house, and that his style therefore presents all the features one
would expect to find in a declamation piece, composed hurriedly and
meant to be performed with theatrical emphasis: 20th and 21st century
readers have little sympathy for such effects.59 As the present commen-
tary shows, this poem is to be read slowly and carefully – just the way
modern readers (ideally) read it – for L. must have written it with great
care.
One of the most striking features of L.’s rhetorical talent is his
command of diction and his determination to roam freely across vo-
cabulary registers to impress the audience with audacious sententiae
and heightened pathos.60 For instance, two sententiae occurring at close
proximity in Curio’s hortatory speech to his men before engaging in
battle against the Pompeian Varus, aptly exemplify L.’s rhetorical ex-
pertise in raising the desired emotions in the audience. Audax Curio
functions here as a narrative engine to spur his men to action and thus
avert the mora caused by fear and deliberation: 4.702 audendo magnus
tegitur timor; 704-5 uariam semper dant otia mentem. / eripe consilium
pugna.61
As I hope to have shown in the commentary entries, L.’s language
demands careful study. The continued revival of interest in L. has pro-
duced a vast bibliography of thought-provoking approaches to the the-

_____________
59 Informative summary on L.’s style in Mayer 1981, 10-11.
60 See Quintilian’s judgment quoted at the beginning of the present section. The following
is chiefly indebted to: Mayer 1981, 10-25; Bramble 1982, 541-2 (in Easterling/Kenney
1982, 533-57); Fantham 1992, 34-46; Gagliardi 1999.
61 Cf. ad loc. and 583n. audax.
 Introduction 19

matic study of the poem, 62 but the language itself, which is the means
whereby the theme of civil war is brought forth, has not received as
much attention as it deserves. Our Virgilian taste, however, often
causes us to perceive in L. certain inadequacies that perhaps were in-
tended effects, which would have been appreciated as such by contem-
porary audiences. The present commentary makes the gesture of appre-
ciating L.’s linguistic originality by pointing out how often an
individual word, a turn of phrase, or even the most controversially elu-
sive syntactical innovations are first found in L.’s poem.63 While it is
always possible that L.’s choices in matters of vocabulary and repeti-
tion may be considered faulty by any accredited standards, it is quite
impossible, in my view, to name a standard other than what Virgil has
chosen for the Aeneid. My approach to L.’s style in Book IV, therefore,
has been inevitably informed by the Virgilian bias that runs like a crim-
son thread through the greatest part of Lucanian scholarship, but I will
attempt to describe L.’s style (as well as other features of his language
in Book IV) as they stand in context.

Diction
L.’s war narrative necessitates the use of military vocabulary, but the
prosaic registers also include medical and scientific terminology. Why
does L. uses such technical vocabulary? The answer is simply that in
his poetic descriptions L. desires to achieve the highest level of clinical-
and scientific-sounding precision, which he then successfully balances
_____________
62 The judgment of taste when it comes to L. starts from the silently implied certitude that
Virgil is the standard whereby we must measure any post-Virgilian hexameter poetry.
Philip Hardie’s path-breaking study on The Epic Successors of Virgil illustrates why
critics more or less (un-)consciously have read post-classical epic with a pro-Virgilian
bias. The acknowledgment that Virgil’s Aeneid spurs what Hardie terms ‘the dynamics
of a tradition’ should not prevent readers from appreciating the worth of Ovid, Lucan,
Silius, Statius, and Valerius, and not only because they are ‘all extremely sharp and in-
formative readers of the Aeneid’ (Hardie 1993, xii), but especially because of their own
contributions to the epic genre.
63 Given the copious instances of innovation concerning L.’s language, it is impossible
and of dubious usefulness to attempt a complete list of loci. A few examples shall suf-
fice to justify why the commentary silently offers statistics on the occurrence of, e.g.,
the adverbial ex facili at 46; the phrase uariis motibus at 49; the metrical pattern exem-
plified by sidera caelo at 54; the use of aresco at 55; the pedigree of the squeezed-sky
idea at 76; or the local dative bello, found only at 44 (see n. ad loc.) and Sil. Pun.
13.698-701. See the Index s.v. neologism.
20 Introduction

with the fire and brimstone of his rhetoric.64 In spite of the obvious
necessity of employing technical vocabulary in his poetry, modern crit-
ics of L. have consistently looked at the technical flavor of L.’s vocabu-
lary as a stylistic flaw. Having posed the problem of non-poetic vo-
cabulary (however arbitrarily posed, and mostly without defining what
poetic vocabulary should consist in), scholars usually point to the non-
poetic nature of such registers,65 often without offering any criteria at
all for their sweeping condemnations. The consensus of Lucanian criti-
cism to explain the abundance of technical vocabulary is haste.66 The
speed at which L. composed is represented also in the tradition about
his extempore performance of the Orpheus at the Neronia of 60. In
evaluating the BC, L.’s haste has often been named for many of the
features that are considered sub-standard. Yet in most cases it is not
clear at all what standards scholars rely on in evaluating L.’s language.
For example, in illustrating vocabulary repetition in 2.209-20, Roland
Mayer’s complaint is that while the poet tries to avoid repetition by
using all the available synonyms for blood, body, and water, ‘such
words as recur are so colourless that they remain unobtrusive.’ Ulti-
mately, Meyer states, L. tries to say ‘too much with excessive detail,
and his luxuriant imagination is drawing upon an already diminished
stock of words.’67 Yet the vividness L. achieves with redundancy is
definitely intended (see below on periphrasis).
That Latin has fewer words than Greek and is less flexible in ad-
justing its rhythms to the hexameter is a well-known fact. The abun-
dance of long over short syllables is often cited when discussing the
characteristics of the Latin hexameter in comparison to its Greek mod-
els. The vocabulary, however, is the very stuff of poetry and what poets
do with the words they have at their disposal should be taken, first and
foremost, as a reflection of the contemporary taste and linguistic sensi-
bilities. Seen from this perspective, L.’s language looks to me much
more effective esthetically than usually seen by scholars precisely be-
_____________
64 I owe the phrasing to Michael McOsker.
65 E.g., Bramble 1982, 541: ‘Of [L.’s] verbal nouns in –tor, which are many, seven of
them new, several are unnecessarily [!] prosaic.’
66 Whether fast or slow, L.’s pace of composition has but limited value to our understand-
ing of his poetry, and if any judgment should result from knowing that L. composed
very quickly, it should be a positive one.
67 Mayer 1981, 13.
 Introduction 21

cause of the superabundance of synonyms and the studiously avoided

repetitions of single words. The poet’s goal in insisting on certain con-
cepts is to exploit in crisp language every single characteristic of what
needs to be represented in the hexameter narrative. This inevitably en-
compasses sound effects and well as sense. When closely examined,
L.’s diction is in fact aimed at precision in expressing feelings and pa-
thos and in directing the audience toward specific emotional responses.
An instance in which L. dwells on details to heighten the pathos of
a scene occurs at 4.37-43, where the soldiers climbing a hillock are
perilously leaning on to the steep slope as well as each other’s weap-
onry. L. varies the subject from 37 miles to 38 acies, and proceeds to
depict the soldiers staring upwards in their frustrated longing for the hill
top (aduersoque acies in monte supina), while their feet precariously
rest on the shields of the soldiers who follow behind. By insisting on
conveying with an acceptable degree of precision the actual position of
the soldiers, L. exploits all the sense of peril and frustration experienced
by these Caesarians in their attempt to take the hillock and in doing so
the poet adds a ‘zoom out’ effect, as it were, by shifting the audience’s
attention from the individual soldier’s struggle to stay put while climb-
ing to the bird-eye perspective that catches the entire army (acies).
Insistence on details is a form of repetition, but sometimes L. does
repeat words, as for instance he does with the pronoun tu in anaphora at
112-13. L. does not use anaphora often, but this is a prayer context, in
which L. prays for a deluge that would put an end to the civil war. The
striking particularity is that the repeated tu first addresses one person,
then another. The issues are discussed more fully in the commentary
lemmata, but it is worthwhile to mention here one more example of
repetition to convey a sense of pathos at 630-1, where with reasonably
precise medical terminology L. describes Giant Antaeus being reinvigo-
rated by contact with Earth Mother.68
Sometimes L.’s search for an impressive effect will result in the us-
age of previously unattested vocabulary, which we should see as a wel-
come feature for L.’s contemporary audience: 66 fuscator (hapax); 406
bellax (elsewhere only in Silius, see n. below); 1.48 and 415 flammiger
(also in St. Theb. 8.675; Silvae 1.2.119, 3.1.181, 4.3.136; Val. Fl.
5.581), 463 criniger (Sil. 14.585); 3.299 supereuolare (editors prefer
_____________
68 On pathos and repetition, see Syndikus 1958, 44-57.
22 Introduction

the spelling super euolare, which occurs first in Manil. 1.45); 6.126
confragus (restored in Naev. Trag. 55, but also in St. Theb. 4.494 and
Val. Fl. 3.582); 223 and 394 impetere (Sil. 5.273; St. Theb. 8.694), 479
dimadescere (hapax), 484 circumlabi (hapax, but editors prefer the
spelling circum labentis), 729 illatrare (Sil. 13.845); 7.799 humator
(hapax); 9.408 irredux (hapax), 591 haustor (hapax), 941 hareniuagus
(hapax); 10.286 celator (Exod. 28.36).69
Impressive effects are achieved by L.’s familiarity with an array of
linguistic registers that prima facie would seem out of place in an epic
poem. In fact, specialized vocabulary is but another aspect not only of
declamatory technique but also of erudite poetry, in observance to the
scientific interests of the time. For instance in his descriptions of com-
bat L. displays knowledge of medical terminology: e.g., see below ad
4.631 induruit (cf. 630-1 and 751). To say ‘corpse’ he opts for the al-
legedly prosaic cadauer (787), which occurs frequently in L. (see be-
low ad loc.).70 He also uses professional military language: 4.780
globus;71 and nautical terms (see Asso 2002 ad 9.319-47).
Far from being ‘inadvertent prosy turns,’72 L.’s special registers and
technical vocabulary are unmistakably deliberate and often play the
important function of heightening the pathos by achieving contrast with
variation.73 A few examples from distinctive vocabulary will show how
L. does this.74
Compounds such as the rare semirutus are particularly evocative,
and it is significant that out of three attestations in poetry, two are
found in L. (see ad 4.585). The prosaic agent nouns and adjectives in –
tor, such as sulcator, are too frequent (forty-eight times; see below ad
4.588, 722 and 9.496) to be casual incidences; similarly for cadauer,
occurring thirty-six times. In achieving variety and such deliberate ef-
fects, L. also seeks distinction in emulating his predecessors and
_____________
69 Fick 1890 lists twenty-seven neologisms but 133 superenatare (see 133n. super emicat
below) is not attested to by the most authoritative MSS (Malcovati 1940, 112-13 n. 2).
On L.’s nominal compounds, see Gagliardi 1999 in Esposito/Nicastri 1999, 87-107.
70 Cf. Bramble 1982, 541 n. 3.
71 Fantham 1992, 35.
72 Mayer 1981, 14: “His diction betrays occasional and so perhaps inadvertent prosy
turns.”
73 The model for diction is rather Virgil than Ovid: Fantham 1992, 36.
74 For a more comprehensive list, see below ad 4.583.
 Introduction 23

thereby often creates strikingly original expressions, as seen from the

many parallels offered in the commentary entries.75
Sometimes it is not word choice but rather a certain expression that
reveals L.’s desire to impress, as in 4.617 conseruere… nexu (cf. 626-
9), in a context displaying a variety of wrestling terms (see below ad
loc.).
Further features of L.’s diction are more specifically poetic; e.g.,
the occasional use of nominal compounds: 4.728 letifer (also 9.384);
762 cornipes; 800 signifer; 9.455 imbrifer; 478 sacrificus.76 Also the
use of a poetic word may reveal special effects in the context in which
it occurs, as 4.750 sonipes ‘making a sound with its foot’, which is
precisely what Curio’s horses are not doing (see below ad loc.).
At 4.4 we encounter the perfectly inoffensive rector, but L. has
many nouns in –tor that are seldom found in other writers. Four are
hapax legomena in ancient Latin: 10.286 celator, 4.66 fuscator, 9.591
haustor, and 7.799 humator; six are not attested in poetry before L.:
4.214 adsertor (only three more times: St. Th. 11.218; Mart. 1.24.3 and
52.3), 9.496 finitor (only one more time: St. Th. 8.91), 1.27 and 6.341
habitator (six more times: St. Th. 3.604, 4.150, 9.846; S. 3.5.103; Iuv.
14.312), 8.854 and 10.212 mutator (two more times: Val. Fl. 6.161 and
St. S. 5.2.135), 4.298 and 5.222 scrutator (four more times: St. Th.
6.880, 7.720; S. 3.1.84, 3.92), 4.588 sulcator; and finally the feminine
nouns in –trix: 6.426 altrix, 9.720 natrix, 3.129 spectatrix, 6.689 strix,
7.782 ultrix, 1.3, 128, 339 and 5.238 uictrix. Cf. also 4.248 dissuasor;
7.402 fossor.77
L.’s use of prosaic vocabulary, however, is not unique in Latin po-
etry. As noted at 160 (see below ad loc.) on anfractus, also Virgil uses
anfractus in describing an ambush. Where L. is perhaps even more
Virgilian than Virgil is in his use of unusual phrases and in the deploy-
ment of enclosing word order and other features of hyperbaton.

_____________
75 The commentary entries will offer parallels along with statistics about word usage in
previous as well as later authors. The scope of such statistics is to account for L.’s bal-
ance in innovative usage and linguistic experimentation.
76 Gagliardi 1999, 106-7.
77 On prosaic diction, see the references collected below at 582n. exarsit.
24 Introduction

Syntax and Word Order

L. practices ‘callida iunctura,’ not always as flashy and noticeable as
the oxymoron at 88 naufraga campo, or the celebrated 1.98 concordia
discors. Sometimes an oxymoron speaks to us very directly as 52 ure-
bant montana niues, which is made more precious by the rare substan-
tival use of the neuter plural montana (see below ad loc.). With his love
for driving home a point over and over, L. cannot avoid repetition when
a good opportunity presents itself. This is how the notion of a ‘burning
cold’ is repeated at 55 aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno (see below ad
loc.); see also 305 siccos… uapores, where the scientific interests of L.
and his audience become relevant. Other times the unusual character of
the phrasing is subtle, as in 592 docuit rudis (see ad loc.), and yet jar-
ring in spite of the difficulty of spotting the oxymoron feature because
of a calculated hyperbaton, as in 607 auxilio… cadendi, where the en-
closing word order wraps the entire line.
In Book IV the instances of enclosing word order, as a particular ef-
fect resulting from the skilful use of hyperbaton, encompass the whole
line, or leave out the first word(s), or even extend to more than one line.
Here it will suffice to offer a few examples and refer the reader to the
index.
The earliest occurrence of enclosing word order embraces two con-
secutive half lines at 5-6 in aequas | commune uices, where the accusa-
tive phrase surrounds the already prominent imperium commune that
begins line 6 and thus adds greater emphasis on the harmony of intent
between Afranius and Pompey. This emphasis is all the more signifi-
cant when we know from Caesar’s narrative that Afranius and Petreius
were not always in agreement, as indeed it will be clear inevitably also
to L.’s audience when the leaders will differ so clamorously about the
option of surrendering to Caesar.
At 62 suo in nubes quascumque inuenit axe we find an instance of
enclosing word order where the first word of the line has been left out,
as also at 140 medios pontem distendit in agros, with the bridge in the
middle mimetically spanning across the river to join the fields on either
bank (see ad loc.). Similarly, at 150 sed duris fluuium superare lacertis,
Caesar’s soldiers swim the river and ‘embrace’ the current with their
arms. The rare instance of the last word of a line left out of the enclos-
ing word order is found at 285 (see ad loc.), but the effect intended is
nonetheless mimetic.
 Introduction 25

Rhetorical devices
L. employs an array of tropes and figures to achieve all sorts of effects.
Since he is interested in exploiting as many aspects as possible of a
concept, it is best to begin with devices that let the poet repeat words
and sounds. Alliteration is strictly speaking a poetic rather than a rhe-
torical feature, but its use naturally produces rhetorical effects because
the repeated initial sounds keep the words together and function as an
aural sign-posting device for the audience who listens to the poetic
performance. The most conspicuous is the alliteration in the voiceless
velar c- (sometimes varied with the labiovelar qu-), which counts at
least twenty-four occurrences in Book IV, including a fivefold se-
quence at 434-5 and three threefold sequences at 158-9, 197, and 822-
3.78 What alliteration sometimes also achieves is perhaps shown at 822-
3 Cinna cruentus | Caesareaque domus series, where Cinnas’ bloodi-
ness, denoted by the epithet cruentus that syntactically agrees with
Cinna, carries over to the entire bloodline of the Caesars.
Anaphora is used to maintain pace and mark syntactical units, as at
41-2 and 202-3 dum, 64 quas, 65-6 quidquid, 98 iam, 112-13 tu (in a
prayer; cf. 185-6 in apostrophe), 117-16 hos, 110 (in a prayer) and 134-
5 sic, 119-20 huc, 182-3 quid (three times in apostrophe), 255-7 nec
(varied by non in ‘negative enumeration’; cf. 223-5, 299-302 and 378-
80), 300 and 302 aut (also to vary a ‘negative enumeration’). Anaphora
seems particularly appropriate in speeches, where it heightens the pa-
thos and serves demagogic purposes; e.g., Petreius’ speech forcing his
men to fight and break the fraternizing of the camps at 223-5 non (var-
ied with nulli); cf. Cato’s hortatory speech in Book IX before marching
into the desert: 9.387-8 quibus; 394-5 primus.79

_____________
78 Given L.’s frequent use of enjambment, with syntactical units that extend over two
consecutive lines, my tally includes sequences than continue in the next line: five in a-
(38, 87, 189, 290, 327, 800-1); twenty-four in c- and/or q- (17, 20, 32, 148, 148-9, 158-
9, 197, 287, 434-5, 437, 459, 487, 462-3, 490, 492-3, 550, 571, 630, 695, 689, 700, 709,
747, 822-3); five in d- (28, 129, 154, 217, 813); nine in f- (41, 77, 138, 308, 319, 532,
683, 729, 730); one in g- (278; perhaps to be counted with the other velar stops); four in
i- (555, 628, 636-7, 762-3); one in l- (45); three in m- (312, 773, 778-9); six in p- (14,
30, 102, 624, 780, 783); three in r- (151, 240, 600); four in s- 42, 569, 588, 758); seven
in t- 273, 432, 631, 702, 767, 768, 818); two in u- (80, 590).
79 Similarly, Fantham 1992, 36, draws attention to the use of anaphora and anadiplosis in
Cato’s self-dedication at 2.309-17.
26 Introduction

Analogous to anaphora, anadiplosis is used in the same syntactical

unit to add emotional emphasis: 34 –que; 118 huc; 465 qua; 636-7 ille;
739-40 super; 749 non; 9.492 qui nullas uidere domos, uidere ruinas.
Among artifices of word order, hyperbaton is very frequent and
achieves a variety of effects. For instance, the separation of noun and
adjective highlights the latter when the poet intends to draw attention to
a certain quality, e.g., on the size of Giant Antaeus: 4.598-9 hoc quoque
tam uastas cumulauit munere uires / terra sui fetus… This type of
hyperbaton can occur repetitively not just in the same sentence, e.g.,
598-600 (see ad loc.), but even in the same line, e.g., to emphasize both
Antaeus’ fearsome appearance and his being born from the womb of
Libya: 594 TERRIBILEM Libycis PARTVM concepit in antris.80 Often
noun and adjective either enclose the whole line or leave out the first
word alone:81 600 iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra; cf.
9.302 hanc audax sperat sibi cedere uirtus. In certain cases, extensive
use of hyperbaton generates intentional syntactical confusion, or syn-
chysis,82 sometimes reproducing in the syntax the disorder pointed to
by an allusion or the context, as in the case of Terra evoking in Giant
Antaeus the forces (tam uastas uires) of Chaos (see ad 598-600).
Conceptual substitutions, such as metonymy, synecdoche, hypal-
lage and antonomasia, are likewise commonly used to appeal to the
audience’s emotions and thereby produce the desired pathos. Tropes
used as pathos intensifiers must have been the main form of ornament
in the description of battles since Ennius: see e.g., Enn. Ann. 310
Vahlen (= Cic. De or. 3.167) Africa terribili tremit horrida terra tu-
multu.
An established stylistic feature of ancient epic (since rosy-fingered
Dawn), metonymy appeals to the contemporary taste for mythological
erudition, e.g., when the name of a god is used for a wind: 61 Borean,
and the wind name itself becomes a metonym for cardinal point (e.g.,
61 ad loc.); a people’s name can be a metonym (or synecdoche pars pro

_____________
80 On the etymological play of terribilem with terra, see below ad loc.
81 An ornament of which Catullus is fond; e.g., Catull. 64.89-90 quales Eurotae progig-
nunt flumina myrtus / auraue distinctos educit uerna colores.
82 “Confused word order in a sentence” (Lanham 1968, 147 s.v.); cf. Donat. Ars Maior 3.6
hyperbaton ex omni parte confusum.
 Introduction 27

toto, e.g., 612 Cleonei)83 for the region they inhabit; a goddess can be
the Ocean as at 73 Tethyn; a god can mean war as 582 Marte, 770 Mar-
tis (or wine, cf. 9.433 Bacchum). Some metonymies are so established
in usage that noticing them is perhaps supererogatory, as 82 aequor,
‘leveled expanse’ for ‘sea,’ or 282 lumina for stars.
Antonomasia’s84 immediate effect is variation: 96 Caererem (for
wheat and/or bread); 550 Dircaea (for Theban); 553 terrigenae; 614
hospes (for Hercules); 724 sollertior hostis (ichneumon).
Synecdoche produces significant effects because it evokes not just
mythic characters but alludes to stories of myth, e.g., Hercules’ slaying
of the Nemean lion is alluded to at 612 Cleonei, an adjective that refers
pars pro toto to an Argolic city near Nemea; 767 Bistonio…. turbine,
for Thracian wind (see above on antonomasia) may obscurely refer to a
whole cluster of mythical tales.85 Similarly, historical events can also be
evoked with a synecdoche, this time the whole for the part: 736 ut
Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper / Punica bella dolis. At
times, the focus on a part rather than the whole intensifies dramatic
effects, as when the soldiers, denied their chance to epic action, appear
compressed onto each other and they are mere 782 stipata… membra.
There are times when L. seems to think in terms of association by
synecdoche, as when Curio’s death functions as Juba’s offer of last rites
to the ghost of Hannibal (see below ad 789-90).
Affecting in various guises the normal line of thought, hypallage
(‘interchange, exchange’)86 obtains highly dramatic effects especially
when its use animates the inanimate by posing it as the syntactical sub-
ject, or the vocative in an apostrophe with an outcome that resembles
personification: 96 pallida tabes (cf. 9.410 inuasit Libye securi fata
_____________
83 By metonymy (or synecdoche?) the quality of a character is mentioned for the person,
as when at 9.301 Cato is audax… uirtus. Similarly, a seashell can represent a whole
seascape (9.349 uentosa… concha), a country its people (9.427), and smaller parts of
the body larger parts or even the whole person (see ad 4.626 and 626-9).
84 The similarity among metonymy, synecdoche and (perhaps) antonomasia, is noted by
Quint. Inst. 8.6.28. For a definition of antonomasia, see Lanham 1968, 17 s.v.: “Use of
an epithet or patronymic instead of a proper name, or the reverse.”
85 See below ad loc.
86 Cf. the definition in Lanham 1968, s.v.: “awkward or humorous changing of agreement
or application of words,” showing how problematic and sometimes subjective is the de-
tection of hypallage. The examples offered above focus on cases in which the “psycho-
logical focus of a sentence [becomes] its syntactical subject” (Fantham 1992, 37).
28 Introduction

Catonis).87 Sometimes the dramatic effect is obtained when the hypal-

lage focuses on a part of a whole by making the part the syntactical
subject and thereby conveying a sense of immediacy, as in the series of
antithetic negatives to describe what horses would normally be ex-
pected to do in battle (but are not doing; see below ad 4.750-8): e.g.,
4.750 fessa iacet ceruix… / oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua;
758 siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis.88
Paradox and hyperbole are by and large the princes of tropes in
this poem. Hyperbole figures prominently in the episode of Hercules
and Antaeus, which is set from the start against the background of the
Gigantomachy (see below ad 593-660; 775-6; 787). Sometimes L. piles
up paradox and hyperbole (cf. 9.490-2). More often the search for para-
dox discloses jarring effects, as the erudite/‘rude’ peasant that lectures
Curio on Greek myth (see ad 592); or Antaeus who has to stand in or-
der to fall (see ad 646-9) and loses the wrestling match without touch-
ing the ground (647).89
Metaphorical substitution becomes a full simile at 236-42, when
Petreius’ soldiers newly goaded to kill are compared to captive beasts;
at 283-91, where the gladiatorial simile adds a gory background to the
medical description of a mortally wounded body; or at 437-47, where a
hunting scene in the Vulteius’ episode conveys the state of mind on
both fronts; or at 549-56, where the mythical combat of the earth-born
Spartoi in ancestral Thebes adds grandeur and fratricidal pathos in clos-
ing the Vulteius narrative; or finally when when Juba is likened to an
ichneumon,90 thus highlighting the king’s familiarity with Africa in
contrast to Curio (see ad 4.724-9),91 but the features of the African
landscape and the vocabulary of the arena often produce the impression
_____________
87 A feature familiar since Homer; cf. Schwyzer/Brugmann/Georgacas 1939, II.64-5. On
hypallage in L., see Hübner 1972, 577-600; cf. TLL II.596.60-1.597.2ff.; Fantham 1992,
37.
88 Hübner 1972, 583-4; and below ad 764 spatium… donat.
89 On paradox, see also ad 781-2, 791, 793, 805-6, 809-10; cf. Asso 2002a ad 9.307, 371,
373, 381, 385, 388-9, 436, 446-8, 458, 485-6, 498-10.
90 The ichneumon is the North-African local variety of a snake-eating animal similar to
the mongoose.
91 Heitland 1887, lxxxvi, considers the soldiers likened to gladiators as a simile rather than
a metaphor or part of an extended allegory (but see above); his list of similes for the
portion of Book IX treated here includes 460-2 (column of dust = column of smoke)
and 494 (stars to travelers in the desert = stars to sailors in the sea).
 Introduction 29

that L. is intentionally relying on a gladiatorial allegory throughout the

poem (see ad 613-14, 620, 622, 708-10, 725, 784-7; cf. 9.488).92
Another of L.’s rhetorical features a commentator must notice is the
use of periphrasis or circumlocutions to enrich descriptions: e.g., 666
omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis means Roman Africa, i.e.,
the province; the description of the horses in distress at 750-64 (see ad
loc.) is a remarkable passage rich in various rhetorical artifices. The
resulting redundancy and repetition are among the features of L.’s style
that attract the fiercest antipathies of modern audiences, but in fact the
repetition is often only apparent as each variation increases detail and
creates a sense of vividness: e.g., 4.631 intumuere tori totosque induruit
artus. The draw back is the loss of immediacy and clarity, as in the
description of the storm before the march through the desert (see ad
9.319-47), which, however, beautifully leads into the aition of Lake
Tritonis and the Hesperides.93
Apostrophe too is often classified among L.’s faults. To say that
modern scholars since the early revival of learning in the Renaissance
have shown increasingly lower tolerance for rhetorical theatricality is
perhaps a platitude. The frequency of apostrophe in L. has been unfairly
labeled as “the outcome of an unhealthy self-consciousness.”94 Whether
or not there are any scholars who still share Heitland’s opinion, apos-
trophe has received little attention in recent scholarship: it is a figure
that simply does not appeal to modern audiences.95 Not so, however, for
the ancients. Apostrophe occurs in epic poetry starting with Homer, and
Virgil (among others) makes ample use of it.96

_____________
92 Cf. Leigh 1997, ch. 7 “A View to a Kill;” Ahl 1976, ch. 3 “Sangre y Arena.”
93 A study of the periphrases for ‘common expressions’, such as 1.76 extendere nolet for
non extendet, is available in Pérez 1993, who, claiming to cover all such expressions in
the poem, divides them into ‘insistent’ (e.g., 1.581 Sullani… manes; 2.246 Caesaris
arma) and ‘euphemistic’ (e.g., 1.67 fert animus; 3.233 Tethyos aequora), both types al-
ways placing the keyword in a prominent position in the line.
94 Heitland 1887, lxxi.
95 Martindale 1993, 67-8. See now Asso 2008.
96 E.g., Verg. A. 7.1ff. to Caieta is memorable for its intentional resemblance to the epi-
taph’s address to the passerby; or A. 9.446 to Euryalus and Nisus, on which see De
Nadaï 2000, 14. On apostrophe in Latin poetry, Curcio 1903 and Hampel 1908 are still
useful, if only as repertoires of loci esp. from Virgil and Ovid, and for a (quite bare) list
of places where apostrophes occur in Lucan, Silius, Statius and Valerius Flaccus (e.g.,
Hampel 1908, 48-53).
30 Introduction

Relying on Jonathan Culler’s discussion of this trope, Martindale

shows how apostrophe contributes to L.’s staging of the “self-lacerating
voice of the individual at odds with his world, which he turns into a
theatre for himself and his interlocutors, animate and [68] inanimate.”
Martindale goes on to contrast L.’s “ostentatious textuality… with Cae-
sar’s cool, ‘classical’ prose, or Virgil’s poetic ‘control’ and economy,”
and warns us against “ton[ing] down the subversive energies of Lucan’s
text.”97 L. employs apostrophe to exaggerate the dramatic effect in
moments of high pathos, e.g., 4.692 Roma, to emphasize the contrast
between Curio’s policy of sparing Libya a tyrant while supporting one
in Rome; and most effectively at the end of Book IV (see ad 799-824)
where the poet’s address to Curio functions as a funerary eulogy.98

Meter
In matters of versification the judgment on L. has been especially bi-
ased. Housman thought it ‘commonplace’, but as Mayer observed, L.’s
apparently regular rhythm became common only in the Neronian age.99
Scholars have also observed how declamation might have contributed a
certain ponderosity to L.’s verse,100 but the majestic force was probably
intended, as the frequent placing of a spondee in the first foot shows.101
The regularity of L.’s rhythm is chiefly due to the frequency of a
break in the middle of the third foot and after the end of the fourth foot,
but his use of elision is not particularly striking.102
Yet as a crafter of verse L. is gifted, and one should disagree with
those who claim that his efficiently structured hexameters show signs

_____________
97 Martindale 1993, 67-8. Recently a doctoral dissertation was devoted to the study of L.’s
use of apostrophe (D'Alessandro Behr 2000), which the author deploys in support of a
thoroughly Stoic reading of the poem; now in D'Alessandro Behr 2007.
98 The effect of this final apostrophe to Curio generates such a degree of pathos and
participation in the audience that – without L.’s grand tone – it would not be too far-
fetched to compare it to Catullus’ frater in 101.2.
99 Mayer 1981, 10.
100 Barker 1914.
101 Müller 1894, 241.
102 See the ‘Index Metricus Hosianus’ available in Hosius’ edition and reprinted by Shack-
eton Bailey.
 Introduction 31

of haste.103 That L. was fast at composing, as exemplified by his extem-

pore Orpheus, does not necessarily mean that he was hasty, or that he
would produce inadvertently the effects that sometimes scholars happen
to find distasteful. The most apparent fault would be lack of metrical
variation, but only in comparison to Virgil and Ovid, who do not insist
on certain schemes as often as L. does.104 In other words, L.’s hexame-
ters deliberately are what they are: part of the disillusioned and unro-
mantic atmosphere of his poem. What the poet gains by using fre-
quently the same metrical patterns is probably the kind of grand pace
tuned to the contemporary taste for declamation and more easily
adapted to L.’s parataxis. An example will be clearer than any statis-
tics.105
excitet \\ inuisás | diráe | Carthaginis \\ umbras
inferiís | fortuna | nouís, || ferat | ista | cruentus
790 Hannibal \\ et | Poení || tam | dira | piacula \\ manes.
Romanám, | superí, || Libycá | tellure | ruinam
Pompeió | prodesse nefás || uotisque | senatus.
Africa \\ nos | potiús | uincát | sibi. \\ ¯ ˇˇ ¯ ¯ (4.788-93)
The symbols:
| weaker caesura
|| stronger caesura
\\ diaeresis
´ ‘ictus’ is used only to indicate where the stress falls in case of
lack of coincidence between metrical ictus and natural accent
The pace is scanned by artfully placed breaks and the strategic simplic-
ity of the parataxis contributes the sustained rhythm. Important key-
_____________
103 E.g., Mayer 1981, 11, citing more detractors. Earlier scholarship offers at least one
instance of praise for L.’s verses: “quo diutius Pharsaliam tractarem, eo minus ne-
glegens poeta mihi videbatur: immo tantum aberat ut rationes artis metricae minus dili-
genter tractatae repperim, ut e contrario Lucanum esse ex diligentissimis versificatori-
bus intellexerim” (Trampe 1884, 5-6; emphasis added).
104 In the first four feet, the most frequent patterns are DSSS, DDSS, DSDS and SDSS
(Fantham 1992, 44-5; See Duckworth 1967, 88-91).
105 All the possible caesurae and diaereses have been unnaturally marked with ugly signs,
but possibly only the stronger ones would be observed in performance, and maybe also
a few weaker ones, largely depending on the performer’s interpretation in the perform-
ance context and in meeting with the audience’s taste.
32 Introduction

words stand out in the beginning of the line: inferiis, Hannibal, Ro-
manam, Pompeio, Africa. In three out of five cases (inferiís, Romanám,
Pompeió), the word is stretched by a final ictus that prolongs its sound
so as to spill over, as it were, towards the next syntactical unit and let
the rhythm flow rapidly.
The sequence of breaks begins with a strong ‘central’ caesura in
488 (cf. Verg. A. 1.1. arma uirumque cano|), marked by word-end after
the long syllable in the third foot. But the sense runs on to the next syn-
tactical unit in the sentence because the central caesura emphasizes
inuisa but syntactically qualifies umbras in the end of the line. The next
line has a weak caesura in the second foot and a strong one in the
fourth. The strong caesura in the fourth foot occurs also in the follow-
ing two lines 790-1, varied in 791 with second-foot caesura as in 789.
Naturally, each word-end occurring in mid-foot must have produced a
rhythmic effect. The rhythm is varied also by diaeresis, which occurs in
788 after excitet, in 790 after Hannibal, followed by strong central cae-
sura in the third foot, and twice in 793 after Africa and sibi (= bucolic
diaeresis). Dissyllabic words end the line at 788 and 790, probably to
restore the natural accent after violating it in the strong caesurae of both
lines.
As for prosody, the following sketch singles out selected features.106
The scarcity of short syllables in Latin makes poets adapt the prosody
when it suits their purpose, but the correptio is quite rare in L. The
naturally long e of the ending –erunt is shortened only once at 4.771
steterunt (v.l. steterant, see Housman ad loc.); the first i of liquidus is
usually long in e.g., Lucretius, but it is often short in L., as in 4.661;107
final i of tibi is long at 4.799 and 804; a of patres is long before muta
cum liquida at 4.592. Synaloepha between quando and the following
word (usually a monosyllable) is avoided at 4.811 (but is otherwise
quite common in Virgil).

_____________
106 See the “Index Metricus Hosianus” in Hosius 1913 and Shackleton Bailey 1988.
107 As far as I could observe, L. never shortens the long i of illius, istius and unius (Trampe
1884, 7).
IV. Note on the Latin Text
The text printed in the present edition is eclectic. Its sole purpose is to
provide the basis for the commentary and the translation. In constituting
the text, I have chiefly used Housman’s second edition.108 For the appa-
ratus criticus, I used the edition prepared by Renato Badalì,109 which
contains the BC, the three Vitae, along with all the extant fragments of
L.’s work, and whose apparatus is by far the most complete to date, for
it corrects many of the inadequacies found in Housman, Hosius, and
Shackleton Bailey. I have regularly consulted also Hosius’ and Shack-
leton Bailey’s Teubner editions,110 as well as Georg Luck’s text with
German translation.111 Finally Oudendorp’s old text has been useful in
verifying some of the earliest philological interventions in the text, such
as those by Richard Bentley.112
The tradition of the text of Lucan’s BC is so rich and varied as to
make it impossible for a single editor to peruse and study all of the
textual witnesses. More than four hundred copies are known, including
partial copies, fragmentary ancient books, two sets of scholia,113 and a
Medieval commentary by Arnulf of Orléans.114 Medieval scholiasts and
ancient commentators are often crucial to the establishment of the text
because their lemmata may contain readings not attested in any surviv-
ing manuscript.115
In spite of the extensive richness of the tradition, editors of L. have
continued to resort to philological acumen instead of examining the
manuscript tradition. With the sole exception of Badalì, who alone has
contributed more than any other editor to our knowledge of the manu-
_____________
108 Housman 1927 (repr. 1950).
109 Badalì 1992.
110 Hosius 1913; Shackleton Bailey 1988.
111 Luck 1985.
112 Oudendorp 1728.
113 The Commenta Bernensia were admirably edited by Hermann Usener (Comm. Bern.).
The second set of scholia is available in a Teubner edition (Adn.). L’s early commenta-
tors have been extensively studied by Paolo Esposito (Esposito 2000b; Esposito 1999;
Esposito 2004b).
114 Arnulf 1958, edited by Berthe Marti.
115 Tarrant 1983 in Reynolds/Marshall 1983, 215-18.
34 Introduction

scripts, the text of L.’s BC continues to be read on the basis of Hous-

man’s text. Housman is perhaps partly responsible for the lack of inter-
est in L.’s manuscripts in the 20th century, for in his preface to his text
of L. (prepared editorum in usum), he begins:
When I edited Juvenal for the behoof of editors twenty years ago, their
chief need, or rather the chief need which another could supply for
them, was more knowledge of the manuscripts. With Lucan it is not
so, and the manuscripts collated by Mr. Hosius for his second and
third editions are amply sufficient. It may be that Par. Lat. 7900 and
Vat. 3284 and other known books would repay more scrutiny, and it
may be that somebody roaming through a library will one day stumble
upon a hidden treasure; but those are not the quarters from which Lu-
can most needs help nor from which most help is to be had.116
Luckily for us, and future readers and editors of L., Badalì refrained
from listening to Housman’s bias and it is to him that we owe any in-
creased knowledge of L.’s extant manuscripts.117
As expected in a vast and heavily contaminated tradition, any at-
tempt at constructing a stemma by establishing firm relationships
among the manuscripts is frustrated by the fact that any one or two in a
group of ostensibly related manuscripts sometimes offer information
not found in its closely related peers, as Gotoff for example saw in the
case of M Z A B R.118 For L.’s stemma, however, Badalì’s represents a
definite step forward on Housman and Hosius, because in addition to M
V U P Z Q, he uses G very thoroughly and does not refrain from using
rather sparingly but judiciously A B E F H (among others), along with
various fragmentary textual witnesses whenever available.
The text of Book IV presents no particular difficulties, and only a
few times it has become necessary to depart from Housman’s text.
Whenever advisable, the commentary notes will alert the reader to any
textual problems, otherwise the notes in the apparatus criticus shall
suffice in solely indicating the source for the printed text and silently
direct the reader to consult the editors of the complete text.

_____________
116 Housman 1927, v (emphasis added).
117 Badalì’s apparatus provides ample information on the manuscripts he studied, but more
data are available in the contributions that appeared while he was preparing his edition:
e.g., Badalì 1973; Badalì 1974b; Badalì 1974a; Badalì 1975; full bibliography in Badalì
1992, xxxiii-xxxiv.
118 Gotoff 1971, 9; cf. Badalì 1992, xii n. 6.
 Introduction 35

Following Badalì, some of the variants cited in the apparatus criti-

cus will sometimes be attributed to the entire manuscript tradition as
well as to individual witnesses; e.g., 423 patenti Ω : latenti M Z.
Analogously, some witnesses may be cited more than once; e.g., 186
det Z M P V : dat M P U : dant V : dent G | bello Ω V : bellum V G.
The reason for indulging in this apparently capricious inconsistency
is in the nature of the manuscript tradition itself. The manuscripts are,
in fact, so contaminated that it is completely impossible to design a
stemma codicum. Badalì’s complex system of sigla assigns as far as
possible an unambiguous label to each of the many variants cited in his
apparatus, relying on both superscript and subscript figures along with
the sigla to account for corrections, erasures, and first readings, not to
mention the variants reported in the scholiastic tradition. The system
used by Badalì seemed far too prolix to reproduce for the present edi-
tion and ultimately bound to confusion without direct access to the
manuscripts and/or Badalì’s collations. My solution will appear to
many as imperfect and certainly not ideal, but its idiosyncrasy helps in
answering the most immediate question the reader may have in perus-
ing the text: What is the manuscript authority for the printed text? My
apparatus answers the question without erasing the nuances embedded
in the tradition (as regrettably happens in Hosius, Housman, and
Shackelton Bailey). The information I excerpted from Badalì and re-
produced in my apparatus has helped me establish the text in obser-
vance to the strictest philological rigor while also reporting as much
information as the textually inclined critic might want to obtain. In a
hopefully not too remote future, I hope to profit from and continue
Badalì’s work in producing a new complete text of L.’s BC that will
account for as many extant manuscripts as possible, including the re-
centiores.
36 Introduction

Conspectus Siglorum

M = Montepessulanus bibl. med. H 113, medio saec. IX

V = Leidensis Vossianus Lat. XIXQ 51, saec. X
P = Parisinus bibl. publ. Lat. 7502, saec. X usque ad 10.107
continens
Z = Parisinus bibl publ. Lat. 10314, medio saec. IX
U = Leidensis Vossianus Lat. XIXF. 63, saec. X
G = Bruxellensis bibl. Burgund. 5330-32, olim Gemblacensis,
saec. X
Ω = consensus codicum MVPZUG uel eorum plures, praeter
tamen eos qui separatim laudantur
ς = alii codices, praesertim recentiores

A = Parisinus lat. Nou.u. acq. 1626, Ashburnhamensis, saec. IX

B = Bernensis 45, saec. IX
E = Erlangensis 389 (olim 304), saec. X
F = Vaticanus lat. 3284, saec. XI
H = Palatinus lat. 869 (una cum Ottob. lat 1210; ud. Badalì 1992,
xvii adn. 2) saec. XI/XII

c = lectiones in Commentis Bernensibus, quae dicuntur ab

Usenero edita ex cod. Bernensi litt. 370, siue in ipsis lem-
matibus siue in interpretationibus effectae, saec. IX/X
a = adnotationes super Lucanum in GU multisque aliis codicibus
seruatae, editae ab I. Endtio an. 1909
Text and Translation
 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus
At procul extremis terrarum Caesar in oris
Martem saeuus agit non multa caede nocentem
maxima sed fati ducibus momenta daturum.
iure pari rector castris Afranius illis
5 ac Petreius erat; concordia duxit in aequas
imperium commune uices, tutelaque ualli
peruigil alterno paret custodia signo.
his praeter Latias acies erat inpiger Astur
Vettonesque leues profugique a gente uetusta
10 Gallorum Celtae miscentes nomen Hiberis.
colle tumet modico lenique excreuit in altum
pingue solum tumulo; super hunc fundata uetusta
surgit Ilerda manu; placidis praelabitur undis
Hesperios inter Sicoris non ultimus amnis,
15 saxeus ingenti quem pons amplectitur arcu
hibernas passurus aquas. at proxima rupes
signa tenet Magni, nec Caesar colle minore
castra leuat; medius dirimit tentoria gurges.
explicat hinc tellus campos effusa patentis
20 uix oculo prendente modum, camposque coerces,
Cinga rapax, uetitus fluctus et litora cursu
Oceani pepulisse tuo; nam gurgite mixto
qui praestat terris aufert tibi nomen Hiberus.

13 blandis V
14 amnis Z M G Seru. Aen. 8.328 : amnes P U V
19 patentes P U
20 coerces B ς : coercens Ω : co(h)ercent U : coercet M U G
Hosius
22 tuo U a ς : suo Ω c a Hosius
 39

Civil war, Book IV

Far away, on the furthest shores of earth, cruel Caesar
wages war that does not cause much slaughter, but which
will be the greatest turning point for the leaders involved.
With equal right, Afranius and Petreius were commanders in 5
that camp; their unity led to an equal allotment of command,
and the vigilant guard of the palisade obeyed each one’s
password in turn. Besides Roman soldiers, they had mobile
Asturians, light-armed Vettones, and Celts, exiles from an
ancient race of Gaul, who mix their name with the Hiberians. 10
The fertile soil rises into a moderate hill and ascends with
a gentle slope. Ilerda rises on this hill, a city constructed by
ancient hands. The Sicoris, not the least among western riv-
ers, slips by with calm waters. A stone bridge vaults the river
with an immense arch, capable of enduring the winter waters. 15
The nearest cliff holds the standards of mighty Pompey, and
Caesar raises his camp on a similar hill; a middling stream
separates the encampments. Vast land stretches in open
plains and the eye can hardly grasp its measure, while you,
rapacious Cinga, forbidden to strike the tides and shores of
the Ocean with your onrush, confine the fields; for the Hi- 20
berus, who dominates the lands, takes away your name when
the waters mix.
40 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

prima dies belli cessauit Marte cruento

25 spectandasque ducum uires numerosaque signa
exposuit. piguit sceleris; pudor arma furentum
continuit, patriaeque et ruptis legibus unum
donauere diem; prono cum Caesar Olympo
in noctem subita circumdedit agmina fossa,
30 dum primae perstant acies, hostemque fefellit
et prope consertis obduxit castra maniplis.
luce noua collem subito conscendere cursu,
qui medius tutam castris dirimebat Ilerdam,
imperat. huc hostem pariter terrorque pudorque
35 inpulit, et rapto tumulum prior agmine cepit.
his uirtus ferrumque locum promittit, at illis
ipse locus. miles rupes oneratus in altas
nititur, aduersoque acies in monte supina
haeret et in tergum casura umbone sequentis
40 erigitur. nulli telum uibrare uacauit,
dum labat et fixo firmat uestigia pilo,
dum scopulos stirpesque tenent atque hoste relicto
caedunt ense uiam. uidit lapsura ruina
agmina dux equitemque iubet succedere bello
45 munitumque latus laeuo praeducere gyro.
sic pedes ex facili nulloque urguente receptus,
inritus et uictor subducto Marte pependit.

40 uibrare Ω A a ad 43 : librare A B Z ς (cf. 3.433) | uacauit P

U : uacabit M Z : uacabat V G M c a ad 43
45 laeuo Ω G c : lato G | praeducere M V U, fort. C (‘deest
lemma. commentator fort. non producere sed praecingere
legebat’ Usener) : producere P Z G M
46 ex Ω a G : et M
 Civil war, Book IV 41

The first day of war was free of bloody battle and it ex-
posed the men and the numerous standards of the leaders to 25
scrutiny. They were disconcerted by their crimes; shame
repressed the arms of raging men, and they conceded one
single day to their fatherland and its broken laws. When the
heavens sank into night, Caesar surrounded his army with a
trench. While the first battle line stood firmly in formation, 30
he deceived the enemy by screening the camp with densely
packed maniples nearby. At daybreak, Caesar commanded
them to climb in a sudden rush the hill that safely separates
Ilerda from the camp. The enemy was drawn to this place by 35
equal measures of fear and shame, and Caesar captured the
hill with a swift offensive. Virtue and the sword hold forth
the promise of the ground to Caesar’s men, yet the ground
itself does the same for the enemy. The overburdened sol-
diers struggle against the tall cliffs, and the battle line, face
upwards, clings to the rising mountain. When about to fall
each man steadies himself on the shield of the one following. 40
No one has room to hurl a spear, as they slip and support
their steps with a fixed javelin; they grab rocks and saplings
and they hack a path with their swords, unmindful of the
enemy. The commander sees that his soldiers are about to fall
and orders the cavalry to advance into battle and extend the 45
flank, securing it with a leftward twist. Thus the infantry
were easily rescued and no one beset them while the victor
hung baffled by an unfinished battle.
42 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

hactenus armorum discrimina: cetera bello

fata dedit uariis incertus motibus aer.
50 pigro bruma gelu siccisque Aquilonibus haerens
aethere constricto pluuias in nube tenebat.
urebant montana niues camposque iacentis
non duraturae conspecto sole pruinae,
atque omnis propior mergenti sidera caelo
55 aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno.
sed postquam uernus calidum Titana recepit
sidera respiciens delapsae portitor Helles,
atque iterum aequatis ad iustae pondera Librae
temporibus uicere dies, tum sole relicto
60 Cynthia, quo primum cornu dubitanda refulsit,
exclusit Borean flammasque accepit in Euro.
ille suo nubes quascumque inuenit in axe
torsit in occiduum Nabataeis flatibus orbem,
et quas sentit Arabs et quas Gangetica tellus
65 exhalat nebulas, quidquid concrescere primus
sol patitur, quidquid caeli fuscator Eoi
inpulerat Corus, quidquid defenderat Indos.
incendere diem nubes oriente remotae
nec medio potuere graues incumbere mundo
70 sed nimbos rapuere fuga. uacat imbribus Arctos
et Notos, in solam Calpen fluit umidus aer.

48 armorum Ω : aruorum V G
49 incertis U : inceptis c
50 siccis G c
52 iacentis G : iacentes Ω Hosius
57 delapsae U a : dilapsae M V P Z G | portitor Ω : proditor
Scriuerius (cf. Housman ad loc.)
59 tum G Housman : tunc Ω
60 quo Ω : cum M
61 in Ω : ab V U G ς | eurum M
67 inpulerat U B M : intulerat Ω
68 nubesque M Z
70 nimbos Ω : nimbi M ut uidetur, Hosius
71 notos Z c (nothos G) : notus M P a Hosius (nothus V U Z
G)
 Civil war, Book IV 43

So far, arms alone had determined the outcome. Uncer-

tain weather with its shifting motions now sealed the fate of
the rest of the battle. Winter lingered with its harsh frost and 50
dry northerly winds, and held the rains in the clouds. The
snow was burning the mountains and a frost that would melt
in the coming sun was burning the low-lying plains. Near to
the sky as it drowned the stars, all the earth dried up in a 55
peaceful winter. But afterwards the vernal bearer of fallen
Helle, gazed on the stars and took in the hot sun. When the
day and night were equal according to the balance of just
Libra, day again grew longer. Then, when the sun set, the 60
moon, who first shone with a dim crescent, shut out the
North wind and was lit ablaze in the East wind.
The Eastern wind discovered whatever clouds it could in
its own region and hurled them into the westerly world with
turbulent Nabataean winds, both those clouds Arabs feel and
those the land of the Ganges exhales; it carried with it any 65
mists the early sun had allowed to condense, anything the
darkening Corus had driven from the morning heavens, and
everything which had protected the Indians. The clouds,
withdrawn from the East, warmed the day and were not able
to drop rain, although pregnant with it; instead, the wind
swept up storm clouds in their flight. The storms left the 70
North and South and the saturated air flows to Calpe alone.
44 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

hic, ubi iam Zephyri fines, et summus Olympi

cardo tenet Tethyn, uetitae transcurrere densos
inuoluere globos, congestumque aeris atri
75 uix recipit spatium quod separat aethere terram.
iamque polo pressae largos densantur in imbres
spissataeque fluunt; nec seruant fulmina flammas
quamuis crebra micent: extinguunt fulgura nimbi.
hinc inperfecto conplectitur aera gyro
80 arcus uix ulla uariatus luce colorem
Oceanumque bibit raptosque ad nubila fluctus
pertulit et caelo defusum reddidit aequor.
iamque Pyrenaeae, quas numquam soluere Titan
eualuit, fluxere niues, fractoque madescunt
85 saxa gelu. tum quae solitis e fontibus exit
non habet unda uias, tam largas alueus omnis
a ripis accepit aquas. iam naufraga campo
Caesaris arma natant, inpulsaque gurgite multo
castra labant; alto restagnant flumina uallo.
90 non pecorum raptus faciles, non pabula mersi
ulla ferunt sulci; tectarum errore uiarum
fallitur occultis sparsus populator in agris.

72 distinxit Grotius | hic V U G : hinc M Z P

73 densos Ω : densor Z : tensos P (cf. Badalì ad 1.531 coll.
Prisc. GLK 2.520.13, 3.473.34)
77 fluunt Ω : runt V G | fulmina M Z G : flumina V P U |
flammas Ω : cursum U ς Cortius
78 habet G atque in pagina, qua contineri solent 32 uersus,
tricesimum tertium U : om. Ω c a | extinguunt… nimbi G
M : extinguit… nimbus U V G : moriuntur nimbis F D L ς
82 caelo defusum P c : caelo diffusum V U G P : de caelo
fusum a : fusum de caelo M Z : diffusum de caelo M
85 tum quae M P U (tumque Z) : tunc quae V G
86 omnis V U a : amnis Ω U a
87 campo Ω : campis V U
90 nec pecorum M Z ς
 Civil war, Book IV 45

Here, where now the western winds end, the horizon re-
strains the sea and the clouds coil into heaped masses, for-
bidden to go further. The space that separates earth and sky,
congested with dark mist, can hardly take in more. Now, full 75
to the edges, it bursts into great showers and the condensed
rain flows; lightning cannot keep back its flames and the
clouds extinguish the bolts, although they constantly flash.
Next, a rainbow arched the sky in a broken circle, fluctuating 80
in color with hardly any light. It drank the ocean and bore
stolen waves to the clouds and restored to the sky the water
that had poured down. Next, the Pyrenean snows, which Ti-
tan never before had sufficient strength to thaw, melted, and
the rocks were flooded by the broken ice. Leaving from its 85
usual source, no stream can hold its paths since every river-
bed let in so much water from its banks. Now the ship-
wrecked force of Caesar swims on the field and the camp is
struck by much flooding and collapses; the rivers form pools
of floodwater in the deep valley. It is not easy to steal the 90
herd, the submerged furrows do not bear any food; the plun-
derer, scattered over the covered lane, is deceived by straying
over submerged paths.
46 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

iamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum

saeua fames aderat, nulloque obsessus ab hoste
95 miles eget: toto censu non prodigus emit
exiguam Cererem. pro lucri pallida tabes!
non dest prolato ieiunus uenditor auro.
iam tumuli collesque latent, iam flumina cuncta
condidit una palus uastaque uoragine mersit,
100 absorpsit penitus rupes ac tecta ferarum
detulit atque ipsas hausit, subitisque frementis
uerticibus contorsit aquas et reppulit aestus
fortior Oceani. nec Phoebum surgere sentit
nox subtexta polo: rerum discrimina miscet
105 deformis caeli facies iunctaeque tenebrae.
sic mundi pars ima iacet, quam zona niualis
perpetuaeque premunt hiemes: non sidera caelo
ulla uidet, sterili non quicquam frigore gignit
sed glacie medios signorum temperat ignes.
110 sic, o summe parens mundi, sic, sorte secunda
aequorei rector, facias, Neptune tridentis,
et tu perpetuis inpendas aera nimbis,
tu remeare uetes quoscumque emiseris aestus.
non habeant amnes decliuem ad litora cursum
115 sed pelagi referantur aquis, concussaque tellus
laxet iter fluuiis: hos campos Rhenus inundet,
hos Rhodanus; uastos obliquent flumina fontes.
Riphaeas huc solue niues, huc stagna lacusque
et pigras, ubicumque iacent, effunde paludes
120 et miseras bellis ciuilibus eripe terras.

100 ac P U C : at M Z : et V G ς
102 uorticibus G M V : gurgitibus V U G
103 sensit G ς
113 amiseris P : immiseris V ς
117 fontis M Z : fontes Ω M : montes V
118 huc… huc V U G : hic … hic M Z a : hoc … hic P : huc…
hic M
119 effunde Ω G : dissolue G ς
 Civil war, Book IV 47

Now cruel hunger arrives, ever the first companion of

great disaster, and all the soldiery is deprived, although be-
sieged by no enemy. Even the frugal man buys a bit of grain 95
with the whole of his wealth. How appalling to waste away
on account of gain! Fasting vendors are not lacking when
gold is produced. Now mounds and hills lie hidden, now a
single body of water conceals all the rivers and plunged them
into its vast chasm. It devoured the rocks deep down and 100
carried off the lairs of beasts by swallowing the wildlife it-
self, and roaring with sudden whirlpools it churns its waters
and, being stronger than the ocean, it rebuffs its swells.
Woven under the sky, night does not know that the sun is
rising. Unending darkness and the sky’s misshapen face blur 105
the world’s distinctions. In this way lies the lowest part of the
world, oppressed by the snowy zone and a never-ending win-
ter. It sees no stars in the heavens, it produces nothing in the
fruitless cold, but with its ice it eases the heat of the torrid
constellations.
Let it this way, great father of the universe; let it this 110
way, Neptune, wielder of the watery trident by the second
lot. May you devote the sky to unending rain, may you not
allow the swells to ebb, however many you may have hurled.
May the rivers hold no course descending to the shores but
let them be driven back by the waters of the main, and let the 115
earth quake and open the way for the rivers. May the Rhine
and the Rhone inundate these fields, may the rivers drive
immense springs sideways. Melt here the Riphaean snow;
pour here the standing lake and slow-moving swamps, wher-
ever they lie, and rescue our miserable earth from civil war. 120
48 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

sed paruo Fortuna uiri contenta pauore

plena redit, solitoque magis fauere secundi
et ueniam meruere dei. iam rarior aer,
et par Phoebus aquis densas in uellera nubes
125 sparserat, et noctes uentura luce rubebant,
seruatoque loco rerum discessit ab astris
umor, et ima petit quidquid pendebat aquarum.
tollere silua comas, stagnis emergere colles
incipiunt uisoque die durescere ualles.
130 utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque reliquit
primum cana salix madefacto uimine paruam
texitur in puppem caesoque inducta iuuenco
uectoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem.
sic Venetus stagnante Pado fusoque Britannus
135 nauigat Oceano; sic, cum tenet omnia Nilus,
conseritur bibula Memphitis cumba papyro.
his ratibus traiecta manus festinat utrimque
succisum curuare nemus, fluuiique ferocis
incrementa timens non primis robora ripis
140 inposuit, medios pontem distendit in agros.
ac, nequid Sicoris repetitis audeat undis,
spargitur in sulcos et scisso gurgite riuis
dat poenas maioris aquae. postquam omnia fatis
Caesaris ire uidet, celsam Petreius Ilerdam
145 deserit et noti diffisus uiribus orbis
indomitos quaerit populos et semper in arma
mortis amore feros et tendit in ultima mundi.

123 rarior Ω G : clarior G

129 uisaque a | ualles Ω G a : calles G
131 uimine Ω V : robore V G
133 superenatat V A a
147 martis G Oudendorp
 Civil war, Book IV 49

But Fortune, satisfied with a little fear from Caesar, came

back full, and the gods favor him more than usual, thereby
deserving pardon. Now the sky was clearer and the Sun, able
to face the waters, had scattered the dense clouds into a
fleece, and the nights were being crimsoned with coming 125
light. After each element found its place again, moisture re-
treated from the stars, and whatever waters were still poised
in suspension sought the depths. The trees began to lift their
leaves, the hills to rise from the sluggish waters, and the val-
leys hardened, after seeing the daylight, no longer covered in
water. As soon as the Sicoris held its banks and left behind 130
the fields, a grey willow tree, its shoots soaked, was plaited
into tiny boats and covered with the cut hide of a steer; it
darted over the swollen river bearing passengers. This is the
way the Veneti sail the pooled Po and the Britons the flowing
Ocean. This is how, when the Nile holds everything, the po- 135
rous skiff of Memphis is fastened with papyrus. In these
boats, the soldiers crossed and hastened to bend the cut wood
on both banks. Fearing the growing river, Caesar set the tim-
ber not on the edge of the nearest banks, but stretched the
bridge into the middle of the fields. Furthermore, lest it dare 140
another flood, the Sicoris was scattered in furrows and, split
into streamlets, it paid the price for its over-swelling waters.
After he sees that everything goes according to Caesar’s will,
Petreius abandons high Ilerda and lacking confidence in the
power of the known world, goes to the end of the earth, in
search of unconquerable peoples who in their lust for death 145
always bear arms.
50 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

nudatos Caesar colles desertaque castra

conspiciens capere arma iubet nec quaerere pontem
150 nec uada, sed duris fluuium superare lacertis.
paretur, rapuitque ruens in proelia miles
quod fugiens timuisset iter. mox uda receptis
membra fouent armis gelidosque a gurgite cursu
restituunt artus, donec decresceret umbra
155 in medium surgente die; iamque agmina summa
carpit eques, dubiique fugae pugnaeque tenentur.
attollunt campo geminae iuga saxea rupes
ualle caua media; tellus hinc ardua celsos
continuat colles, tutae quos inter opaco
160 anfractu latuere uiae; quibus hoste potito
faucibus emitti terrarum in deuia Martem
inque feras gentes Caesar uidet. ‘ite sine ullo
ordine’ ait ‘raptumque fuga conuertite bellum
et faciem pugnae uoltusque inferte minaces;
165 nec liceat pauidis ignaua occumbere morte:
excipiant recto fugientes pectore ferrum.’
dixit et ad montis tendentem praeuenit hostem.
illic exiguo paulum distantia uallo
castra locant. postquam spatio languentia nullo
170 mutua conspicuos habuerunt lumina uoltus,
[hic fratres natosque suos uidere patresque]
deprensum est ciuile nefas. tenuere parumper
ora metu, tantum nutu motoque salutant
ense suos. mox, ut stimulis maioribus ardens
175 rupit amor leges, audet transcendere uallum
miles, in amplexus effusas tendere palmas.
hospitis ille ciet nomen, uocat ille propinquum,
admonet hunc studiis consors puerilibus aetas;
nec Romanus erat, qui non agnouerat hostem.

155 medio U ς
164 minacis G
167 montis M P Z : montes V U G M P Z
171 om. M Z, non interpretantur c a : deleuit Oudendorp
 Civil war, Book IV 51

Caesar, seeing the hills exposed and the camps deserted, or-
ders his soldiers to take up arms and to seek neither the
bridge nor the shallows, but to overcome the river with brute
strength. He is obeyed, and the soldiers charged into battle 150
and seized the route that they would have feared in flight.
Soon, after the equipment is recovered, they warm their
soaked limbs and by running they revitalize their bodies,
chilled by the river, until the shadows shorten when the day
ascends to its midway point. Now the cavalry harry the rear 155
of the column, and the enemy are held in doubt whether to
flee or fight.
Twin cliffs elevate rocky ridges up from the plain with a
hollow valley in the middle; the ascending land turns into
high mountains here, among which safe routes lie hidden in
shady bends; Caesar sees that if the enemy should take hold 160
of these narrow passes, they would force the war into remote
lands and wild peoples. “Proceed without any formation,” he
says, “and rekindle the war stolen by flight. Show them the
face of war with your menacing eyes. Do not let the fearful
die cowardly deaths: even though they flee, let them take our 165
swords in their chests.” He said this and prevented the enemy
from reaching the mountains. Both sides set up camps with
small enclosures a short distance apart. When their eyes, no
longer incapacitated by distance, were able to make out
clearly each other’s faces, they fully grasp the atrocity of 170
civil war. For a short while, they held their mouths shut in
fear, and they greeted their own only by a nod and a wave of
the sword. Then, overcome by greater urges, love broke the
rules and the soldiers dared to cross the rampart to stretch 175
their arms in wide embraces. One man calls out the name of a
friend, another calls a relative; time shared in youth pursuits
reawakens this man’s memory. There was no Roman who did
recognize an enemy.
52 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

180 arma rigant lacrimis, singultibus oscula rumpunt,

et quamuis nullo maculatus sanguine miles
quae potuit fecisse timet. quid pectora pulsas?
quid, uaesane, gemis? fletus quid fundis inanis
nec te sponte tua sceleri parere fateris?
185 usque adeone times quem tu facis ipse timendum?
classica det bello, saeuos tu neclege cantus;
signa ferat, cessa: iam iam ciuilis Erinys
concidet et Caesar generum priuatus amabit.
nunc ades, aeterno conplectens omnia nexu,
190 o rerum mixtique salus Concordia mundi
et sacer orbis amor: magnum nunc saecula nostra
uenturi discrimen habent. periere latebrae
tot scelerum, populo uenia est erepta nocenti:
agnouere suos. pro numine fata sinistro
195 exigua requie tantas augentia clades!
pax erat, et castris miles permixtus utrisque
errabat; duro concordes caespite mensas
instituunt et permixto libamina Baccho;
graminei luxere foci, iunctoque cubili

183 inanis G : inanes Ω

186 det Z M P V : dat M P U : dant V : dent G | bello Ω V :
bellum V G
196 miles castris M Z : castris miles V P U G
199 graminei luxere foci V P U C (graminei foci luxere M Z) :
gramineis luxere focis V G : graminei luxere tori a :
graminei duxere foci G : graminei duxere chori a :
graminei duxere thori uel chori (sic) U
 Civil war, Book IV 53

Weapons are splattered with tears, they choke kisses with 180
sobbing, and although no soldier is stained by any blood,
each fears what he might have done. Why do you beat your
chests? Why do you groan like a madman? Why do you let
tears fall in vain and not admit that you willingly committed
your crimes obeying Caesar’s command? So much do you
fear the man whom you yourself make fearsome? Let him 185
sound the call to arms; disregard the cruel clang; when he
takes up the standards, hold back: no longer now will civil
vengeance bring ruin, and Caesar as a private citizen will
love his son-in-law.
Come now and welcome all with endless embrace, o 190
Concord, sacred love of the world, salvation of the elements
and the jumbled universe; our times now hold great weight
upon the future. The hiding places of so many evils are de-
stroyed; if people are guilty, their chance for forgiveness is
taken away because they recognized their kin. Alas, with
hostile power the fates make the oncoming slaughter even 195
greater by short respite! There was peace, and the soldiers,
mingling, wandered through both camps in harmony; they
shared tables on the firm turf and drink-offerings with mixed
wine. Grassy hearths blazed and in the shared bivouac
54 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

200 extrahit insomnis bellorum fabula noctes,

quo primum steterint campo, qua lancea dextra
exierit. dum quae gesserunt fortia iactant
et dum multa negant, quod solum fata petebant,
est miseris renouata fides, atque omne futurum
205 creuit amore nefas. nam postquam foedera pacis
cognita Petreio, seque et sua tradita uenum
castra uidet, famulas scelerata ad proelia dextras
excitat atque hostis turba stipatus inermis
praecipitat castris iunctosque amplexibus ense
210 separat et multo disturbat sanguine pacem.
addidit ira ferox moturas proelia uoces.
‘inmemor o patriae, signorum oblite tuorum,
non potes hoc causae, miles, praestare, senatus
adsertor uicto redeas ut Caesare? certe,
215 ut uincare, potes. dum ferrum, incertaque fata,
quique fluat multo non derit uolnere sanguis,
ibitis ad dominum damnataque signa feretis,
utque habeat famulos nullo discrimine Caesar
exorandus erit? ducibus quoque uita petita est?
220 numquam nostra salus pretium mercesque nefandae
proditionis erit: non hoc ciuilia bella,
ut uiuamus, agunt. trahimur sub nomine pacis.
non chalybem gentes penitus fugiente metallo
eruerent, nulli uallarent oppida muri,
225 non sonipes in bella ferox, non iret in aequor
turrigeras classis pelago sparsura carinas,
si bene libertas umquam pro pace daretur.
hostes nempe meos sceleri iurata nefando
sacramenta tenent; at uobis uilior hoc est

200 insomnis Ω G, ni in ras. U : insomnes G c

201 steterint Z G : steterant M V P U
204 reuocata F L ς
208 hostis M Z : hostes Ω M | inermis Z G a : inermes V U M G
: inermi P : in armis ut uid. M
219 erit V U G : erat M P Z | petenda est V Z U G (etenda est in
ras. M)
228 nempe Ω U : namque U
 Civil war, Book IV 55

war tales prolonged the sleepless night: on which battlefield 200

they first fought and whose hand hurled the spear. While they
boast about brave deeds, poor men, downplaying many of
them as they were only following their own allotted fate, they
renew their trust and all wickedness to come was multiplied
by their love. For after the peace treaties are made known to 205
Petreius, and he saw that he and his camp were handed over
for sale, he arms his slaves for odious war. Surrounded by the
throng, he casts the unarmed enemies from the camp, by the
sword he separates men clasped in embrace and upsets the
peace with much blood. His furious anger inspired words that 210
provoke battle:
“O soldiers, are you heedless of the fatherland and forgetful
of your standards? Are you unable to keep the promise that
you will return as champions of the Senate, having taken
victory away from Caesar? No doubt, you can ensure that
you will be conquered. While the sword is in your hand, fate 215
is uncertain, and you do not lack blood that flows from many
a wound; will you go to your master and carry his criminal
standards? Must Caesar be begged to consider you his slaves
with no distinction? Is safety also sought for your leaders?
Our safety will never be the price of reward for treason. They 220
are not waging civil war to let us live. Peace pretexts attract
us. Nations would not dig up iron from the deep-hiding de-
posit, nor walls would fortify a town, nor fierce steed would
go into battle, nor would the armada sail out to sea to spread 225
out its turreted ships, if ever it would be proper to give up
freedom on account of peace. Surely sworn oaths hold my
enemies to unspeakable crime; but to you, your loyalty is
cheaper than this,
56 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

230 uestra fides, quod pro causa pugnantibus aequa

et ueniam sperare licet. pro dira pudoris
funera! nunc toto fatorum ignarus in orbe,
Magne, paras acies mundique extrema tenentis
sollicitas reges, cum forsan foedere nostro
235 iam tibi sit promissa salus.’ sic fatur et omnis
concussit mentes scelerumque reduxit amorem.
sic, ubi desuetae siluis in carcere clauso
mansueuere ferae et uoltus posuere minaces
atque hominem didicere pati, si torrida paruus
240 uenit in ora cruor, redeunt rabiesque furorque
admonitaeque tument gustato sanguine fauces;
feruet et a trepido uix abstinet ira magistro.
itur in omne nefas, et, quae fortuna deorum
inuidia caeca bellorum in nocte tulisset,
245 fecit monstra fides. inter mensasque torosque
quae modo conplexu fouerunt pectora caedunt;
et quamuis primo ferrum strinxere gementes,
ut dextrae iusti gladius dissuasor adhaesit,
dum feriunt, odere suos, animosque labantis
250 confirmant ictu. feruent iam castra tumultu,
[et scelerum turba, rapiuntur colla parentum]
ac, uelut occultum pereat scelus, omnia monstra

230 pugnabitis A ς
232 funera Ω, in ras. P : foedera G ς
233 tenentis M Z G P : tenentes V P U M, ut uid. Z
235 omnes M P, ut uid. Z
237 et carcere V ς
238 minacis G
239 paruos P Housman, fortasse recte : paruus V U G : paruis
MZ
244 in nocte V M Z U a, ut uid. C : in om. Ω
251 in corr. habent G V, om. Ω, non interpretantur a c
 Civil war, Book IV 57

because when fighting for a just cause it is lawful to hope for 230
a pardon. What a dire death of decency! Right now, o Mag-
nus, ignorant of your fate, you prepare armies across the
whole world and rouse kings holding the limits of the earth,
although in virtue of our pact perhaps your life is already
lost.
Thus he spoke, and he shook every heart bringing back the 235
love of crime. Just as when wild beasts have forgotten the
forests and are tamed in a closed cage casting their threaten-
ing demeanor aside, having grown accustomed to men, if a
little blood comes into their dry mouth, rage and fury return
and the rewetted throat swells with the tasted blood; anger 240
boils and hardly refrains from the trembling tamer. In battle
during that dark night, the soldiers proceed into every sin,
and it was their loyalty that committed the outrages that For- 245
tune might have occasioned with the envy of the gods.
Among tables and couches, they slash the bodies that they
cherished to embrace not long ago. Though at first groaning
reluctantly, they drew their weapons. When they feel the
swords in their hands, the enemies of justice, they are strik-
ing, they hate their own and they reassure their doubting spir-
its in the fight. Now the camp bustles in confusion and as if a 250
hidden crime would go to waste, they set all the crimes be-
fore the face of the leaders; it feels good to be killers.
58 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

in facie posuere ducum: iuuat esse nocentis.

tu, Caesar, quamuis spoliatus milite multo,
255 agnoscis superos; neque enim tibi maior in aruis
Emathiis fortuna fuit nec Phocidos undis
Massiliae, Phario nec tantum est aequore gestum,
hoc siquidem solo ciuilis crimine belli
dux causae melioris eris.
polluta nefanda
260 agmina caede duces iunctis committere castris
non audent, altaeque ad moenia rursus Ilerdae
intendere fugam. campos eques obuius omnis
abstulit et siccis inclusit collibus hostem.
tunc inopes undae praerupta cingere fossa
265 Caesar auet nec castra pati contingere ripas
aut circum largos curuari bracchia fontes.
ut leti uidere uiam, conuersus in iram
praecipitem timor est. miles non utile clausis
auxilium mactauit equos, tandemque coactus
270 spe posita damnare fugam casurus in hostes
fertur. ut effuso Caesar decurrere passu
uidit et ad certam deuotos tendere mortem,
‘tela tene iam, miles’, ait ‘ferrumque ruenti
subtrahe: non ullo constet mihi sanguine bellum.
275 uincitur haut gratis iugulo qui prouocat hostem.
en, sibi uilis adest inuisa luce iuuentus
iam damno peritura meo; non sentiet ictus,
incumbet gladiis, gaudebit sanguine fuso.
deserat hic feruor mentes, cadat impetus amens,
280 perdant uelle mori.’ sic deflagrare minaces

253 facie ς Housman : faciem Ω | nocentis M G Z : nocentes Ω

Mc
260 om. U
262 omnis M P : omnes Ω
275 uincitur haut gratis Ω (haud U P G aut c) : non gratis
moritur Prisc. GLK II, 501
278 incumbit M Z : incumbens ς
280 minacis G
 Civil war, Book IV 59

You, Caesar, although having wasted many soldiers, you

claim the god’s favor; for fortune was not better for you on 255
the Emathian fields nor on the waters of Phocian Massilia,
nor was war waged as grandly on the Egyptian sea; if civil
war were your only crime, you would be the leader of the
better cause. The leaders do not dare to return their armies, 260
polluted by unspeakable slaughter, to adjoining camps, but
they turned in flight back to the tall walls of Ilerda. The cav-
alry came toward them and seized the entire field, trapping
the enemy in the dry hills. Then, Caesar wants to surround
the enemy, weakened by thirst, with a deep trench and he 265
does not allow the enemy camp to touch the river nor their
arms to bend around vast springs.
When they saw that they would die, fear changed into
heedless anger. The soldiers killed their horses, a useless aid
to trapped men; compelled to give up hope and to discredit 270
flight, they bear themselves against the enemy, intending to
die. When Caesar saw them rush forward with disorderly
motion, dedicated to certain death, he spoke: “Soldiers, hold
your weapons now, and keep the sword away from the at-
tacker: let war cost me no blood. Whoever challenges the
enemy with his own neck is never conquered without cost. 275
Behold, worthless men are here, loathing life, and now they
would perish at my expense. They will not feel wounds, they
will fall upon the swords, and they will enjoy spilling their
own blood. Let this madness leave their hearts, let their
senseless urge subside; let them lose their will to die.”
60 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

in cassum et uetito passus languescere bello,

substituit merso dum nox sua lumina Phoebo.
inde, ubi nulla data est miscendae copia mortis,
paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt,
285 saucia maiores animos ut pectora gestant,
dum dolor est ictusque recens et mobile neruis
conamen calidus praebet cruor ossaque nondum
adduxere cutem: si conscius ensis adacti
stat uictor tenuitque manus, tum frigidus artus
290 alligat atque animum subducto robore torpor,
postquam sicca rigens astrinxit uolnera sanguis.
iamque inopes undae primum tellure refossa
occultos latices abstrusaque flumina quaerunt;
nec solum rastris durisque ligonibus arua
295 sed gladiis fodere suis, puteusque cauati
montis ad inrigui premitur fastigia campi.
non se tam penitus, tam longe luce relicta
merserit Astyrici scrutator pallidus auri.
non tamen aut tectis sonuerunt cursibus amnes
300 aut micuere noui percusso pumice fontes,
antra nec exiguo stillant sudantia rore
aut inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena.
tunc exhausta super multo sudore iuuentus
extrahitur duris silicum lassata metallis;
305 quoque minus possent siccos tolerare uapores

283 misendae… mortis M Z V U G a : miscendi… martis Ω M

a
284 cadit V Z G, in ras. M : fugit P U
288 cutim M Z
290 animum M Z G c : animam V P U
294 rutris Heinsius, fort. recte : rastris Ω
297 tam V G : iam M P Z U
298 astyrici uel asturici Housman : assyrii V G (assiriy U :
assirii a : asirii Z) : assyrici P : asturii ς
299 tectis Z ς a, in ras. M : tecti Ω : lectis M Z
301 nec P U G : neque M V Z Badalì
303 tunc Ω : sic ς, probat SB
304 medullis V
 Civil war, Book IV 61

So, without allowing battle, he let their threatening hope- 280

lessly lose its fervor and die down, while with the plunging
of Phoebus, night replaced his light. And then, when no
chance of engaging in massive killing was given, their furi-
ous rage grows weaker and weaker and their hearts grow
cool. As wounded breasts carry greater spirit while there is 285
pain and the blow is fresh and hot blood provides active im-
pulse to the sinews, and the bones have not yet knitted the
skin; if the winner, knowing that his sword has hit the mark,
stops and holds back his hand, then a frigid numbness freezes 290
body and soul, all force gone, once the hardening blood has
tightened the dry wounds.
Now, destitute of water, they first seek hidden springs
and concealed streams by digging up the earth; not only did
they dig up the land with hoes and mattocks, but also with
their swords, and a pit, excavated through the mountain, is 295
made to reach down to the level of the soaked fields. Not
even a pale miner of Asturian gold immersed himself so far
underground, after leaving the light so far behind. Neverthe-
less, no rivers resounded in subterranean courses, nor did
new springs shimmer from struck rocks, and the caves did 300
not drip moisture in tiny drops, nor did a spring spurt, churn-
ing the light gravel. Then dried out by heavy sweating, the
young men are dragged out from above and lie exhausted on
the hard heaps of mined rock; and you, hard sought waters,
caused them to be even less able to endure the dry heat. 305
62 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

quaesitae fecistis aquae. nec languida fessi

corpora sustentant epulis, mensasque perosi
auxilium fecere famem. si mollius aruum
prodidit umorem, pinguis manus utraque glaebas
310 exprimit ora super; nigro si turbida limo
conluuies inmota iacet, cadit omnis in haustus
certatim obscaenos miles moriensque recepit
quas nollet uicturus aquas; rituque ferarum
distentas siccant pecudes, et lacte negato
315 sordidus exhausto sorbetur ab ubere sanguis.
tunc herbas frondesque terunt, et rore madentis
destringunt ramos et siquos palmite crudo
arboris aut tenera sucos pressere medulla.
o fortunati, fugiens quos barbarus hostis
320 fontibus inmixto strauit per rura ueneno.
hos licet in fluuios saniem tabemque ferarum,
pallida Dictaeis, Caesar, nascentia saxis
infundas aconita palam, Romana iuuentus
non decepta bibet. torrentur uiscera flamma
325 oraque sicca rigent squamosis aspera linguis;
iam marcent uenae, nulloque umore rigatus
aeris alternos angustat pulmo meatus,
rescissoque nocent suspiria dura palato;
pandunt ora tamen nociturumque aera captant.
330 expectant imbres, quorum modo cuncta natabant

309 pingues V M P
311 haustis Z
314 distensas Z G
315 sordibus U
316 tunc Ω : nunc G
317 destringunt P G V : distringunt M Z U
318 aut tenera U P G (autenera Z : autera P) : aut tenerae V G
Z | medullae V M G
328 recisoque ς : recisosque uel precisoque P
329 tamen Ω : siti M Z U | nociturum D’Orville apud Ouden-
dorp atque Bentley : nocturnum Ω
 Civil war, Book IV 63

Tired, they could not sustain their listless bodies with food;
despising the tables, they found aid in fasting. If the softer
ground produced any moisture, a man squeezed the fat clods
with both hands above his mouth. If a murky cesspool lies 310
stagnant with black filth, each soldier falls in contest to drink
the polluted draught and dying accepted the water that he
would not have wanted if he were to survive; like beasts they
drain the swollen udders of their animals, and when denied
milk the soldiers suck dirty blood from the exhausted teat. 315
Then they grind grass and leaves and they squeeze branches
dripping with dew and press sap from the green shoots and
soft marrow of any plant.
O you fortunate, whom a barbarian enemy in flight scattered
throughout the field having thrown poison into the drinking 320
water. Caesar, you may openly pour bloody matter and the
decaying bodies of wild beasts into these rivers, as well as
the whitish wolfbane that grows on the Dictaean rocks, and
the Roman youth will drink it undeceived. Organs are 325
scorched by flame and dry mouths, harsh with scaly tongues,
are stiffening. Now the blood vessels rot and the lungs, dried
out without moisture, choke the alternating passage of air,
and rough breathing harms a lacerated palate. Nevertheless,
with their mouths open wide, they keep gasping for the air
that will hurt them. They hope for rain by whose recent 330
strikes everything was swimming and they keep staring at the
64 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

inpulsu, et siccis uoltus in nubibus haerent.

quoque magis miseros undae ieiunia soluant
non super arentem Meroen Cancrique sub axe,
qua nudi Garamantes arant, sedere, sed inter
335 stagnantem Sicorim et rapidum deprensus Hiberum
spectat uicinos sitiens exercitus amnes.
iam domiti cessere duces, pacisque petendae
auctor damnatis supplex Afranius armis
semianimes in castra trahens hostilia turmas
340 uictoris stetit ante pedes. seruata precanti
maiestas non fracta malis, interque priorem
fortunam casusque nouos gerit omnia uicti,
sed ducis, et ueniam securo pectore poscit.
‘si me degeneri strauissent fata sub hoste,
345 non derat fortis rapiendo dextera leto;
at nunc causa mihi est orandae sola salutis
dignum donanda, Caesar, te credere uita.
non partis studiis agimur nec sumpsimus arma
consiliis inimica tuis. nos denique bellum
350 inuenit ciuile duces, causaeque priori,
dum potuit, seruata fides. nil fata moramur:
tradimus Hesperias gentes, aperimus Eoas,
securumque orbis patimur post terga relicti.
nec cruor effusus campis tibi bella peregit
355 nec ferrum lassaeque manus: hoc hostibus unum,
quod uincas, ignosce tuis. nec magna petuntur:
otia des fessis, uitam patiaris inermis
degere quam tribuis. campis prostrata iacere
agmina nostra putes; nec enim felicibus armis
360 misceri damnata decet, partemque triumphi
captos ferre tui: turba haec sua fata peregit.
hoc petimus, uictos ne tecum uincere cogas.’

336 amnes G
345 capiendo P U
357 des fessis G ς : defessis Z : da fessis in ras. M : des uictis P
U, uict in ras. V | inermis M Z : inermes Ω : inermem M Z G
362 ne tecum M Z G : tecum ne V P U
 Civil war, Book IV 65

dry clouds. Furthermore, the lack of water weakens the mis-

erable ones even more because they do not sit above parched
Meroe and the sky of Cancer, where naked Garamantes plow,
but being caught between the stagnant Sicoris and the quick 335
Hiberum, the thirsty army continually has the nearby rivers in
sight.
Now, conquered, the leaders yielded. Afranius, who initi-
ated the request for peace, puts down his arms and drags his
half-dead troops into the enemy camp, stopping as a suppli-
ant at his victor’s feet. Even as a suppliant, Afranius kept his 340
dignity, unbroken by disgrace. Between his previous fortunes
and his new fall from power, he carries himself as a con-
quered man in all things, but also as a leader, and he asks for
leniency with a firm heart: “If Fate had made me lay prostrate
before an unworthy enemy, my strong right hand would not 345
have failed to seize death. But now, my only reason for beg-
ging for safety is that I believe you are worthy of granting
life, Caesar. We are not led by zeal for a faction nor did we
take up arms against your plans. At last, civil war found us as
its leaders, and as long as we were able, our loyalty was kept 350
to our initial cause. We no longer delay fate. We are handing
over the Western peoples to you and we are showing you the
way to the Eastern peoples, and we allow you to feel safe in
the region that you are leaving behind. The blood split on the
fields did not end the war for you, nor the weapons and the
exhausted hands. Grant your foes for this one thing: that you 355
are the victor. They do not seek much: Give rest to the weak
and allow those to whom you give life to spend it unharmed.
You should think that our army is lying prostate in the fields;
for it is not right to mix defeated arms with victorious ones or
that captured soldiers take part in your triumph; this mob has 360
met its fate. We ask this: that you not force the conquered to
conquer with you.
66 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

dixerat; at Caesar facilis uoltuque serenus

flectitur atque usus belli poenamque remittit.
365 ut primum iustae placuerunt foedera pacis,
incustoditos decurrit miles ad amnes,
incumbit ripis permissaque flumina turbat.
continuus multis subitarum tractus aquarum
aera non passus uacuis discurrere uenis
370 artauit clausitque animam; nec feruida pestis
cedit adhuc, sed morbus egens iam gurgite plenis
uisceribus sibi poscit aquas. mox robora neruis
et uires rediere uiris. o prodiga rerum
luxuries numquam paruo contenta paratis
375 et quaesitorum terra pelagoque ciborum
ambitiosa fames et lautae gloria mensae,
discite quam paruo liceat producere uitam
et quantum natura petat. non erigit aegros
nobilis ignoto diffusus consule Bacchus,
380 non auro murraque bibunt, sed gurgite puro
uita redit. satis est populis fluuiusque Ceresque.
heu miseri qui bella gerunt! tunc arma relinquens
uictori miles spoliato pectore tutus
innocuusque suas curarum liber in urbes
385 spargitur. o quantum donata pace potitos
excussis umquam ferrum uibrasse lacertis
paenituit, tolerasse sitim frustraque rogasse
prospera bella deos! nempe usis Marte secundo
tot dubiae restant acies, tot in orbe labores;
390 ut numquam fortuna labet successibus anceps,
uincendum totiens; terras fundendus in omnis
est cruor et Caesar per tot sua fata sequendus.
felix qui potuit mundi nutante ruina
quo iaceat iam scire loco. non proelia fessos

364 usum G M Z c a ς
372 poscit V Z M G a, in ras. U : cepit M P Z c a (coeoit V :
caepit G) : querit M
380 murraue G a : muroque P : gemmaque U a
383 om. U
391 omnes M P
 Civil war, Book IV 67

Thus he spoke; but Caesar easily and with calm expres-

sion softened and excused them from war and punishment.
As soon as pacts of just peace were settled, the soldiers rush 365
on to the unprotected rivers, descend upon their banks, and
disturb the no longer forbidden streams. For many, the con-
tinual gulps of unexpected water limited the air from passing
through the empty blood vessels and shut out breathing. The 370
torrid plague didn’t cease at this point, but the desiring sick-
ness now demands water although their innards are already
full of it. Soon power returns to the muscles and strength to
the men. O Luxury, lavish of resources, never content with
what little is provided! O hunger, unsatisfied by food sought 375
by land and sea, O glory of a sumptuous table! Learn how
little is necessary to stay alive and how little nature requires.
Noble Bacchus’ wine, bottled in the time of an unknown
consul, cannot rouse a man from sickness; they drink neither
out of gold nor murrhine, but life returns with fresh water. 380
Riverwater and grain are sufficient for the nations of the
world.
Alas, O miserable ones, who fight wars! Then, the sol-
diers, feeling safe stripped of their armor, abandon their
weapons to the victor; unharmed and free of cares, they scat-
ter to their own cities. Once peace has been given to them, 385
how sorry they felt to have ever thrown missiles with the
strength of their arms, for enduring thirst, and for vainly ask-
ing the gods for a successful war! Surely, many uncertain
battles remain for the ones enjoying successful warfare, so
many labors throughout the world. In order that two-faced 390
fortune may never waver in its ups and downs, one must win
so many times. Blood must be shed in all lands and Caesar
must be followed throughout all of his adventures. Happy is
he who, when the whole world is falling into ruin, already
knows where to stand. No battles call for the weary; the mili-
tary trumpet does not break tranquil sleep.
68 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

395 ulla uocant, certos non rumpunt classica somnos.

iam coniunx natique rudes et sordida tecta
et non deductos recipit sua terra colonos.
hoc quoque securis oneris fortuna remisit,
sollicitus menti quod abest fauor: ille salutis
400 est auctor, dux ille fuit. sic proelia soli
felices nullo spectant ciuilia uoto.
non eadem belli totum fortuna per orbem
constitit, in partes aliquid sed Caesaris ausa est.
qua maris Hadriaci longas ferit unda Salonas
405 et tepidum in molles Zephyros excurrit Iader,
illic bellaci confisus gente Curictum,
quos alit Hadriaco tellus circumflua ponto,
clauditur extrema residens Antonius ora
cautus ab incursu belli, si sola recedat,
410 expugnat quae tuta, fames. non pabula tellus
pascendis summittit equis, non proserit ullam
flaua Ceres segetem; spoliarat gramine campum
miles et attonso miseris iam dentibus aruo
castrorum siccas de caespite uolserat herbas.
415 ut primum aduersae socios in litore terrae
et Basilum uidere ducem, noua furta per aequor
exquisita fugae. neque enim de more carinas
extendunt puppesque leuant, sed firma gerendis
molibus insolito contexunt robora ductu.
420 namque ratem uacuae sustentant undique cupae
quarum porrectis series constricta catenis
ordinibus geminis obliquas excipit alnos;
nec gerit expositum telis in fronte patenti
remigium, sed, quod trabibus circumdedit aequor,
425 hoc ferit et taciti praebet miracula cursus,

399 fauor Ω : pauor V, ut uid. C

405 mollis G
412 spoliarat Guietus : spoliabat Ω : spoliauit G
420 cupae P U c a : cuppae V G : puppis Z
423 patenti Ω : latenti M Z
425 ferit et Ω : feriet aut ferit hac Z : ferit, ac A ς
 Civil war, Book IV 69

Now, their wives and innocent sons, their modest homes

welcome them back, and their native land welcomes men not 395
imposed on colonists. In their safety, fortune also spared
them one more burden, because the anxious desire of win-
ning is no longer their concern: they owe their safety to Cae-
sar, but Pompey was their leader. Thus, they alone are happy 400
who look upon civil war with no dog in the race.
The fate of war was not the same throughout the globe,
but fortune dared something even against Caesar’s faction.
Where the waters of the Adriatic strike straggling Salonae,
and warm Iader runs towards the soft western breezes, there 405
Antony was trusting in the Curictes, a warlike people, who
inhabit that land surrounded by the Adriatic. Having en-
camped there, Antony is confined on the edge of the shore,
safe from assault, provided only that he may escape hunger, 410
which can take even the well-defended places by storm. The
earth did not put forth sustenance for the horses to feed on,
nor did flaxen Ceres produce any crops. The soldiers robbed
the field of its plants and, after having shorn the field, the
unhappy men are now uprooting desiccated grass from the
earth with their miserable teeth. As soon as they saw allies 415
and the leader Basilus on the beach of the opposite shoreline,
they thought up a new trick for flight across the ocean. They
neither stretched out a keel nor raised a poop deck but joined
strong timbers for carrying weight in an odd fashion. They
are holding the raft afloat with empty barrels on all sides, 420
which, while bound in rows by protracted chains, have been
covered by timber placed sideways on them in double rows.
The raft did not carry oarage exposed to missiles on an open
prow, and they struck the water surrounded by timber and
secretly provided the miracle of imperceptible transport, be- 425
cause the raft neither bore a sail nor did it openly strike the
waves.
70 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

quod nec uela ferat nec apertas uerberet undas.

tum freta seruantur, dum se declinibus undis
aestus agat refluoque mari nudentur harenae.
iamque relabenti crescebant litora ponto:
430 missa ratis prono defertur lapsa profundo
et geminae comites. cunctas super ardua turris
eminet et tremulis tabulata minantia pinnis.
noluit Illyricae custos Octauius undae
confestim temptare ratem, celeresque carinas
435 continuit, cursu crescat dum praeda secundo,
et temere ingressos repetendum inuitat ad aequor
pace maris. sic, dum pauidos formidine ceruos
claudat odoratae metuentis aera pinnae
aut dum dispositis attollat retia uaris,
440 uenator tenet ora leuis clamosa Molossi,
Spartanos Cretasque ligat, nec creditur ulli
silua cani, nisi qui presso uestigia rostro
colligit et praeda nescit latrare reperta
contentus tremulo monstrasse cubilia loro.
445 nec mora, conplentur moles, auideque petitis
insula deseritur ratibus, quo tempore primas
inpedit ad noctem iam lux extrema tenebras.
at Pompeianus fraudes innectere ponto
antiqua parat arte Cilix, passusque uacare
450 summa freti medio suspendit uincula ponto
et laxe fluitare sinit, religatque catenas
rupis ab Illyricae scopulis. nec prima nec illam
quae sequitur tardata ratis, sed tertia moles
haesit et ad cautes adducto fune secuta est.
455 inpendent caua saxa mari, ruituraque semper
stat, mirum, moles et siluis aequor inumbrat.
huc fractas Aquilone rates summersaque pontus
corpora saepe tulit caecisque abscondit in antris;

427 decliuibus V M P Z G a
451 laxe U V Z, probant Housman, SB : laxa P : laxas M G c
Badalì
452 illam M P Z c : illa V U G M P a Hosius
 Civil war, Book IV 71

Next, they watched over the waves, until the tide makes
the waves ebb and the sands are left bare by the receding sea.
Then, while the sea withdraws, the shores were reappearing. 430
One vessel, along with two more identical ones, glides
swiftly, launched onto the high seas. On top of all three of
them stand towering turrets, and the battlements on the ram-
parts oscillate threateningly. Octavius, the guard of Illyrian
waters, did not want to attack the raft at once, and he re-
strained his swift ships, until his prey could be greater as a 435
result of a favorable sailing of the first raft. After they had
rashly left the shore, Octavius lulls them into sailing upon the
high waters by keeping the sea clear. In the same way, the
hunter holds the barking mouths of the quick Molossian shut, 440
until he can block the stags paralyzed by terror because they
fear the fragrance of feathers in the air, or until he can set up
the nets on their supports. So, he does not release the Spartan
and Cretan hounds, and no dogs are let loose into the forest
except the one who follows tracks with his snout pressed to
the ground and knows not to bark after discovering his prey,
content to point out the den by shaking the leash. Without
delay, they are abandoning the island on the rafts they have 445
anxiously built, having filled their massive bulks with troops
in a hurry, right when the last ray of light still prevents the
first shadows from starting the night. But a Cilician from
Pompey’s army prepares to devise a trap by his consummate
experience, and letting the surface of the water lie clear, he
hung chains in the middle of the sea and allows them to float 450
loosely midwater after hooking them to rocks of the Illyrian
cliff. Neither the first raft nor the one that followed was hin-
dered, but the bulk of the third stuck and was driven into the
rocks when the cable was tightened.
Hollow cliffs hang over the sea and their mass miraculously 455
always stands without crashing down and shadows the water
with trees. To this place the sea brought broken ships
wrecked by the North wind, and drowned bodies, and hid
them in dark caverns.
72 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

restituit raptus tectum mare, cumque cauernae

460 euomuere fretum contorti uerticis undae
Tauromenitanam uincunt feruore Charybdim.
hic Opiterginis moles onerata colonis
constitit; hanc omni puppes statione solutae
circumeunt, alii rupes ac litora conplent.
465 Vulteius tacitas sensit sub gurgite fraudes
(dux erat ille ratis); frustra qui uincula ferro
rumpere conatus poscit spe proelia nulla
incertus qua terga daret, qua pectora bello.
hoc tamen in casu quantum deprensa ualebat
470 effecit uirtus: inter tot milia captae
circumfusa rati et plenam uix inde cohortem
pugna fuit, non longa quidem; nam condidit umbra
nox lucem dubiam pacemque habuere tenebrae.
tum sic attonitam uenturaque fata pauentem
475 rexit magnanima Vulteius uoce cohortem:
‘libera non ultra parua quam nocte iuuentus,
consulite extremis angusto in tempore rebus.
uita breuis nulli superest qui tempus in illa
quaerendae sibi mortis habet; nec gloria leti
480 inferior, iuuenes, admoto occurrere fato.
omnibus incerto uenturae tempore uitae
par animi laus est et, quos speraueris, annos
perdere et extremae momentum abrumpere lucis,
accersas dum fata manu: non cogitur ullus
485 uelle mori. fuga nulla patet, stant undique nostris
intenti ciues iugulis: decernite letum,
et metus omnis abest. cupias quodcumque necesse est.
non tamen in caeca bellorum nube cadendum est
aut cum permixtas acies sua tela tenebris

465 sensit V P G U, sit in ras. M : sentit U Hosius : sentis Z

480 fato in ras. M V G (‘nempe scriptum fuerat uitae’ Housman)
483 perdere Ω c, per in ras. M : prodere Z : spernere coni. SB
486 ciuis Z M
487 abest Ω, est in ras. M : abit Z M G
489 permixtas M Z G U : permixtis V P U M
 Civil war, Book IV 73

The hidden sea returns its prey and when the caverns regurgi-
tate the water, the curling vortex of waves surpasses the 460
Tauromenian Charybdis in its swelling. Here the massive raft
laden with colonists from Opitergium was blocked. The ships
left their stations and surrounded it, while other soldiers
crowded the cliffs and shoreline. Vulteius, the captain of the
raft, realized that there was a secret trap under the water. He
attempts to break the chains with a sword in vain and was 465
engaged in a hopeless battle, uncertain of whether he should
face forwards or backwards. Nevertheless, virtue, although
trapped, did all that it could in this catastrophe. Thousands of
soldiers poured around the intercepted ship and then there 470
was a battle, however short, against a hardly complete cohort.
For night hid the faint light with its shadows and darkness
imposed peace.
Then, with a high-spirited voice, Vulteius steadied his 475
cohort, dazed and terrified at their coming fate: “Young men,
destined to be free only for one short night: Make your final
resolutions as quickly as possible. Life is never too short for
anyone who has the chance in it to choose his own death.
And, young men, to confront oncoming fate does not dimin- 480
ish the glory of death. Since everyone has an uncertain length
of time to live, it is equally noble for the soul to lose the
years that one hoped for and to cut short the end of one’s life,
provided that you accelerate destiny with your own hand. No
man is forced to wish to die. No escape lies open to us. Our 485
fellow Roman citizens stand on all sides, eyeing our necks:
Resolve to die, and all fear is left behind. You should desire
what you cannot avoid. Nevertheless, we must not die in the
thick dust of battle, nor when the missiles will envelop the
clashing lines in darkness.
74 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

490 inuoluent. conferta iacent cum corpora campo,

in medium mors omnis abit, perit obruta uirtus:
nos in conspicua sociis hostique carina
constituere dei; praebebunt aequora testes,
praebebunt terrae, summis dabit insula saxis,
495 spectabunt geminae diuerso litore partes.
nescio quod nostris magnum et memorabile fatis
exemplum, Fortuna, paras. quaecumque per aeuum
exhibuit monimenta fides seruataque ferro
militiae pietas, transisset nostra iuuentus.
500 namque suis pro te gladiis incumbere, Caesar,
esse parum scimus; sed non maiora supersunt
obsessis tanti quae pignora demus amoris.
abscidit nostrae multum fors inuida laudi,
quod non cum senibus capti natisque tenemur.
505 indomitos sciat esse uiros timeatque furentis
et morti faciles animos et gaudeat hostis
non plures haesisse rates. temptare parabunt
foederibus turpique uolent corrumpere uita.
o utinam, quo plus habeat mors unica famae,
510 promittant ueniam, iubeant sperare salutem,
ne nos, cum calido fodiemus uiscera ferro,
desperasse putent. magna uirtute merendum est,
Caesar ut amissis inter tot milia paucis
hoc damnum clademque uocet. dent fata recessum
515 emittantque licet, uitare instantia nolim.
proieci uitam, comites, totusque futurae
mortis agor stimulis: furor est. agnoscere solis
permissum, quos iam tangit uicinia fati,
uicturosque dei celant, ut uiuere durent,
520 felix esse mori.’ sic cunctas sustulit ardor

490 inuoluent M Z : inuoluunt Ω M, fort. a : conuoluent c |

conserta V ς
503 sors V M Z U | laudi V P M G a : laudis M Z U G a
505 furentes U V
518 permissum est V U Z | fati V Z M G a : leti a, in ras. M (loeti
U G V : laeti P : mortis Z ς
519 uicturosque Ω U c a uictoresque P U
 Civil war, Book IV 75

When the bodies are lying one on top of another in the 490
field, all death is lost in the heap, and valor, covered up, goes
wasted. Yet, the gods placed us in a ship within sight of both
friend and foe. The sea, the land and the island’s high cliffs
will be witnesses: both armies will watch from opposing 495
shores. O Fortune, you are preparing some great and memo-
rable example by means of our death. Our young surpassed
whatever testimonies the sense of duty has produced
throughout time or their piety preserved towards military
duty by the sword. For we know that it is not enough for any
Caesarians to fall on their own swords for you, Caesar; but 500
for us, besieged as we are, no greater pledge of our great love
is left to be given. Jealous Fortune cut much from our glory,
for we are not held captive with old men and children. Let
the enemy know that we are indomitable men, let him fear 505
our raging souls, ready to die, and let him rejoice that no
more boats were caught to hinder him. They will be ready to
entice us with treaties and they will want to corrupt us with
the offer of a shameful life. Oh, if only they would promise
mercy and they would command us to hope for safety, by 510
which our unparalleled death would increase in fame, so that
they would not regard us as having lost hope when we will
stab our innards with a murderous blade. By our great valor
we must earn that Caesar will call this a damning defeat,
having lost so few from his many thousands. Even though
destiny should allow us to withdraw and should release us, I
still would not desire to avoid the approaching moment. I 515
have rejected life, my friends, and I am completely driven by
the passion for the coming death: It is rage. Only those who
are already approaching death may recognize that to be dead
is to be happy; but the gods conceal this from those destined
to live so that they may endure to live their lives. ” 520
76 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

mobilium mentes iuuenum. cum sidera caeli

ante ducis uoces oculis umentibus omnes
aspicerent flexoque Vrsae temone pauerent,
idem, cum fortes animos praecepta subissent,
525 optauere diem. nec segnis uergere ponto
tunc erat astra polus; nam sol Ledaea tenebat
sidera, uicino cum lux altissima Cancro est;
nox tum Thessalicas urguebat parua sagittas.
detegit orta dies stantis in rupibus Histros
530 pugnacesque mari Graia cum classe Liburnos.
temptauere prius suspenso uincere bello
foederibus, fieret captis si dulcior ipsa
mortis uita mora. stabat deuota iuuentus
damnata iam luce ferox securaque pugnae
535 promisso sibi fine manu, nullique tumultus
excussere uiris mentes ad summa paratas;
innumerasque simul pauci terraque marique
sustinuere manus: tanta est fiducia mortis.
utque satis bello uisum est fluxisse cruoris
540 uersus ab hoste furor. primus dux ipse carinae
Vulteius iugulo poscens iam fata retecto
‘ecquis’ ait ‘iuuenum est cuius sit dextra cruore
digna meo certaque fide per uolnera nostra
testetur se uelle mori?’ nec plura locuto
545 uiscera non unus iam dudum transigit ensis.
conlaudat cunctos, sed eum cui uolnera prima
debebat grato moriens interficit ictu.
concurrunt alii totumque in partibus unis
bellorum fecere nefas. sic semine Cadmi
550 emicuit Dircaea cohors ceciditque suorum

521 mobilium coni. Bentley, probat Housman : nobilium Ω

524 fortis G
525 uergere Ω : mergere M Z U G a ς
528 tum U : cum Ω c a
535 manu V U G a : manus M P Z U
542 et quis P U G M
549 sic Ω : ut Bentley
 Civil war, Book IV 77

Enthusiasm incited all the hearts of the excitable youths.

Before Vulteius’ speech, all looked upon the constellations in
the sky with tears in their eyes, for they feared that the Bear
would bend its rudder; now, when Vulteius’ orders had sunk
into their strong hearts, they instead wished for the daybreak.
At that time, the sky was not sluggish in dropping the stars 525
into the sea; for the sun was in the constellation of the Gem-
ini, at the moment when the light is most intense because
Cancer is near; a short night was inciting the Thessalian ar-
rows then.
The risen day unveiled the Histrians standing on the cliffs
and belligerent Liburnian ships on the sea with the Greek 530
fleet. After suspending battle, they attempted to conquer with
treaties, in case life itself could become sweeter for trapped
men by delaying death. After condemning themselves to
death, the fierce young men, untroubled by the prospect of
combat, persisted in their vow of taking their own lives. No 535
disturbance could shake the men’s minds, prepared for the
end; the men, although few, held off endless enemies simul-
taneously by land and sea; so great is their trust in death.
When it seemed that enough blood had flown in battle, they
turn their rage away from the enemy. First, Vulteius himself, 540
the leader, exposes his throat and now demanding death says,
“Is there any young man whose hand is worthy of my blood
and whose loyalty is certain, who proves by striking me that
he desires to die through my wound?” He said no more and
immediately many swords pierced through his innards. He 545
commends them all, but as he dies, he strikes with a grateful
blow the one to whom he owed the first wound. The others
rush in and they created the entire crime of war within their
own side alone. Thus, the Dircaean cohort leapt out from the 550
seed of Cadmus and died by their own wounds, a dire omen
78 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

uolneribus, dirum Thebanis fratribus omen;

Phasidos et campis insomni dente creati
terrigenae missa magicis e cantibus ira
cognato tantos inplerunt sanguine sulcos,
555 ipsaque inexpertis quod primum fecerat herbis
expauit Medea nefas. sic mutua pacti
fata cadunt iuuenes, minimumque in morte uirorum
mors uirtutis habet. pariter sternuntque caduntque
uolnere letali, nec quemquam dextra fefellit
560 cum feriat moriente manu. nec uolnus adactis
debetur gladiis: percussum est pectore ferrum
et iuguli pressere manum. cum sorte cruenta
fratribus incurrunt fratres natusque parenti,
haud trepidante tamen toto cum pondere dextra
565 exegere enses. pietas ferientibus una
non repetisse fuit. iam latis uiscera lapsa
semianimes traxere foris multumque cruorem
infudere mari. despectam cernere lucem
uictoresque suos uoltu spectare superbo
570 et mortem sentire iuuat. iam strage cruenta
conspicitur cumulata ratis, bustisque remittunt
corpora uictores, ducibus mirantibus ulli
esse ducem tanti. nullam maiore locuta est
ore ratem totum discurrens Fama per orbem.
575 non tamen ignauae post haec exempla uirorum
percipient gentes quam sit non ardua uirtus
seruitium fugisse manu, sed regna timentur
ob ferrum et saeuis libertas uritur armis,
ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses.
mors, utinam pauidos uitae subducere nolles,
580 sed uirtus te sola daret.

553 emissa G : mixta U : inmissa ς

562 iuguli M P Z : iugulis V U M P Z G a : iugulos G | manum
M Z U : manus V G : manu P
563 incurrant M Z Bourgery
567 cruorem M P Z : cruore U : cruoris V G Z
578 et om. P Z | uritur Ω : quaeritur G a : uertitur Heinsius :
uincitur uel utitur Bentley : subditur Axelson
579 ignorantque V ς : ignoratque Ω a Hosius
 Civil war, Book IV 79

for Theban brothers; just as in the fields of Phasis, the

earthborn ones, who were engendered from the teeth of the
sleepless dragon, when wrath was cast into them by magic
incantations, and filled such great furrows with fraternal
blood. Even Medea herself was frightened at the crime that
she perpetrated for the first time with unknown herbs. So, 555
those men, having agreed to mutual death, are dying; and
death has the least part of their valor: they kill and die at the
same time with lethal wounds, and no hand fails to strike
anyone, even though it strikes as it dies. The wounds are not 560
due to the driven sword: the sword was struck by the chest
and necks urge on the hand. When by bloody fate brother
attacked brother and son attacked father, nevertheless they
drove their swords with all their weight and without a trem-
bling hand. The strikers had only one concession to familial 565
duty: to avoid to strike again. Half-alive, they dragged their
spilling entrails across the wide gangways, and poured much
of their blood into the sea. It pleases them to see the despised
light and to observe their conquerors with a haughty face
while they feel death. Now, the raft is seen heaped up with 570
bloody slaughter, and the victors send the bodies to pyres
while the leaders are marveling that any men would hold
their leader so highly. Rumor, running through the whole
world, never spoke with greater praise about any other ship.
Nevertheless, even after such examples of heroism, worthless 575
nations will not learn how easy a task it is to escape servitude
by dying. Tyranny is feared on account of violence, and free-
dom submits to reckless war, and they do not know that
swords were given so that no one would be a slave. O Death,
if only you would refuse to take cowards’ lives and give 580
yourself only to the valorous!
80 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

non segnior illo

Marte fuit, qui tum Libycis exarsit in aruis.
namque rates audax Lilybaeo litore soluit
Curio, nec forti uelis Aquilone recepto
585 inter semirutas magnae Carthaginis arces
et Clipeam tenuit stationis litora notae,
primaque castra locat cano procul aequore, qua se
Bagrada lentus agit siccae sulcator harenae.
inde petit tumulos exesasque undique rupes,
590 Antaei quas regna uocat non uana uetustas.
nominis antiqui cupientem noscere causas
cognita per multos docuit rudis incola patres.
‘nondum post genitos Tellus ecfeta gigantas
terribilem Libycis partum concepit in antris.
595 nec tam iusta fuit terrarum gloria Typhon
aut Tityos Briareusque ferox; caeloque pepercit
quod non Phlegraeis Antaeum sustulit aruis.
hoc quoque tam uastas cumulauit munere uires
Terra sui fetus, quod, cum tetigere parentem,
600 iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra.
haec illi spelunca domus; latuisse sub alta
rupe ferunt, epulas raptos habuisse leones;
ad somnos non terga ferae praebere cubile
adsuerunt, non silua torum, uiresque resumit
605 in nuda tellure iacens. periere coloni

583 ratis Z
586 clupeam V Hosius : clepeam M : clipea M Z : clepetim G
590 quas M Z Housman : quae Ω SB
593 ecfeta Housman : effeta V P G : effecta U : et fata Z, ut
uid. M : est c | gigantes V P U M
595 terrarum Ω : genetricis anon. ap. Burman, prob. Luck, SB |
python V a
603 cubili U G V
 Civil war, Book IV 81

No lesser was that warfare which then burned in Libyan

fields. For rash Curio set forth with his ships from the Lily-
baean shore and having received a gentle North Wind in the
sails, he anchored between Cape Clipea, the well-known
shore outpost, and the half-ruined stronghold of great Car- 585
thage. He placed the first camp apart from the foamy sea,
where Bagrada slowly drags on, plowing dry sand. From
there, he heads for hills and cliffs eroded on all sides, which
antiquity unmistakably calls the kingdom of Antaeus. When 590
Curio desired to know the reason for the ancient name, an
uncouth inhabitant taught him the tale handed down through
many generations: “Mother Earth had not yet been worn out
after giving birth to the giants, when she conceived a terrible
offspring in her Libyan caves. The earth’s glory was not as 595
deserved for Typhon, Tityos, and ferocious Briareus, for she
spared the heavens by not bearing Antaeus in the Phlegraean
fields. Earth increased even more her offspring’s utterly great
strength with this gift: when her child’s finally exhausted
limbs would touch the mother, they would revive with re- 600
newed energy. Antaeus used these caves as a home. They say
that he would lie hidden under the tallest outcropping and
would banquet on lions he caught. He was not accustomed to
have wild beasts’ skins as a bed to sleep on, nor foliage as
cushioning, but he recovered his strength by lying on the
open ground. Yet the dwellers of the Libyan fields kept dying, 605
82 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

aruorum Libyae, pereunt quos appulit aequor;

auxilioque diu uirtus non usa cadendi
terrae spernit opes: inuictus robore cunctis,
quamuis staret, erat. tandem uolgata cruenti
610 fama mali terras monstris aequorque leuantem
magnanimum Alciden Libycas exciuit in oras.
ille Cleonaei proiecit terga leonis,
Antaeus Libyci; perfudit membra liquore
hospes Olympiacae seruato more palaestrae,
615 ille parum fidens pedibus contingere matrem
auxilium membris calidas infudit harenas.
conseruere manus et multo bracchia nexu;
colla diu grauibus frustra temptata lacertis,
inmotumque caput fixa cum fronte tenetur,
620 miranturque habuisse parem. nec uiribus uti
Alcides primo uoluit certamine totis,
exhausitque uirum, quod creber anhelitus illi
prodidit et gelidus fesso de corpore sudor.
tum ceruix lassata quati, tum pectore pectus
625 urgueri, tunc obliqua percussa labare
crura manu. iam terga uiri cedentia uictor
alligat et medium conpressis ilibus artat
inguinaque insertis pedibus distendit et omnem
explicuit per membra uirum. rapit arida tellus
630 sudorem; calido conplentur sanguine uenae,
intumuere tori, totosque induruit artus
Herculeosque nouo laxauit corpore nodos.
constitit Alcides stupefactus robore tanto,
nec sic Inachiis, quamuis rudis esset, in undis

610 terram Z G
613 libyco a (lybico V) : lybiae U | perfudit V P U M :
perfundit M Z G a Hosius
616 infundit U G
618 frustra grauibus P U
620 miranturque V P G a : miraturque Z U V G
623 fesso gelidus V : gelide fesso c
624 tum ceruix U M P Housman | tum pectore Ω Housman :
tunc pectore V Z Badalì
634 undis Ω : aruis Z : argis Luck
 Civil war, Book IV 83

as did those whom the sea washed ashore, and for a long time
he spurned the power of the earth, by not using the strength
of falling to his advantage: although he kept standing, he was
unconquered in strength by all. In the end, rumor circulated
about this bloody evil and summoned to the Libyan shores 610
greathearted Alcides who frees the lands and sea from mon-
sters. He took off the skin of the Cleonaean lion and Antaeus
that of a Libyan one. The visitor smeared his body with oil,
preserving the customs of Olympic wrestling. Antaeus, not 615
trusting to keep enough contact with his mother enough
through his feet, poured hot sands on his body for aid. They
grappled hands and arms in a powerful hold. For a while,
they vainly attacked at each other’s necks with heavy arms,
while their heads were locked at the brow, and each marveled 620
that he had an equal. Alcides decided that he would not use
all of his strength at the beginning of the contest but would
wear down his opponent; repeated gasps came out of An-
taeus, as well as cold sweat from his exhausted body. At that
point, the wearied neck shook, and then they were squeezed 625
chest to chest, and finally the legs wavered under a lateral
sweep of the fist. Now the conqueror pins down the body of
the man while he gives way and tightens the lock around the
waist after crushing his groin; then separates the inner thighs
by working in his feet and finally has the opponent down, all
spread out, limb by limb. The dry earth absorbs the sweat: 630
veins filled with hot blood, muscles swelled, the whole frame
hardened, and Antaeus loosened the Herculean grips with
renewed strength. Alcides stood agape, stupefied by such
strength. Even in the Inachan waves, although he was inexpe-
rienced, he was not afraid when the hydra regenerated her 635
snakes after being cut.
84 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

635 desectam timuit reparatis anguibus hydram.

conflixere pares, Telluris uiribus ille,
ille suis. numquam saeuae sperare nouercae
plus licuit: uidet exhaustos sudoribus artus
ceruicemque uiri, siccam cum ferret Olympum.
640 utque iterum fessis iniecit bracchia membris
non expectatis Antaeus uiribus hostis
sponte cadit maiorque accepto robore surgit.
quisquis inest terris in fessos spiritus artus
egeritur, Tellusque uiro luctante laborat.
645 ut tandem auxilium tactae prodesse parentis
Alcides sensit, ‘standum est tibi,’ dixit ‘et ultra
non credere solo, sternique uetabere terra.
haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris:
huc, Antaee, cades.’ sic fatus sustulit alte
650 nitentem in terras iuuenem. morientis in artus
non potuit nati Tellus permittere uires:
Alcides medio tenuit iam pectora pigro
stricta gelu terrisque diu non credidit hostem.
hinc, aeui ueteris custos, famosa uetustas,
655 miratrixque sui, signauit nomine terras.
sed maiora dedit cognomina collibus istis
Poenum qui Latiis reuocauit ab arcibus hostem
Scipio; nam sedes Libyca tellure potito
haec fuit. en, ueteris cernis uestigia ualli.
660 Romana hos primum tenuit uictoria campos.’
Curio laetatus, tamquam fortuna locorum
bella gerat seruetque ducum sibi fata priorum,
felici non fausta loco tentoria ponens
indulsit castris et collibus abstulit omen
665 sollicitatque feros non aequis uiribus hostis.

643 in fessos V G U : infossos M Z : infessus P M

645 tactae V P U G : tacitae G : factae Z
647 terrae M
651 permittere Ω : summittere P U M
652 medio M Z G Badalì : medium V P U M G, c ad 50 :
medius Bentley (sed ‘praeter necessitatem,’ ut iudicat
Housman), SB
662 gerat M V Z : regat P U G Hosius
 Civil war, Book IV 85

They struggled equally, one with the strength of Mother

Earth, the other with his own. Hercules’ cruel stepmother had
never been given more hope: she sees the frame and the neck
of Hercules exhausted with sweat, which were dry when he
bore the sky. Hercules again throws his arms upon tired 640
limbs, and Antaeus willingly falls without waiting for the
strength of his opponent and rises greater with renewed
strength. Whatever power is in the earth is discharged into
the tired limbs, and Mother Earth toils along with the oppo-
nent as he fights. When Alcides realized that such great help 645
was received by the touch of the mother, he said, “You will
have to stand; you will not entrust yourself again to the
ground and you will be forbidden to lie on Mother Earth.
You will be here, with your body locked tight, against my
chest: Here, Antaeus, you will die.” He spoke thus and lifted
up his opponent who was striving to touch the ground. 650
Mother Earth was not able to infuse strength into the frame
of her dying son: Alcides now held him in mid-air by squeez-
ing his chest in a dull chill and for a long time did not entrust
his opponent to the ground. Thereafter, antiquity, full of leg-
end, the protector of ancient time, designated the lands with
his name, in its own self-glory. But Scipio gave a better name 655
to these hills, when he recalled the Carthaginian enemy from
the Roman strongholds. This was the encampment when they
attained Libyan land. Behold, you are seeing the vestiges of
an ancient rampart. Roman victory first held this plain.” 660
As if the fortune of the place could conduct the war and
have in store for him the fate of the leaders of old, Curio
rejoiced and set up the unlucky bivouac on propitious
ground. He enclosed the land with a camp, taking the good
omen away from the hills, and challenged fierce enemies 665
with insufficient forces.
86 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis

tum Vari sub iure fuit; qui robore quamquam
confisus Latio regis tamen undique uires
exciuit, Libycas gentis, extremaque mundi
670 signa suum comitata Iubam. non fusior ulli
terra fuit domino: qua sunt longissima, regna
cardine ab occiduo uicinus Gadibus Atlans
terminat, a medio confinis Syrtibus Hammon;
at, qua lata iacet, uasti plaga feruida regni
675 distinet Oceanum zonaeque exusta calentis.
sufficiunt spatio populi: tot castra secuntur,
Autololes Numidaeque uagi semperque paratus
inculto Gaetulus equo, tum concolor Indo
Maurus, inops Nasamon, mixti Garamante perusto
680 Marmaridae uolucres, aequaturusque sagittas
Medorum, tremulum cum torsit missile, Mazax,
et gens quae nudo residens Massylia dorso
ora leui flectit frenorum nescia uirga,
et solitus uacuis errare mapalibus Arzux
685 uenator ferrique simul fiducia non est
uestibus iratos laxis operire leones.
nec solum studiis ciuilibus arma parabat
priuatae sed bella dabat Iuba concitus irae.
hunc quoque quo superos humanaque polluit anno
690 lege tribunicia solio depellere auorum
Curio temptarat, Libyamque auferre tyranno

669 libycas dett. quidam, Bentley, Housman : libycae uel

lybicae Ω : libyae ς Hosius
671 quae V Z a : quas P | regni P Z U G, post regni distinxit
Badalì
673 a V Z c : e G : et P U
677-8 semperque… equo om. P U
678 om. M Z, non interpretantur c a
684 arzux J.D. Morgan, quod probat SB : afer Ω
686 laxos M P
 Civil war, Book IV 87

All of Africa that had yielded to Roman standards was then

under the command of Varus, who, although trusting in Ro-
man strength, enrolled from everywhere the King’s forces,
Libyan clans, the strangest standards in the world going with
their Juba. No king ever ruled vaster land. Where its stretch 670
is the greatest, his kingdom ends to the west at Mt. Atlas near
Cadiz and to the east at Hammon’s shrine, bordering on the
Syrtes. In breadth, however, the hot region of his vast king-
dom divides the Ocean from the sweltering tropical zone. 675
The peoples, so many for their realm, follow Juba’s army.
There are the Autololes, and the itinerant Numidians, and the
Gaetulians, always alert on their unbroken horses. Then come
the Mauri of the same hue as the Indians, and the impover-
ished Nasamones, and the swift Marmaridae, commingled 680
with the sun-burned Garamantes, and the Mazaces, whose
arrows are a match for the Medes when they hurl their quiv-
ering missiles, and the Massylian people who use a light stick
to ride bareback on their horses, whose mouths have never
known the bit, and the Arzuges, hunters who are used to 685
wandering through deserted villages and, once they no longer
trust in their weapons, they smother the angry lions in the
ample folds of their clothes.
Not for political zeal alone was Juba preparing arms, but
spurred on by personal anger he gave way to war. For in the
year when men dishonored the gods, Curio, with his tribuni-
cian law, had attempted to deprive Juba of the throne of his 690
ancestors and take Libya away from tyranny, while he made
88 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

dum regnum te, Roma, facit. memor ille doloris

hoc bellum sceptri fructum putat esse retenti.
hac igitur regis trepidat iam Curio fama
695 et quod Caesareis numquam deuota iuuentus
illa nimis castris nec Rheni miles in undis
exploratus erat, Corfini captus in arce,
infidusque nouis ducibus dubiusque priori
fas utrumque putat. sed, postquam languida segni
700 cernit cuncta metu nocturnaque munera ualli
desolata fuga, trepida sic mente profatur:
‘audendo magnus tegitur timor; arma capessam
ipse prior. campum miles descendat in aequum
dum meus est; uariam semper dant otia mentem.
705 eripe consilium pugna: cum dira uoluptas
ense subit presso, galeae texere pudorem,
quis conferre duces meminit, quis pendere causas?
qua stetit inde fauet; ueluti fatalis harenae
muneribus non ira uetus concurrere cogit
710 productos, odere pares.’ sic fatus apertis
instruxit campis acies; quem blanda futuris
deceptura malis belli fortuna recepit.
nam pepulit Varum campo nudataque foeda
terga fuga, donec uetuerunt castra, cecidit.
715 tristia sed postquam superati proelia Vari
sunt audita Iubae, laetus quod gloria belli
sit rebus seruata suis, rapit agmina furtim,
obscuratque suam per iussa silentia famam
hoc solum incauto metuentis ab hoste, timeri.
720 mittitur, exigua qui proelia prima lacessat

696 om. U
700 munera P Z G a Housman : munia U G a (in ras. M V) SB
Badalì
705 pugnae Z M | cum Ω : dum G | uoluptas V Z G : uoluntas M U
V (uolumtas P)
711 instruxit Ω : induxit G ς
719 incauto metuentis Housman : metuens incauto Ω (incausto U :
incaustum P) c SB | ex Z G : ab Ω c a Housman | post hoste
distinxit SB | timeri Ω c a : uidere Z Hosius
 Civil war, Book IV 89

you, Rome, a tyranny. Mindful of the grievance, Juba reck-

ons that this war has been the consequence of the fact that he
has kept his kingdom. Therefore, Curio now trembles at the
news of the king, also because his soldiers never showed
complete loyalty to Caesar’s camp. Those men were captured 695
in the fortress of Corfinium and were never tested on the
waters of the Rhine. Distrusted by the new leaders and uncer-
tain about their former leader, they are thinking that either
side is lawful. But after he saw that everything was torpid
with sluggish fear and the wall’s night watch had been for- 700
saken by desertion, Curio thus spoke with a trembling heart:
“Daring covers great fear; I myself will grasp arms first. Let
my soldiers go into the battlefield, as long as I can control
them. Idleness always produces a wavering mind. Eliminate
reflection by fighting. When dreadful desire takes up the 705
drawn sword and the helmet hides shame, who would think
to compare leaders and weigh their reasons? One favors
whatever side one stands on. Just as in the games of the
deathly arena, it is not an ancient rage that compels those
brought forth to fight, but they still hate their opponent.” 710
Thus he spoke, and he drew forth the battle line into the open
field; fortune, which was about to deceive him with future
defeat in war, welcomed him benevolently. For Curio routed
Varus in open battle and mangled his defenseless rearguard
in dishonorable flight until prevented by their reaching their
camp.
After Juba was informed about Varus’ unfortunate battle, 715
he delighted that the glory of war was reserved for his ac-
tions. He furtively approached with his army and concealed
any news of his coming by imposing silence, with the only
fear of being feared by his incautious enemy. Sabbura, who
was second to the king for the Numidians, was sent with a 720
small force so as to arouse and entice with the first skirmish,
pretending
90 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

eliciatque manu, Numidis a rege secundus,

ut sibi commissi simulator Sabbura belli;
ipse caua regni uires in ualle retentat:
aspidas ut Pharias cauda sollertior hostis
725 ludit et iratas incerta prouocat umbra
obliquusque caput uanas serpentis in auras
effusae tuto conprendit guttura morsu
letiferam citra saniem; tunc inrita pestis
exprimitur faucesque fluunt pereunte ueneno.
730 fraudibus euentum dederat fortuna, feroxque
non exploratis occulti uiribus hostis
Curio nocturnum castris erumpere cogit
ignotisque equitem late decurrere campis.
ipse sub aurorae primos excedere motus
735 signa iubet castris, multum frustraque rogatus
ut Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper
Punica bella dolis. leti fortuna propinqui
tradiderat fatis iuuenem, bellumque trahebat
auctorem ciuile suum. super ardua ducit
740 saxa, super cautes, abrupto limite signa;
cum procul e summis conspecti collibus hostes
fraude sua cessere parum, dum colle relicto
effusam patulis aciem committeret aruis.
ille fugam credens simulatae nescius artis,
745 ut uictor, mersos aciem deiecit in agros.
ut primum patuere doli, Numidaeque fugaces
undique conpletis clauserunt montibus agmen,
obstipuit dux ipse simul perituraque turba.
non timidi petiere fugam, non proelia fortes,

722 om. P (interpretatur c)

726 obliquumque Z : obliquatque P U
733 decurrere Z M V : discurrere P U G
740 limite Ω : milite E ς c
741 conspecti U M Z G a : conspectis G a : conspexit V G
745 mersos Ω : medios U Z | A B Z ς
746 ut Ω : tunc Z G Badalì : tum M : cum G
 Civil war, Book IV 91

that the war was his own initiative. Juba gathers the royal
forces in the bottom of a valley, just like the shrewd predator
of the Pharian snakes who teases and provokes them with his
restless shadow. While the snake attacks the empty air, he, 725
with a slanting head, seizes the neck with a safe bite short of
the death-bringing venom. Then his jaws dribble as the poi-
son goes to waste.
Fortune had been favorable to the treachery, and fierce
Curio, without evaluating the strength of the hidden enemy,
compels the cavalry to sally forth from the camp at night and
to race widely through the unknown plain. Curio orders the 735
standards to leave camp at the first motions of dawn after
being implored many times in vain to fear Libyan ploys and
Punic warfare always polluted by perfidy. Yet Fortune
handed him over to the fate of approaching death, and civil
war was dragging along its architect. Curio leads the stan- 740
dards up a steep path, up hard rocks and loose stone, and
when the enemy is seen far off from the summits of the hills,
they fake retreat while Curio committed the scattered battle
line to the wide-open fields. Believing that they were fleeing
and not recognizing their feint, Curio thrusts the battle line
down to the low-lying plains like a winner. As soon as the 745
deceit is exposed, swift Numidians enclosed Curio’s army on
all sides by occupying the mountaintops. At the same time,
Curio himself and his doomed rank and file are stupefied.
92 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

750 quippe ubi non sonipes motus clangore tubarum

saxa quatit pulsu rigidos uexantia frenos
ora terens spargitque iubas et subrigit auris
incertoque pedum pugnat non stare tumultu:
fessa iacet ceruix, fumant sudoribus artus
755 oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua,
pectora rauca gemunt, quae creber anhelitus urguet,
et defecta grauis longe trahit ilia pulsus
siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis.
iamque gradum neque uerberibus stimulisque coacti
760 nec quamuis crebris iussi calcaribus addunt:
uolneribus coguntur equi; nec profuit ulli
cornipedis rupisse moras, neque enim impetus ille
incursusque fuit: tantum perfertur ad hostis
et spatium iaculis oblato uolnere donat.
765 at, uagus Afer equos ut primum emisit in agmen,
tum campi tremuere sono, terraque soluta,
quantus Bistonio torquetur turbine, puluis
aera nube sua texit traxitque tenebras.
ut uero in pedites fatum miserabile belli
770 incubuit, nullo dubii discrimine Martis
ancipites steterunt casus, set tempora pugnae
mors tenuit; neque enim licuit procurrere contra
et miscere manus. sic undique saepta iuuentus
comminus obliquis et rectis eminus hastis
775 obruitur, non uolneribus nec sanguine solum,
telorum nimbo peritura et pondere ferri.
ergo acies tantae paruum spissantur in orbem,
ac, siquis metuens medium correpsit in agmen,
uix inpune suos inter conuertitur enses;

749 petiere V U G a : periere M P Z

752 terens M Z G : tenens V P U | auris Ω : artus Prisc. GLK III,
341
762 cornipedes M V | ille M P U : illi Z G : illis V M : ulli ς
763 hostis Z : hostem P U G : hostes V G
766 tum G Housman : tunc Ω SB Badalì
771 steterunt P Z : steterant V G : stetere M P
776 pereunt a ς
779 ensis M Z Badalì
 Civil war, Book IV 93

The cowardly did not seek flight, nor did the brave seek 750
fight. The steeds did not move at the blow of the trumpet, nor
did they shake stones by stamping, nor jolt at the rigid bit
rubbing on their mouths, nor shake their manes, nor lift their
ears nor even resist standing firm with their restless commo-
tion of hooves. Their necks droop wearily, their limbs steam
with sweat, their parched mouths are scaly with projected 755
tongues; their chests are groaning hoarsely, oppressed by
relentless panting, and their exhausted flanks are continu-
ously shaken by painful contractions. Dried foam hardens on
the bloodied bit. They step no further now, forced by neither
whippings nor goads, although incited by relentless spurring. 760
The horses are being driven with bloody wounding, nor did
any man gain by breaking his horse’s resistance. Since there
was no room to charge or run, he was merely carried towards
the enemy, saving them space by presenting the chance to
inflict a wound.
Conversely, when the African nomad hurled his horses 765
against the army, then the fields shook in a roar, and the dirt
was scattered, and as much dust as is twisted by a Bistonian
windstorm, covered the air in its cloud and drew out the
shadows. But when wretched fate came down upon the foot
soldiers, there was no doubt about the outcome in the crisis 770
of fickle Mars, but death held the length of the fight. For it
was not possible to counterattack and engage the enemy.
Thus the men, hedged in on all sides, are spear-struck from
near and far. They will die not only by wounds and blood- 775
shed, but laden by a cloud of spears and their iron weight.
Therefore, the great army condenses into a tight circle. And if
anyone out of fear creeps into the middle of the troops, he is
barely able to move unwounded among his own comrade’s
94 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

780 densaturque globus, quantum pede prima relato

constrinxit gyros acies. non arma mouendi
iam locus est pressis, stipataque membra teruntur;
frangitur armatum conliso pectore pectus.
non tam laeta tulit uictor spectacula Maurus
785 quam Fortuna dabat; fluuios non ille cruoris
membrorumque uidet lapsum et ferientia terram
corpora: conpressum turba stetit omne cadauer.
excitet inuisas dirae Carthaginis umbras
inferiis fortuna nouis, ferat ista cruentus
790 Hannibal et Poeni tam dira piacula manes.
Romanam, superi, Libyca tellure ruinam
Pompeio prodesse nefas uotisque senatus.
Africa nos potius uincat sibi. Curio, fusas
ut uidit campis acies et cernere tantas
795 permisit clades conpressus sanguine puluis,
non tulit adflictis animam producere rebus
aut sperare fugam, ceciditque in strage suorum
inpiger ad letum et fortis uirtute coacta.
quid nunc rostra tibi prosunt turbata forumque
800 unde tribunicia plebeius signifer arce
arma dabas populis? quid prodita iura senatus
et gener atque socer bello concurrere iussi?
ante iaces quam dira duces Pharsalia confert,
spectandumque tibi bellum ciuile negatum est.
805 has urbi miserae uestro de sanguine poenas
ferre datis, luitis iugulo sic arma, potentes.
felix Roma quidem ciuisque habitura beatos,

806 ferre Ω : nempe V ς

781 constrixt U : constringit Seru. Aen. 10, 432 : astringit et
adstrinxit Prisc. GLK II, 444
 Civil war, Book IV 95

swords. And the crowd was growing denser, as the first line 780
tightened the circle by stepping back. Now the soldiers are
pressed tightly together and have no room to move their
weapons, while their limbs rub closely together, and the cui-
rassed bodies are broken by clashing breasts. The victorious
Numidians could not believe what a welcome show Fortune 785
was offering them. They did not see rivers of blood and limbs
nor the wounded bodies fall to the ground, but all the corpses
stood compacted in the crowd.
Let Fortune stir up the shades of dire Carthage with re-
newed sacrifices to the dead. Let bloodied Hannibal and the 790
Punic ghosts receive these dire expiatory sacrifices. O gods!
It is a sacrilege that Rome’s ruin in Libyan land benefits
Pompey and the senate’s will. Would it rather that it were
Africa conquering us for her own sake! When Curio saw that
his troops were scattered over the field and the dust settled in 795
blood allowed him to see the magnitude of the slaughter, he
could not bear to extend his lifebreath in such a desperate
situation nor could it hope to flee. Strong in a virtue forced
upon him, Curio met his end unfalteringly in the midst of the
slaughter of his men.
What good are now your turbulent speeches and the fo-
rum from where, as the people’s standard-bearer, you used to 800
put arms in the populace’s hands through the power of your
tribunate? How does it benefit you to have betrayed the laws
of the senate and to have pushed a father- and son-in-law to
come to war with one another? You are dead before dire
Pharsalus has pitted the leaders against each other and you
are denied the pleasure of watching the civil war. This is the
penalty that you, mighty ones, must pay to our wretched city 805
with your own blood, and thus you atone for your war with
your life. Lucky would Rome have been, for sure, and blessed
96 Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus

si libertatis superis tam cura placeret

quam uindicta placet. Libycas, en, nobile corpus,
810 pascit aues nullo contectus Curio busto.
at tibi nos, quando non proderit ista silere
a quibus omne aeui senium sua fama repellit,
digna damus, iuuenis, meritae praeconia uitae.
haut alium tanta ciuem tulit indole Roma
815 aut cui plus leges deberent recta sequenti;
perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula, postquam
ambitus et luxus et opum metuenda facultas
transuerso mentem dubiam torrente tulerunt,
momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum
820 Gallorum captus spoliis et Caesaris auro.
ius licet in iugulos nostros sibi fecerit ensis
Sulla potens Mariusque ferox et Cinna cruentus
Caesareaeque domus series, cui tanta potestas
concessa est? emere omnes, hic uendidit urbem.

816 tunc Ω : nunc P G ς SB

821 iugulos V P U c : iugulo G : iugulis M Z P | nostros V U c
: nostro G : nostris P : nostri P Z SB | enses Z : ense V
Hosius
 Civil war, Book IV 97

the citizens who inhabit her, had the gods cared as much for
freedom as for revenge. Look: Unprotected by a tomb, the
noble body of Curio is feeding Libyan birds. But since it is 810
not good to remain silent about events whose renown repels
all the decay of old age, we shall give you, young man, de-
served praise to your exemplary life. In no way could Rome
have borne any citizen as great in personality or to whom the
laws owed more while he followed the right path. What 815
harmed the city were those corrupted times after intrigue,
luxury, and the terrible power of wealth dragged weak souls
into a turmoil of evil. The turning point was given by Curio’s
change of heart, bribed by the spoils of Gaul and the gold of
Caesar. Suppose that Sulla the Mighty, Marius the Fierce, 820
Cinna the Bloody, and the whole dynasty of the House of the
Caesars claimed the right of the sword upon our throats: Who
was given such great power? They all bought Rome but Cu-
rio sold it.
Commentary
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

L.’s narrative of the Ilerda campaign falls into four units. After laying
out the geo-morphology of the battle site (1-10), L. focuses on the
storm endured by the Caesarians (11-147). The second section (148-
253) describes the vicinity of the opposing camps, which leads to the
fraternizing, and ends with Petreius’ fit. The third section (254-336)
reverses the balance of battle in portraying the suffering of the Pom-
peians in language reminiscent of the circus, as L. indulges in gladiato-
rial and wild beast hunt similes. The last section (337-401) offers clo-
sure with Caesar’s pardon.
Our main source for the battle at Ilerda is Caesar himself in Book I
of his Commentaria de bello ciuili: Caes. BC 1.38-55 and 61-84. Cae-
sar’s and L.’s accounts differ slightly, but while L. seems to follow a
straightforward chronology in Book IV, starting with Ilerda (June-
August 49 BCE) and ending with Curio’s defeat in North-Africa (Au-
gust), Caesar groups the events in some sort of spatial/geographical
progression, beginning with Rome, moving on to Massilia (Marseille)
and finally to Spain.1

Summary of Caesar’s narrative of Ilerda

Caesar’s chapters 41-55 and 61-74 cover the narrative up to the frater-
nization of the two armies camped at close quarters, roughly corre-
sponding to lines 24-205 in L. Caesar begins with Afranius and
Petreius, and informs us that they share command over five legions:
Petreius has two legions, but he further enrolls some Lusitanians and
sets out to join Afranius, while Afranius enrolls locals from Celtiberi-
ans and Cantabrians, including cavalry from the whole province. Afra-
nius and Petreius meet and decide to conduct the campaign together
(1.38). Caesar’s troops are given in 1.39, and 40 is devoted to Fabius’
_____________
1 Batstone/Damon 2006, 71. For a chronological table of the Caesar’s moves and main
events in 49 BCE, see Introduction, 14-15 above.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 101

two bridges over the Sicoris, one of which breaks down during a storm.
Fabius faces the Pompeians in an inconsequential battle that expectedly
arises when Afranius takes advantage of the bridge collapse. L. leaves
Fabius and the Caesarian drawback unmentioned, perhaps because it
happened before Caesar’s arrival in Spain, for we know from Caesar
himself that he reports reaching his camp in Spain two days after the
bridge affair. The description of Caesar’s fortification works occurs in
both L. and Caesar’s BC (1.41.3-6 = L. 4.28-31).
The table below summarizes the divergences between Caesar and
L. When L.’s narrative diverges from Caesar’s, the L. column shows
underlined content. When the L. column shows no content, it means
that L. offers no particular mention without significantly differing from
Caesar:2
Date in Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers)
49 BC
June 22 Arrival at Ilerda 41.1 No specific mention of
arrival
June 22- Fabius’ Bridges (41.1) No battle (24)
23
June 23 C. prepares for battle (41.2) (25-6)
Afranius avoids combat (41.3) (26-8) pudor
June 23- Fortifications (41.3-6) (28-31)
24
June 24 Afranius and Petreius try, unsuc-
cessfully, to disrupt the fortifica-
tion works (42.1-4)
June 25 Fortification work ends (42.5)
The hillock between Ilerda and
Petreius’ camp (43.1-2)
Assault at the hillock; Afranius (32-5)
takes hold of it (43.3-5)
June 26 Battle for the hillock; Pompeian (36-47) No mention of
fighting technique; use of cavalry C.’s losses
and retreat; C.’s losses (44-6)

_____________
2 For this table I am indebted to Bachofen 1972, 18-22. When given, the date in the left
column is merely approximate.
102 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

Date in Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers)

49 BC
Assessment of defeat (47) (48-82) weather excursus
June 28 Swimming and bridge destruction (83-92) flood
(48.1-2)
Hardship (48.3-7) (93-7) hunger; (98-120)
flood
Afranius prevents C. from repar- (121-9) the waters re-
ing the bridge and attacks C.’s cede. Focus on flood
supply columns; high prices and
supply problems (49-53)
Boats and river crossing (54.1-3) (130-6)
July 11-12 C. builds a new bridge and sends (137-40)
the cavalry over to defend the
supplies (54.4-55)
July 18 C. diverts the river into channels (141-3)
and builds a ford (61.1)
July 22 Afranius plans to retreat to the (143-9) Petreius leaves
Ebro and crosses the Sicoris Ilerda and C. ascertains
leaving two cohorts to garrison that Afranius has left
Ilerda (61.2-63.1) (compressed)
July 26 C.’s cavalry skirmishes the en- (149-56) C.’s soldiers
emy rearguard and C.’s is forced swim across the Sicoris
by his soldiers to cross the Sico-
ris (63.2-64)
July 26-29 The two armies encamp; Afra- (162-9) C. orders his men
nius and Petreius on the move; to attack (compressed)
Pompeian council; various ma-
neuvers until both armies pitch
camp near one another (65-73)
Fraternization (74) (169-205)
Petreius’ intervention and speech (205-59) slaughter of
(75-6) Caesarians; poet’s reflec-
tions on C.
Afranius retreats towards Ilerda, (259-63)
pursued by C.’s cavalry (77-9)
Afranius without water and no (264-6)
escape; C. fortifies camp (81-2)
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 103

Date in Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers)

49 BC
Hostilities continue without (267-401) no mention of
much accomplished, Afranius actual fighting
and his men are taken by thirst;
they capitulate (83-7)
As the table shows, L. compresses the events not only in observance to
the demands of his genre, but also to play down the import of actual
fighting. Much of L.’s lines are devoted to the weather and the flood
(48-129), to moralizing in Petreius’ speech and in his subsequent
slaughter of the Caesarians (205-59). When the opportunity for describ-
ing actual fighting arrives, the poet is completely silent about combat.
Instead he indulges in the soldiers’ psychological state in deprivation,
and describes at length the symptoms and processes caused by lack of
food and water in their bodies. The long final section of the Ilerda nar-
rative (205-401) features much medical vocabulary before closing with
the poet’s moralizing reflections on Caesar’s clemency.
The most conspicuous feature of L.’s narrative of the Ilerda battle is
a negative one, because L. offers almost no details about the battle it-
self. Instead of depicting armies clashing into combat, L.’s narrative
emphasizes the soldiers’ physical suffering. While L.’s interest in the
medical aspects of human suffering may respond to his audience’s taste
for scientific poetry, the moralizing on clemency invites reflection on
the consequences of fighting in a war like this, in which the moral up-
per hand is achieved by granting clemency to an enemy who has shown
no clemency.
L. uses all the opportunities he can find to express his condemna-
tion of civil war, and thereby he intentionally engenders his distinctive
paradoxical poetics not only by condemning his own theme but also by
enriching his military narrative with the exploration of dilemmas that
provoke the audience to question the value of war and the price of em-
pire.3

_____________
3 To satisfy his ethical purpose of moralizing against his theme of civil war, L. uses not
only scientific discourse but also mythological digressions, as pointed out, e.g., by
Fantham 1992b apropos of the Medusa episode from Book IX.
104 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

1–23 Caesar’s arrival at Ilerda

After leaving Massilia, Caesar arrives in Spain to fight against the
Pompeian forces commanded by Afranius and Petreius (1-10). The poet
describes the topography and hydrography of Ilerda (11-23).

1-10 Afranius and Petreius lead the Pompeian forces in Spain. The
battle at Ilerda was fought by Afranius and Petreius with three and two
legions respectively, plus a number of auxiliary forces enrolled from
among the local Lusitanians, Celtiberians, and Cantabri. L. does not
mention the two legions of the third Pompeian leader in Spain, M. Ter-
entius Varro (the famous scholar), because he was in charge of Further
Spain and played no part at Ilerda (Caes. BC 1.38.1 with Carter 1991 ad
loc.; Plut. Caes. 36).
1 at procul Only here in L., the phrase conveys antithesis resulting
from a change of scene. It occurs three times in Virgil: A. 5.35, 613;
12.869, but never at the beginning of a book. As the initial dactyl of the
hexameter it is also found in Flavian epic: Sil. 12.733; St. Th. 10.49;
12.464, 665; Ach. 1.560 (cf. S. 1.2.219 and 2.6.6); Val. Fl. 1.158; 4.199.
Thompson/Bruère 1970, 152, exclude that at procul is a deliberate Vir-
gilian allusion but recognize that L.’s echo of G. 1.170-2 (see next
lemma) contrasts Caesar’s internecine savagery with Octavian’s victo-
ries over foreign enemies.
In suggesting that the broken fraternization motif in BC IV has a
parallel in Aeneid IV, Casali 1999, 236 and n. 22, observes that BC IV,
just like Aeneid IV, is the only book in the poem that begins with at,
like Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV. In Verg. A. 4.1, however, at links Ae-
neid IV ‘more closely with the preceding than is usual in the Aeneid
[…] and […] gives it a fresh start’ (Pease 1935b ad A. 4.1). This is what
L. is doing here, i.e., he closely links the Ilerda narrative to the preced-
ing book and takes a fresh start after the delay that began with the battle
of Massilia at 3.454.
extremis... in oris With analogous emphasis on Caesar’s worldwide
conquests, the phrase occurs in the same metrical position in Verg. G.
2.171 qui nunc extremis Asiae iam uictor in oris, where the uictor Cae-
sar is Octavian, last mentioned among the prominent Italians listed
before the end of Virgil’s laus Italiae. The superlative extremus may
also carry the nuance ‘exotic,’ as in 669-70 extrema... signa, a synecdo-
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 105

che that describes Juba’s troops (see 669-70n.). L. uses the phrase also
at 3.454, 4.23, 669, and 10.276.
The Spanish war was announced at 3.454 extremaque mundi (see
Hunink 1992b ad loc.) but as in Book III also here the mention of the
farthest limits of the known world gives the civil war a worldwide di-
mension. L. begins his narrative of the minor episode at Massilia as a
digression in Book III, a narrative delay in which Caesar leaves his
legate Decimus Brutus to finish off the Massiliotes, and without linger-
ing makes his way to Hispania Tarraconensis (3.455-762). The begin-
ning of Book IV, therefore, picks up not from the end of Book III (i.e.,
of the naval battle at Massilia), but links itself directly to 3.455, as sug-
gested by the intratextual echo 3.353-5 dux tamen impatiens haesuri
moenia Marsi | uersus ad Hispanas acies extremaque mundi | iussit
bella geri. We are to imagine that, while we hear of Massilia, Caesar is
making his way to Spain. The extrema mundi motif casts Caesar as an
imitator of Hercules and Alexander the Great; on the theme of Hera-
cles’ successors, see Anderson 1928, 39-42.
Caesar C. Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE; Klotz in RE [n. 131] X.186-
275; Will in Brill’s New Pauly, 2.908) at this point had not yet been
elected dictator and was outside his jurisdiction as pro-consul. As Pro-
consul and Imperator he was in charge of Cisalpine and Transalpine
Gaul and Illyricum; Broughton II, 267; Cic. Att. 9.6A, 11A.
Elsewhere Caesar is used of Nero at 1.41 and 59, and once in the
plural for ‘emperors’ at 9.90 Caesaribus (Deferrari/Fanning/Sullivan
1965 s.v.; Wick 2004, 36, explains the plural at 9.90 as referring to
Julius Caesar and Octavian).
2 Martem saeuus agit non multa caede nocentem L. uses nocentes
again at 193 and 253 to frame the episode with the characteristic rheto-
ric of guilt when it comes to civil slaughter, as confirmed in L.’s own
comment on Sulla’s slaughter of Roman civilians in Book II: 2.143-44
periere nocentes | sed cum iam soli possent superesse nocentes (with
Fantham 1992a, 108 ad loc.); see 2.259 and 288 (moral debate of
Brutus and Cato).
saeuus Caesar is first called saeuus at 1.476, but in describing Caesar
as saeuus in connection with the present events in Spain, L. effaces
whatever benevolent effect Caesar might have reaped with the manipu-
lative efforts of five months earlier after the fall of Corfinium (February
106 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

21, 49 BCE). Caesar’s saeuitas is directly connected to his restless,

warlike nature (see 1.144-5 nescia uirtus | stare loco solusque pudor
non uincere bello), and to his rapaciousness (3.125 raptor). At 3.113-58
L. has reported Caesar’s ruthless confiscation of the Roman treasury to
stress his greed and subsequent wealth.
non multa caede The formulaic juxtaposition of caedes and nocens
reoccurs at 9.269-70 and 10.388. It does not occur before Ovid (Fasti
1.350; Pont. 1.8.19 and 2.9.67), but its closest parallel is perhaps Se-
neca’s Creon reminiscing an oracle in his dialogue with the chorus:
Oed. 233-5 mitia Cadmeis remeabunt sidera Thebis, | si profugus
Dircen Ismenida liquerit hospes | regis caede nocens, Phoebo iam no-
tus et infans; see Esposito 1987, 109.
The statement that the caedes at Ilerda is non multa, however, has
baffled some readers because the poet says later at 254 Caesar spolia-
tus milite multo. So multa has been seen relationally either with com-
parison to Massilia or in contrast with the slaughter to come (at Phar-
salus), which will be indeed classifiable as multa: ‘While a hugely
insignificant and pointlessly bloody war has been waged about Massi-
lia, (…) L. promises us that the Ilerda campaign will have all of the
importance with hardly any of the slaughter (4.1-3) – and therefore,
incidentally, whatever slaughter does take place during the campaign
(e.g. at 243ff) will automatically be classed as ‘non multa’, even if there
is actually a lot of it (‘Caesar… spoliatus milite multo’ 254)’ (Masters
1992, 43). Yet the point is to stress the soldiers’ reluctance to fight each
other in this new kind of civil war situation that pits kin against kin, and
Caesar’s own clemency to Afranius prevents bloodshed (see 354n. be-
low).
Finally, and with a typically Lucanian turn of phrase, Caesar’s epi-
thet saeuus is contrasted with this campaign at Ilerda now being de-
scribed as relatively bloodless. The paradox of a bloodless saeuitas is
deliberate; the annotator at Comm. Bern. fails to acknowledge this de-
liberately paradoxical characteristic of L.’s style and condemns the
expression as inconsistent with the mention of the war god Mars as a
metonymy for war: ‘incaute poeta hoc posuit.’
3 maxima sed fati ducibus momenta daturum The war at Ilerda did
not reap many victims but was decisive for the destinies of the two
supreme leaders. ‘The Pompeians were conquered rather by thirst than
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 107

by fighting’ (Haskins 1887, ad loc.). See at 210n. below the narrator’s

words before Petreius’ harangue.
maxima… fati… momenta In six out of its seven occurrences in L.,
momentum refers to the metaphor of the weight’s movement on the
scale (momentum <*mouimentum < moueo, OLD s.v. 1b; TLL
VIII.1392-3): 3.56 gnarus et irarum causas et summa fauoris | annona
momenta trahi; 3.338-9 non pondera rerum | nec momenta sumus (with
Hunink 1992b ad loc.; see also 4.483, 819; 5.339; 7.118; cf. Gregorius
1893, 11.
ducibus While the plural ducibus echoes the leaders of the two factions
facing one another in the Civil War, the following line shifts our atten-
tion from the wider context of the civil war to the specific double com-
mand of Afranius and Petreius, the Pompeian commanders opposing
Caesar in Spain. The maxima fati... momenta, then, concern not just
Caesar and Pompey but also all the other leaders involved in the mili-
tary operations. Discussing the plural ducibus in blatant contrast with
rector in the following line, Masters 1992, 44-5 bases on the plural
ducibus his perceptive view that ‘Afranius and Petreius stand as a frac-
turing of the figure of Pompey.’
4 iure pari For the phrase, a legal term, see e.g., Cic. Off. 1.124 pari
cum ciuibus iure uiuere. As an adjective, par occurs in this book also at
124, 482, 620, 636, 710. Par, however, is an important key word in this
poem. Its semantic value privileges duality as opposition rather than
mere equality; e.g., 1.125-6 nec quemquam iam ferre potest Caesarue
priorem | Pompeiusue parem; 7.694-5 sed par quod semper habemus, |
libertas et Caesar erit; see Feeney 1991, 297 and the note on 620 be-
low. For a semantic taxonomy of par in Virgil, see Poinsotte in EV
III.965-6. Masters 1992, 44 rightly plucks ‘the potentially pejorative
sense of pari’ as a gladiatorial term, echoed in PAR-et and somewhat
neutralized by concordia in line 5 (see Henderson 1998, 191), which
particularly characterizes the Afranius/Petreius pair, contrasting the
pairs in conflict pitted against one another throughout the poem. To
Masters’ perceptive comment, add that Book IV climaxes toward its
ending with Curio’s death, grandly marked with the poet’s eulogy, by
pitting Hercules against Antaeus as wrestling gladiators (see 589-660
below).
108 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

rector In the sense of ‘moral guide’ and ‘ruler’, rector is classical

since, e.g., Cic. Rep. 2.51. Here, however, the noun applies to a com-
manding officer in charge of a camp, which is unusual. If the moral
connotations of rector apply, L. might be complimenting Afranius and
Petreius (see 7n. below).
On the political use of agent nouns in –tor in the late Republic, see
Weische 1966, 105-11. L. has at least 49 of these ‘prosaic’ verbal ad-
jective/nouns in –tor. See introduction, 21-22 above; Bramble 1982,
541.
Afranius See von Rohden in RE [n. 6] I.710-12; K.L. Elvers in Brill's
New Pauly [n. 1] 1.289. The homo nouus Lucius Afranius acquired
political visibility as Pompey’s legate in the wars against Sertorius (76-
1 BCE, Plut. Sert. 19; Schulten 1926, 113) and Mithridates VI (66-2
BCE; Plut. Pompey 44). He obtained the consulship for the year 60
(with Q. Metellus Celer; Cic. Att. 1.18.8 [January 20]; CIL I.601, 728).
With Petreius, Afranius shared in the year 55 the government of the
province of Spain as Pompey’s legate (Vell. 2.48; cf. Plut. Pompey 53;
Appian BC 2.18; Dio 39.39). At the breakout of the Civil War, Afranius
commanded three legions in Hispania Citerior, whereas Varro (the
scholar) held Ulterior, and Petreius Lusitania. As Pompeian legate in
Spain, Afranius opens Book IV, whereas Curio, the Caesarian legate in
Africa, closes it.
5 Petreius See F. Münzer in RE [n. 3] XIX.1.1182-9; J. Fündling in
Der neue Pauly [n. 1] 9.669-70. Of Volscan background, Marcus
Petreius (ca. 110-46 BCE) was perhaps the son of Gnaeus, a primipilus,
or ‘first spearman,’ the highest-ranking centurion. Sallust’s portrait of
Petreius is that of a consummate soldier and high-ranking officer: Sall.
Cat. 59.6 homo militaris, quod amplius annos triginta tribunus aut
praefectus aut legatus aut praetor cum magna gloria in exercitu fuerat,
plerosque ipsos factaque eorum fortia nouerat; ea conmemorando mili-
tum animos accendebat. Such had been Petreius’ distinguished military
career up until January of 62 BCE when, as proconsul C. Antonius’
legate, he annihilated Catiline’s army near Pistoia. From the quoted
chapter in Sallust’s Catiline we learn that the supreme command had
been entrusted to Petreius because the proconsul Antonius was ill. In
the period 55-49, Petreius was Pompey’s legate in Further Spain, where
he joined forces with Afranius.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 109

concordia The term occurs five times in L. (1.98; 4.190; 6.458; 9.1097;
see also concordes at 4.197 below; 5.542; 6.458). As Leigh 1997, 72 n.
69, rightly notes, ‘Concordia is an important leitmotiv in Book 4.’
As a political term, concordia recalls the Ciceronian ideal of the
concordia ordinum as guarantor of the check-and-balance system char-
acteristic of the Roman Republic. As the etymology from cor suggests,
concordia denotes a commonality of interests among groups or indi-
viduals with an emphasis on the affective sphere and belongs to the
semantics of amicitia in the sense the latter has in the Roman political
vocabulary; see Hellegouarc'h 1963, 124-6, who traces the political
sense of Latin concordia back to the Athenian homonoia. In Book I, L.
has undermined the political purport of this ideal with the Horatian
oxymoron of 1.98 concordia discors (Hor. Epist. 1.12.19; for the pre-
Socratic/Empedoclean pedigree of the opposition, via Aratus and
Virgil, see Nelis 2004, 7-8 and passim).
5-6 in aequas | imperium commune uices The context emphasizes the
harmony of intent between the two Pompeian commanders (concordia,
aequas… uices, imperium commune), as further suggested by the en-
closing word order, which frames the object of duxit in enjambment
and explains – almost in the guise of a gloss – the nature of the leaders’
concordia.
7 alterno paret custodia signo While L. emphasizes the joint com-
mand of Afranius and Petreius, Caesar BC 1.38.1 is adamant in ascrib-
ing two legions to Afranius and three to Petreius (Haskins). Petreius set
out with his two legions from Lusitania to reach Afranius via the terri-
tory of the Vettones. We know from Caesar that the Roman command-
ers in Spain were each commanding their own legions rather than alter-
nating at commanding all of the Roman legions en bloc. Afranius’ three
legions and Petreius’ two were made up mostly of Italians (Caes. BC
1.85.6), with the addition of about thirty cohorts of heavy- and light-
armed native infantry and five thousand cavalry enrolled locally (Caes.
BC 1.39.1). L. portrays Afranius and Petreius as a pair (see 4 pari
above), perhaps invoking the republican ideal of two legitimate Roman
consuls commanding a Roman army. Afranius and Petreius equally
share the surveillance and, as should be expected, they abide by the
Roman Republican legality – were it not that they fight for the Pom-
peian faction in a civil war. By introducing the element of the alternate
110 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

command of the whole army, L. is in all likelihood also paying a tribute

to Afranius and Petreius in particular rather than expressing his support
to the Pompeian faction in general (see Carter 1991 ad Caes. BC
1.39.1).
8-10 This is a mini-catalog of the troops commanded by Afranius and
Petreius. L. implies that the belligerent Spanish tribes among the Ro-
man files are of no hindrance to their harmonious leadership. L. is not
as keen in his interest in the ethnography of Spain as he is in the eth-
nography of Africa (see on 676-86 below). He mentions here only three
ethnic groups. The first two, Asturians and Vettones, are each described
with a single adjective, whereas the third group, the Celtiberians, is
given a whole participial clause.
8 inpiger Astur The MSS prefer an alternative spelling at 297 Astyrici
below; cf. Mela 3.13.2 Astyres (also 13.6); Sil. 3.334 Astyr (some MSS
also Astur). The ethnonym Astures must have collectively denoted a
variety of peoples who inhabited the Atlantic coast of northern Spain.
There were twenty-two different ethnic groups, if the numeral is correct
in Pliny NH 3.28: Asturum XXII populi diuisi in Augustanos et Trans-
montanos, Asturica urbe magnifica. in iis sunt Gigurri, Paesici, Lan-
cienses, Zoelae. Along with the Cantabri, the Astures were subjugated
by Augustus in the campaigns of 26 and 25 BCE; see P. Barceló in
Brill’s New Pauly 1.211 s.v. ‘Asturia’; Jones 1976; Schulten 1943;
Tranoy 1981; Santos Yanguas 1981, 1992, 2004, 2006; Lomas
Salmonte 1975.
inpiger The epithet is found four times in L. Here inpiger may suggest
the heavy-armed Astures in contrast with the light-armed Vettones (9
leues). At 1.228-9 rapit agmina | inpiger, the adjective describes Cae-
sar’s swiftness in taking Ariminum. At 3.174 it applies to the rapid
waters of the river Cephisos and at 4.798 inpiger conveys Curio’s de-
terminacy in his last hour.
9 Vettonesque leues See A. Schulten/R. Grosse in RE VIII A.2.1873-4.
The Vettones, here denoted as leues perhaps for their light armor, were
shepherds and livestock-breeders. Their renown in antiquity was due to
their discovery of some herbal treatment against snakebite, betony, that
is, stacys betonica officinalis (see Celsus 5.27.10), but known in Gaul
as herba Vettonica (Plin. NH 25.84).
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 111

9-10 profugique a gente uetusta | Gallorum Celtae miscentes nomen

Hiberis This is an authorial gloss, which L. has inserted to alert the
reader to the fact that the Celts migrated into Spain. This identical end
of verse occurs at Sil. 3.340 Celtae sociati nomen Hiberis, where Silius
must have had L. in mind. On Silius’ imitation of L., see Albrecht
1964, 23-4, 54-5, 65, 75, 146-7, 164-5; Häussler 1978, 16-2 (with fur-
ther bibliography). A. Schulten (RE XXI.150-6 s.v. ‘Keltiberer’, esp.
150.66-151.6) reminds us that the name Celtiberians means not ‘Iberian
Celts’ but ‘Celtic Iberians’, i.e., Celts who have commingled with the
Iberians, for Celtic peoples descended into the peninsula between the
7th and 6th centuries to inhabit the highlands in Nearer Spain.

11-23 The topography of Ilerda (Barrington Atlas 25F4) has been re-
constructed by Kromayer/Veith 1922, 19, after Appian, Caesar, and
Dio. For a reassessment of their findings and a reading of Lucan’s to-
pography of Ilerda as typical of ‘civil war’ topography, see Masters
1992, 46-9, who illustrates with two small but useful maps the geogra-
phy of the site along with his reconstruction of the camps. According to
Masters’ reading of the joint testimony of Appian, Caesar, and Dio,
Ilerda (Lérida) is located on a hill west of the river Sicoris (Segre) not
far from the Cinga (Cinca; see 21n. below), which flows farther west
before merging somewhat south of Ilerda into the Sicoris. Further to the
south the joint waters of the Sicoris and the Cinga flow into the Hiberus
(Ebro). While L.’s description of the site is recognizably similar to Ap-
pian, Caesar, and Dio, one notable discrepancy concerns the location of
Caesar’s camp, which L. and Appian (17-18n. below) place on a hill
opposite the one on which Afranius and Petreius were stationed,
whereas Caesar’s own account seems to imply beyond any reasonable
doubt that he had pitched camp on level ground on the same side of the
Sicoris as Afranius’ camp (see on 17-18 below).
11 colle tumet modico, lenique... tumulo Epexegetic –que illustrates
the sense of colle modico, understood as instrumental or causal ablative
in TLL III.1630; Francken 1896 compares Caes. BC 2.24 paulo leniore
fastigio (of a ridge near Utica). The use of synonym collis and tumulus
to describe Ilerda’s geographic features suggests that the terrain slopes
rather smoothly and is not too steep or unfriendly, or else the site might
have been described as a saxum or as arces; but see also the metonymi-
cal uses of collis to denote towns located on hills in TLL III.1632-3.
112 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

12-13 super hunc fundata uetusta | surgit Ilerda manu Almost iden-
tical line ending in Verg. A. 8.478-9 haud procul hinc saxo incolitur
fundata uetusto | urbis Agyllinae sedes, where Virgil describes the pre-
Trojan Etruscan town of Agylla (another name for Caere = nowadays
Cerveteri, see EV I.740; Thompson/Bruère 1970, 152; Masters 1992,
51).
12 uetusta In the same metrical position as 9 above, this Virgilian ad-
jective depicts Ilerda as a primeval town, where immigrants (Celts)
have commingled with previous settlers (Hiberi) just like Trojans
commingle with the Italians in the Aeneid.
13 placidis praelabitur undis The alliteration in labial stop followed
by a liquid, pl- pr-, might imitate the sound of flowing water. The
synecdoche unda for ‘water’ is common, but given the adjective
placidis, here undis might denote actual waves, small gentle ones (as
opposed to, e.g., gurges), as also indicated by the verb praelabor,
which seems to specialize in denoting a gentle flow; TLL X.2.683.1-11.
L. uses praelabor of the Tiber at 6.76 and of marshes in North Africa at
9.355.
14-23 Three river names are mentioned in ten lines. The space delim-
ited by their streams has a roughly upside-down triangular shape. One
of the triangle’s vertices points southward and is formed by the conflu-
ence of the Cinga and the Sicoris. If Masters’ map is reasonably accu-
rate (Masters 1992, 47 map 2), the Pompeian camp would have occu-
pied this southern vertex, whereas Ilerda, located NE of the Pompeian
camp, makes up the eastern vertex and Caesar’s camp the western ver-
tex. L.’s topography of the Pompeian and Caesarian camps, however, is
a symbolical landscape: L.’s purpose is to convey rather a poetic repre-
sentation of a civil war battle than any degree of topographic exacti-
tude. This is why L. makes Caesar’s camp sit on high ground to match
the Pompeian’s camp, located on a hill SW of Ilerda, though in reality
Caesar pitched camp on level ground. Furthermore, L. mentions a river
that divides the two camps, but if we are to follow what Caesar himself
says, Caesar’s camp was on the same bank of the Cinga as the Pom-
peian camp. See on 17-18 below.
Attention to hydrography is instrumental in conveying topographi-
cal accuracy and, like much scientific knowledge that makes its way
into Roman poetry, fluvial erudition is part of the Hellenistic heritage in
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 113

Roman literature. On rivers in epic, see Hor. Ars 14-18 (with Brink
1971, 97 ad 17-18). On L.’s rivers, see Walde 2007; Mendell 1942;
Sanford 1934. Hunink 1992b, 108 ad 3.174, notes that L. has one river
every forty lines, whereas Virgil had one river every hundred lines, and
while his suggestion that L. may have used some hydrography manual
as a source on rivers is hard to prove, Hunink is probably right in stat-
ing that L.’s dependence on Ovid is documented by the appearance in
the catalog of Pompey’s troops (3.169-297) of thirteen out of twenty-
three Ovidian rivers from M. 2.239-59 (Mendell 1942, 16); but see also
Walde 2007, 29, on L.’s erudition and his independent use of his texts.
Lake and river names trigger authorial excursions into natural his-
tory. A late attestation to such interests is the collection of river names
assembled by Vibius Sequester after Silius Italicus (esp. from Book
XIV of the Punica). The tradition goes back to Callimachus’ work on
rivers (frg. 457-9 Pf.; Pfeiffer 1968, 135).
14 Sicoris Today’s Segre. Northern tributary of the Hiberus (Ebro) in
Hispania Tarraconensis, the Sicoris originates in the territory ascribed
to the Cerretani and divides the Ilergeti from the Lacetani. It flows by
Ilerda (Barrington Atlas 25F4); see Schulten in RE II A.2.2203.
15 saxeus ingenti quem pons amplectitur arcu The stone bridge over
the Sicoris is a picturesque detail. For Loupiac 1998, 84, the river de-
scription chiefly functions as an embellishment, but given the impor-
tance of the liquid element in this narrative, L.’s generosity in land-
scape details builds up our expectation of the coming flood. L.’s
audience must have had memory of the facts of Ilerda.
16-17 proxima rupes | signa tenet Magni Cf. 3.379-80 proxima pars
urbis celsam consurgit in arcem | par tumulo, where the hill on which
the Caesarians have pitched their camp at Massilia is opposed to the hill
town of Massilia itself just like here Afranius’ hill is opposed to Il-
erda’s hill. By placing each army on high ground with a plain in be-
tween, L. achieves his scope of portraying the fighting parties in stark
opposition to one another (cf. Hunink 1992b, 163 ad 3.379) and thus
further amplifies the divisiveness of Civil War by insisting on showing
as divided that which should be united (see on 18 dirimit below;
Masters 1992, 50 n. 15).
114 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

17-18 nec Caesar colle minore | castra leuat In placing Caesar’s camp
on high ground to match its level with the Pompeian camp, L. disagrees
with Caesar’s own account: from Caes. BC 1.41.3 ab infimis radicibus
montis we are to infer that Caesar’s troops must have been on level
ground because mons describes the hill on which Afranius’ camp was.
L. seems to agree with the tradition represented by Appian BC 2.42, in
which Caesar’s camp is indeed on high ground, ἐπὶ κρηµνῶν (Masters
1992, 47-8 n. 11). In portraying the two opposing factions as equal even
in terms of camp altitude, the text suggests that neither faction is lesser
or greater not only from a military perspective but especially on moral
grounds. Neither one, in other words, could claim the upper hand. Later
on, however, Caesar’s camp is swept away by the flood (which sug-
gests it was actually located on plain ground); see below ad 87-9 (Leigh
1997, 46).
18 dirimit tentoria gurges Dirimere regularly applies to geographic
descriptions and topographic features (OLD 1c): Liv. 22.15.4 urbs...
flumine dirempta. L. is alone in having a river between the Caesarian
and the Pompeian camps. The divisiveness of Civil War materializes
thus in a topographic feature. On the use of dirimere as a civil-war mo-
tif, see Masters 1992, 50 and n. 15.
19 explicat hinc tellus campos effusa patentis The vastness of the
fields unfolds from the beginning to the end of this line. For effusus
applied to geographic extensions (OLD 2a), see 6.269-70 armaque late
| spargit et effuso laxat tentoria campo; Sen. Con. 1.6.4 tam effusa
moenia.
21 Cinga Today’s Cinca. Right-side tributary of the river Sicoris in
Nearer Spain, it flows into the Sicoris before the latter’s waters join the
Hiberus; see Hübner in RE III.2.2559-60. Cf. Caes. BC 1.48.3. The
Barrington Atlas does not identify a few of the rivers visible in its 25F4
quadrant. It is plausible, however, that the Cinga could be the western
affluent of the Sicoris in Barrington Atlas 25F4 to the N and slightly
NE of Octobesa/Ectobesa (also known as Octogesa).
21-2 Cinga rapax, uetitus fluctus et litora cursu | Oceani pepulisse
tuo Apostrophes to rivers are not uncommon, for rivers are divine
manifestations (see Skutsch 1985 ad Enn. Ann. 1.26 = 28 in Flores 2000
= 54 in Vahlen 1903). An inscription from Spain (CIL II.4075) attests
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 115

to the Hiberus’ divine status (see next n.). Roman apostrophes to the
Tiber are found not only in prayer contexts as in Livy 2.10.11 Tiberine
cum tuis undis, but also in geo-ethnographic contexts in poetry, as the
apostrophe to the Tiber in Verg. A. 7.797.
There are several more authorial apostrophes in Book IV: the invo-
cation at 110-20 to the parens mundi; at 182-9 to a generic Roman sol-
dier, who weeps at recognizing his kin in the enemy’s camp; at 189-91
to Concordia (and to the soldiers); at 233 to Pompey; at 254 and 500 to
Caesar; at 319-20 to the dead who an abstract enemy has killed by poi-
soning the springs; at 322 to Caesar at 497 to Fortuna; at 580 to death;
at 692 to Rome; and at 799 to Curio. As has been observed, L. employs
apostrophe to a fault, in line with the declamatory taste of his time
(Conte 1988, 108). Ovid, Statius, Silius and Valerius Flaccus use apos-
trophe twice as often as Virgil, while Lucan up to three times as often
as Virgil (Hampel 1908, 41, 50-1). The Virgilian standard in our criti-
cism of post-Virgilian poetry, however, should be seen as the basis of
Conte’s assessment of apostrophe (as in Austin 1955 ad Verg. A. 4.27
and Duff 1928, vi-viii); see 110n. below. Far from being a ‘meaningless
convention’ (Duff 1928, viii) or an adornment (Barratt 1979, 173 ad
5.527-31), apostrophe is a very effective figure in conveying the senti-
ment of the poet and in delineating the features of his characters, par-
ticularly when the poet expresses disapproval; e.g., Pease 1935b ad
Verg. A. 4.27 comments on Dido’s apostrophe to pudor without even
identifying the figure, for what matters most for the reader of Dido’s
confession to her sister Anna is the recognition of ‘the tragic flaw in
Dido’s character.’ On apostrophe in L., see D'Alessandro Behr 2000,
D'Alessandro Behr 2007, and Asso 2008.
23 Hiberus The Hiberus (= modern Ebro) is a major river in Eastern
Spain. Its delta has significantly expanded the shore; see Schulten in RE
XVII.807. After listing three river names in ten lines (14-23), L. rounds
off his geo-/hydrographic introduction with an implicit etymological
aition, for by explaining that the Cinga loses its name by flowing into
the Hiberus, the poet is silently alluding to the fact that the river domi-
nates this land (praestat terris) by giving it its own name, Hiberia from
Hiberus.
116 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

24–147 Skirmish at the Hillock and Caesarians in the Storm

Caesar charges the hillock with the infantry, but when his soldiers risk
falling down the steep slope, he sends the cavalry around to protect the
flanks, which allows the infantry to retire undisturbed while the Pom-
peians keep their station without being able to counter-attack (24-47).
Caesar’s fortune seems to deny him favor when the Caesarians begin
suffering deprivation because of the flood and inclement weather (48-
119). In an authorial apostrophe, the poet prays to the gods that the
rains and the flood may end the war (110-20). After the rains subside,
groups of soldiers build rafts to reach the opposite riverbank and build
a bridge solid enough to allow the army to cross it. As added precau-
tion, Caesar orders his men to break the Sicoris’ course into tiny chan-
nels. At this point Petreius realizes that fortune is again with Caesar
and decides to abandon Ilerda in search of reinforcements from among
the local tribes (121-47).
24-8 The poet begins the narrative of the Ilerda battle somewhat reluc-
tantly, for the first thing he mentions is that there was no fighting on the
first day of battle (see on 24 below). For this typically Lucanian theme
of ‘the rush to slaughter halted by a moment of recognition’, Matthew
Leigh has pointed to the battle at Pharsalus (7.460-9) as well as to
Massilia (on which see Hunink 1992b ad 3.326-9: ‘relatives surely can-
not […] fight each other’) and 5.468-75 (Leigh 1997, 47 and n. 8).
24 prima dies belli cessauit Marte cruento We are seeing the activi-
ties that take place at the beginning (prima dies) of a campaign along
with the necessary—as well as bloodless—ritual moves of pitching
camp and setting up fortifications while also trying to form temporary
strongholds from which subsequently to conduct the fight. This is pre-
cisely what unfolds the next day with Caesar’s attempt to take posses-
sion of the hillock south of Ilerda, ostensibly in order to cut off the
Pompeians from the provisions they had previously stored within the
town walls.
26-7 piguit sceleris, pudor arma furentum | continuit After sceleris,
Housman punctuates with a semi-colon (followed by Shackleton-
Bailey) and Badalì prefers a colon. The comma is sufficient, however,
because the asyndeton vividly renders the state of mind of the armies
abstaining from fight while also fearing it.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 117

26 pudor In L.’s epic pudor ‘covers the whole code of honour’

(Fantham 1992a, 177 ad 2.518). In Book IV, pudor refers to restraining
oneself from killing one’s fellow citizens (26, 34, 231, 706). Here it is
often translated with ‘shame’ (so Braund and Duff ), but elsewhere it
can be just ‘honor’ (see 231n. below), because the pudor one feels
causes one to receive honor or shame, repute or disrepute, i.e., credit-
able or discreditable attention (on this distinction, see Kaster 2005, 29).
27-8 patriaeque et ruptis legibus unum | donauere diem In asynde-
ton to the preceding clause, the double conjunction -que et establishes
the parallelism between patriae and ruptis legibus. This kind of poly-
syndeton following an asyndeton is rare but attested in poetry since
Accius frg. 111 Ribbeck saxo sento paedore alguque et fame; see Hof-
man/Szantyr 1965, 515. Less common than et… et and et… que, -que…
et lends an archaic flavor to the quasi-formulaic phrasing patriaeque
et… legibus, which reoccurs in reverse order at 9.385 durum iter ad
leges patriaeque ruentis amorem; cf. Verg. A. 2.159 (Sinon’s words)
teneor patriae nec legibus ullis; Sen. Epist. 85.16; [Sen.] Oct. 678;
[Quint.] Decl. min. 271.13.2; Hist. Aug. 2.6.8; Non. 383 Morel. For L.’s
tendency to equate the Republican faction with the defense of the laws,
see Brutus’ words at 2.281-2 pro legibus arma | ferre iuuat patriis lib-
ertatemque tueri (with Fantham’s notes); cf. finally 2.316; 3.113, 137-
40, 151-2; 5.7-9, 12-14, 31, 44-7.
28-9 prono... Olympo | in noctem ‘At nightfall’, when the diurnal sky
goes down to make place for the night sky: Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 175-
6 ad Sen. HF 125 rara micant sidera prono languida mundo (Fitch
1987, ad loc., cites Verg. A. 8.280 deuexo… Olympo). The daring im-
age of the sky ‘hanging as if suspended’ and almost ‘bending toward
the night’, or perhaps even ‘bowing’ or ‘kneeling’, may owe to Se-
neca’s equally difficult Ag. 461 in astra iam lux prona, iam praeceps
dies, where in astra should be understood as equivalent to L.’s in noc-
tem (pace Tarrant 1976, who, though aware of L.’s parallel, accepts
Damsté’s conjecture alta). Used of the setting sky or stars, pronus de-
picts the evening sky as if bending toward the horizon; Hor. C. 3.27.18
pronus Orion, with Porphyrion’s gloss: ‘in occasum... pronus’. The
styleme, which Nisbet/Rudd 2004 ad Hor. C. 3.27.18 trace back to
Theocr. 7.53 χὠρίων ὅκ’ ἐπ’ ὠκεανῷ πόδας ἴσχε, reoccurs in Neronian
118 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

(OLD 4b) and Flavian poetry; cf. Val. Fl. 2.35 euecta prono laxantur
habenae [sc. Solis currus] aethere; 3.33 sidera prona.
29 fossa Caesar’s intent is to prevent Afranius from seeing his camp
being fortified. Instead of ramparts, which could be seen from a dis-
tance, Caesar orders to dig a fifteen-foot ditch on the side facing the
enemy. The work was being carried out by the third ranks, whereas the
first and second ranks were standing in arms to screen the fortification
works from Afranius’ view (Caes. BC 1.41.3-6).
34-5 huc hostem pariter terrorque pudorque | inpulit Fear and
shame are given emphasis by functioning as the grammatical subject of
inpulit. The homoeoteleuton rounds off line 34 in a rapid succession of
swift dactyls, momentarily paused if not actually enhanced by the asso-
nant liquids in the preceding spondee of pariter terror. The dactylic
rhythm extends in enjambment to the following line and suggests the
rapid sequencing of the two emotions in the Pompeians.
35 prior This predicate agrees with the (omitted) subject of cepit, to be
inferred from the preceding hostem. The change of subject is barely
noticeable because the subject of inpulit describes the emotional state
of Afranius’ men.
36 his uirtus ferrumque locum promittit, at illis | ipse locus It is hard
to construe promittit with illis as indirect object and ipse locus as sub-
ject. Perhaps illis is to be understood as a dative of the possessor: at illis
ipse locus [est, quem praeoccupauerunt] see TLL X.2.1873.67-8. With
the hendyadys uirtus ferrumque, L. seems to praise the Caesarians for
the warlike manliness that would grant them to gain the hill were it not
already in the possession of Afranius’ men (illis).
37-40 miles... erigitur Hyperbaton and variatio (miles ~ acies) add
pathos to the sorry sight of Caesar’s soldiers clinging onto the steep
slope and supporting each other by leaning on one another’s shields.
37-8 miles rupes oneratus in altas | nititur Burdened with defensive
and offensive weaponry (see 39 umbone, 40 telum, 41 pilo), each sol-
dier leans on the high rocky slope, rupes… in altas. The phrase in altas
suggests a considerable high point with the resulting danger of falling
under the weight of the weapons. The adjectival participle oneratus
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 119

conveys both the soldier’s fatigue as well as their slowness or quasi

immobility.
38-9 aduersoque acies in monte supina | haeret As if zooming out,
the focus shifts from the individual soldier to the whole line of Caesar’s
infantry, acies, as they struggle looking upward to the slope, supina,
and are almost forced to come to a halt, in monte … haeret, or so the
poet’s description suggests by emphasizing their immobility and/or
slow motion.
39-40 et in tergum casura umbone sequentis | erigitur The soldiers’
stillness is caught here in the instant before the fall. They would cer-
tainly fall without the support of each other’s shields.
39 umbone Lit. denotes the ‘boss of a shield’; here as a synecdoche
pars pro toto for ‘shield’, as in all of its occurrences in L.; cf. 3.476
(with Hunink 1992b ad loc.), 6.192, 7.493. OLD s.v. ‘umbo’ should not
have listed the present synecdoche along with the primary denotation of
‘boss of the shield’.
40-1 nulli telum uibrare uacauit | dum labat et fixo firmat uestigia
pilo The paradox of immobility in motion and while enduring effort is
particularly frequent in Book IV to describe soldiers in uncomfortable
situations; see e.g., 617 and especially on 781-2 below; see also 9.436
and 484 (on which Asso 2002a, 129, 237). For the recurrence of the
immobility theme in the poem, see, e.g., Masters 1992, 57 n. 29;
Bartsch 1997, 59-61.
41 labat The verb labare occurs in this sense in Virgil (e.g., 10.283
labant uestigia) and in this book also at 89 (where it applies by exten-
sion to castra), 249 (animos), 390 (fortuna), 625 (compages humana,
see n. below).
42-3 atque hoste relicto | caedunt ense uiam The soldiers fight
against the landscape instead of the enemy.
44 equitemque succedere bello Followed by a local dative (see 143-
4n. below) in the sense of ‘moving up into battle, into a post’ (OLD 4b)
succedere occurs with pugnae (e.g. Verg. A. 10.690) and proelio (e.g.,
Liv. 6.4.10) but with the less specific bello is found only here and at
Sil. 13.698-701.
120 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

45 munitumque latus laeuo praeducere gyro The noun latus here

refers to the equites themselves who are brought forward as defensive
reinforcement (accusative) and aid to the infantry (dative) and not, as
misunderstood in the Adn., the left side as the one protected (munitum)
by the shield. The syntax of praeducere here requires the accusative of
what is being lead forward (latus ~ equitem) and the dative of the per-
son in whose interest the action of praeducere is performed, which is
here implicit and should be understood as peditibus laborantibus, as
seen by Rammiger in TLL X.2.590.68-71. If latus is correctly taken as
referring to the cavalry, the ablative laeuo gyro poses none of the prob-
lems seen by Francken and Haskins, both misled by the Adn..
46 ex facili This adverbial expression is found in poetry only here and a
few times in Ovid (Am. 2.2.55; Ars 3.579; Rem. 522; Pont. 1.5.59).
47 inritus describes the following uictor and thereby creates the para-
dox of an ineffective victory. For this sense of inritus applied to hu-
mans, see Centlivres in TLL VII.2.434.74-5, citing Verg. A. 5.442, but
see also 2.459 tela manu miseri iactabant inrita.
uictor For L.’s verbal nouns in –tor, see ad 4 above.
subducto Marte ‘Mars has been taken away,’ i.e., no need to fight (see
Conte 1988, 109 ad 6.250). The intratextual echo with 6.250 may or
may not be intentional; cf. 10.412 subducta acies. The lack of necessity
for battle is a common paradox in this poem, which insists on the
fighter’s reluctance to engage in a fratricide war.
48 hactenus armorum discrimina The phrase marks the transition to a
new narrative segment (Leigh 1997, 42). Temporal hactenus switches
the focus from the actual battle between the armies to the following
phase of this battle narrative. From now on, each army will face in-
clement weather rather than each other.
48-109 In narrating the storm, L. indulges his interests in natural sci-
ence with a description of the atmospheric phenomena and a competent
display of geo-ethnographic terminology. The storm description begins
with the gathering of the clouds herded by the winds (48-75), tradition-
ally distributed among the four cardinal points: Aquilo (~Boreas), Eu-
rus, Corus (= Caurus), and Notos (~ Auster) (north, east, west, and
south respectively). L. opts for Homeric simplicity in mentioning only
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 121

one wind per quadrant (Od. 5.295-6), even though Varro had scrupu-
lously assigned two subordinate winds to each quadrant and thus there
came to be twelve names for twelve different winds (Sen. NQ 5.2.3;
Plin. NH 2.119 and 122). The poets, however, use Varro’s nomencla-
ture rather freely and generally remain faithful to the Homeric model in
mentioning one wind per quadrant. Hence the winds may function
metonymically as the cardinal points, as they do for example in L.
9.411.
The catalogue of the winds is enriched with geo-ethnographic hints,
for L. mentions Nabataeans, Arabs, and Indians to point out that the
rains come from the East. L.’s interest in the natural sciences does not
prevent him from using the traditional mythological vocabulary in de-
noting the sky as Olympus, the ocean as Tethys and the sun as Titan.
The traditional vocabulary of mythological poetry allows L. to speak of
the storm in terms of universal deluge, in a passage that resonates with
Ovidian language and reinterprets familiar cosmological themes from
early Greek myth. For an analysis of this storm and a useful literary
background on the epic storm in general, see Morford 1987, 20-58,
whose focus, however, is on L.’s rhetorical expertise (but consider the
cautionary remarks on Morford’s own rhetoric in Thompson 1990, 86-
7). Lucretius is the poetic model for L.’s philosophical and scientific
vocabulary, especially in matters of meteorology and astronomy.
48-61 The prelude to the rainstorm begins with the description of the
dry Iberian winter with snowy peaks and frozen fields.
49 dedit This is the first in the series of historical tenses in the storm
passage (48-109). L.’s narrative style, as is common in classical Latin,
alternates the use of preterit and historical present. Both the preterit and
the historical tenses have the same meaning in denoting the action de-
scribed by the verb as past, as is customary in narrative. If any differ-
ence were to be found, this would be in the nuance of immediacy and
generality conveyed by the use of the historical present; see 64n., 70n.
uacat, 76n., 121-47n., 188n., 196n., 213-13n., below.
uariis… motibus This is an ablative of manner describing in what way
the aer is incertus. The air is ‘unreliable’ (Braund) because of its inces-
sant movement. From its astronomic use, the phrase uarius motus
comes to refer to human mutability especially within the emotional
122 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

sphere (as in Verg. A. 12.217 uario misceri pectora motus, where the
Rutulians are troubled by varied and contrasting feelings).
The phrase is not common, for only twelve occurrences can be
found in the extant corpus of Latin literature. Like much scientific vo-
cabulary, however, it seems to have been first introduced in poetry by
Lucretius, who technically applies it to the heavenly bodies: Lucr.
5.1210 uario motu quae candida sidera uerset [sc. deum... inmensa
potestas]; cf. Cic. Arati Phaen. frg. 34.230-1 sic malunt errare uagae
per nubila caeli | atque suos uario motu metirier orbes; Germ. Arati
Phaen. 11-12 nunc uacat audacis ad caelum tollere uultus | sideraque
et mundi uarios cognoscere motus.
incertus… aer This is the only occurrence of incertus to describe aer
in the extant corpus of Latin literature. The airy element is, of course,
the weather, which plays a prominent part in Book IV (Loupiac 1998,
55). The storm that ensues has aer as agent, while both Caesarians and
Pompeians may only contribute their own passive endurance. By em-
phasizing the uncertainty of the weather, the narrator reports the view-
point of the troops on the field and thereby focuses on their suffering.
The notion conveyed by incertus as applied to aer, however, resonates
with the Stoic explanations for such phenomena as clouds and rain
studied by L.’s uncle Seneca in the lost portions of the Naturales
Quaestiones (see 64-5n. below). In asking whether there is a divine
providence in the world in the face of so many misfortunes that befall
humans, Seneca in De Providentia emphasizes the function of reason
(logos) and ascribes the apparent uncertainty of the atmospheric phe-
nomena to a human illusion, for even the rain and clouds (and other
natural phenomena) have their causes, which can be analyzed and
sometimes explained: Sen. De prov. 1.1.3 ne illa quidem quae uidentur
confusa et incerta, pluuias dico nubesque…; TLL VII.1.882.51-2.
50 pigro bruma gelu siccis aquilonibus haerens In a distinctly Lu-
canian turn, the idea of movement is contrasted with lack of motion.
The frozen stillness of winter echoes the deathly immobility of the un-
derworld in Sen. HF 704 immotus aer haeret et pigro sedet nox atra
mundo; (Oudendorp; Haskins), where Seneca’s aer immotus has be-
come L.’s uariis incertus motibus aer, as seen above. On air (and wa-
ter) immobility as death metaphors in L., see Loupiac 1998, 192-8.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 123

pigro… gelu The metaphor whereby the cold is said to be sluggish or

inactive (piger) is derived from the semantics of death: TLL X.1,
2108.35-43; e.g., 4.652 pectora pigro stricta gelu, where the idea ex-
pressed by stricta is close to that conveyed by haerens.
siccis… aquilonibus The north wind is here chiefly characterized as
cold but rainless, like in Ov. F. 4.634 and Tr. 3.10.53. Pliny describes
the northern and western winds as drier than their eastern and southern
counterparts: Plin. NH 2.127 et in totum omnes a septentrione et occi-
dente sicciores quam a meridie et oriente; 18.339 aquilonem praenun-
tiat terra siccescens repente, austrum umescens rore occulto; 27.144
omnes uero herbae uehementiores effectu uiribusque sunt in frigidis et
in aquiloniis, item siccis.
haerens L.’s vocabulary of deathly immobility, both literal and meta-
phorical, features haereo as well as stringo (51 constricto); compare
4.653 pectora pigro stricta gelu (see below) of Antaeus’ dying in Her-
cules’ tight arm hold; TLL VI.2.1732-3.
51 aethere constricto L. here uses aether to mean aër; the two are
often confused (TLL I.2.1150-1). The air has been frozen up in winter’s
total immobility. The participle of constringere normally applies to
snow and ice: Curt. 7.3.11 niues… gelu… constrictae (OLD 6b). For the
idea of water being prevented from flowing, see the phrasing in Sen.
NQ 3.11.5 constricta tellus nec potuerit imbres inagitata transmittere.
pluuias in nube tenebat The idea of immobility continues in further
detail. Winter has kept the clouds so cold that the rain has been held.
L.’s interest in meteorological phenomena is apparent in his explana-
tions. This line is clearly a gloss to explain why the northern wind is
cold but dry.
52 urebant montana nives As in modern languages, the oxymoron of
burning ice is common in post-Virgilian Latin: Ov. F. 1.680 nec noua
per gelidas herba sit usta niues; Tr. 3.4.48 adstricto terra perusta gelu;
Germ. frg. 4.142-3 rura | spesque noua segetis quatientur grandinis
ictu | urenturque (TLL VI.2.1734.5). The Comm. Bern. trace this quasi-
paradox back to Verg. G. 1.93 penetrabile frigus adurat; TLL I.898.59-
899.9. Physicians are to treat frostbite in the same way in which they
would treat a burn: Serenus Lib. Medic. 25.477 illa quoque usta putes
124 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

quae sunt niue laesa rigente; burn prescriptions in Celsus Med. 5.27.13;
cf. also Marcell. Med. 34.91 frigore adustis pedibus (TLL I.898.71).
montana Adn.: ‘quae sunt in montibus loca.’ For the substantival use of
the neuter plural, see TLL VIII.1458.
53 non duraturae conspecto sole pruinae The word order follows the
pattern abBA. With variations, the alternate patterning of noun and
adjective continues in the following two lines.
54 atque omnis propior mergenti sidera caelo The daring hyperbaton
and enclosing word order 54-5 omnis… | … tellus extend to the follow-
ing hemistich.
mergenti For this use of mergeo, see 282 below.
sidera caelo The fifth foot is customary for sidera (by which the con-
stellations are meant). This particular ‘sidereal’ end of verse, however,
reoccurs at 107 and is also found in Virgil, G. 2.342 and A. 4.578; sid-
era caeli occurs at G. 4.58 and A. 1.259; sidera mundi at A. 9.93.
55 aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno The oxymoron of a burning
winter continues in L.’s depiction of the dry winter plains at the western
edge of the known world. As for wounds (see 52n. above), ice and fire
have a similar effect on the soil.
aruerat Cf. 1.687 arentem… Libyen; 4.333 arentem Meroen. In hex-
ameter poetry, aresco is not found before Lucretius 6.841. Of the earth,
areo and aresco are in use since Cato the Elder, see TLL II.504, 508; cf.
Plaut. Persa 42 and Rudens 575.
dura The adjective qualifies the earth also at 2.30, 155, 4.197, and
5.278 (Sannicandro 2006, 153 n. 1). The quality here denoted by durus
is ‘hardness’ in a material sense. It may also connote, however, a par-
ticular aspect of the natural world in a Stoic sense, perhaps also allud-
ing to the moral rigor of the Stoic proficiens. On its occurrence in the
poem to describe in Stoic terms the three major characters Caesar,
Pompey, and especially Cato, see Sannicandro 2006.
56-9 These lines give us the time of the year when the Ilerda campaign
begins: mid to late June (see the table comparing Caesar and L.’s Ilerda
narrative above on 1-24 above). The mutual suicide of the Opitergians,
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 125

narrated in the central part of this book (401-581), is roughly contem-

poraneous with the battle of Ilerda (see 525-8 along with n. below).
56 calidum Titana Cf. Sen. HF 1060 feruide Titan, with notes by
Billerbeck 1999 and Billerbeck/Guex 2002.
57 portitor Helles Cf. Mart. 9.71.7 (TLL VIII.810.15-16 s.v. ‘mereo’).
The rising of the constellation of Aries, the Ram, coincides with the
spring equinox; cf. Q. Cic. Poet. 2 curriculumque Aries aequat noc-
tisque dieique. Helles’ carrier is the Ram of the Golden Fleece that
carried Frixus and his sister Helle over the Dardanelles, i.e., the stretch
of water that divides the European Balkans from Anatolia (Asia Minor).
Helle was the daughter of Nephele and Ino’s husband Atamas. Helle
helped her mother save Frixus from being sacrificed to Zeus, but while
flying along with her brother on the back of the ram, she fell into the
waters of the Hellespont, hence the name. See Ov. M. 7.7 and 11.195;
Apollod. Myth. 1.9.1 [80, 82 Scarpi ].
58-9 atque iterum aequatis ad iustae pondera Librae | temporibus
uicere dies As Housman notes, the periphrasis in ablative absolute
aequatis… temporibus denotes the coming of the spring equinox, which
in 49 BCE fell on May 14, for the next new moon would come on June
9. On the basis of Caes. BC 1.48, Housman assumes that the storm de-
scribed in 48-120 must have occurred sometime around the end of May
(Housman ad 4.58-61; see 60n. below). Yet taken literally, 56-9 should
point to a time around mid-June.
60 Cynthia, quo primum cornu… refulsit The new moon begins to
be visible. It is impossible, however, to determine the exact date of the
storm on the sole basis of Caes. BC 1.48 (pace Housman ad 56-61:
‘aequinoctium uernum anni 49 in prid. id. Mai incidit, proxima autem
luna noua VII id. Iun. conspici coepta est; tempestatem uero quam tum
poeta extitisse uult reapse exeunte demum mense coortam esse colligi-
tur ex Caes. b. c. I 48.’).
dubitanda As an adjective, this future passive participle (or gerundive)
does not merely express the idea of necessity or obligation, as one
would expect in the passive periphrastic conjugation. Here the incipient
new moon is barely visible and, with a nice touch, L. is conveying a
sense of, as it were, precise indeterminacy, for when the new-moon
126 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

crescent is so dim and hard to perceive to the human eye that one would
doubt to see it, the new lunar month is at its very start.
61 exclusit Borean flammasque accepit in Euro The moon ‘shut out
Boreas and took flames in Eurus’, i.e., ‘the moon grew red’ (Braund).
The names of the winds are metonymies for the cardinal points. The
sense is that the moon’s lit crescent faces to the east (Eurus) while the
unlit portion points toward the north (Boreas ~ Aquilo). On the winds
and the epic storm, see Mario Labate’s entry in EV V.1.494-8 s.v.
‘venti’. On the winds, their names, and their geographical significance,
see R. Boerer, RE 8A.2288-325, s.v. ‘Windnamen’; C.R. Phillips, Der
neue Pauly 12.2.515-21, s.v. ‘Winde’.
Euro As in Virgil (Labate in EV V.1.498), eurus denotes the east wind.
For the Latin poets eurus is the Homeric eûros (Il. 2.145; cf. LSJ s.v.),
which Gellius connects with ēōs, the name of the goddess of sunrise in
Greek (Gell. 2.22.7 Qui uentus igitur ab oriente uerno, id est aequinoc-
tiali, uenit, nominatur ‘eurus’ ut isti ἐτυµολογικοί aiunt, ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς ἠοῦς
ῥέων). The southern wind (auster or notus) is the usual bringer of
clouds and rain, as L. himself glosses it a 9.319 densis… niger imbribus
Auster, but for the Iberian campaign the eastern wind, as the equinoctial
wind (as Gellius cited above reminds us), is more appropriate and veri-
similarly reflects (or conjures reliance upon) meteorological accuracy,
given that the storm in question occurred not long after the spring equi-
nox (see on 58-9 above).
Boreas As in Virgil (Labate in EV V.1.497), boreas (or aquilo) denotes
the north wind, but the term seems to apply most properly to the wind
that blows from north-northeast (OLD s.v.).
62 ille Eurus.
suo in nubes quascumque inuenit axe The enclosing word order, with
the hyperbaton suo in… axe, isolates the relative clause that functions
as the object of torsit (63).
63 torsit in occiduum… orbem The enclosing word order follows a
pattern similar to the previous line.
Nabataeis flatibus In mentioning the Nabataeans only here to denote
the east, L. probably has in mind a passage from Ov. M. 1.61, quoted in
full by his uncle at Sen. NQ 5.16.4-9 to illustrate the main four winds.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 127

L. gives Eurus’ gusts the epithet Nabataean to refer to the first of the
three stages of his poetic retracing of the east wind’s path back to its
far-eastern origin. The exotic ethnonym evokes eastern luxury and not
only adorns L.’s geography of the winds but also illustrates an aspect of
Roman imperialism by mentioning a region that became known to Ro-
mans at the time of Caesar and Pompey: B. Alex. 1.1; Strabo 14.4.21
(Barchiesi 2005, 160 on Ov. M. 1.61). It was Pompey who submitted
the wealthy Nabataean Arabs to Roman rule (Plut. Pompey 41; Fan-
tham 1992, 194 on 2.590-4).
64-5 et quas sentit Arabs et quas Gangetica tellus | exhalat nebulas
The object of sentit is nebulas, ‘mist, fog’, as the source of moisture
that, exhaling (exhalat) from the seas and the rivers, condenses into the
clouds. L.’s phrasing reflects his awareness of the origin of the rain, a
topic Seneca must have treated in the lost sections of the fragmentary
fourth book of his Naturales Quaestiones.
64 quas sentit Arabs From 65 exhalat, one infers that sentit is in the
present tense. The force of the present tense in this relative clause in-
troduced by quas expresses a general truth, i.e., it describes a phenome-
non that occurs repeatedly: The Arabs always feel (sentit) the clouds
gathered by the eastern wind.
Arabs For the collective singular, compare 3.245 Armenius (and con-
trast 3.247 Arabes; the earliest use of collective singular in Roman po-
etry could be Hor. Epo. 16.6 infidelis Allobrox; on its dating between
42 and 31 BCE, see Mankin 1995, 244.) The Arabs are identified as
Pompey’s conquest in 2.590 me domitus cognouit Arabs (collective
singular, Fantham 1992a, 194 ad 2.590-4). They are listed as Pompeian
in the catalog at 3.247 and later fight at Pharsalus (7.442 and 514). Here
the ethnonym functions as a metonymy for the orient (as e.g. at 7.442),
zooming out, as it were, from the specific Nabataean to the generic
Arab.
Gangetica This adjective occurs only here in the poem and a total of
only eight times in the extant corpus of classical Latin (especially in
connection with tigers). L. mentions the Ganges several times: 2.496,
3.230, 8.227, 10.33, 252. The Ganges and India indicate the eastern
ends of the world: Ov. M. 4.21 extremo qua tinguitur India Gange; cf.
F. 3.729; Sen. Oed. 427. ‘At 3.320f. and 8.227 L. associates the Ganges
128 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

and Pompey’s Asian conquests with the far east’ (Fantham 1992a, 174
ad 2.496)
65 concrescere Technically, of the condensation that forms the clouds
(OLD 1b): Lucr. 6.250 per totum concrescunt aera nubes. The term
seems to apply technically to the condensation of water into clouds; see
Bailey 1947 ad Lucr. 6.250 and 451-94.
66 quidquid defenderat Indos i.e., from the heat of the sun (Comm.
Bern.).
fuscator This agent noun is a neologism and an hapax in Latin; it func-
tions like an adjectival clause, such as qui fuscat; cf. 10.135 fuscante.
The verb fuscare (from adjective fuscus) is uncommon; TLL VI.1.1652-
3. Its first occurrence is Manil. 4.532 multa caligine fuscat sidus (sc.
Cancer); cf. Ov. Tr. 1.11.5 fuscabatque diem custos Atlantidos Vrsae;
cf. Plin. NH 37.84.9. On verbal nouns in –tor see on 4.4 above. L. en-
joys making new words; see Introduction, 22-3 above.
67 Corus [~ Caurus] North wind of the western quadrant, properly,
north-northwest. L. makes this wind the source of cloudiness in the
eastern skies. Verg. G. 3.456 semper spirantes frigora cauri; Labate,
EV V.1.497a.
68 incendere diem The eastern clouds set the day on fire (Braund),
describing perhaps the flame like the light of a reddish sky. The only
close parallel for the expression is in L. himself at 9.499 incensus…
dies, where the sense pertains to temperature rather than light: ‘as the
day has grown hotter;’ TLL VII.867.39-56. For the idea, see Sen. HF
236 adusta medius regna quae torret dies.
69 nec medio potuere graues incumbere mundo The clouds failed to
settle on the middle part of the world. Comm. Bern.: ‘stare non po-
tuerunt in meridianam plagam sed in occasum.’ Similarly, Arnulf
glosses medio…mundo as ‘antequam in Occidente nam quidquid est
inter duo extrema medium potest dici,’ that is before they reach the
west, but it is not obvious how the west can be the center of the mun-
dus. Probably mundus medius here is the equatorial zone and therefore
this use of mundus is analogous 106 below, where mundi pars ima
means Antarctica. If so, this medius mundus might then be one of the
five climatic zones in which Eratosthenes (Hermes frg. 16 Powell) di-
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 129

vided the earth (cf. Verg. G. 1.233 quinque tenent caelum zonae, with
Thomas ad 2.231-56). L. explicitly refers to the climatic zones at 9.313
zonae… perustae (Asso 2002a ad loc.); cf. 9.432-3 perusti | aetheris;
10.274-5 perusti zona poli (with Berti’s notes).
graues The clouds are ‘heavy’ or grauidae (Haskins), pregnant with
water; Comm. Bern. ‘plenae pluuiis’.
70 sed nimbos rapuere fuga. uacat imbribus Arctos The narrative
tense switches in one line from the perfect rapuere to the present uacat.
In addition to the sense of immediacy conveyed by the historical pre-
sent, there is perhaps also the value of general truth, meaning that the
north wind is generally rainless.
Arctos i.e., the north (Hor. C. 1.26.3), it always follows the Greek in-
flection in L. (1.458, 2.586, 3.251, 6.342, 9.539, 10.48, 220). L. here
uses the singular as a metonymy for the northern quadrant, as at 2.586
(see Fantham’s note), 9.539 and 10.220. Properly, it denotes either or
both constellations of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper; for the plural
see Housman ad Manil. 1.283; cf. Probus ad Verg. G. 1.233.
71 Notos By metonymy, the south wind denotes the south. Perhaps to
exploit the assonance with Arctos, L. has preferred here the Greek in-
flection, as with acc. Noton at 5.542, 7.364, 9.539, 695, 10.243. Other-
wise the MSS have Notum at 2.460 and 5.609; Notus at 5.571 and 714.
Calpen As at 1.555, Calpe (Gibraltar) is a metonymy for the west.
72 ubi iam Zephyri fines Grotius’ punctuation is necessary to isolate
this clause because L. here not only describes the western horizon in
general, but the suggests that ‘right were (ubi iam) the west ends
(Zephyri fines [sunt])’ one has the illusion that the line of the horizon,
here seen as the western edge of the earth, ‘contains’ (73 tenet) the sea.
As at 4.61 Borean… Euro, 67 Corus, and 71 Notos, the wind name
metonymically indicates the corresponding cardinal point.
72-3 summus Olympi | cardo tenet Tethyn The idea is that the edge
of the western sky, visible as the line constituted by the horizon, ‘re-
strains’ (Braund) the ocean.
cardo The western cardinal point, or the western sky; see below on
672.
130 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

Tethyn The primordial deity Tethys, wife of Ocean, is here a meton-

ymy for sea, as often in poetry she denotes the wet element: Catull.
64.28-9; only once in Virgil, G. 1.31 (Cerutti in EV V.151b-152a).
73-5 ‘The clouds coil (inuoluere) into dense masses, forbidden (uetitae
sc. nubes, from 68 above:) to go further. The space that separates earth
and sky, congested with dark mist, can hardly take in more.’
The underlying theory here seems to be that weather phenomena
are believed to occupy the layer of aer between the earth and the aether
above the moon (75); Sen. NQ Book II.
73-4 densos | inuoluere globos Rain clouds have formed by ‘coiling
up’ into masses (globos). The perfect inuoluere reminds us that this is a
narrative of a particular storm and not a generic description of a mete-
orological phenomenon in scientific terms.
74-5 congestumque aeris atri | spatium quod separat aethere ter-
ram The air is said to be dark as a result, perhaps, of the accumulation
of rain clouds but congestum and densos… globos also convey the idea
of weight and density, and therefore deathly immobility (Loupiac 1998,
55) in L’s description of the reduced light before a storm. At 9.5 ni-
ger… aer, however, the dark aer indicates the sub-lunar sky, the space
between earth and moon; Adn. 9.5 ‘usque ad lunarem circulum turbidus
est aer.’ The space that divides the earth from ether beyond the moon is
imagined to be full of ‘dark air’ in contrast with the inflamed ether that
is always bright and lit; Comm. Bern. ad 9.5 niger… aer: ‘potest uel
secundum consuetudinem ‘nigrum’ dixisse, quoniam remoto sole in
umbra id est niger relinquitur, uel etiam ex comparatione eius aeris qui
semper inflammatur atque igneus est. quem uocamus aethera, ultimum
mundi supraque aera positum, semper lucentem, quod huic aeri non
accidit’ (see Housman ad 9.5).
76 iamque polo pressae This is the first instance of L.’s repeated use
of iam in the following lines (83, 87, 93, and 98) to build up to the
storm; see Leigh 1997, 43-4 ad 98-9: ‘While none of these developing
narrative stages can be said finally to merge he temporalities, while iam
does not exactly equate to nunc, it is significant that Lucan observes the
different stages in the escalation as they happened.’ What the adverb
iam accomplishes in this sequential use is to mark the verbs’ narrative
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 131

tenses and thus render the description vividly rich in each of the phases
of the approaching storm.
pressae The clouds (68 nubes) are now (iam) squeezed by the sky
(polo; but we need to think here of air or wind: see 77-8n. below). The
use of premere for clouds to explain the phenomenology of rain has a
distinct Lucretian tinge; Lucr. 6.518 sed uemens imber fit, ubi uementer
utraque | nubila ui premuntur et impete uenti; cf. Ov. M. 1.268 manu…
nubila pressit [sc. Notus]; TLL X.2.1173.29-36. The idea of squeezing
the rain out of the clouds is found in Epicurus’ Letter to Pythocles (Epi-
cur. ad Pyth. 99-100) and ultimately goes back to Anaximenes and
Xenophanes (Bailey 1947, 1627 ad Lucr. 6.495).
77-8 nec seruant fulmina flammas | quamuis crebra micent: extin-
guunt fulgura nimbi The sound and sense of L.’s wording reflect the
theories about the origins of lightening as expounded in Book II of
Seneca’s Naturales Questiones. The thunderbolts are believed to be
produced by the clouds under wind pressure (76 pressae).
77 fulmina flammas This alliterative juxtaposition is attested first in
Accius frg. 34-5 Ribbeck and in a fragment of Cicero’s poem De con-
sulatu suo (De Divin. 1.20.4); cf. Manil. 3.6 fulminis et flammis and
3.15 fulmine flammis. The juxtaposition of the sounds ful- fla- followed
my the labio-nasal m, may hint at the belief of the origin of the fulmen
from flame(flamma): Sen. NQ 2.21.1 quid in confesso est? fulmen
ignem esse, et aeque fulgurationem, quae nihil aliud est quam flamma,
futura fulmen, si plus uirium habuisset.
79-82 On the rainbow, see the extended section in Sen. NQ 1.3-8. L.’s
admiration for the rainbow as a physical phenomenon is noted by Häus-
sler 1978, 51, who connects such interest in meteorology with L.’s
Stoic teacher Cornutus and, mentioning the rainbow goddess Iris (con-
spicuously unnamed in L.’s poem, one might add), suggests that L.’s
notion of the divine lies rather in Nature than in the supernatural.
80 arcus uix ulla uariatus luce colore The rainbow’s colors are hardly
visible in the scarcity of light.
81 Oceanumque bibit For the notion that the rainbow absorbs water,
see Verg. G. 1.380-1 et bibit ingens | arcus (with Thomas’ n.); already
in Plaut. Curc. 131 bibit arcus.
132 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

82 aequor Lit. ‘leveled expanse’, a common metonymy for sea or wa-

ter.
83-4 iamque Pyrenaeae… | …niues On iamque, see 76 above. This is
the only occurrence of the adjective Pyrenaeus in L., who is the only
writer that mentions snow in reference to the Iberian side of the Pyre-
nees. The only other mention of the Pyrenees’ snows refers to the Ga-
ronna river and its source of flooding for the eastern side in Gaul: Mela
3.21.1 Garunna ex Pyrenaeo monte delapsus, nisi cum hiberno imbre
aut solutis niuibus intumuit diu uadosus et uix nauigabilis fertur. Pre-
sumably, the Iberian extrema mundi are less talked about than Gaul.
83 Pyrenaeae The first occurrence of Pyrenaeus as an adjective is in
Caes. BG 1.1.7 Pyrenaeos montes. As a noun, it is first attested in Cato
ORF 30.1 Malcovati. Usually, when mentioning the Pyrenees, authors
speak of iuga, or saltum (Caes. BG 1.37.1; BC 3.19.2; Livy 21.30.5), or
montes (e.g., Caes. BG 1.1.7; Livy 21.23.4), whereas the mention of
snow is quite common with the Alps (e.g., L. 1.553-4; Livy 21.54.7;
Plin. NH 3.134). In Silius, for instance, the peaks of the Pyrenees are
given the epithet ‘leafy’, suggesting, perhaps, either a perpetual ever-
green condition, Sil. 3.415 Pyrenaei frondosa cacumina montis, or
more probably the season of Hannibal’s crossing (late spring of 218
BCE).
84 fluxere niues Snow regresses toward water in the progressive of
landscape obliteration at the mercy of the elements (Loupiac 1998,
190).
84-5 fractoque madescunt | saxa gelu The phrase fracto… gelu frames
the clause. For frango of ice, see Sen. Epist. 78.23 fracta… glacie NQ
4.5.4 disturbata niue et glacie frangente se. The wording describes the
rocks as ‘sweating’, verisimilarly becoming wet as all does in the
spring thaw, but there is the suggestion that the rocks themselves are
melting, perhaps decomposing, for water is one of the elemental stages
of matter, in which objects begin to loosen their distinctiveness and
regress to chaos. Not unlike water, fire can ‘melt’ the rock: 3.506 saxa
ingentia soluit. On water and decomposition in L., see Loupiac 1998,
100, 104-8.
85-7 Instead of rivers overflowing their banks, L. paradoxically de-
scribes the water from the banks flowing into the river bed.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 133

87-8 iam naufraga campo | Caesaris arma natant On iam, see 76n.
above. Caesar’s soldiers are depicted as shipwrecked and swimming on
land. The paradox conveys a sense of pathos for the soldiers’ endurance
and further suggests that the end of civil war might require the defeat of
Caesar, as intimated by Leigh 1997, 46. See ad 16-17 above.
naufraga campo The oxymoron attests to L.’s love of paradox and
hyperbole. The image of shipwrecking (on) land seems to be unique to
L., and is hyperbolically reminiscent of the deluge. Predictably, the
image has a Lucretian pedigree, though the model is not as imaginative:
Lucr. 5.488 camposque natantis, cf. 6.267, 405, 1142; imitated in
Manil. 5.542 naufraga tellus (cf. 4.726 and 752 of Nile’s flood); Sil.
8.70 naufraga terra. The locus classicus for deluge imagery remains
Ov. Met. 1.290-2.
89 castra labant On labare, see 41n. above. For this sense, cf. 7.521;
TLL VII.2.778. The phrase sounds unique but otherwise unremarkable;
see TLL III.556.
93-4 iamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum | saeua
fames On iamque, see 76n. above. The metaphorical use of comes for
the inanimate (here fames) reoccurs at 431 below (for ships); Gregorius
1893, 13.
96 exiguam Cererem By antonomasia, the goddess of crops denotes
food (either bread or the wheat grain to make it). For the epithet, see
Verg. A. 7.113 exiguam in Cererem (with Horsfall’s n.).
pro lucri pallida tabes This is a forceful interjection; on pro, see also
194 and 231; 2.98; TLL X.2.1438-40. Here pallida tabes is in the voca-
tive case and governs the objective genitive lucri. The adjective pal-
lidus is transferred from the affected subject to the cause of the affec-
tion (TLL X.1.130.63, 131.13). In a typically Lucanian image, the
hungry soldiers’ greed is depicted as ‘pallid wasting away’. For paral-
lels in contexts of hunger, compare Verg. A. 3.217-18 pallida semper |
ora fame, and especially 8.197 ora [sc. mortuorum] uirum tristi pende-
bant pallida tabo; Ov. M. 15.627 pallida… exsangui squalebant corpo-
ra tabo (TLL X.1.130.17-18). The noun tabes is a technical term that
describes the result of food scarcity on the human body: Plin. NH 2.156
ne… fames… lenta nos consumeret tabe. L. is fond of hypallage
134 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

(Hübner 1972); see below 725n., 764n.; Asso 2002a, 19, 179 ad 9.355,
188 ad 9.370-1, 203 ad 9.410; Fantham 1992a, 37.
97 non dest prolato ieiunus uenditor auro Love of profit is so great
that a hungry man will sell his only food. L. reproduces the pathos of a
Virgilian apostrophe: Verg. A. 3.56-7 quid non mortalia pectora cogis |
auri sacra fames (Curcio 1903, vi). On the rising cost of annona, see
Caes. BC 1.52. On –tor nouns, see 4n. above.
98-105 The description of the flood resonates with the Ovidian lan-
guage of chaos in the beginning of creation. The hyperbole of the tide
stronger than Ocean amplifies into the image of night woven against the
sky even though it is daytime. On L.’s deluge imagery and his treat-
ment of Erathostenes’ five-zone theory, see Raschle 2007, 59-69.
99 una palus uastaque uoragine mersit The phrase una palus evokes
immobility, the calm after the storm, but everything is covered by water
and the landscape has been completely obliterated by the flood
(Loupiac 1998, 100-1 and n. 93; also 101-5, 190).
102-3 reppulit aestus | fortior Oceani The force of the flood is so
great that it drives back the sea currents.
104 nox subtexta polo Cf. 7.519 ferro subtexitur aether | noxque super
campos telis conserta pependit; Sen. Phoen. 422 atra nube subtexens
diem; Phaedra 955-6 nunc atra uentis nubila impellentibus | subtexe
noctem; NQ 1.4.2 ingens uariumque corpus… subtexitur caelo (the
rainbow). L.’s formulation is closely echoed in St. Theb. 1.346 subtexit
nox atra polo; cf. also 2.527 and 9.27; Silvae 3.1.127; Val. Fl. 5.412.
The image of night ‘woven underneath the sky’ (Braund) may owe to
Verg. A. 3.582 caelum subtexere fumo (see Horsfall 2006, ad loc.), but
is ultimately Lucretian: Lucr. 5.466 subtexunt nubila caelum; 6.482
subtexit caerula. In our passage, the expression might suggest the
‘fluffy’ feeling conveyed by the sky serving as a coverlet of the dark
fogginess in the air heavy with moisture.
104-5 rerum discrimina miscet | deformis caeli facies iunctaeque
tenebrae Back to the lack of distinction of primordial chaos and no
light. For the idea of ruin and regression to the earliest moments of
creation, see Salemme 2002, Loupiac 1998, 104.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 135

106-7 sic mundi pars ima iacet, quam zona niualis | perpetuaeque
premunt hiemes For Erathosthenes’ zones, see Verg. G. 1.240-3;
Raschle 2007, 61-5. The mundi pars ima must be Antarctica, perpetu-
ally oppressed by winter snows (Housman citing Burmann 1740 ad
loc.), but it is not clear why in speaking of the icy zone L. prefers the
south to the north pole here (Housman). The stiffness of ice and the
frigidness of perpetual winter evoke the paralysis of death (Loupiac
1998, 191-8).
107-9 non… | …non… | sed This is what Esposito 2004a calls ‘nega-
zione per antitesi’, or negation reinforced by an expressed (or implied)
antithesis, here introduced by the adversative conjunction sed. The in-
stances studied by Esposito occur in Book IV at 378-81 (uselessness of
luxury); 415-26 (unusual boats); 558-66 (mass suicide); 749-64 (pa-
ralysis in combat), and elsewhere in the poem at 2.354-80 (a renown
passage on Cato’s ‘non-marriage’, an example of L.’s fondness for
‘negative enumeration’, on which see Fantham ad loc.; 220-7n. below;
Bramble 1982); 3.399-425 (an ‘uninhabited’ grove; see Fantham 2003),
3.726-51 (a father’s tragic decision to kill himself not to survive his
moribund son), 5.148-57 (fake oracle), 5.430-5 and 442-6 (terrifying
immobility of the elements), 6.369-70 (an ‘unnatural’ river), 6.423-34
and 507-25 (new rituals), 7.834-44 (an incomplete slaughter), 8.368-88
(Parthians’ lack of expertise in military strategy), 10.111-19 (uncom-
mon opulence), 10.515-19 (Pothinus’ punishment), 10.537-41 (no es-
cape).
109 glacie medios signorum temperat ignes For medii ignes, under-
stand ‘the tropical constellations’: The ice of the polar zone cools the
fire of the tropical constellations. Housman compares 9.532 medium
signorum… orbem, which is appositely named signifer. Braund’s ‘fires
of the southern constellations’ is not precise because ignes means
‘stars’ (by metonymy synonymous with signa), as it often does in
Manilius; cf. Bourgery’s ‘constellations temperées;’ cf. Loupiac 1998,
114, quoting Beaujeu’s still inadequate ‘refraîchit les feux méridionaux
[sc. tropicales?] des signes.’ Different uses of the phrase medii ignes at
e.g., 1.231-2 ignes | solis; 6.337 medios ignes caeli; 8.159 iam pelago
medios Titan demissus ad ignes.
110-20 L. invokes the gods of the upper world, Jupiter and Neptune, as
the deities that oversee sky, water, and land stability, and asks them to
136 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

end the civil war (Leigh 1997, 42-5). Syndikus 1958, 42-3, reads the
prayer as uttered by someone who could still turn away the calamity of
civil war, and along the same lines, Marti 1975, 86, considers it an ‘in-
terruption of the narrative by an anonymous persona whose voice ex-
presses sentiments identical with those of the author but who, unlike
him, is totally ignorant of the future.’ For an analysis of the paradoxes
in the prayer, see Hutchinson 1993, 250-5.
Apostrophe is the apposite figure in a prayer but, among the figures,
apostrophe is the one that appeals the least to modern esthetical percep-
tions. The figure, however, is frequently attested throughout Roman
poetry. The Virgilian use of apostrophe for variation and dramatic ef-
fect has come to constitute the standard of modern criticism. From Ovid
onward, apostrophe becomes more frequent than modern readers would
like; cf. Conte 1988, 108-9 on 6.248 on the poet’s apostrophe to
Scaeva. On the (modern) critics’ aversion against (and failure to dis-
cuss) apostrophe, see Culler 1981, 135-54 (= Culler 1977). For an ap-
preciation of apostrophe in L., see Martindale 1993, 67-8; cf. Berlin
1994, 166-73 and Asso 2008.
110 o summe parens mundi The ‘greatest father of the universe’ is
Jupiter, who is invoked first.
110-11 sorte secunda | aequorei rector… Neptune tridentis In the
apportionment of power with Jupiter/Zeus and Hades/Pluto, Nep-
tune/Poseidon obtained the rule of the seas; Il. 15.185-93; Pl. Gorg.
423a.
110 sorte secunda In Ovid, Neptune plays an auxiliary role as flood
commander (Ov. Met. 1.275-82).
112-13 et tu… | tu The anaphora emphasizes L.’s hyperbolic request
for eternal deluge, and supposedly the end of everything, in order to
end the civil war. The first tu is Jupiter, the second Neptune. Jupiter
strains/swells the sky with constant storm clouds, while Neptune for-
bids the currents or tides to turn back.
L. uses the anaphora of tu, understandably common in prayers and
apostrophe, rather sparingly, and chiefly in climactic moments of in-
tense pathos such as 6.260-1, where L. evaluates Scaeva’s aristeia as a
paradigm of negative heroism (see Conte 1988, 111 ad loc.), or 8.833-4
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 137

in an apostrophe to Egypt within his extended lament over Pompey’s

death.
The imagery of deluge and world ruin is frequent in L. and is usu-
ally expressed in Stoic terms (e.g. 1.652 nigros Saturni ignis with
Gagliardi 1989 ad loc.; Loupiac 1998, 28). L.’s resort to the imagery of
cosmic dissolution has been ascribed to the poet’s almost morbid inter-
est in natural disasters, which he obsessively interprets as cosmic catas-
trophes (Lapidge 1979 that lead to no cycle of regeneration.
112 tu perpetuis inpendas aera nimbis The noun nimbus technically
denotes a rain cloud and, by extension, a sudden downpour, as in B.
Afr. 47.1 nimbus cum saxea grandine subito est exortus (OLD 2; cf.
4.776n. below). The sense of perpetuus here is OLD 4 ‘permanent, in
perpetuity’ rather than unbroken in space. By calling for perpetual rain
clouds, the jussive of L.’s prayer invokes virtually a disastrous deluge
and therefore a return to the primordial broth, for the end of everything
would end the civil war.
115-16 concussaque tellus | laxet iter fluuiis In Ovid, Neptune
changes the course of rivers (Met. 1.276-92), and strikes the earth with
his trident (ibid. 283). For this use of laxare and its frequency in ‘infer-
nal’ contexts, see 3.17 in multas laxantur Tartara poenas; Sen. HF 80
laxa specum; 673 ampla uacuis spatia laxantur locis; Oed. 582-3 de-
hiscit terra et immenso sinu | laxata patuit. Cf. χαυνῶ and TLL VII.2,
107, 45-67.
116-18 hos campos Rhenus inundet | hos Rhodanus… | Riphaeas
huc solue niues, huc stagna lacusque The anaphoric sequence of deic-
tics (hos… hos… huc… huc; for the text see Housman ad 118) conveys
a sense of immediacy, as if the narrator were present on the site of the
events narrated, but the rivers he addresses are the distant Rhine and
Rhône (cf. the alliterative rivers in Ov. Met. 2.258 Rhenum Rhodanum-
que). The effect of distancing is a result of the ‘geographic inconcin-
nity’, a ‘calculated violation of dramatic naturalism’ (Leigh 1997, 44
and n. 5).
118-19 stagna lacusque | et pigras, ubicumque iacent, effunde
paludes A palus does not flow anywhere, but the vocabulary resonates
with underworld associations. Sen. HF 686 iacet describes the mo-
tionless expanse of the infernal marches formed by the river Cocytus.
138 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

L. is thus describing this calmness after the rains in words that else-
where apply to the deathly stillness of the underworld. See e.g., Sil.
13.562-3 iacet in spatium sine corpore pigra uorago | limosique lacus.
118 Riphaeas… niues The epithet Riphaeus in poetry denotes the ex-
treme north (OLD s.v.). The montes Rip(h)aei are fabulous mountains
believed to be in northern Europe and later identified with actual moun-
tains in Scythia; cf. Enn. Sat. 68; Verg. G. 1.240 and 3.382.
120 et miseras bellis ciuilibus eripe terras The poet wishes that the
civil war would end, and adds emphasis on his wish by using unusual
syntax: ‘snatch the wretched lands from civil war,’ instead of the re-
verse, ‘take war away from the wretched lands,’ a thought which would
sound more natural. The authorial wish reoccurs at 5.297-9 sic eat, o
superi: quando pietasque fidesque | destituunt moresque malos sperare
relictum est, | finem ciuili faciat discordia bello; and at 5.315-16 saeue,
quid insequeris? quid iam nolentibus instas | bellum te ciuile fugit
(Leigh 1997, 74-5).
121-47 With the end of the storm, Petreius sees that Caesar has again
found his luck. He decides to abandon Ilerda and look for reinforce-
ments from among the local tribes. With the new iam (121), the narra-
tor fades, as signaled by the switch from the prayer’s present jussive
subjunctives (111 facias; 112 impendas; 113 uetes; 114 habeant; 115
referantur; 116 laxet and inundet; 117 obliquent) and imperatives (118
solue; 119 effunde; 120 eripe) to the narrative tenses: the pluperfect
sparserat, the imperfects rubebant (125) and pendebat (127), and the
perfect discessit (126).
121 fortuna This is the first of thirteen occurrences of F-/fortuna in
Book IV: 4.243, 256, 342, 390, 398, 402, 497, 661 (see below ad loc.),
712, 730, 737, 785, 789. Housman’s distinction between Fortuna and
fortuna relies, as one infers form his preface (xxxv), on Hosius’ read-
ings of the MSS. On F-/fortuna in L., see Friedrich 1970; Brisset 1964,
70-4 and passim; Ahl 1976, 280-305; but on the difficulty of distin-
guishing among the concepts of ‘gods’, ‘fate’, and ‘fortune’ and their
functions in L.’s narrative, see Long 2007, 185 n. 12; Narducci 2002,
84 and n. 38; Fantham 1992a, 9; Feeney 1991, 280.
122 solitoque magis This rare use magis to form the comparative with
solito (nine occurrences in classical Latin) is first attested in Livy
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 139

5.44.7 and occurs in poetry only here , at Sen. Tro. 1139 magisque
solito splendet extremus decor (cf. NQ 6.6.2), and Val. Fl. 7.65. On this
aspect of the Latin comparative with the ablatives aequo, iusto, solito,
and dicto, see Kühner/Stegmann II.470 § 225 n. 14.
123 et ueniam meruere dei As L. repeatedly indicates (3.449-50;
5.593-677), ‘The divine gives way to Caesar with disheartening regu-
larity’ (Phillips 1968, 300). Caesar now pardons the gods as he will
Afranius and Petreius at 363-81 below, and as he formerly pardoned the
heroically reluctant Domitius at Corfinium (2.512-25, with Lebek 1976,
154-5, and Fantham 1992a, 176-8). So Fortune and the gods seem to
refer their decision to Caesar; hence the paradoxical notion that the
gods deserve pardon. Analogously, fortune is said to have dared against
Caesar at 4.402-3; cf. Malcovati 1940, 73 (but L.’s concept of luck in
relation to morals is difficult; see the clever argument on ‘moral luck’
in Long 2007). Contrast 243-4 deorum | inuidia below, where the gods
are held responsible.
rarior aer The air in the storm was described as thick, dense with
moisture and darkness. The storm aftermath is marked by lighter air
(Loupiac 1998, 55).
124 par Phoebus aquis The noun par here is unmarked, i.e., it does not
carry the symbolical meaning it has elsewhere in the poem (on par is a
gladiatorial term and a keyword in Book IV as well as in the whole
poem, see below 620n.). Applied to Phoebus, here in his hypostatsis as
the Sun God, par denotes here the sun’s unequal forces to forestall the
waters’ destructive energy.
densas in uellera nubes On uellus as a poetic metaphor for clouds, see
Varro Atacinus frg. 21 Morel nubes sicut uellera lane constabunt;
Mynors 1990 ad Verg. G. 1.397 lanae per caelum uellera. Elsewhere
uellus is said of feathers (Grattius 77 niuei… uellera cygni), or snow
(Manil. 2.445 niuei… uellera signi). On the development of the meta-
phor in the Greek and Latin authors, see Moreno Soldevila 2006, 109
ad Mart. 4.3.1 densum tacitarum uellus aquarum.
125 noctes uentura luce rubebant For the plural, see Housman: ‘noc-
tium continuarum seriei succedebat diluculum.’
140 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

126 seruatoque loco rerum The elements have returned to their proper
places.
126-7 discessit ab astris | umor Hyperbole is one of L.’s favorite fig-
ures: The storm was so violent that the moisture had reached the stars.
128 tollere silua comas, stagnis emergere colles | incipiunt On the
flood subsiding, see Ov. M. 1.346-7 postque diem longam nudata ca-
cumina siluae | ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum
(Haskins).
129 uisoque die durescere ualles Lit. ‘The valleys grow hard at the
sight of day.’ The use of durescere in poetry is rare. For the sound of
the inchoative verbal form, L. has perhaps in mind Ov. M. 1.345 cres-
cunt iuga decrescentibus undis, but chooses to focus on the hardening
of the soil. To express the same idea, Virgil prefers making durare an
intransitive in Ecl. 6.35 tum durare solum et discludere Nerea ponto
(Clausen).
130 utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque reliquit Ov. M. 1.343-4
plenos capit alueus amnes, | flumina subsidunt.
131 cana salix The color of the willow falls in the range of the silver-
grey tones: Verg. G. 2.13 glauca canentia fronde salicta; Ov. M. 5.590
cana salicta (cf. 6.527-8 cani |…lupi, ‘grey wolf’); see André 1949, 65;
TLL III.296.63. On the willow, see Plin. NH 16.77; André 1985, 224.
madefacto uimine The participle describes the flexible branches of the
willow, which naturally grows on water banks. The drenched willow
branches are apt for wickerwork.
The forms of madefacio are not common in poetry (only one occur-
rence in Virgil), but the passive is found as early as Catull. 64.368 alta
Polyxenia madefient caede sepulcra, referring to Polyxena slain as a
sacrificial animal on Achilles’ tomb (cf. Verg. A. 5.330 on the sacrifi-
cial blood of a bull). Ovid uses madefacio of blood several times in the
Metamorphoses (cf. 1.149-50 caede madentes | … terras, of the earth
soaking up the blood of the Giants): Pyramus’ blood drenches the soil
at 4.126; Tisiphone’s blood-soaked torch is part of her attire at 4.481;
one of Perseus’ victims warms the earth by soaking it in his blood at
5.78; a dove’s plumage is drenched in blood in a simile at 6.529; An-
caeus, Meleager’s companion in the hunt of the Calidonian boar, soaks
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 141

the earth with his blood at 8.402; the centaur Rhoetus is drenched in
blood at 12.301; and finally Venus hears of her descendant’s future
revenge at Philippi, where the Emathian fields will be drenched in
blood for the second time: 15.823-4 Pharsalia sentiet illum (sc. Venus’
descendant Caesar), | Emathiique iterum madefient caede Philippi (Oc-
tavian’s revenge for his adoptive father’s death). The remaining occur-
rences of madefacio in poetry refer to ladies’ facials (Ov. Medic. Faciei
55 and 99), drunken bodies drenched in wine (Ov. Ars 3.765), fragrance
([Tibull.] 3.6.63 and 3.8.16; Ov. M. 4.253;), and tears (Tibull. 2.6.32;
Ov. M. 6.396).
131-2 paruam | texitur in puppem caesoque inducta iuuenco Rudi-
mentary rafts are made out of wickerwork and ox hides; Caes. BC 1.54
carinae ac prima statumina ex leui materia fiebant; reliquum corpus
nauium uiminibus contextum coriis integebatur. This is the Welsh cora-
cle, of which see Isid. Orig. 19.1.26 carabus, parua scapha, ex uimine
facta, quae contexta crudo corio genus nauigii praebet.
133 uectoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem The rafts are
light but able to support the weight of a passenger and dash swiftly on
the swelling waters of the river. The molossus that opens the line (uec-
toris) is followed by the rapid dactylic rhythm that well renders the idea
of the rafts effectively carrying the soldiers.
super emicat Badalí prints superemicat and in apparatus reports the
Adn. reading superenatat, which would be a neologism (see 66n. fusca-
tor above), but with no MS authority except late corrections in A and
V, probably based on Adn.
134 sic Venetus stagnante Pado The Veneti, a people of north-east
Italy, similarly navigate the waters of the Padus (= Po river in Northern
Italy), presumably close to the Adriatic estuary, where the river breaks
into multiple streams and wide pools intersperses with stretches of wet-
lands.
134-5 fusoque Britannus nauigat Oceano The participle fuso here
describes the waters of the Ocean that ‘have poured into the land.’ In
support of this interpretation, Haskins quotes the description of the
British coast in Tac. Agr. 10. Just like the Veneti, then, so the Britanni
use similar rafts, also made of soaked willow branches: Caes. BC 1.54
142 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

imperat militibus Caesar ut naues faciant, cuius generis eum superiori-

bus annis usus Britanniae docuerat (see 131-2n. above).
135-6 sic, cum tenet omnia Nilus, | conseritur bibula Memphitis
cumba papyro The Egyptians use similar rafts to cross the Nile, but
they build theirs out of weaving papyrus stems; cf. the ‘painted skiffs’
(faselis pictis) mentioned at Verg. G. 4.289 and the Nile mosaic of Pal-
estrina.
The adjective Memphites here means ‘Egyptian’ (as in Ov. Ars.
3.393), whereas in a technical sense denotes one of the nomoi, or terri-
torial districts of Egypt, e.g., Pliny NH 5.50. While L. may have used
Memphitis here as an erudite ornament, the word is singled out for its
pleasant sound by the grammarian who preserves for us a verse of
Petronius, frg. xviii Müller [= Terentiaus Maurus De metris = GL IV p.
399 Keil/Hagen ] Memphitides puellae | sacris deum paratae.
bibula… papyro On the adjective bibulus ‘thirsty’ to denote the water-
rich habitat of the papyrus, see Plin. NH 13.81 taenea fungo papyri
bibula.
cumba Frequently also cymba and sometimes cimba, see TLL
IV.1587.51-4, it is borrowed from Greek κύµβη; Paul. Fest. p. 44 Lind-
say. The word denotes a small floating device, such as a skiff, a light
wherry, a dinghy, or a small fishing boat (Afran. Togatae, frg. 138 Rib-
beck cumbam piscatoriam), used for short transport especially across
rivers; see Charon’s boat in Verg. G. 4.506 Stygia… cumba and A.
6.303 ferruginea… cumba. Pliny attributes the invention of the cymba
to the Phoenicians (NH 7.208). The word is not uncommon in poetry (at
least 34 four occurrences).
137 his ratibus traiecta manus festinat The soldiers traverse the river
on several of these rafts, each supposedly carrying only one person.
137-8 utrimque | succisum curuare nemus They bend the edges of
their hand-made vessels to oppose resistance to the rough waters.
140 medios pontem distendit in agros This clause has no coordinating
conjunction and the resulting asyndeton emphasizes Caesar’s caution-
ary measures in designing the bridge. With ponte distendit in the center,
the enclosing word order is mimetic of the bridge span stretching across
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 143

the river but relatively far from the banks and thus reaching on either
side into the middle of the fields.
141-3 nequid… audeat… | spargitur in sulcos et scisso gurgite riuis
| dat poenas maioris aquae Caesar breaks the force of the Sicoris’
current; cf. Caes. BC 1.61-2; Caesar’s precaution is presented as pun-
ishment, and suggests the leader’s sacrilegious hubris against Nature. L.
might have Herodotus’ Cyrus in mind, who divided the river Gyndes in
360 channels: Hdt. 1.189 (on which see Flower 2006, 282). The reader
might recall Caesar’s constricting the sea with a floating bridge in his
failed attempt to catch Pompey at Brundisium, which the poet compares
with Xerxes’ infamously analogous feat (2.669-81, with Fantham ad
loc.; cf. Loupiac 1998, 97-8).
143-4 postquam omnia fatis | Caesaris ire uidet On the local dative
fatis with ire, see Verg. A. 11.192 it caelo, which Horsfall ad loc. calls
a ‘regular dative of goal’; cf. Görler EV II.266; Gildersleeve 228, § 358
n. 2; Kühner/Stegmann I.344 § 77 4b.
144-5 celsam Petreius Ilerdam | deserit et noti diffisus uiribus orbis
The known world is not to be trusted, at least not by Petreius. Perhaps
the suggestion here is that when it comes to orbis Caesarian equals
notus, and Petreius’ only hope is to go beyond what is known with the
awareness that in his search for allies he is roaming the ultima mundi
(see 147n. below and 1n. above).
145-7 L. cross-references the inhabited world, 145 noti… orbis, with
146 ultima mundi.
146-7 indomitos quaerit populos et semper in arma | mortis amore
feros The inhabitants of Further Spain are praised for their savagery,
conveyed here by pointing to their lack of tameness (indomitos), and
their readiness for battle due to their inbred feritas, which manifests
itself with their propensity to die.
146 indomitos... populos Cf. 162 inque feras gentes; indomitus de-
scribes a people also at 8.364.
147 mortis amore Cf. 8.364 mortis amator (with Mayer 1981, 130).
Committing oneself to death is an idea that reoccurs at 280, 485, and
544 (see below); cf. 6.246. While amor mortis characterizes in L. the
exotic peoples whom the Romans had a tendency to praise for their
144 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

ferocity in war to compensate their relative lack of urban ciuilitas, the

lust for death acquires the insisting resonance of a recurrent theme
throughout the poem (cf. 1.458-62; 8.363-4; see Esposito 2001, 45-6;
Hunink 1992b, 90-1 ad 3.134, 125-6 ad 3.240, 250 ad 3. 695; Rutz
1960, 462-75). Fear of death leads them to be eager for death, as in
Lucr. 3.79-82 (I thank Michael McOsker for this reference).
ultima mundi The clausula reoccurs at 5.181 and 7.580; see also Ov.
Tr. 4.4.83; Sen. Ad Marc. 26.5.2; Sil. 7.108.

148–253 Fraternizing
Caesar orders his men to go after the fleeing Pompeians (148-56).
Caesar addresses his soldiers and pitches his camp not far from the
enemy on a plain between two highlands. The men from the opposing
armies recognize one another as friend and kin and begin fraternizing
(157-88). After the poet’s apostrophe to Concordia (189-195), Petreius
interrupts the fraternizing bivouac and first expels the Caesarians from
his camp, then addresses his soldiers with a speech that renews their
thirst for blood (195-253).
148-66 Upon realizing that Petreius had abandoned his camp, Caesar
orders his men to neglect the bridge and swim across the river to catch
him. Paradox: 1) The soldiers are swimming the stream instead of using
the bridge they had just built; 2) They seize a path into battle that they
would have shunned if fleeing; then Caesar’s cavalry begin to harass
the enemy hesitant between flight and battle. The syntax is hard to fol-
low because L. refrains from identifying either group. Finally, Caesar
reinforces his recklessness by ordering his men to force the Pompeians
to fight.
148 nudatos The caesura after this molossus is not as strong as after
151 paretur because, as the direct object qualifier, nudatos is closely
linked syntactically to the clause governed by 149 conspiciens.
colles desertaque castra The notion of the abandoned camp does not
merely reduplicate colles but more precisely describes what Caesar has
in full view: the bare landscape of the empty hills and the clear traces of
Petreius’ abandoned camp site. The two participial clauses joined by
–que convey the rapid succession of thoughts in Caesar’s mind.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 145

149 conspiciens L.’s use of this verb is conspicuous, as it were, for it

embraces here the whole semantic spectrum of conspicere from ‘see-
ing’ to ‘witnessing’ and even ‘discerning with the mind’s eye’ (OLD 1-
6). Caesar is not only catching sight of the empty camp vacated by
Petreius but he is also taking in the news, digesting it, and reasoning
what to do next, that is, issuing the order to pursue him.
150 sed duris fluuium superare lacertis The word order has the river
current (fluuium) enclosed between the strong arms of Caesar’s sol-
diers. Swimming with weapons across a river is a laborious and dan-
gerous feat (e.g., Horatius Cocles in Liv. 2.10 and Cloelia in Livy 2.13).
151 paretur This one-word clause, rhythmically and syntactically iso-
lated as a molossus followed by caesura, requires a pause (see 148 nu-
datos above). Francken, Hosius, and Housman, followed by Shackleton
Bailey, punctuate with a comma. Haskins opts for a colon, which fol-
lowed by rapuitque sounds odd.
152 quod… timuisset The subjunctive is used because this relative
clause expresses the view of a person other than the narrator
(Gildersleeve/Lodge 1894, 402, § 628), Caesar’s soldiers in our case.
The meaning of the subjunctive in relative clauses, however, is a noto-
rious matter of dispute; Kühner/Stegmann 1955, II.191 § 194.2.
155 in medium The substantivized adjective medius denotes midday,
as further indicated by the context, with 154 donec decresceret umbra
and the following ablative absolute 155 surgente die. Analogously, in
Sen. HF 884 sol medium tenens, the noun medium is equivalent to me-
dium diem or meridiem; cf. Sen. Med. 768 Phoebus in medio stetit
(Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 393).
156 eques, dubiique The collective nature of singular eques becomes
explicit in the appositive dubii, with which it agrees in gender and case.
157-205 The details about the terrain announce a new phase. Petreius
and his men aim for safety in a gorge but Caesar prevents them and
both armies camp at a short distance from one another. A full range of
emotions seizes the soldiers who first dare not speak, then give in to
their sentiments and the armies mix. L.’s obsession is to clarify what
civil war is for those who have not been in it – or perhaps L.’s insis-
tence on blurring the lines between friend and foe applies more largely
to his own Neronian times, when the ruler’s tantrums may have raised
146 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

preoccupation not only about the reality of monarchy but also about the
impending perils of civil discord.
157-62 L.’s descriptions of the rocky landscape is meant to evoke a real
place, but the resulting description locates the reader in a rather literary
than a specific landscape. L. is probably thinking of the ambush in
Verg. A. 11.522-9 (with Horsfall 2003 ad loc.; see 159-60n. below). On
reality and illusion in ancient Roman topography, see Horsfall 1982,
1985.
157 attollunt campo geminae iuga saxea rupes The first feature of
this mountainous landscape are the steep twin crags (rupes), further
qualified by the appositive iuga saxea, denoting the rocky nature of the
cliffs. The dual geminus lacks the force usually given to the ‘opposi-
tional dual’ par in this poem (see 4n. above), yet the two crags raising
their ominous rocky ridges may be symbolically associated with the
opposing leaders. The insidious landscape is described simultaneously
as a hideout and a trap.
158-9 tellus hinc ardua celsos | continuat colles The terrain is steep
(ardua,) and evidently difficult: jagged rocks and crags, developing into
high mountains (celsos continuat colles). For arduus qualifying tellus,
see TLL II.493. It is tempting to interpret this literary landscape as a
mixture of ‘real’ and imagined geographic features of the Iberian ter-
rain, which we know was the historical site of the battle. The compari-
son with Caesar, however, suggests that in matters of topography the
ancients were less literal, and comparatively more imaginative, than the
modern historian would avow. Caesar, like the poets, often sacrifices
details and generously amplifies his topography by dwelling on features
that foster the apposite (or desired) audience response. L. here succeeds
in conveying the duplicity of the landscape, inviting a bivouac, but at
the same subject to the threatening mountains. This is the landscape of
civil war.
159-60 tutae quos inter opaco | anfractu latuere uiae The noun an-
fractus is a prosaic touch, balanced by the anastrophe of the relative
with its preposition (quos inter), which requires the syntax to pause
after inter and thereby the rhythm affords a noticeable and quite un-
usual caesura between the short syllables of the fifth foot (īntĕr||ŏpācō).
The adjective opaco is thus isolated at end of line but, in virtue of the
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 147

enjambment with ānfrāctū, it remains closely linked to the following

line.
This particular feature of the insidious landscape is found in L.’s
poetic model, though the verbal echo is limited to one word only: Verg.
A. 11.522-5 est curuo anfractu ualles, accomoda fraudi | armorumque
dolis, quam densis frondibus atrum | urget utrimque latus, tenuis pro
semita ducit | angustaeque ferunt fauces | aditusque maligni (Turnus’
ambush site).
164 et faciem pugnae uultumque inferte minaces Caesar’s angry
command to scare the enemy unveils the soldiers’ unwillingness to
fight in this civil conflict. Both armis are reluctant.
165-6 nec liceat pauidis ignaua occumbere morte | excipiant… fer-
rum The imperatives 163 conuertite and inferte have now turned into
jussives.
167-82 The armies pitch camp in tight quarters and the enemy’s fea-
tures can be discerned with precision. The highly emotional moment is
described by L. with detail. The mixture of terror for the enormity of
Civil War with the self-satisfactory opportunity for the poet to express
it finally in such an explicit manner is distinctly perceivable.
167 dixit et ad montis tendentem praeuenit hostem Caesar’s swift
maneuver is successful. The enemy’s access to the gorge has been pre-
vented.
168-9 illic exiguo paulum distantia uallo | castra locant Order: ex-
iguo uallo castra locant, paulum [inter se] distantia (Housman). L.’s
enclosing word order renders the distance between the two camps short
enough to be contained within the tiny ramparts (illic exiguo… uallo) of
a single hexameter.
169-79 The moment of recognition breaks the fighting but adds a hope-
ful perspective, unlike the parallel passage at 7.460-9, where the recog-
nition carries no hope of resolution (Leigh 1997, 46-7).
169-70 postquam spatio languentia nullo | mutua conspicuos hab-
uerunt lumina uoltus Lumina is a common metonymy for ‘eyes’. The
poet’s attention is fixed on the faces of the soldiers. On either side en-
emy is close enough to discern the familiar features of relative and
friends. The tiny rampart and the close distance are obliterated in a
148 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

spatio… nullo. The hyperbaton spaces languentia... mutua… lumina,

and forces us to take in the moment of crisis step by step. The sense of
habuerunt is close to ‘kept staring’, while taking in the paradox of real-
ity.
[171 hic fratres natosque suos uidere patresque] This line is not pre-
sent in all the MSS. Oudendorp damned it as a gloss but the interpolator
perfectly grasped the concept.
172 deprensum est ciuile nefas A recurring word in L., nefas is almost
a leitmotif, a keyword for civil war, starting with 1.6 in commune nefas.
In Book IV nefas reoccurs at 205n., 243n., 549n., 556n, 792n. (see be-
low).
174-5 ardens | rupit amor leges The soldiers’ love is violating military
commands, here called leges, but lex applies stricto sensu to written
law. The Latin for ‘military orders’ is iussa.
180-95 L. passes through two levels of apostrophe, to the soldiers at
182-8 and then to Concordia at 189-95. The apostrophes signal the
moment of crisis, when the two armies are close and the soldiers can
see and recognize one another from the opposing camps. With a mix-
ture of apostrophe and rhetorical questions, the narrator emerges once
again in his own narrative. On the apostrophes, see Asso 2008. The
unparalleled strength of the present authorial intervention yields a star-
tling sense of actuality, as if the civil war were happening in the here
and now (Leigh 1997, 48).
182 quid pectora pulsas With a dramatic quasi-threefold alliteration
(the voiceless labiovelar is followed by two voiceless labials: qu- p- p-),
the narrator’s abrupt apostrophe to the soldiers is delivered as an angry
rhetorical question that conveys reproach. L. seems fond of the allitera-
tion in the voiceless labial: 343n. pectore poscit; 624n. and 783n. pec-
tore pectus; 652n. pectore pigro; 2.234 percussit pectora; 3.543 pec-
tora pulsant (cf. 6.161 pectoris inpulsu, 253 perfosso in pectore); 7.608
pectora pulsans; cf. Sen. Tro. 114 pulsu pectus tundite uasto; Ag. 134
inuidia pulsat pectus; HF 1100-1 percussa sonent | pectora palmis. In
two passages the author of [Sen.] Oct. 735-6 tremor | pulsatque pectus,
745 pulsata palmis pectora probably imitates this sound effect.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 149

183 quid, uaesane, gemis The narrator’s persists in his reproach and at
the same time describes lament in addition to the chest-beating men-
tioned above. Grief is appropriate, for L. here is staging the soldiers’
prefiguring of the sentiment of loss they are eventually going to face in
their senseless fight. The vocative uaesane (cf. 6.196 uaesani; 7.496)
evokes an image of hopeless despair, the materialization in human
terms of the metaphorical expression below at 187 ciuilis Erinys.
uaesane Rare. This is a collective singular (like gemis and fundis, 184
fateris, and 185 facis) because L. is clearly addressing the ciuis in gen-
eral, the only entity that can unleash civil war.
fletus quid fundis inanis Their tears are vane because, as we are soon
to find out, the narrator believes that there still is a choice.
184 nec te sponte tua sceleri parere fateris This final rhetorical ques-
tion contains the harshest reproach. Civil War is the fault of the ciuis. It
is the soldiers’ own fault if the war keeps going because they persist in
denial. The narrator at this point sounds convinced that, if the soldiers
were to admit that they are committing a crime out of their own will,
the war would end.
185 quem The syntax indicates that the collective singular is used
throughout the address in this extended apostrophe cum rhetorical ques-
tions. The relative pronoun, therefore, is the Roman ciuis. It is not im-
plausible, however, to think of Caesar himself first; cf. 188 priuatus.
186 classica The war trumpets recall Caesar’s words on men’s desire to
fight (esp. at 3.92, which I have quoted above).
186-8 The sequence of jussive 186 det, 187 ferat, and imperatives 186
neclege and cessa creates immediacy.
187 iam iam The geminatio of the deictic conveys a sense of urgency
(Leigh 1997, 49). Compare Verg. A. 2.701 (with Austin’s n.), 12.676,
875, 940 (with Traina ad loc.).
ciuilis Erinys Clearly Erinys is here allegorical for Discord (Eris), i.e.,
civil war. In appropriating the phrase in the same metrical position
(only other occurrence in the Latin corpus), Statius glosses it: St. S.
5.3.195-6 subitam ciuilis Erinys | Tarpeio de monte facem Phlegraeque
mouit | proelia. The fury is Eumenis among the portents at 1.575.
150 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

188 concidet… amabit Historical hindsight allows L.’s ex eventu

prophecy that the ‘Fury of civil strife will fall and Caesar, a private
citizen, will love Pompey’ (so Leigh 1997, 49). Leigh’s argument is
based on an unparalleled use of the future tense (concidet) (Leigh 1997,
325-9). If the soldiers refuse to fight their kin, then Caesar, too, will see
in Pompey the son-in-law instead of the enemy (Gall 2005, 107), but
alas, Caesar will express his ‘love’ of Pompey too late when Pompey’s
mutilated head will be shown to him and only too late will he react –
not as a private citizen, but as a commander – by seeking revenge
against the barbarians who mutilated a Roman.
188 priuatus What L. implies here is that Caesar will have been aban-
doned by his soldiers and will therefore be a priuatus. His command in
Spain was, in fact, illegal, and therefore he would be just a regular pri-
vate citizen without his legions.
189-95 This apostrophe to Concordia contains all of L.’s anger against
Civil War. The passage looks back to the supposed initial Concordia of
Afranius and Petreius at 5 above, but which will collapse at 337 below.
Peterius, in fact, has faded out of the picture at 144 and will not return
until 206. L.’s silence about Petreius allows him to play up Concordia.
Caesar is much clearer about their rift in his BC.
190-1 o rerum mixtique salus Concordia mundi | et sacer orbis
amor Commenting on this apostrophe to Concordia di-
vinize/personified, Leigh 1997, 71-2 points out that the poet’s wish at
this point is to end the war ideally ‘by means of mutual love.’ As the
poem progresses, even discord is welcome as an end to civil war: 5.299
finem ciuili faciat discordia bello; on ‘Ending the ‘Bellum Ciuile’,’ see
Leigh 1997, 73-5.
190 mixti mundi The diversity of the empire puts a new dimension on
the need for Concordia. The phrase is unique to L.
190 o rerum Sen. HF 1072 pax o rerum, portus uitae (pax errorum
Wilamowitz; pax o rerum Traina; pater o rerum MSS).
191 sacer orbis amor Concordia spells as universal love in a cosmic
sense (φιλία). The concept is best understood in relation to L.’s cele-
brated oxymoron of 1.98-9 temporis angusti mansit Concordia discors |
paxque fuit non sponte ducum (Leigh 1997, 72 n. 69), to be traced as far
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 151

back as the early Stoics (cf. Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, SVF I, 537, 14-
15) and finally to Empedocles’ opposite forces of philia and neikos. L.
could find this concept in previous Roman poetry: Hor. Ep. 1.12.19 and
Ov. M. 1.433; see Lapidge 1979, 365-7. Jal 1961, 225, 229, analyzes
the reception of the Stoic idea of Concordia at Rome in light of the
ideological and political tendencies of the late Republic and early Em-
pire, and documents the shift in terminology from pax to concordia.
191-2 magnum nunc saecula nostra | uenturi discrimen habent
Compare 823 perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula (and n. below); cf.
also the authorial outcry at Pharsalus, 7.426-59. With a reverse perspec-
tive that closely links moral degeneration with civil war evil, L.’s future
(habent) is Horace’s past in one of his most famous stanzas at C.
3.6.17-20 fecunda culpae saecula nuptias | primum inquinauere et ge-
nus et domos; | hoc fonte deriuata labes | in patriam populumque fluxit.
The reference to saecula nostra is intentionally ambiguous. Since
these words are spoken by the authorial persona, L. may be warning his
audience also about his own Neronian present. We know that Books I-
III were published before L. was banned from public performances.
After the disillusion caused him by the emperor’s veto to engage in
poetic endeavors, L. may no longer feel he should show support for the
emperor. On Vacca’s information on the delayed publication of Books
IV-X, see Heitland xxxv, xxxix-xlii.
192-3 periere latebrae | tot scelerum See OLD s.v. ‘latebra’ 3.
193 populo uenia est erepta nocenti There is no escape for a guilty
people. The entire universe of the Roman ciuitas has been forsaken.
There is no pardon.
194 agnouere suos After the strong syntactical break at the end of the
previous line, the rhythm slows down to pause on the recognition of kin
by kin.
194-5 pro numine fata sinistro | exigua requie tantas augentia
clades ‘O the evil force of fates that exacerbate such great calamities
with a tiny respite!’ (Leigh 1997, 50). The exclamatory accusative
(fata… augentia), preceded by the strong interjection pro, is arranged in
a chiastic alternation of nouns and epithets: ABa cC dbD, adding em-
phasis to fate being blamed for bringing about a short reconciliation
152 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

only to exacerbate the ensuing crimes of civil war (on this, see 202-5n
below and Long 2007, 187 n. 22).
196 pax erat Cf. Caes. 1.74. At 5.295 pax erit is the mutineers’ threat
to Caesar, but here the imperfect tense makes it an actual possibility
which will inevitably turn into a missed opportunity; see below 205
foedera pacis. On the links between Books IV and V on the issue of
‘Ending the Bellum Ciuile’, see Leigh 1997, 71-2. On the phrase, see
Ov. F. 1.285 pax erat, et uestri, Germanice, causa triumphi | tradiderat
famulas iam tibi Rhenus aquas.
castris miles permixtus utrisque The boundary between the two
camps has been transgressed and the fraternization is presented as
commingling in both camps. L. differs sharply from Caesar, who re-
ports that the Pompeians went over to the Caesarian side (Caes. BC
1.74-5; Leigh 1997, 51).
197-8 duro concordes caespite mensas | instituunt This is a common
meal (concordes… mensas): the shared commensality is given ritual
standing and becomes foedera.
It is ambiguous whether concordes is accusative, and therefore
agreeing with mensas (as interpreted in TLL IV.91; for concors of
things, see 5.542 and 635), or nominative, and thus agreeing with the
subject of instituunt. If accusative, the phrase concordes mensae occurs
only here in the extant corpus of Latin literature. Furthermore, concors
as a qualifier of mensa is unusual, if not unique, which all the more
emphasizes the associations conveyed by Concordia. (The selection of
notable epithets for mensa in TLL VIII.743 oddly lacks concors but
includes the only two passages with communis: [Quint.] Decl. 301 p.
187 and Plin. Paneg. 49.5) The adjective durus also sounds unusual as
the qualifier of caespes (TLL III.113.55; cf. 5.278).
The scene evokes the shared commensality and convivial atmos-
phere at Evander’s hut: e.g., Verg. A. 8.176 gramineo… uiros locat ipse
sedili, on which see Claud. Don. sedili… gramineo, quoniam in nemore
conuiuium fuit. Evander’s banquet is part of a ritual in Hercules’ honor.
The sharing of the sacrificial meal between Evander with his Arcadians
and Aeneas with his Trojans not only follows to Evander’s recognition
of Aeneas as a distant relative (via a complex heroic genealogy) but
also recalls the rituals that accompany a foedus, a ceremony of peace
making (cf. A. 12.113-33, especially 117-9 parabant | in medioque
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 153

focos et dis communibus aras | gramineas, with Housman ad 199;

probably imitated by Sil. 4.701 and 15.434). L.’s word choice activates
the Virgilian context of ritual peace.
198 et permixto libamina Baccho Wine mixing parallels the mixing of
Roman soldiers (196 miles permixtus). Once mixed, neither wine nor
people can be separated (Masters 1992, 72; Saylor 1986, 150-1).
199 graminei… foci These ‘turf-built hearths’ (Duff ) foster the con-
viviality of peace (see Loupiac 1998, 122, who peculiarly abstains from
offering parallels), and in addition to their practical usefulness as a
source of light and warmth, the turf fires function here symbolically to
foster the feeling of a ‘home away from home’, a much-needed illusion
for these soldiers who can refrain from mutual kin killing—at least
temporarily. These temporary altars are customary in country sacrifices
(see Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor. C. 1.19.13 and Nisbet/Rudd 2004 ad Hor.
C. 3.8.3-4), but here the context merely alludes to sacrificial ritual.
luxere Cf. Tibull. 1.1.6 luceat igne focus (Housman).
199-200 iunctoque cubili | extrahit insomnis bellorum fabula noctes
The convivial atmosphere of the extemporaneous bivouac is complete
with physical proximity and war stories that drag out late into the night.
For this sense of extraho (OLD 4), see Val. Fl. 1.277-8 Thracius hic
noctem dulci testudine uates | extrahit.
200 insomnis… fabula noctes The hypallage of insomnis (see 5.805-6
quae nox tibi proxima uenit, | insomnis) is familiar to the modern ear
(e.g., the enclosing word order in Esther 6.1 noctem illam rex duxit
insomnem) but rare in Latin and not found before Verg. A. 9.166-7
(imitated by St. Theb. 2.74). The remaining occurrences are Hor. C.
3.7.6-8; [Quint.] Decl. 258.8; Sil. 15.110; Stat. Theb. 2.74; Tac. Hist.
2.49. The adjective insomnis, however, may also agree with fabula,
which makes the hypallage much more interesting if we accept insom-
nis nox as the norm.
201 quae gesserunt fortia is an authorial gloss for 200 fabula.
201-2 quo primum steterint campo, qua lancea dextra | exierit The
war stories sound quite ordinary. The narrator’s point is to make these
soldiers appear as ordinary men caught in the wheels of fate.
154 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

202-5 On fate being blamed for bringing about reconciliation merely to

exacerbate the crimes of civil war, see 194n. above and Long 2007, 187
n. 22.
203 multa negant, quod solum fata petebant There is a trace of re-
pentance in the soldiers’ denial of multa ‘quae erant in scelere’ (Comm.
Bern.; Housman). They fought out of necessity, for (lit.) ‘they were
only seeking their fate;’ for the sense of necessity conveyed with petere
(= poscere), see 378n. below and TLL X.1.1973.44-5. For the expres-
sion, see 9.545 noua fata petebant.
204 miseris renouata fides On the fides of the wretches, cf. 8.535.
Housman explains fides as loyalty of amicitia and caritas. The concept
of fides is studied in Fraenkel 1916; cf. also Heinze 1928, and
Lombardi Vallauri 1961 (reviewed by Nisbet 1963).
205-6 nam postquam foedera pacis | cognita Petreio The phrase
foedera pacis indicates some sort of agreement between Caesarians and
Pompeians. L. seems to imply that the existence of a foedus pacis is
Petreius’ interpretation of the inter-camp fraternizing. L.’s account here
differs conspicuously from Caesar’s, whose version emphasizes the
fraternization and the resulting armistice as a spontaneous outcome of
the soldiers’ own initiative, and adds that the Pompeians themselves
asked him to spare their lives, provided he would grant his pardon also
to their commanders; Caes. BC 1.74 primum agunt [sc. the Pompeians]
gratias omnibus [sc. the Caesarians], quod sibi perterritis pridie peper-
cissent: eorum se beneficio uiuere. deinde de imperatoris [sc. Caesar’s]
fide quaerunt, rectene se illi sint commissuri […] fidem ab imperatore
de Petreii atque Afranii uita petunt, ne quod in se scelus concepisse neu
suos prodidisse uideantur; cf. Appian BC 2.42.170 λόγοι περὶ
συµβάσεων κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος. Caesar wants us to believe that the
Petreians are taking matters into their own hands by committing them-
selves to his clemency, whereas L. focalizes on Petreius’ own view of
the events.
As Ahl 1976, 194 rightly points out, L. has so far ‘given no inkling
of any treachery behind the fraternization,’ but his explanation that L.’s
poetic skill here somehow fails in the face of this blatant inconsistency
is unconvincing. For a thorough critique of Ahl’s interpretation, and
two complementary new readings, see Masters 1992, 78-87 and Leigh
1997, 53-63. See 207n, 235-6n. and 348-51n. below.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 155

205 creuit amore nefas In this poem nefas is a catchword for the crime
of civil war; see 172n. above, and especially 549n. below.
foedera pacis These are just colloquia in Caes. 1.74 libera collo-
quiorum facultas, but L. exaggerates the consequences of the fraterniza-
tion to highlight the atrocities ordered by Petreius at 208 below. Con-
trast Petreius’ ironic foedere nostro at 234 below.
206 Petreio Petreius has remained unmentioned since 144. Although
perfectly understandable strategically in a strictly military sense, his
hostile behavior here is problematic to L.’s narrative strategy hinged on
Concordia; see 5 and 189-95.
uenum ‘For sale’ (OLD s.v. ‘uenus2’ 1a). Rare in poetry, in which it
occurs only twice more: Pacuv. Trag. 121; Prop. 3.19.21. It is an accu-
sative of destination, analogous to a supine, as seen in prose uses of
uenum ire and uenum dare.
207-8 famulas scelerata ad proelia dextras | excitat This is still the
vocabulary of civil war. For scelerata proelia, see the Virgilian passage
at 235-6n. below. L. presents Petreius arming his slaves against Roman
soldiers, surely a sacrilegious feat for a Roman. L. clearly resents
Petreius’ failure in profiting from the opportunity offered him to spare
Rome more senseless bloodshed. Much more ‘professionally,’ Caesar
clearly distinguishes here between Afranius’ resigned attitude of ac-
cepting whatever may befall and Petreius’ determination to continue the
hostilities all costs: Caes. BC 1.75 Petreius non deserit sese. armat
familiam.
208-9 hostis turba stipatus inermis | praecipitat castris The hyper-
baton here creates the juxtaposition stipatus inermis, where inermis
agrees with hostis as dir. obj. of praecipitat. The juxtaposition is para-
doxical, for stipare in L. is elsewhere used exclusively of troops de-
ployed on the field ‘in arms’ and ready for battle: see 782n. below;
7.492 Pompei densis acies stipata cateruis; 10.534 molis in exiguae
spatio stipantibus armis.
The effect of stipatus in describing Petreius as surrounded by this
throng of armed sklaves (turba), is to convey the absurdity of the situa-
tion and Petreius’ lack of vision, yet even Caesar (BC 1.75) convenes
that Petreius’ refusal to give in to promises of clemency is understand-
156 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

able at least from a military standpoint, for the price of clemency is

defeat (Ahl 1976, 194).
209-10 iunctosque amplexibus ense | separat Also here the juxtaposi-
tion amplexibus ense produces the same effect as in 208. Here the para-
dox conveys Petreius’ cruelty
210 multo disturbat sanguine pacem Caesar’s Spanish campaign was
styled at 4.2 (see above) by non multa caede. The responsibility of spilt
blood, as it now turns out, is Pompeian.
211 addidit ira ferox moturas proelia uoces No blood can be spilt
without the apposite fury, hence Petreius’ provides some flaming rheto-
ric to motivate it.
212-35 Petreius exhorts his crowd ‘to the most blatant and murderous
hysteria’ (Due 1962, 84), but the gist of his words is a ‘strategically
correct’ enactment of Pompeian ideology as seen at 2.531-95, for both
Pompey and Petreius support the better cause of the senate. Pompey
inevitably fails to rouse his men to battle because he admits his prefer-
ence for suffering the first defeat in order to keep the moral upper hand
in civil war. On Pompey’s speech in Book II, see Fantham 1992a, 178-
98. On he moral dilemma facing the Pompeian faction, see now Long
2007.) The difference here is that, while Pompey’s speech is weak and
fails (2.596-600), here Petrius succeeds in rousing his men to murder-
ous actions.
The speech begins with three rhetorical questions (212-19) that
build up to his harangue, articulated in a twofold negative enumeration
(220-22a), a quick strong pause (222b), and a fourfold series of more
negations that turn out to be the proleptic apodoses (223-6) of the de-
layed protasis (227). Caesar’s report of Petreius’ harangue is character-
istically tendentious; BC 1.76.1 flens Petreius manipulos circumit
militesque appellat, neu se neu Pompeium absentem imperatorem suum
aduersariis ad supplicium tradant, obsecrat (after this, Caesar then
describes the renewal of the oath of allegiance).
212-13 inmemor o patriae, signorum oblite tuorum |…miles An-
other apostrophe, this time to the soldier(s), explicitly indicated by the
vocative miles. The emphasis on the soldier’s forgetfulness is twofold.
First the soldier is inmemor, simply forgetful, of his fatherland, as if
forgetfulness of the homeland would eventually overcome a soldier
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 157

who has been fighting a long war away from home. Then the action of
forgetting is rendered with the perfect participle oblite – (lit.) ‘[o you,]
who have forgotten’. The effect of the soldier’s forgetfulness lasts in
the narrator’s present and in the poet’s Neronian present, too. On L.’s
tenses as indicators of narrative time, see 49n. above.
signorum The mention of the standards as a synecdoche for army re-
calls the powerful figure that opens the poem, the dramatic image of
Roman standards facing Roman standards: 1.7-8 obuia | signis signa,
pares aquilas. Here, however, the standards seem to stand for the
‘cause’ (213 causae), which in civil war is one’s blind loyalty to one’s
faction.
213-14 non potes hoc causae, miles, praestare senatus | adsertor The
proleptic hoc builds anticipation before the correlated ut-clause spells
out what the soldiers will be able to provide for the senate’s cause. Or-
der: non potes hoc, miles, praestare adsertor causae senatus; or: non
potes hoc causae, miles, praestare adsertor senatus. The syntax of
causae seems intentionally ambiguous, for both interpretations are pos-
sible. Housman seems to support the dative, for he prints a comma
(perhaps unnecessarily) between praestare and senatus, with the geni-
tive senatus depending on adsertor: ‘…can you not do this for our
cause (causae dative), to return (to be) the Senate’s champion after
defeating Caesar?’ (Braund, adapted). If causae is genitive, the general
sense does not change much, but the genitive senatus would depend on
causae: ‘…can you not do this, (i.e.) to return as champion of the Sen-
ate’s cause (causae genitive) after defeating Caesar?’
214 adsertor The phrase in libertatem or liberali causa or manu adser-
ere ‘to claim as free’ is a legal term used formally in manumission
(OLD s.v. ‘adsero’ 2b). In legal terminology, the sole adsero functions
(perhaps by ellipsis) as having the same meaning as the whole phrase.
215 certe, ut uincare, potes The least the Pompeians can do is to be
defeated. The concise syntax, with the new ut-clause dependent on hoc,
achieves Petreius’ intended effect of shaming his soldiers into combat.
215-19 dum ferrum… petita est In his rhetorical-question mode,
Petreius lists weapons (ferrum), uncertain fate (incerta fata, sc. of bat-
tle), and blood gushing out of many wounds as what his soldiers should
prefer to servitude to Caesar.
158 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

216 quique… sanguis Order: et non derit sanguis qui fluat multo uul-
nere.
217 damnata… signa Petreius’ legionaries had previously abhorred
Caesar’s standards and joined the Pompeian cause. For this use of
damno, Housman quotes Ov. Tr. 2.3 cur modo damnatas repeto, mea
crimina, musas?
218 utque habeat famulos nullo discrimine Caesar The purpose
clause than ends Petreius’ rhetorical question clearly depicts Caesar as
a tyrant, for capitulating to him means to acquiesce to a servile fate.
The only hope is that the new master will treat all his servant with equal
clemency.
219 uita petita The unattractive homoeoteleuton has reliable manu-
script authority but it has caused some editors (Oudendorp, Francken,
Haskins) to prefer to it V’s variant petenda, see Housman’s note.
220-7 numquam… | …non… | … | non… | …nulli… | non… non On
negative enumeration see 107-9n. above and 299-302n. below.
220-1 numquam nostra salus pretium mercesque nefandae | prodi-
tionis erit The emphatic numquam aptly completes the rhetorical de-
vice whereby Petreius is answering his own question (hypophora), and
the awkward hendiadys pretium mercesque is hard to solve in transla-
tion but greatly contributes to the emphasis.
221-2 non hoc ciuilia bella, | ut uiuamus, agunt Instead of saying that
the reason they fight is not survival, Petreius personifies the war and
says the war does not go on (agunt) for their survival.
222 trahimur sub nomine pacis ‘We are being dragged off (sc. into
slavery) in the name of peace.’ If Caesar wins, freedom loses. Petreius’
speech assumes the (next) move of surrendering to Caesar, which L.
does not narrate directly, whereas Caesar does (Caes. BC. 1.84-8 = end
of Book I).
223-7 Petreius recaps (some of) the technical innovations narrated by
Lucretius in Book V: metallurgy (Lucr. 5.1241-96), city walls (Lucr.
5.1108-19), cavalry (Lucr. 5.1296-339), fleet (Lucr. 5.1442).
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 159

223-4 non… | eruerent The protasis of this unreal conditional sentence

comes last after three apodoses, of which this is the first. On the unreal
conditional sentence, see Gildersleeve/Lodge § 597.
223 chalybem Iron is so called from the people who inhabited the
south shore of the Black Sea, in whose territory iron was mined (Calli-
machus frg. 110.48-50 Pfeiffer; RE III.2099). Verg. A. 10.174 insula
inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis (with Harrison’s note); Serv.
ad Verg. G. 1.58 Chalybes populi sunt, apud quos nascitur ferrum,
unde abusiue dicitur chalybs ipsa materies (with Mynors and Thomas
ad loc.). The name of the people is often used metonymically for the
metal: Aesch. Prom. 133; Soph. Trach. 1260; Verg. A. 8.446.
penitus fugiente metallo This unique phrase poetically describes iron
as elusive (OLD s.v. ‘fugio’ 12b), with reference to the difficulty in
mining it; cf. Manil. 4.396 at nisi perfossis fugiet te montibus aurum.
See 297n. below. Petreius’ point is that one would not endure the toil of
extracting metal from the earth unless one would need it. Given L.’s
moralizing tendency and his disapproval of war and luxury, it is hard
not to think about the ancients’ moral attitude toward mining, chiefly
related to wealth; e.g., Ov. M. 1.138 itum est in uiscera terrae.
225 sonipes Solemnly epic, the noun occurs eleven times in L., just as
many as equus. Possibly, it stands here (but surely at 1.220) as a synec-
doche pars pro toto for ‘cavalry’. As an adjective, sonipes is attested
since Accius Trag. 602 Ribbeck , as a noun since Catull. 63.41 (Getty
ad L. 1.220; cf. also Gagliardi ad L. 1.220, and Pease ad Verg. A.
4.135). The epic variations on equus are conveniently listed in Axelson
1945: 50-1. As documented by the eleven occurrences of this noun
(Deferrari/Fanning/Sullivan 1965 s.v.), L.’s fondness for solemn diction
is less an ornamental display of rhetorical dexterity and more an ex-
pression of artistic intent aimed at establishing his often anti-traditional
poem into the ancient Roman epic tradition: Naevius, for instance, is
credited with creating the compound quadrupes; cf. Gagliardi 1999: 91-
3.
226 turrigeras From the Hellenistic period onwards, towers were
mounted on ships verisimilarly to reproduce on water the advantages of
siege warfare on land; Polyb. 16.3.12. L. uses it again of ships at 3.514
(see Hunink 1992b ad loc.; cf. Sil. 14.500). The only other occurrence
160 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

in L. is 1.188 (with Getty 1940, Gagliardi 1989, and Wuilleumier/Le

Bonniec 1962 ad loc.), where it is memorably applied to the personifi-
cation of Rome as Patria, the Homeland, appearing to Caesar and warn-
ing him not to cross the Rubicon (cf. Sil. 4.408).
This adjective occurs only sixteen times in the entire corpus of
Latin literature (three times of which in L.). Other than ships, Rome or
other fortified cities (as in Verg. A. 7.631 and 10.253), turriger is said
of either Cybele (Ov. F. 4.224 and 6.321; Tr. 2.24; Prop. 3.17.35; St.
Ach. 2.61) or elephants (Plin. NH 11.4; Sil. 9.560).
227 si bene libertas umquam pro pace daretur Petreius’ point, fi-
nally, is that (their) freedom is won by (civil) war.
228-9 hostes nempe meos sceleri iurata nefando | sacramenta tenent
Petreius’ sarcastic nempe adumbrates his men’s will to excuse their
opponents (with whom they share bonds of kinship) as a result of the
opponents’ sworn loyalty (iurata… sacramenta) to Caesar: 1.2 iusque
datum sceleri. The term sacramentum technically denotes a military
oath of allegiance (OLD 2a): Caes. BC 1.86.4 neu quis inuitus sacra-
mentum dicere cogatur; Aug. Anc. 16 milia civivm roma<no>rvm
<svb> sacramento meo fvervnt circiter <qvingen>ta.
229 sceleri… nefando Cf. 1.667-8 scelerique nefando | nomen erit
uirtus, where L. spells out the paradox here implied in Petreius’ refer-
ence to the oath of allegiance. The iurata sacramenta that lead to ne-
fandum scelus are equated in civil war with fides to one’s commander;
see 230 and 245 below, but contrast 204 above.
229-30 at uobis uilior hoc est | uestra fides Petreius manipulates his
own soldiers’ shame by insultingly calling their fides (i.e., their loyalty
to the Pompeian cause) cheaper than their enemy’s allegiance. The
antecedent of 229 hoc is 228-9 iurata… sacramenta.
230 fides Here fides has the same value of loyalty to one’s commander
as at 245 below, but contrast 204n. above. The fides to one’s com-
mander in war against foreign enemies is identical to the fides toward
one’s homeland, but in civil war fides breaks down into two conflicting
values.
230-1 quod pro causa pugnantibus aequa | et ueniam sperare licet
Petreius’ soldiers’ loyalty is unworthy because they dare hope for Cae-
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 161

sar’s pardon even though they are fighting for the right cause (pro
causa… aequa). Petreius appears convinced that the Pompeians have
the moral upper hand in the war.
231-2 pro dira pudoris | funera On the interjection pro, cf. 96 and 194
above. The exclamation constitutes the climax of Petreius’ speech,
where pudor means not to kill fellow citizens (see Fantham 1992a, 177
ad 2.518). The death of pudor (roughly rendered with ‘honor’ by Duff
and Braund) is what the Petreians should regret. With Petreius’ words,
the author offers the Petreians a desperate opportunity to earn the self-
respect they would have surrendered to Caesar’s clementia.
pudoris See 26n. above. Of the twenty-four occurrences of pudor in
this epic (or twenty-five, if Håkanson’s conjecture pudorem is to be
accepted; Fantham 1992a, 133 ad loc.), seven are in exclamations:
2.517-18 heu… |… pudori, 708 heu pudor; 8.597 pro superum pudor,
678 pro summi fata pudoris; 10.47 and 77 pro pudor; cf. also 5.59 for-
tunae, Ptolemaee, pudor crimenque deorum.
232-5 Petreius’ speech ends with a sarcastic apostrophe to absent
Pompey, whose effort to recruit allies from the opposite end of the
world is seen as supererogatory: the Petreians have already negotiated
with Caesar for his safety.
232 toto… in orbe The hyperbole, a frequent one (cf. 1.166, 538;
2.280, 643; 3.230; 5.266; 6.819; 7.362, 400 etc.) among L.’s many hy-
perboles, prepares the soldiers for the biting sarcasm to follow. TLL s.v.
‘orbis.’
235-6 omnis concussit | mentes scelerumque reduxit amorem
Petreius’ paradox shakes his men to rekindle their lust for crime, scel-
erum amor. Similarly L. describes Cato’s words to Brutus, 2.325 exci-
tat in nimios bello ciuilis amores (see Fantham 1992a, 138-9 ad 2.323-
5). That L. condemns civil war is apparent in in nimios, whereas here
L.’s disapproval of Petreius’ instigation to resume the hostilities is con-
veyed by scelerum. For the vocabulary to express the conflict of values
between the necessity of war to avert more evil and the intrinsic evil of
internecine strife, our passage is perhaps even closer than 2.323-5 to the
Virgilian model: Verg. A. 7.461 saeuit amore ferri et scelerata insania
belli | ira super. On L.’s programmatic insistence on the peculiar rever-
sals of civil war, introduced at the outset of the poem in 1.2 iusque da-
162 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

tum sceleri, see Masters 1992, 83 (musing on what ‘right’ means – or

not – in civil war) and Esposito 2001, 51-2.
236-42 This simile maks the first of three phases of anger (see 267n,
and 284-91n. below). After Petreius’ hortatory speech to his men, the
author compares Petreius’ Pompeians to captive beasts. Petreius’ words
have the effect of a taste of gore in the beasts’ parched mouths.
239 paruos Housman silently adopts the reading of P before correction
as the archaizing nominative in place of paruus. Almost all the other
editors silently print paruus, followed by Badalì, whose apparatus re-
ports the MS authority for Housman’s paruos.
240 uenit in ora cruor, redeunt rabiesque furorque Preceded by the
strongly assonant cruor, the roaring alliteration r- r- continues with the
equally strong assonant furor. As the grammatical subject of redeunt,
the abstracts rabies and furor are given agency and the polysyndeton
aptly evokes the reaction of a no longer captive predator that anticipates
the taste of fresh blood. The effect of Petreius’ words on his men exac-
erbates the dire consequences of civil strife. What should have been
saluted as a successful exhortation to fight is instead presented as insti-
gation to pointless cruelty and lust for blood.
241 admonitaeque… fauces The line is enclosed between the beast’s
fauces and their epithet. The gore ‘reminds’ the domesticated beast of
its gory nature. It is hard not to think of the fratricidal myth of Rome.
242 feruet… ira On ira in epic, see Braund/Most 2003.
243 itur in omne nefas On nefas, see 172n. above. This is not the last
time the soldiers face the crime of kin slaughter, for the horrifying
crimes will be repeated, as these words are echoed again in the poem:
5.272 imus in omne nefas; 6.147 pronus ad omne nefas; 6.527 omne
nefas superis; and especially 7.123 omne nefas uictoris erit. In empha-
sizing the horror of kinsmen’s killing in civil war, L. has subverted (or
at least exaggerated the negative nuance of) a famous alcaic stanza:
Hor. C. 3.4.65-8 uis consili expers mole ruit sua: | uim temperatam di
quoque prouehunt | in maius, idem odere uiris | omne nefas animo
mouentis, where by describing the crimes of Jupiter’s enemies as omnia
nefas, Horace clearly alludes to the civil wars that ended with Octa-
vian’s victory.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 163

243-5 quae fortuna deorum | inuidia… | …fides ‘Loyalty committed

the outrages which Fortune might have occasioned...’
243-4 deorum | inuidia The objective genitive is governed by the abla-
tive inuidia. Cf. 2.36-7 (with Fantham 1992, 86 ad loc.). Cf. also 7.446,
where the phrase caeco… casu (following the famous 7.445-6 sunt
nobis nulla profecto | numina) represents the judgment that Fortuna is
blind to justice.
deorum Only with the following line does one realize that 243 deorum
actually goes with 244 inuidia. The word order, however, encourages
the syntactical ambiguity of deorum at first, perhaps to reflect on the
nature of this fortuna (which Haskins, Francken, and Shackleton Bailey
personify/capitalize). On the association of fortuna (especially in war)
with inuidia, see e.g., Cic. Pro Milone 91 in hac Milonis siue inuidia
siue fortuna; Brutus 153 Q. etiam Caepio, uir acer et fortis, cui fortuna
belli crimini, inuidia populi calamitati fuit; Q. Fr. 9.16.6 ita fit ut et
consiliorum superiorum conscientia et praesentis temporis moderatione
me consoler et illam Acci similitudinem non modo iam ad invidiam sed
ad fortunam transferam, quam existimo leuem et imbecillam ab animo
firmo et gravi tamquam fluctum a saxo frangi oportere.
Discussing inuidia deorum, Jal 1962, 170-200, reads 243-5 in con-
junction with 807-9 si libertatis superis tam cura placeret | quam uin-
dicta placet (see n. below). As Fantham 2003, 241-2 remarks, however,
this sentiment about angered gods returns in Tacitus Hist. 1.3 non esse
dis curam securitatem nostram, esse ultionem, and what neither Tacitus
nor L. indicate is the misdeed for which the Romans are being punished
with civil strife. Fantham 2003 goes on to explore the literary (Virgil-
ian) background of the gods’ anger in (2.1 iamque irae patuere deum),
which is manifest in L.’s Book II because ‘it is designed to echo
Virgil’s [Aeneid Book II] account of the fall of Troy in the fall of the
free Roman Republic.’
244 caeca bellorum in nocte The din of battle is rendered metaphori-
cally as the ‘night of war’, which seems unique in Latin. Cf. 2.262
caeca telorum in nube; 4.488 in caeca bellorum nube; Verg. A. 2.397
multaque per caecam congressi proelia noctem, where the Trojan
proelia are, in fact, nocturnal. The hypallage caeca nox occurs fre-
quently in Latin: see 10.506 caeca nocte; Acc. Trag. 32; Catull. 68.44;
Cic. Pro Milone 50; Verg. A. 2.397 (see 244n. below); Ov. M. 10.476
164 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

tenebrisque et caecae munere noctis; 11.521 caecaque nox premitur

tenebris hiemisque suisque; Manil. 1.716 per caecam mirantur lumina
noctem; Sen. Oed. 1049 caecam… noctem; Thy. 668 nocte caeca; etc.
Comm. Bern. ignores the ambiguity and paraphrases: ‘et fecit fides
monstra quae caeca nocte bellorum potuit celare fortuna.’ L.’s word
order, however, emphasizes the juxtaposition inuidia caeca, which
would be unique in Roman poetry, if one interprets caeca as referring
(with a daring hypallage) either to inuidia only or ambiguously to both
inuidia and nocte. On ‘blind inuidia,’ rhetorically savvy L. may have
recalled Cn. Manlius Vulso’s speech in Livy’s account of his campaign
in Asia Minor (the only occurrence of the phrase in Latin): Livy
38.49.5 caeca inuidia est, patres conscripti, nec quicquam aliud scit
quam detractare uirtutes, corrumpere honores ac praemia earum (on
Manlius’ campaign, see Grainger 1995). The only two times that
inuidia is accompanied by an adjective in Virgil, the adjective is either
G. 3.37 infelix or A. 11.337 obliqua.
245 fecit monstra fides The paradox is that obedience and loyalty to a
commander generates monstrous crimes (cf. 230 above; but contrast
204). See Leigh 1997, 191.
245-6 inter mensasque torosque | quae modo complexu fouerunt
pectora caedunt The antecedent of pectora has been delayed and jux-
taposed to caedunt. The effect is that what both audience and poet most
dread is happening now, in the present caedunt. Kinsmen are being
slaughtered by kinsmen.
247 primo ferrum strinxere gementes Cf. 183 gemis above. Reluctant
to taking up arms, the soldiers are groaning, as in both dying and la-
ment; Verg. A. 1.464-5 pictura pascit inani | multa gemens (Aeneas
contemplating the images of fallen Troy in Juno’s temple at Carthage);
11.633 gemitus morientum.
248 iusti gladius dissuasor With a daring, the sword is given life as a
‘discourager’ (Braund; OLD s.v. ‘dissuasor’ 1a), or better a ‘speaker
against justice’ (OLD 1b), with the objective genitive iusti. On nouns in
–(t)or, see 4n. rector above.
249-50 dum feriunt, odere suos, animosque labantis | confirmat ictu
Hatred of one’s own kin is necessary to fight in this war and it appears
to be reinforced with each strike. On labare, see 41n. above. Caesar’s
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 165

report of this betrayal sounds (perhaps tendentiously) more realistic;

Caes. BC 1.76.4-5 edicunt [sc. the Pompeian commanders], penes quem
quisque sit Caesaris miles, ut producatur: productos palam in praeto-
rio interficiunt. sed plerosque ei, qui receperant, celant noctuque per
uallum emittunt. sic terror oblatus a ducibus, crudelitas in supplicio,
noua religio iurisiurandi spem praesentis deditionis sustulit mentesque
militum conuertit et rem ad pristinam belli rationem redegit.
[251] The spurious line et scelerum turba, rapiuntur colla parentum is
absent in the main manuscripts.
252-3 ac, uelut occultum pereat scelus, omnia monstra | in facie
posuere ducum In marking the moment in which the civil conflict
unveils its very nature, L. builds up the expectation for the big battle to
come in Book VII, with the vocabulary of spectacle and spectatorship
(monstra, facie ducum); cf. Scaeva wishing that Caesar were there to
watch him at 6.159-60 and Vulteius at 569 below, prompting his men to
kill one another in plane view. The (so far) hidden crime (of civil war)
has now ‘perished’ and then that omnia monstra (cf. 245 fecit monstra
fides) are before the eyes of Caesar and the Pompeian leaders. L. may
also be playing with the manifold semantic value of monstrum. The
first time it is used in the poem at 1.589 monstra means both ‘freaks of
nature’ and ‘prodigies’, for the monstrous births mentioned in Book I
ominously announce the crimes to come. More monstra manifest them-
selves before the battle at Pharsalus, where the omens are said to be of
comfort to the army (gaudet monstris), for the soldiers are in fact aware
of what they are praying for and actually hope to slash their fathers’
throats and their brothers’ breasts: 7.181-3 hoc solamen erat quod uoti
turba nefandi | conscia, quae partum iugulos, quae pectora fratrum
sperabat, gaudet monstris; cf. also 7.462-4 quo noscere possent | fac-
turi quae monstra forent, uidere parentum | frontibus aduersis frater-
naque comminus arma.
253 iuuat esse nocentis ‘It’s good to be nasty;’ cf. Caesar’s last words
to the imago patriae appeared to stop him and his army at the Rubicon:
1.203 ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerit hostem. The Pompeians
have no choice but to obey Petreius’ orders and find within themselves
the capability to be nocentes, to do harm to their friends and kinsmen.
This sacrilegious behavior will eventually turn out to prove advanta-
166 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

geous for the Petreian and Afranian survivors, who will earn Caesar’s
pardon and will get to go home. Lucky men!

254–336 Pompeians in Trouble

Another authorial apostrophe, this time to Caesar, again interrupts the
narration (254-9). The two armies head back toward Ilerda, with the
Pompeians now enduring thirst (259-66). Overcome by despair, the
Pompeians kill their own horses for food and then lash out in a warlike
frenzy, but Caesar refuses to engage in battle and causes their furor to
subside by letting their thirst do his work (267-91). The thirsty Pom-
peians vainly look for water on the hillock (292-336).
254-9 The mention of Pharsalus and Egypt shows that the narrator’s
apostrophe to Caesar is voiced with historical hindsight.
254 tu, Caesar The address with the second person pronoun tu is par-
ticularly strong, almost startling for the reader, who feels summoned
into the text, as it were, and named ‘Caesar’.
spoliatus milite multo This directly contradicts 2 non multa caede (see
n. above), but L. perhaps is issuing a note of sympathy to Caesar on
account of the Caesarians slaughtered in the Pompeian camp. Caesar’s
account of this slaughter is contrasted with Caesar’s own clemency
(perhaps tendentious) for he reports that those Pompeians who were
found in his camp were sent back unharmed: Caes. BC 1.77 Caesar, qui
milites aduersariorum in castra per tempus colloquii uenerant, summa
diligentia conquiri et remitti iubet. sed ex tribunorum militum centu-
rionumque numero nonnulli sua uoluntate apud eum remanserunt. quos
ille postea magno in honore habuit; centurions in priores ordines, eq-
uites Romanos in tribunicium restituit honorem.
255 agnoscis superos Haskins plucks two nuances in agnoscis, which
conveys Caesar’s acknowledgement of not only the gods’ favor but also
their power because agnosco can also mean ‘to show respect’. The ex-
pression recalls Verg. A. 12.260 accipio agnoscoque deos, where the
seer Tolumnius acknowledges the gods’ intervention, but misreads the
omen of the eagle that catches the swan and then drops it into the river
(see Traina ad loc.). He assumes it to mean that the Trojans will flee
Italy and (like Pandarus in the Iliad) opens the hostilities by launching a
spear that kills one of Aeneas’ Arcadian allies. Like Tolumnius, Caesar
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 167

here acknowledges the gods but, unlike Tolumnius, he will be proven

right because the present slaughter to come will bring him closer to his
victorious fate.
255-6 neque enim tibi maior… | … fortuna fuit With tragic irony, the
poet calls this slaughter the greatest fortune for Caesar. Cf. Pompey’s
words at 2.537 di melius belli tulimus quod damna priores, with Fan-
tham’s n.: ‘[I]nverting normal military values, L. treats casualties as a
moral advantage, inflicting guilt over the victor.’
258-9 hoc siquidem solo ciuilis crimine belli | dux causae melioris
eris The apostrophe ends midline with the striking paradox that even a
criminal may produce a beneficial victory at least for one faction. Here
the causa melioris is transferred to Caesar because he will spare citizen
soldiers (cf. 213n. above).
259-60 polluta nefanda | agmina caede The attributes precede their
nouns creating the familiar alternate order abAB.
260 duces Duff understands ‘Afranius and Petreius’, whereas Braund
(259-61) preserves the ambiguity in duces and iunctis: ‘The generals |
do not care to entrust their troops stained with wicked slaughter | to a
nearby camp.’
iunctis castris Once the slaughter has taken place, it is no longer possi-
ble for the commanders to camp near one another. The use of iunctis
(lit. ‘joined’) reinforces the sense of missed opportunity that this event
constitutes.
261 altaeque moenia… Ilerdae Cf. 11-13 above. Proper walls are
supposed to be high but so is the city protected by them. Like Rome
(Verg. 1.7 altae moenia Romae, memorably praised for its rhythm and
sound by Quint. Inst. 11.3.38), also Ilerda rises on hilly ground, and
with the mention of the city walls in the same phrase as the city’s name
the Virgilian hypallage is a most apposite literary conceit.
262 intendere fugam Curt. 3.11.19 fugam intenderunt; 5.12.17;
10.7.19; cf. Livy 36.45.1 fugere intendit; OLD s.v. ‘intendo’ 8.
264 inopes undae… cingere The attribute inopes is here acting as a
masculine plural noun, object of cingere. The attributive inops unda is
more common (e.g., Sen. Ag. 572 and Oed. 43). The adjective inops
normally takes the genitive of its object (OLD 6a; sometimes with the
168 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

abl., as in OLD 6b), but the unique feature here is the use of unda as the
object of inops, which occurs nowhere else; 333 undae ieiunia below
might be yet one more variant.
praerupta fossa With the exception of Ov. M. 12. 370 and 14.547, in
poetry praerumpo only occurs as the adjectival form of the perfect par-
ticiple. Caesar’s trench is designed to prevent the Pompeians’ access to
water; Caes. BC 1.81.6 conatur tamen eos uallo fossaque circummu-
nire, ut quam maxime repentinas eorum eruptions demoretur.
265 pati depends on auet (Oudendorp; Housman).
267 ut leti uidere uiam L. leaves the subject unidentified (see 148-66n.
above), but it is the same Pompeians who will be dying of thirst. The
nuance of leti… uiam here is not so much that they see what their ‘path’
of/to death is (as e.g. in Hor. C. 1.28.16 calcanda semel uia leti), but
rather that the way they will die (of thirst and starvation) is now appar-
ent to them, as in Grat. 357 mortis enim patuere uiae; cf. Tibull. 1.3.50
leti mille repente uiae; Sen. HF 1245 mortis inueniam uiam. For sound
and rhythm, and the closest parallel, see Lucr. 2.917 et leti uidere uias.
268-9 miles… | … mactauit equos This gesture of despair is pro-
nounced non utile clausis | auxilium. Caes. BC 1.81.7 omnia sarcinaria
iumenta interfici iubent.
271 effuso passu ‘With hasty steps’ (Haskins). Seeing their commit-
ment to dying (cf. 272 deuotos below), Caesar reverses his intentions
and calls his men off. He had originally spurred them to challenge the
fleeing Pompeians at 162-3 above.
272 ad certam deuotos tendere mortem The use of deuotos points to
the Roman ritual of the deuotio, with which one devotes/sacrifices
one’s enemies or oneself to the gods of the Underworld; cf. 2.307 with
Fantham 1992a, 136 ad loc. The ritual of deuotio, however, is here
perverted because it is futile and self-destructive (Hardie 1993, 53). The
perversion of deuotio reoccurs in the scene of Vulteius’ scene of self-
sacrifice at 540-1, on which see below. On the deuotio in general, see
Versnel in OCD 460b s.v.
273-80 Narrowly confined to less than eight lines, Caesar’s words to
his soldiers are opposed to Petreius’ not only because they are dissua-
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 169

sive rather than hortatory but also because they are concise and sound
rather lapidary in comparison with Petreius’ elaborate speech at 212-35.
273 tela tene ‘Hold your weapons.’ The alliteration intensifies Caesar’s
dramatic address and looks forward to 7.474 cum Caesar tela teneret
but there teneret actually describes Caesar’s wielding of his weapons
just a few instants before the armies clash at Pharsalus. Cf. Verg. A.
5.514 tela tenens; 8.700; 11.559; Ov. M. 8.342.
275 uincitur haut gratis iugulo qui prouocat hostem L. emphasizes
Caesar’s will to spare his own men. From Caesar’s own account of the
campaign, L. therefore plucks the gist of Caesar’s strategy at Ilerda
along with his determination to save face by seeming (as well as being)
ready for battle even though he deemed it unnecessary: Caes. BC
1.82.2-3.
iugulo On sacrificial language, see the index in Leigh 1997.
276 uilis… iuuentus The insulting epithet uilis is a deliberate attempt
on L.’s part to make Caesar’s words sound disrespectfully outrageous.
inuisa luce Cf. Verg. A. 6.435 lucem… perosi (with Norden 1926, ad
loc.); for the phrase, cf. Sen. Tro. 939 lucis inuisae; [Quint.] Decl. Mai.
16.17 lucis inuisae.
277-8 non sentiet ictus, | incumbet gladiis, gaudebit sanguine fuso
Two interpretations are possible. Haskins, Duff, and Braund, prefer not
to carry the negative on to incumbet and gaudebit; e.g., ‘…insensible to
wounds, they will fling themselves on our swords…’ (Duff). If we
carry on the negative, however, like Petreius at 220-7 (see above; also
107-9n.), Caesar, too, would be resorting to negative enumeration but
dispensing with the anaphora of the negative particle and opting for a
double asyndeton. In either case, the resulting tricolon paradigmatically
expresses three physical and emphatically ‘corporal’ aspects of combat
in defeat: (not) feeling the enemy’s strikes, falling under their weapons,
and glorifying oneself in one’s own spilt blood. Caesar seeks to quench
in discourse, as it were, his men’s burning urge to fight. Contrast above
with Petreius’ instigation to slaughter, 216 quique fluat multo non derit
uolnere sanguis.
279-280 deserat hic feruor mentes, cadat impetus amens | perdant
uelle mori L. invites us to contrast Caesar’s forbidding jussive with
170 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

Petreius’ exhortations to die: 221-2 non hoc ciuilia bella, | ut uiuamus

agunt. Naturally, the Pompeians and Caesarians disagree on the mean-
ing of Petreius’ uiuamus. For Petreius a life of service to Caesar is not
worth living. Senatorial libertas cannot be preserved without fighting;
see 223-7n. above.
280 uelle For the infinitive as direct object, see Gildersleeve § 423 n. 2,
cf. Kühner/Stegman I (1955) 665-6 § 124 d.
deflagrare minaces Definitely prosaic (e.g., Cic. Pro Sestio 99), defla-
grare occurs elsewhere in poetry only in the strongly allitera-
tive/assonant Enn. scen. 90 fana flamma deflagrata (= Cic. TD
2.44.20). L.’s metaphorical use of the verb, with the substativized ad-
jective minaces acting as its direct object, presupposes such expressions
as Livy 40.8.9 deflagrare iras.
281 passus Elliptical of est, governs languescere and 280 deflagrare
minaces.
282 substituit merso dum nox sua lumina Phoebo The metonymy
lumina for stars is a common, but the subsistit… sua lumina of night
seems unparalleled; but cf. Enn. Ann. 33 Skutsch (= 35 Flores) quom
superum lumen nox intempesta teneret.
283-91 Adn. ad 285: ‘haec metaphora a gladiatoribus translata est, a
quibus dicitur longe a saucio.’ The word order encloses the greater
courage within the wounded breast. The medical/gladiatorial simile
begins with the moment the gladiator’s body has received a mortal
wound. Housman: The Romans’ fondness for gladiator shows inevita-
bly gives rise to idioms and encourages the use of gladiatorial meta-
phors. The gladiatorial language is enriched with a simile (286-8), in
which the precision of the medical language shows L.’s awareness of
human blood physiology. On L.’s medical terminology, see Migliorini
1997, 95-125.
283 nulla data est… copia L. echoes but innovates on the rhythm of
Ov. M. 11.786 optatae non est data copia mortis (echoed by L. at 7.251
adest totiens optatae copia pugnae). The expression recalls such formu-
las as Verg. 9.720 quoniam data copia pugnae (see also 1.520 and
11.248 et coram data copia fandi; TLL IV.910.40-8). Cf. also L. 3.693
rara datur si copia ferri, utuntur pelago (with Hunink 1992b ad loc.).
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 171

miscendae… mortis This phrase with the simple miscere is unique.

Bentley, followed by Haskins, prefers the variant miscendi… Martis,
but Housman is right in following Grotius, who reads miscendae…
mortis on the basis of 7.100-1 gladiis mortemque suorum | permiscere
meis; cf. Sil. 4.589-90 hic hostem orbatus telo complectitur ulnis | per-
mixta morte coercet.
284 paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt The lack of oppor-
tunity for fighting triggers in the Pompeians the type of physiological
processes that occur in a mortally wounded body, beginning with the
emotion, ira, and the psychological state, mentes tepescunt. In other
words, the soldiers’ combat aggressiveness begins to cool down
(Migliorini 1997, 97).
cadit ira is the reading adopted by Housman; see Prop. 2.16.52; Ov.
Am. 2.13.4; Sen. Thy. 742; cf. St. Th. 3.318. Badalì prints the variant
fugit ira, possibly invoking the criterion of the lectio difficilior, for this
would be the only place in the Latin corpus in which fugere has ira as
its grammatical subject. Both readings have good manuscript authority.
286 dum dolor… recens L.’s description of what happens immediately
after a human body has been mortally wounded continues with preci-
sion and focuses here on the lapse of time in which the pain is very
recent and the wounded person still has control.
286-7 mobile neruis | conamen calidus praebet cruor The calidus
cruor allows the body to keep moving. The language here clearly sug-
gests L.’s awareness of the ancient physiological theories on blood and
spirit. For the blood that receives its warmth from the heart, see Gal. de
temper. 1.9 (= 1.568-9 Kühn).
287 conamen Only here in L., it is not common in poetry before Ovid;
cf. Lucr. 6.326, 835, 1041.
287-8 ossaque nondum | adduxere cutem The compound adduco is
used here with the sense of contraho, asin Verg. G. 3.483 sitis miseros
adduxerat artus, but a closer parallel is perhaps the description of en-
amored Echo’s body wasting away for Narcissus indifference in Ov. M.
3.397-8 adducitque cutem macies et in aëra sucus | corporis omnis
abit; cf. also Sen. Benef. 1.1.5 and 6.4.6; Epist. 77.4; [Inc. Auct.] Laus
Pis. 140; Quint. Inst. 10.3.13. Perhaps the term specializes in a medical
172 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

sense, as suggested by Cels. 7.9 ea, quae sic resoluimus, in unum ad-
ducere (TLL I.599.72-80). The sensibility remains as long as the bones
have not caused the skin to shrink around them. L.’s precision in de-
scribing the physiology of a mortal wound prepares us for the dramatic
depiction of the Pompeians succumbing to thirst.
288-9 si conscius… | … manus L. now wants us to focus on the mo-
ment when the blow has been inflicted and the conqueror stops and
waits to see what comes next. The reader, therefore, is implicitly in-
vited to step into the conqueror’s shoes and watch the victim expire.
The observation, however, must be cool-blooded, as it were, in an effort
to keep a scientific rather than a combat interest in the victims last mo-
ments.
289-90 tum frigidus artus | alligat atque animum subducto robore
torpor By hypallage the torpor (instead of the limbs) is described as
cold, but the feeling of torpor is in fact due to the cooling of the limbs
(artus) as a result of blood loss. The word order here lets the frigidus
torpor (the grammatical subject) envelop the limbs and spirit in its cold
clasp, expelling all the strength from the body of the dying fighter.
Compare with the description of Erichtho’s magic in bringing a corpse
back to life by infusing the body with vital blood, appositely qualified
as warm (6.667 feruenti), through newly opened wounds: 6.667-9 pec-
tora tunc primum feruenti sanguine supplet | uolneribus laxata nouis
taboque medullas | abluit et uirus large lunare ministrat; cf. also the
description of the corpse’s cold body being newly infused with blood:
6.752 percussae gelido trepidant sub pectore fibrae | et noua desuetis
subrepens uita medullis | miscetur morti.
291 postquam sicca rigens astrinxit uolnera sanguis The physiologi-
cal processes described above occur after the blood has flowed toward
the wound and dried it up, perhaps in the sense that it has begun coagu-
lating. In this sense, rigens sanguis should describe the rough texture of
coagulated blood on a wound, and possibly rigere belongs to the se-
mantics of dying (e.g. 2.25 membra… fugiente rigentia uita). The op-
posite process, i.e., the undoing of rigidity from death to (temporary)
life, is induced by Erichtho in a corpse: 6.750-1 protinus astrictus caluit
cruor atraque fouit | uolnera et in uenas extremaque membra cucurrit.
292-6 The thirsty Pompeians desperately search for water underground,
removing the soil not only with rakes but also with their own swords –
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 173

a sorry sight, for swords are not meant to serve as digging implements
and the soldiers’ despair is emphatically conveyed by L.’s insistence on
the uselessness of heroic behavior. A soldier is supposed to fight not to
dig with his sword.
292 inopes undae See 264n. above.
293 occultos latices abstrusaque flumina One of L.’s many re-
duplications: ‘hiding waters and invisible streams,’ or perhaps a hen-
diadys solvable as ‘the hiding waters of invisible streams.’
294-5 nec solum rastris durisque ligonibus arua | sed gladiis fodere
suis Drag hoes and mattocks are (still today) common garden imple-
ments. While it sounds odd that an army on campaign would carry such
tools, they must have been easily available ubiquitously. Their mention
here, however, depicts the despair for water and the hopeless search,
which some were conducting by using their swords. Cf. Stat. Theb
3.589 rastraque et incurui saeuum rubuere ligones.
295-6 puteus… | … campi Thirst causes them to dig a well on the hill
deep down to the level of the plain below.
297-8 The well is deeper than a gold mine.
298 Astyrici scrutator pallidus auri On the gold of the Astures, see
Mart. 14.199.2 uenit ab auriferis gentibus Astur equus. Spain is renown
for its metals; Plin NH 3.30 metallis… tota ferme Hispania scatet (cf.
33.96 [argentum] in Hispania pulcherrimum); Strabo 3.2.8 (from Posi-
donius). From Spain the Romans acquired not only most of their gold
but also their silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron (Feeney 1982, 138-9 ad
Sil. 1.228 hic omne metallum; Healy 1978, 48, 56, 59-61, 63). Water is
as precious as gold, as seen from the laborious search of the Asturians
who look for it in the deepest recesses of the earth. On water in Lucan,
see Loupiac 1998, 79-112.
scrutator For L.’s verbal nouns in –tor, see 4n. above.
299-302 Another example of negative enumeration: see 107-9n. above;
Bramble 1982; Fantham ad 2.354-80. The list of water characteristics
opens with 299 non tamen aut, followed by a second aut (300), then
renewed with a neque, and rounded off with a final aut (302). Each
member of the sequence mentions the characteristics of natural waters.
By means of highly descriptive verbs, we hear the sound of fluvial
174 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

streams (299 sonuerunt), we see the bright reflections of a newly found

spring gushing out of volcanic rock (300 micuere), we feel the freshly
moist drops exuding from the rocky sides and roof of a grotto (301
stillant), or the delicate squirt of a fountain spring from among the
gravel under our feet (302 inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena). These
images, however, are somewhat cruel (if not sadistic, as observed by
Loupiac 1998, 80) because what is being described with the abundance
of vividly tantalizing particulars is sorely needed and very much missed
by the soldiers.
300 micuere noui… fontes Spring water that shimmers when it gushes
out of newly found springs.
301 antra nec exiguo stillant sudantia rore Yet one more natural
source of water, exuding from the walls of a cave.
302 aut inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena Lastly, L. mentions a
fourth kind of water source, a spring that forming a thin water layer of a
bed of gravel. The gravel here is described as inpulsa while the water is
leui, which could be a hypallage, in the sense that the gravel would be
light and the water pushed through it.
303-4 super… iuuentus | extrahitur duris silicum lassata metallis
For the adverb super, ‘on top’ (OLD 2a), Housman compares Verg. A.
5.679 inplentur… super puppes and explains ‘superiore loco stant qui
extrahunt.’ The exact nuance, however, is hard to catch in translation:
‘[T]he young men are hauled | to the surface’ (Braund); ‘… up to the
surface’ (Duff); ‘… furono tirati fuori dall’alto [= from above] i gio-
vani (Badalí). The use of extraho is transferred from the mining context
and would normally be applied to that which would be extracted from
the soil, i.e., water, for which the Pompeians are desperately searching,
or any kind of ore (see OLD s.v. ‘metallum’ 1), including flinty rocks.
303-4 exhausta… iuuentus | … lassat L. seems to overstate the men’s
exhaustion, but at a closer look exhausta denotes the physical expendi-
ture of fluids (multo sudore) that produces a feeling of exhaustion,
while lassata more directly describes the actual expenditure of muscle
energy. L. seems acquainted with the subtleties of medical terminology.
On lassitudo, see. e.g., Cels. Med. 1.2.7 and 3.9; on exhaurio, 5.26.3b
and 23a, although Celsus uses exhaurio also to describe exhaustion in
general, e.g., 2.10.10.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 175

303 multo sudore On sudor, see 623n. below.

305-6 quoque minus possent siccos tolerare uapores | quaesitae
fecistis aquae Apostrophe to the much sought water, which made the
soldiers even less enduring of the heat.
305 siccos… uapores The apparent oxymoron is rare and only occurs
in the context of the ancient explanation for the human physiology of
sweat in dry heat, as in Sen. Epist. 51.6 quid cum sudatoriis, in quae
siccus uapor corpora exhausurus includitur? omnis sudor per laborem
exeat; see also NQ 2.1.2 sed siccus ille terrarum uapor, unde uentis
origo est; Cels. 2.17.1 sudor etiam duobus modis elicitur, aut sicco
calore aut balneo. siccus calor est et harenae calidae et Laconici et
clibani et quarundam naturalium sudationum, ubi terra profusus
calidus uapor aedificio includitur, sicut super Baias in murtetis habe-
mus.
306-7 nec languida fessi | corpora sustentant epulis Along with other
adjectives, languidus is used by Celsus in describing the body’s condi-
tion resulting from exposure to the south wind: 2.1.11 Auster aures
hebetat, sensum tardat, capitis dolores mouet, aluum soluit, totum cor-
pus efficit hebes, umidum, languidum.
307-8 mensasque perosi The prose-like perodi occurs only at end of
verse (6.699, 8.336, 9.860), as in Virgil: A. 6.435 lucem… perosi (with
Norden’s n.); 9.141 genus omne perosos; Val. Fl. 6.289. Out of eleven
occurrences in Ovid, only three are not at end of verse: M. 7.145,
11.146, 12.582 vs. 2.379, 4.414, 8.183, 14.693; F. 3.577; Tr. 1.7.21,
4.4.81; Pont. 4.14.24.
308 auxilium fecere famem The paradox that staying hungry is helpful
sounds typically Lucanian and is seemingly unique in Latin poetry.
310 ora super Anastrophe.
311 conluuies ‘Muck, decayed matter’ (OLD 1). Of the eight occur-
rences of this prosaic word in Latin, two are in poetry; Val. Fl. 4.497. In
the poetics of civil war, reversal is the norm. The picture of the soldier
fighting his mates for a sip of muck is intentionally repulsive but L.
tastelessly insists on dehumanizing the soldiers.
176 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

313 rituque ferarum The incipient dehumanization of the Pompeians,

who have just debased themselves in trying to quench their thirst with
conluuies, is now accomplished. They are behaving like brutes. On the
amply documented comparison of humans to brutes, variously phrased
as ferae (or ferarum, pecudum, bestiarum, brutorum, etc.) more (or
modo, ritu, instar, etc.), see Pease ad Verg. A. 4.551.
314 distentas siccant pecudes The hypallage transfers the swelling of
the udders to the entire animal, as in Verg. Ecl. 4.21, 8.3 distentas lacte
capellas.
lacte negato The udders turn out to be dry.
315 sordidus exhausto sorbetur ab ubere sanguis The parallels for
drinking blood are rare, as one would hope, and include Plaut. Bacch.
372 apage istas a me sorores, quae hominum sorbent sanguinem, and
some metaphorical expressions in Cic. Vat. 6 sanguinem principum
ciuitatis exsorbere; Phil. 2.71 gustaras ciuilem sanguinem uel potius
exsorbueras; cf. ibid. 11.10; De Orat. 1.225; frg. 34.6 Blänsdorf iam
decolorem sanguinem omnem exsorbuit.
316-18 Housman: ‘destringunt rore madentis ramos et destringunt su-
cos, siquos palmite aut medulla pressere.’
317 destringunt ‘They squeeze the wet branches of the dew and then
squeeze out the sap from the twigs.’ Housman saw that this verb has a
double construction and has slightly different senses in the two cola, for
with ramos it means ‘squeeze’ (Gratt. 119 destrictas cortice uirgas) and
with 318 sucos means ‘yield (by squeezing)’ (Sen. Epist. 122.6 su-
dorem… destringunt). Housman also offers two parallels for other
verbs with the double construction: Pliny NH 7.121 matris salus donata
filiae pietati est ambaeque perpetuis alimentis; [Sen.] Oct. 714 dies |
sideribus atris cessit et nocti polus (see also Ferri 2003 ad loc.).
319 o fortunati A generic apostrophe to those lucky enough to have
died by poisoned waters, whose fate is deemed better than the thirsty
Pompeians’.
fugiens… barbarus hostis Dying in a war against the barbarian would
be preferable to fighting one’s own fellow citizens. This is an underly-
ing motif that resurfaces in many guises; see 7.282-3 emptum minimo
uolt sanguine quisquam | barbarus Hesperiis Magnum praeponere
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 177

rebus? (Caesar’s hortatory speech to his soldiers at Pharsalus): no bar-

barian would willingly give his life to insure Pompey’s dominion over
Italy (Gagliardi 1975 ad 7.282 quisquam); 7.535-7 utinam, Pharsalia,
campis | sufficiat cruor iste tuis, quem barbara fundunt | pectora.
319-20 quos… | fontibus inmixto strauit per rura ueneno Manius
Aquilius Asiaticus (consul 129 BCE) is condemned by Florus for poi-
soning the wells of several Asian cities during his pursuit of Aristoni-
cus’ army in the war that ensued to Attalus’ bequest of his kingdom to
Rome; Florus Epitom. 1.35. The Adn. and Comm. Bern. mention King
Juba, whose Aethiopian enemies are said to have poisoned springs in
their flight and add that Jugurtha’s Numidians killed many Romans in
this way (but no other sources of this event have been found) and that
Clisthenes of Sicyon (595-85 BCE) poisoned the Chrisaeans’ water
duct with hellebore, as reported in Frontin. Strat. 3.7.6 and Polyaen.
Strat. 6.13.
321 Caesar The apostrophe mode begins in 319 but now L. addresses
Caesar in particular.
322 pallida Hypallage? TLL X.1.130.59-60, 131.13; cf. 96n. above.
322-3 Dictaeis, Caesar, nascentia saxis | … aconita The figura ety-
mologica saxis… aconita suggests that for the etymological aition of
aconite from aconae (= ‘rocks’, but lit. ‘dust-free’, cf. Greek ἀκονιτί;
TLL I.419.84-420.24), L. is aware of Ovid (and/or his source), who tells
the myth of the origin of the poison from the saliva dripping from Cer-
berus’ mouths as he was being dragged by Hercules: Ov. M. 7.415-19
sparsit uirides spumis albentibus agros; | has concresse putant nac-
tasque alimenta feracis | fecundique soli uires cepisse nocendi, | quae
quia nascuntur dura uiuacia caute, | agrestes aconita uocant. L.’s aco-
nite grows in Crete, on the Dictaean rocks (Housman quotes Teophr.
Hist. Plant. 9.16.4 τὸ δ’ ἀκόνιτον γίνεται µὲν καὶ ἐν Κρήτῃ καὶ ἐν
Ζακύνθῳ, πλεῖστον δὲ καὶ ἄριστον ἐν Ἡρακλείᾳ τῇ ἐν Πόντῳ). The
interest of the ancients in this potentially poisonous medical herb, along
with the etymology of its name, is documented by Pliny who mentions
it several times: NH 27.4; 27.9; 27.10.
323 infundas The verb infundere is prominent in the diction of poison.
The verb may activate an intratextual echo back to Figulus’ dire vi-
sions, but unlike 1.648 omnis an infusis miscebitur unda uenenis, here
178 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

the poisoning agent is named. Caesar infects drinking water like a

treacherous barbarian (319n. above). The verb infundere is also applied
to the stingers of a poisonous serpent or a scorpion: Plin. NH 11.163.
323-4 Romana iuuentus non decepta bibet The Pompeians willingly
drink the poisoned water. The remark non decepta adds an extra touch
of pathos.
324-9 The effect of thirst is described with medical detail. Thirst and
aconite poisoning are probably associated in the poet’s mind because of
the situation he has described at 321-4. L.’s closest precedent is a pas-
sage from the Metamorphoses, where Aeacus describes with medical
precision the effect of the plague on his compatriots from the inland of
Aigina; Ov. M. 7.554-7.
324 torrentur uiscera flamma The first symptom is the visualization
of the burning entrails, following Ov. M. 7.554 uiscera torrentur primo.
For the terminology of internal burning, cf. Catullus 100.7 cum uesana
meas torreret flamma medullas; Sen. Epist. 14.6 febrem uiscera ipsa
torrentem.
325 oraque sicca rigent squamosis aspera linguis The next symptom
is a dry mouth with a sense of roughness on the tongue, as in Ov. M.
7.556 aspera lingua tumet, tepidisque arentia uentis | ora patent, but in
L. the tongue does not swell.
rigent For this sense of rigere as a result of dryness, see Manil. 1.135
liquor… sine quo arida riget rerum materies. The stiffness is a sign of
death, as at 2.25 membra… rigentia (see 291n. above) and 8.59-61 om-
nia neruis | membra relicta labant, riguerunt corda, diuque | spe mortis
decepta iacet, where, after learning of her husband’s death, Cornelia
mistakes her heart’s stiffness in grief for the much hoped-for sign of her
own incipient death.
squamosis… linguis The phrase is unique to L. The adjective squamo-
sus (‘scaly’, twenty-one occurrences in classical Latin; and nine occur-
rences, mostly in poetry, of the similar squameus) chiefly applies to fish
(Cic. Arati Phaen. frg. 34.143 squamoso corpore Pisces [= ND 2.114];
Manil. 4.582 squamosis Piscibus ignes; Plin. NH 9.56.4; and reptiles
(Ov. M. 3.41 uolubilibus squamosos nexibus orbes [of a snake], cf.
Verg. G. 4.408 squamosus… draco; Culex 167 squamosos… orbes
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 179

[snake]; Sen. Med. 1023 squamosa… colla [snakes]). Here it is used in

the same sense as at Cels. 5.28.17b, describing the appearance of a cer-
tain skin condition (OLD s.v. ‘impetigo’) characterized by a scaly erup-
tion.
326-7 iam marcent uenae nulloque umore rigatus | aeris alternos
angustat pulmo meatus ‘The blood vessels weaken and the lung, de-
prived of liquid, restricts the alternate passage of air.’ L. here is refer-
ring to the current medical knowledge according to which the blood
vessels carry not just blood but also air. The most complete explanation
in Latin survives in Gell. NA 18.10.9 uena est conceptaculum sangui-
nis… mixti confusique cum spiritu naturali, in quo plus sanguinis est,
quam spiritus; arteria est conceptaculum spiritus naturalis mixti confu-
sique cum sanguine, in quos plus spiritus est, minus sanguinis. In other
words, ancient medicine believed that our blood vessels carry not just
blood but also air, and that the arteries carry more air than blood while
the veins more blood than air. L. refers to the weakening of the veins,
which mostly carry blood, because of the lack of liquid in the thirsty
bodies of the Pompeians. The veins’ enfeeblement also compromises
respiration because the lung is not irrigated by any moisture. L.’ de-
scription of the veins as carriers of both air and blood is therefore sig-
nificantly more precise and sophisticated than his most likely sources
(e.g., Cic. ND 2.138 et uenae sunt et arteriae, illae sanguinis hae spiri-
tus receptacula; Sen. NQ 3.15.1 arteriae, id est spiritus semitae; cf.
Comm. Bern. ‘quoniam duas arterias habemus, unam qua spiritum ac-
cipimus, alteram qua reddimus,’ who seems to intend that aeris meatus
are the arteries), which neatly distinguish between veins as exclusive
blood carriers and arteries as air carriers. We might assume L. some-
how knew (e.g., via Celsus, Largus, Seneca, etc.) the theories of the
famous Alexandrian physician Erasistratus (a contemporary of Hero-
philus), who believed that the veins (for the most part) distributed blood
around the body while the arteries (for the most part) distributed the
vital pneuma, which had its origin in inspired air (J.T. Vallance in OCD
s.v. ‘medicine’ 948b).
328 rescissoque nocent suspiria dura palato Even breathing is painful
because the thirsty palate is scorched by dryness.
329 pandunt ora tamen nociturumque aera captant Yet breathing is
necessary to stay alive, even though it will hurt.
180 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

nociturum is D’Orville’s conjecture for nociturum. Housman mentions

Hosius’ objection to this emendation on the basis of Corippus Iohan-
neis 6.371, hence it would appear that in the 6th century Corippus had
read nocturnum. Housman infers that the nocturnum of the consensus
codicum is a corruption that predates Corippus and probably originated
in 5th century or earlier. Badalì keeps the reading of the MSS.
330-1 expectant imbres quorum modo cuncta natabant | inpulsu
Paradoxically, they are asking for water after a deluge.
331 siccis… in nubibus The paradox of desiring more water after a
flood is surreptitiously heightened by the oxymoron of ‘dry clouds’.
The phrase can also be the result of hypallage (or a merely transferred
epithet), if uoltus would sound as more likely than nubibus to be de-
scribed by siccis.
333 non super arentem Meroen As its epithet arens suggests, Meroe
here is a geographical syncedoche pars pro toto for the hottest climate
zone. The existence of Meroe, a kingdom of the upper Nile, must have
been widely known throughout the empire because Augustus boasted
that the Romans had reached its borders in Res Gestae 5.22 in Aetio-
piam usque ad oppidum Nabata peruentum est, cui proxima est Meroe.
Cancrique sub axe The conjunction –que is epexegetic, i.e., the Sky of
Cancer explains in what way we should take Meroe. The astronomical
referent is customary to indicate vast regions in poetry. See Housman’s
astronomical appendix.
334 qua nudi Garamantes arant, sedere Like Meroe in the previous
line, Garamantes functions here as a metonymy (or synecdoche) for the
hottest zone. We are now back to detail with the focus on a specific
people, after the comprehensive expression Cancrique sub axe, which
in turn follows the Meroe synecdoche.
arant Rather than ‘simply equivalent to habitant’ (Haskins), L.’s arant
depicts the Garamantes in their unlikely occupation, for they inhabit a
quasi barren land. See 679n. Garamante perusto below.
334-5 sed inter | stagnantem Sicorim et rapidum deprensus Hi-
berum The paradox culminates in acknowledging that the thirsty sol-
diers are trapped (deprensus) between two rivers.
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 181

337-401 Pardon
Afranius surrenders and addresses a dignified speech to Caesar (337-
62). Caesar offers Afranius and his men full pardon with no penalty
and exonerates them from the fight. As the soldiers indulge in bread
and water, the poet breaks into the narrative yet one more time with a
reproachful apostrophe to luxury (363-81). The pardoned soldiers are
graced with the gift of returning to their families and are relieved from
fighting (382-401).
337 iam domiti cessere duces The alliterative phrase domiti duces is
unique.
pacisque petendae This alliterative purpose close with the gerundive is
a prosaic touch (e.g., Caes. BG 4.27.4; Livy 9.45.18), as in Verg. A.
11.230. Quite rare in Virgil (see EV II.716b-718a s.v. ‘gerundio e ge-
rundivo’), the gerundive is very frequent in L.
338 auctor damnatis supplex Afranius armis It is Afranius’ idea
(auctor) to ask for peace, L. explicitly invokes Afranius’ auctoritas as a
military commander by calling him auctor, and placing the spondaic
word in the prominent first foot. The concept of auctoritas encom-
passes the civil, religious, and military spheres. L.’s phrasing, with a
triple nominative that qualifies Afranius as auctor and supplex, is keen
on Roman legal practice but it is striking for its paradoxical adherence
to legal praxis in a civil war. The historical reality, however, suggests
that Afranius has kept his faith until now as the Republic’s appointee of
Pompey in Spain. In other words, he had not been appointed by the
senate under the emergency decree of 49, and therefore he never aimed
to fight Caesar. Instead, by subduing assorted Spanish tribes during the
years 55-49 BCE, he has made Caesar’s victory (and conquest) easier.
On the significance of auctor in Virgil and epic poetry in reference to
the political and religious contexts, see Hellegouarc’h in EV I.392b-
394a s.v. ‘auctoritas’.
supplex Afranius’ decision to ‘supplicate’ the enemy in order to obtain
peace must be understood in relation to his auctoritas. In supplication
the human is subordinated to the divine. In war, the supplex addresses
himself to the winner as if to a god. On supplex in Virgil, see EV
IV.1086-7 s.v. ‘supplex/supplicium’.
182 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

339 semianimes in castra trahens hostilia turmas On the compound

adjective, cf. Verg. A. 4.686 semianimem… germanam, and 11.635
semianimesque micant digiti, where in both cases it occupies the
prominent first place in the line with its hexameter-friendly choriamb.
340 uictoris stetit ante pedes Afranius stands as a suppliant in front of
Caesar, perhaps signifying that he is his peer. The position of the sup-
plex in Roman ritual varies. Cf. Sil. 7.455 stat supplex; Val. Fl. 4.61
ante Iouem stetit et supplex sic fatur Apollo; but the supplex is prostrate
at Val. Fl. 7.143 supplex hinc sternitur hospes.
340-1 seruata precanti | maiestas non fracta malis Afranius’ power-
ful role is unbroken by misfortune. His maiestas is a direct emanation
of his auctoritas. L. portrays him as vanquished but dignified and noble
in demeanor.
343 sed ducis Typically, L. expands on the appearance of Afranius and
reminds us that he looks exactly the part. He is a dux.
344-62 In requesting Caesar’s clemency, Afranius accepts that Caesar’s
victory was ordained by fate. Narrative wise, this certainty not only
results from L.’s historical hindsight, but is also close to Afranius’ feel-
ings as from Caes. BC 1.75, when after the bivouac (which Caesar in
BC 1.74 has presented as a spontaneous armistice) Afranius gives all up
for lost before Petreius breaks up the parley. Finally, Afranius reminds
Caesar that the Pompeians under his own and Petreius’ command have
already fulfilled their destiny, and they should therefore be spared any
further fighting.
347 dignum donanda, Caesar, te credere uita However effective in
its adulatory tone, Afranius’ is not just empty rhetoric. Caesar’s mili-
tary performance in the war is given recognition and, in spite of the
factious divisiveness, Caesar is still a Roman and as such he is believed
worthy to grant life to Romans.
348-51 In connection with L.’s disapproval of civil war as an intrinsic
evil, Afranius’ denial of ever being Pompey’s supporter is paramount.
This passage disproves Ahl’s contention that L. is a pro-Pompeian
Catonian; see Masters 1992, 83.
348 non partis studiis agimur As the objective genitive of studiis, the
singular partis denotes one party faction. Afranius explicitly reject fac-
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 183

tious party politics among his motivations to partake in the war. On this
use of studium, see OLD 5a.
348-9 nec sumpsimus arma | consiliis inimica tuis This is a very deli-
cate moment in Afranius’ address to Caesar. He has just denied his
loyalty to any faction, but how he has found himself fighting Caesar on
the battlefield remains to be explained. He cannot deny to have taken
up arms but he claims that he is not acting against Caesar’s plans.
349-50 nos denique bellum | inuenit ciuile duces The emphasis on
fate allows L. to make Afranius speak not so much as a victim of his
own destiny but rather as a military leader who has performed his role
qua leader in the conflict; cf. 351 nil fata moramur.
350-1 causaeque priori, | dum potuit, seruata fides This appeal to
fides sounds slightly contradictory to Afranius’ earlier claim that it was
not because of party politics that he took part in the war. The nature of
civil war, however, makes it possible for Afranius to ask that his army’s
loyalty to Pompey be not held against them now that they are asking for
clemency after admitting defeat. See Caes. BC 1.84 audiente utroque
exercitu loquitur Afranius: non esse aut ipsis aut militibus suscensen-
dum, quod fidem erga imperatorem suum Cn. Pompeium conseruare
uoluerint.
352 tradimus Hesperias gentes aperimus Eoas Sc. tibi. The western
nations are, of course, the Spanish tribes, but the polar figure encom-
passes west and east (on the polar figure, see Kemmer 1903). Hyper-
bolically, perhaps, Afranius suggests that now nothing stands on Cae-
sar’s way and he can begin winning Pompey’s east for himself.
353 orbis post terga relicti Caesar now can leave Spain’s extreme
west and return back east to fight the Pompeians in Epirus.
354 nec cruor effusus In line 2 L. has described the Ilerda campaign
non multa caede nocentem, perhaps in reference to this final important
victory, which spares the armies a final battle when Caesar accepts
Afranius’ request for clemency and the Pompeians are not only spared
but excused from battle and go home.
355-6 hoc hostibus unum | quod uincas ignosce tuis This paradox is
quite daring, for Afranius is asking victorious Caesar to forgive his
enemies for his own victory. There is no subtle irony here, but rather an
184 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

implied sarcasm, which points to the fact that, in Afranius’ view as L.

presents it, Caesar’s victory is no good.
358-9 campis prostrata iacere | agmina nostra putes Now Afranius
asks Caesar to consider the vanquished army as dead on the battlefield.
The self-humiliation inherent in the request somewhat belittles Caesar’s
victory, for Afranius is also asking to disband the army and not to force
any of the vanquished Pompeians to join the Caesarian cause: 362 hoc
petimus, uictos ne tecum uincere cogas.
363 uoltuque serenus The phrase occurs in the same metrical position
in Lucr. 3.293 uoltuque sereno (cf. also Hor. C. 1.37.26).
364 usus belli poenamque remittit Caesar fully grants Afranius’ re-
quest, sparing him and his soldiers any penalty as well as further mili-
tary service. The phrase usus belli function as a technical term for levy,
and is used by Caesar, for instance, in reference to an army size: Caes.
BG 4.20.4 quem usum belli haberent; cf. Nep. Eum. 3.4 uiri cum clari-
tate tum usu belli praestantes.
365 foedera pacis L. has used this very expression earlier in line 205
(cf. also 210 disturbat sanguine pacem) to describe the situation of the
spontaneous fraternizing in the way in which it appeared to Petreius,
who in L. reads it as betrayal, 206-7 et sua tradita uenum | castra uidet.
367 incustoditos amnes L. might be recalling a notorious scene in
Thucydides Book VII, when Nicias’ Athenians swarm in and drain the
Assinarus’ waters in Sicily.
368-70 L. indulges in detailing the physical processes that affect the
thirsty body when it is finally allowed to drink.
368 continuus multis subitarum tractus aquarum With the scheme
aCbAb, the hyperbaton gives first-place prominence to the choriambic
continuus joined with the pronominal multis and after a strong caesura
we almost picture the drinking scene, so well rendered with the con-
tinuus tractus, the uninterrupted drawing of hastily swallowed water
(Haskins).
369-70 aera non passus uacuis discurrere uenis | artauit clausitque
animam The soldiers are drinking water so avidly that their bodies
cannot bear to let the air pass through their empty veins (on blood ves-
sels as air carriers, see 326-7n. above). As a result, their breath is shut
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 185

off. On the physiology of swallowing, cf. Cels. 4.1.3 quibus cum diuer-
sae uiae sint, qua coeunt exigua in arteria sub ipsis faucibus lingua est;
quae, cum spiramus, attollitur, cum cibum potionemque adsumimus,
arteriam claudit.
373-4 o prodiga rerum | luxuries L’s tirade against luxury is phrased
as an apostrophe (on which see Introduction, 29, above). Cf. Sen.
Contr. 2.1.13 paupertas, quam ignotum bonum es!. Barratt 1979, 172
ad 5.527-31. In his moralizing tirade against luxury, L. displays Stoic as
well as Cynic commonplaces when he expresses his contempt for what
one fears most, poverty and death (Malcovati 1940, 57). On the topos,
cf. Sen Epist. 18.10; 21.10; 45.10, etc.
375 quaesitorum… ciborum | ambitiosa fames The search for special
food items from distant places to satisfy the exotic taste of the rich few
is a common target of denunciation and satire.
377 discite The grammatical subject of this imperative is constituted by
the ‘impersonal’ 376 fames and mensae, but the second person address
is naturally an apostrophe to those members of the upper class.
quam paruo liceat producere uitam The humble necessities for life
are easily taken for granted when available. L. tiresomely insists on a
trite point.
378-81 non … | … | non … sed The brief tirade against luxury is intro-
duced by negative enumeration (non… non) followed by an antithesis
(sed; on this feature see Esposito 2004; Esposito 2004a, 45). For L.’s
fondness for negative enumeration, see 107-9n., 220-7n., 299-302n.
above, and cf. Fantham 1992 ad 2.354-80; Bramble 1982.
378 quantum natura petat As at 203 above, petere equals poscere and
conveys necessity: cf. Lucr. 1.1080 sua quod natura petit; Sen. Epist.
17.9 natura minimum petit (TLL X.1.1973.44-5).
379-80 non erigit aegros | nobilis ignoto diffusus consule Bacchus
Rare wine (denoted by metonymy with the god’s name) bottled in a
nameless antiquity is another favorite of authorial tirades against lux-
ury.
380 non auro murraque bibunt A murra is a ‘fluorite cup’, (Moreno
Soldevila 2006, 523 ad Mart. 4.85.1), the kind of precious vessel elabo-
rately described in Plin. NH 37.18-22 and (see Healy 1978, 37) and
186 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401

sometimes mistaken for porcelain (e.g., by Haskins). Believed to im-

prove the taste of wine, these cups are variegated in color and slightly
resemble stained glass. Details and photographs are available in
Loewental/Harden/Bromehead 1949 (cf. Whittick 1952 and Harden
1954). On the common confusion with glass, see Smith 1949.
382 heu miseri qui bella gerunt This exclamatory statement resumes
the apostrophe mode. The statement has a universal resonance because
it encompasses not just this war, but any war. While ‘pacifism’ would
be inappropriate and unrealistic, the claim that war in general is just
misery rather than an opportunity for unending glory sounds quite revo-
lutionary.
383-4 miles… tutus | innocuusque… liber Once they have been dis-
armed, the soldiers find safety and freedom.
383 spoliato pectore tutus Oxymoron: they have surrendered their
arms instead of being plundered after death.
385-401 With a further exclamation (388), L. not only conveys the
sense of loss experienced by the soldiers who now are regretting their
endurance of the war but also gives voice to his own frustration with his
own narrative. These discharged men are very lucky. They can go home
to their own lands (sua terra) without waiting to be given a lot in a
veteran colony.
L. rounds off the narrative of Ilerda with an authorial lament over
the miserable destiny of those who fight in war. A warrior’s destiny is
even worse when the fight is a civil war. The lament incorporates the
motif of active life vs. contemplative life, familiar from Senecan trag-
edy, and enriched with Lucretian and Virgilian verbal echoes originally
refunctionalized in a typically Lucanian view. L. will return to the ‘ac-
tive vs. contemplative life’ motif at 5.527-31 (lines appositely styled as
‘Laus Paupertatis’ in Comm. Bern.), an authorial apostrophe during
Caesar’s night crossing of the stormy Adriatic on fisherman Amyclas’
small boat from Epirus back to Brundisium in order to fetch Antony
and the remaining troops. On the motif, see Barratt 1979, 172-7 ad
5.527-31; Narducci 1983, 192-3; Rutz 1950, 146 n. 153; Degl'Innocenti
Pierini 1996, 51 and n. 63; Salemme 2002, 17.
389 tot in orbe labores Intend: ‘so many trials one after the other.’ The
phrase in orbe refers to time rather than space, i.e., ‘in sequence’, see
 Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 187

Mynors 1990 ad Verg. G. 2.401 redit agricolis labor actus in orbem;

cf. also Manil. 2.251 emerito… orbe laborum. Perhaps misled by Hous-
man’s uncertainty on the matter (see ad loc.), translators may be wrong
in interpreting in orbe as ‘on earth’; e.g., ‘in every land’ (Duff); ‘be-
neath all suns’ (Little); ‘through the world’ (Braund).
391-2 terras fundendus in omnis | est cruor See 354n. above.
393-4 felix qui potuit mundi nutante ruina | quo iaceat iam scire
loco An echo of the forcefully Lucretian line in Verg. G. 2.490 felix qui
potuit rerum cognoscere causas (pace Thomas ad loc.), a context in
which Virgil reflects on the civil wars (G. 2.498 res Romanae) and
appeals to the knowledge of the rerum causae of the Epicurean teach-
ings as a panacea against death resulting from the evils of internecine
strife. L.’s statement is far less ambitious – or more ambitiously tradi-
tional in its evocation of the importance of ‘heroic’ burial (in the Ho-
meric sense) – and customarily dark, for what grants a person to be felix
(in one’s ability to know) is not the knowledge of Epicurean physics
but of one’s place of burial. See Lucr. 3.1-2 e tenebris tantis tam
clarum extollere lumen | qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda uitae;
Salemme 2002, 17.
395 certos non rumpunt classica somnos On sleeping through battle
bugles, see Tibull. 1.1.
396-7 iam coniunx natique rudes et sordida tecta | et non deductos
recipit sua terra colonos On wife and children, see 3.894-5. While
civil war pits kin against kin, peace in BC is marked by the reconstitu-
tion of family ties; see Armisen-Marchetti 2003, 247, in
Gualandri/Mazzoli 2003. On the miserable condition of wife and chil-
dren of civil warriors, see Hor. C. 2.18.26-8 (with Badalì 1998 in
Enciclopedia Oraziana 1996-1998 III, 42a).
400-1 sic proelia soli | felices nullo spectant ciuilia uoto The solem-
nity of line 401 that closes the Ilerda narrative is rendered by the heav-
ily spondaic rhythm. Closure is achieved by emphasizing once again
the reversal of military and warlike values as enacted in civil war (see
on 235-6 above). Valor directly leads to self-annihilation whereas se-
renity and peace are procured through abstention from fighting.
 Part II: Mutual suicide:
Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

Seeing general Basilus and their comrades on the opposite shore, An-
tonius’ troops make a plan to escape. They build three rafts, whose
flanks are enclosed by large beams to protect the oarsmen. The rafts
are launched at low tide (415-32). Octavius, who is in charge of a large
Pompeian fleet in the Adriatic, sees the rafts and does not attack right
away, but waits for the rafts to get to open waters to follow with his
ships (432-7). A hunting simile conveys the state of mind on both sides,
while Antonius’ soldiers try to escape to shore (437-47). Pompey’s men
set traps in the sea using chains in hopes of capturing the small rafts.
The third raft is caught and run aground in a craggy gulf (448-64).
Volteius, captain of the raft, realizes he has been trapped and tries in
vain to break the chains. A short battle ensues and lasts until nightfall
(465-73). In a hortatory address to his frightened men, Volteius con-
vinces them to kill one other to avoid the shame of captivity, pardon,
and/or disloyalty to Caesar (474-520). Though the men’s hearts are
somewhat lifted by his speech, they watch the stars all night, as Sagitta-
rius rises in the night sky (521-8). Daylight finds them surrounded by
the enemy, who is trying to offer peace. The soldiers have already re-
nounced their lives, and are resolved to die by their own hands.
Volteius demands to be the first to die, and is pierced by many of his
men’s blades. He deals a deathblow at last to the man who struck him
first. The other men on the ship begin to fight each other, dying one by
another’s wound (529-49). Mention of the Theban saga emphasizes that
the men of the raft are kin by blood, brothers, fathers, and sons, and
their only pietas is never having to strike twice (549-566). Finally they
drag themselves to the gangplanks and bleed into the sea. The raft was
now piled with bodies. The enemy who had surrounded them gave the
order to burn the bodies, and were amazed at the worth their leader
had to them. The doomed crafts’ ordeal became famous. Yet cowardly
races will not understand that suicide is an act of valor (566-81).
190 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

While the war unfolded in Spain, two of Pompey’s men, Marcus

Octavius and Lucius Scribonius Libo, manage to expel from Illyricum
Caesar’s man Publius Cornelius Dolabella, stationed in the Adriatic
with a Caesarian fleet. Dolabella had been sent by Caesar to guard the
coast off the Adriatic, protect the eastern shores of Italy, and keep Cae-
sar’s province of Illyricum as Caesarian as possible (Adcock 1932,
653). Caesar’s legate Gaius Antonius (the triumvir’s brother) unwisely
establishes his forces on the island of Curicta, thus effectively isolating
himself from the mainland (Wilkes 1969, 40). Overcome by hunger,
Gaius Antonius tries to escape but falls in the Pompeians’ hands along
with all of his troops except for a few who make away with themselves.
The Pompeian fleet was strong of Histrians, Liburnians, and Cilicians
(among others) and quite greater than Dolabella’s few ships, which
were easily brushed aside.
L. makes much of this minor episode of mass suicide, evidently to
glorify the peculiar claim to uirtus of these few doomed Caesarians lead
by Volteius. Volteius’ small Caesarian contingent is composed of a
thousand men previously enlisted on Caesar’s side at Opitergium (Bar-
rington Atlas 40D1), between Patavium and Aquileia, in Cisalpine Gaul
(4.462). Unlike Curio’s infantry, who will be slaughtered to the last
man by Juba’s Numidians (see 4.715-884n. below), the Opitergians kill
each other to avoid falling into enemy hands. As a reward for their
loyal heroism, as well as out of compassion, Caesar granted their home-
town of Opitergium freedom from military service for thirty years and
added three hundred centuries to its territories, if the scholion in Comm.
Bern. 4.462, our only source for this, is to be believed (see Avery 1993,
463 and n. 35).
In the extant text of Caesar’s BC there is no mention of the Opiter-
gians. A strong argument has been presented in support of the thesis
that Caesar originally included the Opitergian narrative in his BC, but
that the episode was lost as a result of an accident in the manuscript
tradition of Caesar’s Commentaria (Avery 1993). It is, in fact, very
likely that L. derives what he knows about the Opitergians from a lost
part in Caesar’s BC, but we know that the episode was treated by Livy.
See Liv. Per. 110.10-15: C. Antonius, legatus Caesaris, male adversus
Pompeianos in Illyrico rebus gestis captus est. in quo bello Opitergini
transpadani, Caesaris auxiliares, rate sua ab hostibus navibus clusa,
potius quam in potestatem hostium venirent, inter se concurrentes oc-
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 191

cubuerunt; Florus Epit. 4.2 = 2.13.33. The Opitergians are not men-
tioned in Caesar’s BC, but they probably became known as a declama-
tory theme, cf. Quint. Inst. 3.8.24 and 30; on Republican exempla in the
rhetorical schools, see Bonner 1966 and Fantham 1992, 15 n. 39.

402-73 This extended ‘twilight sequence’ (as Saylor 1990, 297, has
memorably called it) introduces the episode by establishing light, its
partial presence, and its absence as key elements in deciphering the
Opitergians’ state of mind. They will eventually embrace suicide as the
glorious option that will illumine them with posthumous renown, but
even admitting (with Saylor 1990, 296) the contrived nature of their
suicidal choice, and that Volteius’ rhetorical exhortations that follow at
474-520 have ‘redefined’ light itself, one must read this prelude to
Volteius’ suasoria not merely as an ‘introduction’ to Volteius’ per-
verted notion of light, because even though light is associated with
goodness in Sen. Epist. 31.5 and 79.11-12, light inevitably brings to
view violence and turmoil as well (as admittedly recognized by Saylor
1990, 296 n. 12, citing Park 1965, 325-8).
402-3 L. is fond of litotes in narrative transitions; see below 581n. non
segnior. After the ‘happy ending’ of Caesar’s pardoning of Afranius
and Petreius in Spain, the litotes here functions as a contrast by fore-
shadowing the forthcoming death of the Caesarians in Illyria.
402 non eadem… Fortuna suggests that the Illyrian events L. is about
to tell are contemporary to the Spanish events. In translating it is advis-
able to render the notion of simultaneity with ‘meanwhile’.
403 in partes aliquid sed Caesaris ausa est With the hyperbaton For-
tuna / ... ausa, complicated by the postponed adversative sed, the text
alludes to the difficulty of conceiving of Caesar’s Fortuna as taking a
turn unfavorable to him. As Haskins notes, L.’s wording resurfaces in
Florus 2.13.30 aliquid tamen aduersis absentem ducem ausa Fortuna
est circa Illyricam et Africam oram.
404-10 This long sentence situates the Illyrian war theater in the same
way as 4.11-23 above presented the geographic description of Ilerda,
but here a single sentence suffices to convey the nature of the islet in
whose waters the events unfold.
192 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

404 longas… Salonas ‘Straggling Salona’ (Haskins, followed by

Braund). The city that stretched along the Dalmatian shore, which was
captured by Asinius Pollio (Serv. ad Verg. E. 4.1); RE IA2.2003-6.
405 Iader For L., Iader is a river (Francken), whereas for other authors
it is a Dalmatian city (Mela 2.57.1), probably a coastal colony on the
Liburnian shore (Plin. NH 3.140, 142, 152), identical with Zadar in
nowadays Croatia; Barr. Atlas 20C5; RE XVII.556-7.
406 bellax ‘Warlike’, a neologism, reoccurs only in Silius 16.475 and
17.428.
Curictum The Curictes are the inhabitants of Curicta (Barr. Atlas
20B4; RE IV.2.1834-6), an island (as the poet’s gloss in the next line
informs) off the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia, identical with Krk Island in
nowadays Croatia. The island is flanked to the west by the Apsyrtides
archipelago, with which it creates a maze of inlets, gulfs, and water-
ways along the Dalmatian shore.
407 quos alit Hadriaco tellus circumflua ponto Imitated by Sil. 1.289
insula quos genuit Graio circumflua ponto (as noted by Feeney ad loc.).
circumflua Cf. 10.476 gelido circumfluus orbis Hibero. Haskins takes
it as the Latin translation of περίρρυτος (see LSJ) ‘sea-girt, surrounded
with water’, a common epithet for islands in Greek poetry: e.g., Hom.
Od. 19.173; Aesch. Eum. 77; (Karamanou 2006, 172 ad Eur. Dictys fr.
1 = TrGF **330b Snell). First found in Ov. M. 1.30, 15.624, 739, the
adjective reoccurs in the same metrical position in Sil. 1.289 (above),
15.221 excelsos tollit pelago circumflua muros, and Val. Fl. 5.442
gemino circumflua ponto.
408 clauditur extrema residens Antonius ora C. Antonius is pre-
vented from leaving the island. Caesar does not talk about Octavius’
defeat of Gaius Antony in his BC. Appian briefly mentions the defeat at
2.191, before moving on to the mutiny of Placentia, whereas Dio de-
votes a whole paragraph to the event (Dio 41.40).
Antonius C. Antonius (RE I.2.2582-4, Nr. 20; OCD s.v. ‘Antonius,
Gaius’), brother of the triumvir, second of M. Antonius Creticus’ three
sons, was Caesar’s legate in 49. Forced to surrender to the Pompeian
fleet’s blockade, he later held the praetorship for the year 44. He was
captured by Brutus in Apollonia, Epirus, in March 43, and after inciting
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 193

Brutus’ troops to mutiny, he was executed in 42 after Brutus heard of

the proscriptions.
410 fames See above 93-4n.
410-14 This series of statements in parataxis glosses fames, which ends
the previous sentence. The soldiers are experiencing deprivation as a
result of the blockade.
411 summittit The compound summitto seems here equivalent to the
simple mitto, but Comm. Bern. interprets it as ‘sursum mitto’.
412 flaua Ceres The phrase occurs in the same metrical position in
Tibull. 1.1.15, Verg. G. 1.96, Ov. Am. 3.10.3. See also [Sen.] Octavia
50-1.
413 miseris dentibus The desiccated grasses on which the soldiers are
desperately feeding require teeth rather than hands to tear them (Comm.
Bern.). The ostensible effect of the paradox is to debase these fames-
ridden humans into grazing sheep.
415-19 After seeing their companions on the shore opposite, the
trapped Caesarians think of a new escape stratagem.
416 Basilum L. Minucius Basilus (Broughton 1951, II. 264-5 and esp.
268) was one of Caesar’s commanders in charge of two legions, proba-
bly as a legate, who tried to come to C. Antonius’ rescue (Comm. Bern.
ad 416 and 433; Flor. 2.13.32; Oros. 6.15.8).
416-17 furta… |…fugae The ‘secrecy of flight’; fugae is an objective
genitive; Haskins compares Cic. Fam. 16.26.2 furtum cessationis quae-
siuisse. For the sense, see 2.688 furtiuae placuere fugae; Sen. Ag. 123.
418-19 gerendis | molibus The types of rafts that the soldiers are build-
ing are meant to keep a heavy cargo afloat. They must have looked
quite massive; see 445n. below.
420-6 In these lines the rowers and their peculiar boats are presented as
seen by an onlooker. L.’s narrative strategy is to cast the raft as the
stage on which the Opitergians’ drama unfolds. Hence the necessity of
the detailed description of the rafts, though L. seems always interested
in technological details, and in this case he exploits the unusual con-
struction of these massive rafts, and the way they are propelled, to set a
central stage, viewable from land and sea, and thereby captivate the
194 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

attention of the audiences – the internal audience of the Opitergians’

drama, constituted by the Pompeians and the Caesarians, L.’s contem-
porary Neronian audience, with their pronounced taste for spectacle, as
well as the posthumous audiences of the epic.
420 cupae Bound in double rows and used as floating devices, these
empty vats or barrels sustain the planks on top of which the turrets
stand (Comm. Bern.).
423-4 nec gerit expositum telis… | remigium The rowers maneuver
the raft in such a way as to protect themselves from enemy fire.
423 in fronte patenti The side of the raft open to enemy fire probably
is the prow or the deck.
424 remigium The term denotes oarsmen in Verg. A. 3.471 and Hor.
Epist. 1.6.63, but L.’s word choice in describing how the raft is invisi-
bly propelled is perhaps meant to sound scientifically ‘objective’; hence
the abstract remigium ‘oarage’ instead of remiges ‘oarsmen’ to denote
the rowers.
427-32 Relying on the ebb and flow, the crafts are launched to sea.
Their appearance must have been even more threatening with their tur-
rets and parapets oscillating with the roll.
431 geminae comites Metaphorical use of comites for ships, as at 93
above (Gregorius 1893, 13).
433-7 Waiting for a larger contingent to embark, Octavius astutely re-
frains from surprising Antonius’ raft in order to capture more enemy
soldiers after the hull will have sailed.
433 Octauius M. Octavius was Pompey’s legate. His attack on Salonae
is mentioned by Caesar (BC 3.9.1-8); cf. Dio 42.11.1; see Broughton
1951, II.249; Comm. Bern. ad loc. (134-6 Usener).
437-44 Although predictably introduced by sic, the hunting simile is
somewhat unexpected, but given the prominence of (mythical and non-
mythical) hunting scenes as paradigms of heroism reflecting the pre-
dominantly male pedagogic ideal in literature and art (see Anderson in
OCD3 s.v. ‘hunting’; Anderson 1985), we can hardly be too surprised.
L. has gone to some length, however, in his description of the raft and
now midline we must turn from seascape to land and imagine these
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 195

sailors as hunter’s prey. Only at line 444 we finally realize that the
hunter’s simile illustrates how shrewdly M. Octavius entraps the Cae-
sarians like deer in a hunter’s net. On the paradigmatic function of
hunting in art
440-1 Molossi | Spartanos Cretasque Of the three breeds, the long
extinct Molossian hounds were highly regarded in antiquity for their
large size and their courage in attacking wild beasts: the locus classicus
is Arist. Hist. An. 9.1 = 608a28; cf. Orth in RE VIII.2.2548.37-2551.63
s.v. ‘Hund’. In hunting contexts, Roman poets like to mention two
Greek breeds, Molossian and Spartan hounds (Verg. G. 3.405, with
Thomas’ n.; Hor. Serm. 2.6.114; Epod. 6.5), but in Sen. Phaedra 32
Molossian and Cretan hounds are mentioned, whereas L. is the only
poet who mentions three Greek breeds in the same sentence.
441-4 Typically, L. has listed above the three famous Greek hound
breeds but only one of the dogs, whose snout is pressed to the ground in
pursuit, is allowed to stalk the prey, for the situation requires the work
of a quieter dog who signals the prey’s lair (monstrasse cubilia) by
wagging its tail (444 tremulo… loro) without barking (nescit latrare).
445-7 The crafts are launched at dusk and they are seen here moving
quickly offshore under cover of darkness. The contrast between light
and darkness becomes prominent from this point onwards and encom-
passes the entire episode; see Saylor 1990.
445 nec mora The formula here suggest C. Antonius’ soldiers haste in
boarding the rafts, but at the same time it marks the transition from the
hunting simile back to the narrative. It is found frequently in Roman
poetry with an analogous function and in the same metrical position at
Lucr. 4.227 = 6.931; Prop. 4.4.84, 8.51; Verg. G. 3.110, A. 5.368, 458,
12.553; etc. On delay and mora in L., see 581-8n. below.
moles The noun metonymically denotes the rafts, which must have
been quite massive in bulk and therefore very heavy and hard to ma-
neuver. The metonym reoccurs at 453 and 462.
446-7 primas | inpedit ad noctem iam lux extrema tenebras Liter-
ally: ‘The last light of day is an obstacle to the first shadows in making
night fall.’ Joyce 1993, 99: ‘The last light of day interferes with the first
shadows of night.’ If we understand inpedit as ‘delay’ (as does Canali
196 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

2004, 268) we miss a typical Lucanian inversion: ‘light obstructs dark-

ness’ (rather than the opposite). The phrasing is imitated by Statius Th.
9.592 uiridem ferri nitor impedit umbram, on which see Dewar 1991,
171: ‘the verb [inpendere] is common of dark things obstructing light;’
as confirmed in OLD s.v. ‘impedio’ 3b.
ad noctem Comparing Caes. BG 1.25.3 ad pugnam erat impedimento,
Housman paraphrases: ‘lux iam extrema primis tenebris inpedimento
est ad noctem efficiendam.’
448-52 Former pirates (3.228 itque Cilix iusta iam non pirata carina),
Pompey’s Cilicians are credited with the stratagem of stretching chains
underwater to entrap the hulls. One scholar sees it as ‘most ironic’ that
after driving the pirates away from the Mediterranean (in 67 BCE under
the Lex Gabinia), Pompey ‘should be made to keep company with them
here’ (Sklenář 2003, 26).
449 Cilix On piracy, see 1.336 Cilicas uagos with Getty’s n.: ‘The Cili-
cas uagos are the pirates who were finally routed by Pompey off the
Cilician coast.’ See also Fantham on 2.594. Verisimilarly, the stratagem
they use to stop Volteius’ raft must have been one of the ways they
used to approach and prey upon sea cargoes.
452-6 Only one raft is caught in the chains, the third one (carrying
Volteius and the Opitergians, 462-8 below), which is pushed toward a
perilous stretch of water, infested with crags and darkened day and
night by overhanging cliffs covered with thick vegetation.
455 inpendent caua saxa mari The sense of inpendere is here the
same as pendere in Sen. HF 155 (cf. Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 185 ad
loc.). The chains are slightly beneath the sea surface and thus ensnare
the raft.
455-6 ruitura… moles ‘Seeming ever on the point to fall’ (Haskins),
the rocky mass of the woody cliff protrudes from the coast and hangs
over the water, creating a shaded area of dangerous crags and marine
caves.
457-61 The dangerous feature of the seascape is a seafaring topos:
Hom. Od. 12.80-4.
In Hellenistic and Roman poetry the Homeric Charybdis and Scylla
have morphed into identifiable places in the Sicilian straits (Scilla is the
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 197

Italian name of the promontory on the continent side) and maintain

their topic function as dangers for seafarers; Ap. Rh. 4.789-90; Lucr.
1.722.
461 Tauromenitanam… Charybdim The whirlpool functions as a
symbol of inescapable fortune (König 1970, 450-1). L.’s phrasing is
imitated by Sil. 14.256 Tauromenitana cernunt de sede Charybdim.
462-8 Volteius and the Opitergians are the main actors in this tragic
episode. Both are named here for the first time.
462 Opiterginis Opitergium, a station along the Via Postumia, not far
from Aquileia in the territory of the Veneti in Cisalpine Gaul, was their
hometown; Barrington Atlas 40D1. This is the only place in Latin po-
etry where the Opitergians are mentioned.
465 Volteius C. Volteius (or Vulteius) Capito. This otherwise unknown
character is the leader of the Opitergian contingent with the title of
tribunus militum (Comm. Bern. 137, 154; Flor. 2.13.33; Broughton
1951, II.264-5), and this is his only claim to fame, for it is unclear
whether L.’s character ought to be identified with the L. Volteius who
served as praetor of Sicily in 69 BCE and was close to L. Metellus, as
mentioned in Cic. Verr. 3.155-7.
tacitas… fraudes The stratagem of the hidden chains suspended by the
Pompeians: 455n. above.
467 proelia direct object to poscit, enclosed within the instrumental
ablative spe… nulla, which syntactically foreshadows the outcome of
Volteius’ desperate call to arms.
469-73 The valiant resistance that Volteius and his men try to oppose is
hopeless in the face of the thousands that surround them. Nightfall in-
tervenes only to delay their doom.
469-70 deprensa…|… uirtus ‘Virtue achieved all that it could when
caught at a disadvantage;’ cf. 10.538-9 (Long 2007, 187). The phrase
‘captive’ uirtus (cf. 6.168-9) is unique to L., but perhaps it betrays a
Ciceronian assonance: Verr. 2.3.7 uirtutem depressam, cf. Sen. Dial.
7.22.7 in hac unum genus uirtutis sit non inclinari nec deprimi. On the
ambiguity of virtue, see Fantham 1995; Sklenár 2003.
198 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

473 lucem dubiam By means of hypallage, the phrasing echoes Sen.

Phaedra 41 dum lux dubia est; cf. Ov. M. 11.596 dubiaeque crepuscula
lucis. Naturally it is the night that engenders incertitude: Ov. M. 4.401
sed cum luce tamen dubiae confinia noctis. The figure captures
Volteius and his men’s ‘crepuscular’ relief for the postponed confronta-
tion and doomed intuition of what is to come, for the ‘uncertain glow’
of twilight is prelude to the soldier’s fear of the imminent future; see
474-5n. below.

474-520 Volteius’ speech to his men is a declamatory piece in the

suasoria style. As an example of deliberative speech, Volteius’ words
can be analyzed following Morford 1967, 8-9, in three main sections:
1.) 476-7 is the Exordium, containing the thematic statement ‘You have
only one night of freedom left: What will you do when day breaks?’ 2)
478-514 is the central and most extensive part (Tractatio), which falls
into two subsections: 2a) 478-504 presents the viewpoint of Volteius’
soldiers, who first are invited to choose ‘the right thing’ (478-85), i.e.,
die, because it is necessary (485-7), glorious (488-97), and surpasses all
other examples of military devotio; 2b) 505-14 presents the enemy
viewpoint, who will know that Volteius’ men are indomitable (505-7)
and determined to reject any offers of mercy as inherently dishonorable
(707-14); 3) 514-20 is the conclusion, in which Volteius declares his
own determination to die. The speech is presented as a rhetorical syllo-
gism (enthymeme), i.e., a syllogism whose premises have not been
proven to be true. The argument that death (or suicide) is best relies on
two premises: 1) Volteius and his men are about to fall into enemy
hands and there is no escape for them; 2) Death by one’s own hand, far
from being a shameful act of escape, is actually a dignified and glorious
exit. While it is certain that Volteius and his men have no escape be-
cause they find themselves surrounded by Pompeians, the point that
suicide in this situation is as glorious as death in combat remains an
unproven statement, whose effectiveness on Volteius’ men is the result
of rhetorical artifice. The function of the language of light and darkness
in Volteius’ speech as well as in the entire episode, has been studied as
a useful interpretive key by Saylor 1990. Why, however, the men are
persuaded to kill one another, remains open to interpretation. (For an
interpretation that relies, perhaps, on an overly Stoic reading of L.’s
poem, see D'Alessandro Behr 2007, 36-45.) The rationale of death in
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 199

civil war is prominent in Petreius’ address at 221-2 non hoc ciuilia

bella, | ut uiuamus, agunt, where Petreius maintains that killing one’s
own kin is morally sounder than to keep peace in civil war. The argu-
ment is here taken to its extreme in Volteius’ exhortations to suicide.
474-5 attonitam uenturaque fata pauentem / rexit… Volteius…
cohortem The hyperbaton casts Volteius as the support pillar (rexit) for
his men – as the syntax and word order suggest. The paradox is that his
leadership leads to annihilation.
475 magnanima… uoce With the epithet applied to his words rather
than himself, Volteius’ character is qualified as magnanimus per hypal-
lage. On the epithet’s epic pedigree, see 611n. below and Hellegouarc'h
1963, 290.
476-7 Volteius begins with the concept of libertas by addressing his
men as libera iuuentus, but the noble epithet of freedom is immediately
contrasted with the reminder that freedom is very limited at present in
the extreme circumstance of being trapped and about to fall into enemy
hands.
476 libera non ultra parua quam nocte iuuentus The enclosing word
order encompasses the entire hexameter and gives prominence to the
vocative epithet. The hyperbaton is particularly appropriate to Volteius’
opening apostrophe because Volteius’ deadline for freedom does not
extend beyond the coming night: he is about to counsel suicide as the
ultimate act of freedom. Volteius and his men seek to free themselves
from the prospect of certain military defeat at the hands of the Pom-
peians, which invites the audience to ponder a moral paradox: Volteius
and his men are on Caesar’s side and their sacrifice is, allegedly, pro-
tyranny. They defend their ‘freedom’ to be Caesar’s supporters.
478-504 In this extended section, Volteius examines the present situa-
tion as he wants his men to see it, i.e., that suicide is the only option to
surpass all examples of military devotion.
478-9 uita breuis nulli superest qui tempus in illa | quaerendae sibi
mortis habet Going to meet one’s fate of one’s own accord in no way
diminishes the glory of the act. Volteius seeks to persuade his men to
give up their lives by somewhat illogically (or merely paradoxically)
claiming that no life is cut too short if one has time for suicide. Death
200 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

grants Volteius and his men some share of that glory they lost by being
robbed of their victory. The generalizing statement has a gnomic tone.
Ad 478 Comm. Bern., the scholiast attributes to Quintilian the quote
‘faciamus de funere remedium, de necessitate uirtutem’, which should
correspond to [Quint.] Decl. Mai. 4.10.19 faciamus potius de fine reme-
dium, de necessitate solacium.
quaerendae… mortis Seeking one’s death for the sake of glory is a
Herculean endeavor (cf. Cic. TD 2.20.2-4). In this sense, Volteius and
his men’s mutual suicide may be seen as an aristeia even though, para-
doxically, there is no opponent, but the Herculean language, as it were,
invites to recall the epic paradigm of heroism. And the only heroic act
available to Volteius and his men is suicide.
479-80 nec gloria leti | inferior, iuuenes, admoto occurrere fato
Death grants Volteius and his men some share of that glory they lost by
being robbed of their victory.
479 gloria leti The phrase reoccurs at the end of the hexameter at
5.656; imitated by St. Theb. 9.717 and Sil. 6.26.
480 admoto… fato Lucan’s phrase is unique in Roman poetry. The
sense of admoueo resonates with that of the expression admouere arma
(2.466 admotae… alae; 6.2 admota… arma), which creates the image
that Volteius and his men, as it were, are about to come to battle against
fatum – and the latter is evidently also functioning as a metonymy for
death.
481-5 As long as one shortens one’s life by one’s own hand, one will
receive equal glory whether one loses years one was hoping for or
whether one merely spares oneself one more moment. Suicide is a chal-
lenge of mankind against the fates (Malcovati 1940, 59).
482 par animi laus Volteius argues that dying and taking one’s own
life are equivalent because in the present contingency they grant an
equal share of glory.
483 extremae momentum abrumpere lucis The noun lux here is used
as the common metonymy for ‘life’ (Arnulf), but the ideas of ‘light’
and ‘life’ coexist in the conveyed notion; cf. 534n., and Saylor 1990,
295.
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 201

484 accersas dum fata manu Volteius switches to jussive subjunctive

in the singular. In 477 consulite he had begun with a plural imperative.
The change in mood and number signals his effort to persuade rather
than command to die.
484-5 non cogitur ullus | uelle mori The will to die is a typically Lu-
canian notion; see also 280 above and 544 below, where the phrase
uelle mori reoccurs in the same prominent position. The spontaneity of
death, as it were, gains here a paradigmatic value on a purely logical
basis. It is as if L. were implying that ‘one may be forced to die, but no
one can be forced to want to die.’ More than anywhere else in this epi-
sode of mutual suicide, posterity can hardly refrain from perceiving in
these words the irony of fate, in the hindsight of L.’s own Nero-
inflicted suicide.
485-7 With no chance of escaping, the best option is to desire the inevi-
table in order to eradicate fear.
485-6 stant undique nostris | intenti ciues iugulis: decernite letum
There is no escape because ‘everywhere our own fellow citizens (ciues)
are determined to slash our throats.’ The paradox of civil war is that the
person who normally would be one’s friend is also one’s foe. By taking
each other’s lives, Volteius and his men will enact the quintessential
gesture of civil strife, and in this sense their choice to die is coherent
with the irrationality of civil war.
486 intenti ciues iugulis The sacrificial nature of slaughter in L. is
signaled by words like iugulum (see 275n. above), iugulo (only once
7.630), and macto (occurs only five times); see Hardie 1993, 53.
487 cupias quodcumque necesse est Taken in isolation, Volteius’
exhortation resonates with the Stoic principle of acting in accordance
with fate, which is here over-determined as the ultimate necessity to be
desired. The word choice (cupias), however, reflects a not-too-Stoic
passionate commerce in ‘desiring’ death.
488-95 In these crucial lines, Volteius needs to convince his men that
mutual suicide is far better than to die in ‘an obscure cloud of war’ (in
caeca bellorum nube) because in the din of battle death lacks distinc-
tion as corpses are heaped up on corpses. Death in combat, therefore, is
anonymous and unremarkable. Volteius and his men, however, are in a
202 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

boat offshore, and so their mutual suicide will be visible to both friend
and foe on land and sea and their fame will thus be insured. Suicide,
even collective-mutual suicide, grants individuality and (allegedly)
assigns the appropriate share of glory also to the defeated.
488 in caeca bellorum nube L. has used the metaphor of the cloud for
an army at 2.481; cf. Gregorius 1893, 11.
490 conferta… corpora In war contexts, conferre normally describes
the action of opposing armies engaging in battle (e.g., Liv. 27.14.9 con-
ferta turba), but with the subject corpora (= ‘corpses’) the phrase
sounds somewhat surprising.
491 perit obruta uirtus In Volteius’ notion that death in battle ob-
scures one’s heroism, one scholar sees the expression of ‘Seneca’s idea
of theatrum mundi’, a spectacle of morality performed for the gods’
enjoyment, supported by the double Senecan intertext of Medea 977
perdenda uirtus and Ag. 519 perdenda mors est? (Leigh 1997, 262-3,
referencing also Seneca’s view of Cato’s suicide as a ‘morality’ per-
formance for the gods in Prov. 2.7-9). The need for kleos requires hu-
man witnesses of one’s uirtus, and in this sense Volteius’ vocabulary of
uirtus is quintessentially epic precisely because of the desired opportu-
nity for making spectacle of the Opitergians’ (however misguided)
uirtus (Sklenář 2003, 29). For variations on the theme of perdita or
periens uirtus, see also 3.706-7 non pedere letum | maxima cura fuit;
5.292-3; Ov. F. 2.227 fraude perit uirtus; also Val. Fl. 6.200 mixta perit
uirtus and Sil. 11.419 perit horrida uirtus.
493 constituere dei The will of the gods here is identical to fate (see
484n. above).
summis dabit insula saxis This is one of the very few references in
this episode to geographic features. The crags in question are those of
the island of Salona, as explained by Comm. Bern. ad loc.
496-502 With an apostrophe to Fortuna, which soon turns into an apos-
trophe to Caesar himself, Volteius mentions fides and pietas and calls
his men’s attention to what must be faced in their present predicament
in order to express that pignora amoris for Caesar may not have been
any greater (non maiora). Setting up the Opitergians’ sacrifice as a
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 203

demonstration of loyalty to Caesar’s cause is a true tour de force even

for L.’s rhetorical style.
496-7 nescio quod nostris magnum et memorabile fatis | exemplum,
Fortuna, paras Whether Fortuna here is Fate or just Chance is perhaps
not as relevant as the fact that Volteius’ present apostrophe to Fortuna
looks toward his next apostrophe – to Caesar. The fate that Fortuna
(and therefore Caesar?) prepares for them, however, is death; Comm.
Bern. ad 496: ‘NOSTRIS FATIS hoc est morti.’ On Fortuna and fata as
synonymous when it comes to Caesar, see Getty 1940 on 1.227 and
393-4. On the cult of Fortuna Caesaris, see Weinstock 1971, 123-5
(with North 1975, 174), based on Plut. Caes. 38.5.
497 quaecumque The indefinite relative 497-9 quaecumque… pietas is
the direct object of 499 transisse.
498 monimenta fides By affirming that his generation already sur-
passes any other in monimenta fides and 499 militiae… pietas, Volteius
(meta-poetically) points to the imminent act of self-annihilation as an
even greater memorial for his men and himself.
498-9 seruataque ferro | militiaeque pietas The genitive militiae
qualifies this pietas as the military kind, in the sense illustrated by Cic.
Phil. 14.6 si hostium fuit ille sanguis, summa militum pietas (OLD s.v.
‘pietas’ 4).
500 suis gladiis… incumbere To fall on one’s sword is the preferred
way to take one’s own life for a Roman (Grisé 1982, 95).
pro te…, Caesar The apostrophe to Caesar has here the customary
function of heightening the speaker’s appeal to his audience. Caesar is
absent, but his presence is necessary as the intended receiver of
Volteius and his men’s demonstration of fides and pietas.
501 esse parum scimus ‘We know that it is not enough.’ For this fre-
quent meaning of parum, see OLD 2a.
501-2 non maiora… |… pignora… amoris The sense of amor here is
political as well as personal-affective, e.g., ‘loyal devotion’, and de-
notes one of the affective manifestations of amicitia (chiefly intended
as a political relationship); see Hellegouarc'h 1963, 48-51 and 146-7.
The only poetic parallel for the phrase pignus amoris in this political
204 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

sense is Laus Pisonis 211; in the remaining twenty occurrences the non-
political sense is key (e.g., Verg. A. 5.538; Ov. Ars 2.248).
503-4 Volteius admits that he and his men have been deprived of their
chance for greater praise and that they are not held captive with their
elders and children.
505-14 The viewpoint here is the enemy’s. Volteius asserts that by
dying he and his men will show themselves invincible and reluctant to
compromise by rejecting any offers of mercy, which actually have not
been extended, but Volteius whishes that they had, for in rejecting of-
fers of mercy their glory would be even greater.
505-7 Volteius’ jussives (505 sciat and timeat, and 506 gaudeat)
grandly concede that the enemy (506 hostis) enjoy their victory over the
unconquerable. The implication is that one may conquer neither the
dead nor the determined to die.
507-12 For Volteius any offer of peace from the Pompeians is a tempta-
tion one ought to resist, and accepting pardon is an act of cowardliness.
Here we witness L.’s subtle interpretation of Caesar’s clemency as a
refined form of cruelty; cf. Caesar’s pardon of Domitius at 2.512-25
(Due 1962, 85). L.’s audience knows, however, that the likelihood that
Volteius and the Opitergians will be able to consider (let alone reject) a
Pompeian offer of pardon in exchange for their surrender is nil, as the
precedent of Petreius’ ferocity in Spain has shown.
508 turpique… uita The instrumental ablative goes with corrumpere
and is parallel to foederibus (which goes with the preceding 507 temp-
tare).
510 promittant… iubeant The optative subjunctives (announced by
509 o utinam) express Volteius’ frustrated wish that he be treated like
the Pompeians who accepted Caesar’s pardon in Spain (see Afranius’
speech at 337-401n. above), but contrast at 205-53 Petreius’ massacre
of Caesarians.
511 calido fodiemus uiscera ferro This impassionate image of self-
wounding Romans is obsessively present to L.’s mind: 1.3 in sua uic-
trici conuersum uiscera dextra, which supports the argument that ‘The
image of self-killing dominates the work’ (Hill 2004, 213), for ‘The
Pharsalia enacts a violation of its own life-blood, appropriately enough
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 205

(it could be argued) in a poem which might well be read under the sight
of self-slaughter, both individual and collective’ (Martindale 1993, 48).
calido The adjective calidus describes a recent wound in Ov. M. 5.137
torquet in hunc hastam calido de uulnere raptam, and 12.119 extrahit
illud idem calido de uulnere telum (Moreno Soldevila 2006, 202 ad
Mart. 4.18.6 calido uulnere). With a hypallage, L. has transferred the
adjective calidus from the wound to the weapon that caused it; as does
Verg. A. 10.486 rapit calidum… de uulnere telum; cf. Ov. M. 8.443-4.
512-13 Volteius’ standard (or criterion) for praise consists in perform-
ing the act that will earn his men and himself a portion of Caesar’s
praise. The tragedy, or perhaps the irony, is that the Opitergian sacrifice
has no strategic significance in the greater context of the civil war.
513 amissis inter tot milia paucis Caesar’s casualties in the first year
of the war had been conspicuous, hence Volteius’ modesty in character-
izing his Opitergian contingent as pauci by comparison. Besides, only
Volteius’ raft is about to fall in Pompeian hands and this is the one on
which the tragedy of mutual suicide is about to be staged.
514 damnum clademque To call the mass suicide a damnum is to de-
note it for what it is, but clades is definitely hyperbolic, as the term
applies militarily to a ruinous defeat, e.g., Cannae (Liv. 23.30.19). The
phrase should be parsed as a hendiadys: ‘the damage of our defeat’.
514-20 Volteius ends his speech in an escalation of possessed furor
expressed as his own resolution to die.
514-15 dent fata recessum | emittantque licet, uitare instantia nolim
Volteius’ determination to die for Caesar’s cause is unconditional.
516-17 proieci uitam, comites, totusque futurae / mortis agor stimu-
lis: furor est Volteius’ happiness in death is rendered as a form of ec-
static madness (Malcovati 1940, 59); his furor is a divinely inspired
possession (Esposito 2001, 46; Saylor 1990, 190 n. 1; Ahl 1976, 119-
21). To illustrate this particular brand of furor, similar to what, e.g.,
Plato calls ἐνθουσιάζειν (e.g., Ion 535c; Phaedrus 241e; Meno 99d),
see Cic. Diu. 1.66 inest igitur in animis praesagatio extrinsecus iniecta
atque inclusa diuinitus. ea si exarsit acrius, furor appellatur, cum a
corpore animus abstractus diuino instinctu concitatur; cf. also Conte
1988, 106.
206 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

520 sic cunctas sustulit ardor The effect of Volteius’ words on his
men is not so much encouragement but impatience for battle; see e.g,
Liv. 24.30 tanto ardore militum est usus… ut primo impetus urbem
expugnauerunt. In other words, the result of his exhortation is positive
in that he succeeds in motivating his troops to do what they are urged to
do. The paradox is that they are being asked to kill each other.
521 mobilium mentes iuuenum With a hypallage, the adjective mobil-
ium agrees with iuunenum but would more logically apply to mentes.
mobilium Bentley’s conjecture is to be accepted against the MSS’s
reading nobilium (which, aside from the universal confusion of m and n
in medieval scripts, could have been inspired to an unusually Latin-
proficient as well as imaginative amanuensis by the general tone of
Volteius’ address that began at 476 with the apostrophe libera… iuuen-
tus). Bentley (ad Hor. C. 1.1.7) compared Verg. G. 3.165 dum facies
animi iuuenum, dum mobilis aetas, but that the sense here requires
‘mobility’ rather than ‘nobility’ is given by the context of 521-5, as
further confirmed by recalling 474-5, where the Opitergians about to be
addressed by Volteius are called attonitam uenturaqe fata pauentem |…
cohortem (Housman). The effect of Volteius’ words, in fact, is that of
firing new courage in the ‘changing’ minds of his men (Morford 1967,
9). The transmitted nobilium, however, is less preferable but in no way
impossible; for its sense would emphasize by prolepsis the ‘ennobling’
destiny of collective suicide that Volteius and his men are to embrace.
521-8 After Volteius’ words are spoken, the Opitergians are embold-
ened to action and are convinced that mutual suicide is the glorious
choice. The astral language that characterizes this passage emphasizes
one more time the contrast between light and darkness that permeates
the Volteius episode: ‘[T]he Caesareans seem to proceed from a spiri-
tual twilight, through darkness, and into sunlight, but in fact end in a
false form of light, or darkness, with their determination to die’ (Saylor
1990, 291-2).
522 oculis humentibus These are tears of fright, as the soldiers fear the
approaching daylight of their last day of life (Arnulf).
523 flexo Vrsae temone In other words, they feared daybreak, here
indicated in astronomic terms. The asterism formed by the seven stars
in Vrsa Maior is also known as ‘The Plough’ (see OED s.v. ‘Charles’s
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 207

Wain’). As seen at 2.237 Parrhasis obliquos Helice cum uerteret axe,

and 722 flexi iam plaustra Bootae, as well as 5.23 Hyperboreae plaus-
trum glaciale sub Vursae, L. refers to both traditional identifications,
‘Great Dipper/Wagon’ (see Fantham 1992a, 124 ad 2.237). The pole or
yoke-beam (temo) of the Wagon or Plough was held by the human fig-
ure (Bootes) standing near the polar constellations. Comm. Bern. ‘te-
monem ursae caudam significat, quae semper ad ortum solis conuerti-
tur.’ See Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 177-8 ad Sen. HF 130-1; Ov. Met.
10.447; Cic. DND 2.109; Aratus 91-3. The connection of the polar as-
terisms with Bootes, also known as Bear’s Guardian, Arctophylax, re-
volves around Arcturus (< ἆρκτος, ‘bear’), Bootes’ brightest star
(Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia 1996, 228-9 ad Manil. 1.316; Boll 1903, 229,
355, 371).
525 optauere diem Volteius’ men are hoping for daylight, which they
will eventually scorn at 534 and 568 (see 483n. above). As shown by
Saylor 1990, 295, the light the Caesarians are hoping for is the light as
defined by Volteius at 492, i.e., to be in conspicuous view of both
friend and foe. For the two different kinds of light in this episode, see
534n. below.
525-6 nec segnis uergere ponto | tunc erat astra polus uergere] mer-
gere
526-7 sol Ledaea tenebat | sidera Sun is in Gemini; Leda gave birth to
the later twins, Castor and Pollux; see Ov. F. 5.693ff.; Germanicus
540ff.; Hyg. Astr. 2.22; contra Manil. 1.265, who identifies the twins
with Apollo and Hercules: Goold 1977, xxiv.
527 uicino cum lux altissima Cancro est This is the time of summer
when the sun light is particularly intense and the day lasts longer, some-
time around the summer solstice. The higher the sun, the longer the day
(Arnulf; pace Haskins, who understands ‘high noon’, yet here the
‘height’ is an astral measure). It is not clear whether L. refers to an ob-
servable phenomenon, i.e., the sun’s approaching the northernmost
position in its annual progression from south to north, or rather the
sun’s approaching its furthest point from earth, its apogee; see Avery
1993, 453 and n. 2, who favors the hypothesis that L. is more likely to
refer to the observable phenomenon.
208 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

uicino… Cancro Although the grammatical sense could be either that

Cancer is near the sun (now in Gemini) or that Cancer is near us (Ar-
nulf), we know the Crab is next to Gemini in the sun’s yearly journey
around the zodiac ecliptic, which means that the date of the events
should be placed around the time that the sun is leaving Gemini, proba-
bly between June 20 and 25 according to the reformed Julian calendar
(details in Avery 1993, 454). Regardless, it is still possible to take Can-
cro here as a generic metonymy for the summer star (Francken).
Catasterism was the reward for the crab sent by Hera against Hercules,
when the latter was facing the Hydra (Comm. Bern.). Biting Hercules
earned it a place in the zodiac (Manil. 2.33; Germanicus 543-6; Hyg.
Astr. 2.22).
528 Thessalicas… sagittas The arrows are given the epithet Thessalian
in reference to Chiron, here referred to by metonymy. L. is referring to
Sagittarius. The time of year, therefore, is the same as the time of the
Ilerda campaign narrated at the beginning of this book (Francken); see
56-9n. above. L. evidently follows the tradition, which goes as far back
as Hipparchus, that ascribes four legs to the Archer, and identifies him
with the noble Centaur (Manil. 1.270, with Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia
1996, 221; Goold 1977, xxv).
nox… urguebat… parua The short night is said to ‘urge’ (urgueo here
is synonymous with premo, see Housman’s n.) the Sagittarius because
the latter is diametrically opposed to Gemini on the zodiac circle, and
therefore in this season, when daybreak is near, Sagittarius appears to
be setting (as explained by Arnulf and Comm. Bern.).
529-40 At dawn the enemy, constituted by the Histrian and Liburnian
contingents among Pompey’s army, show themselves both on land and
sea. After a vain attempt at negotiation, the fighting begins and contin-
ues until Volteius and the Opitergians turn away from the enemy and
against themselves.
529 Histros Inhabitants of the Illyrian coast, the Histri sided with
Pompey. The Illyrians’ choice of siding with Pompey rather than Cae-
sar is to be associated with Pompey’s successes in the region, whose
peoples were divided between Caesar and Pompey at the outbreak of
the war (Marasco 1997, 315; see also Dzino 2005, 88; Marasco 1995;
Veith 1924).
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 209

530 Graia cum classe Liburnos These Liburnians were Pompeian

allies, but in their ranks there were also Achaeans with naval squad-
rons: Caes. BC 3.5.3 mentions Liburnicae atque Achaicae classi; more
vaguely, Plut. Pomp. 64 just states that Pompey had a huge fleet; see
Dzino 2005, 88 and n. 58-60.
531-2 fieret captis si dulcior ipsa | mortis uita mora This protasis,
part of a contrary to fact condition, expresses the unlikelihood that the
extension of life would be attractive to war prisoners. The underlining
assumption seems to be that for the Opitergians life as Pompey’s pris-
oners can never be sweeter than the glorious death they choose.
533 stabat deuota iuuentus The Caesarian faction is described as ‘de-
voted’ to Caesar (as at 695 below). The adjective deuota inevitably
carries an ill-disguised allusion to an element of the ancestral deuotio
ritual, in which an enemy army and/or city is vowed to destruction and
offered in sacrifice to the gods of the underworld (Macr. Sat. 3.9.10-12
preserves the text of the Deuotio celebrated before the walls of Car-
thage). Sometimes this involved the self-sacrifice of a commander who
would fight the enemy until certain death. The Opitergians are in some
sense offering themselves in sacrifice to Caesar’s cause and their act,
seen as implying the destruction of Pompey and the Pompeian army,
may be interpreted as an enactment of the deuotio ritual, with the attrac-
tive implication that Caesar here is equated with the Underworld gods.
The monstrous anomaly, however, is that this is a civil war, whereas
such a ritual is meant for wars of conquest against a foreign enemy.
534 damnata iam luce The damned lux here inevitably resonates with
the sense ‘light’ had at 483 as the common metonymy for ‘life’ (hence
the epithet ferox qualifying the Opitergian iuuentus). ‘With a carefully
chosen word that means both light and life, the text poses the opposi-
tion of two kinds of life as well as two conceptions of light […]: the
ordinary life of the rest in opposition to life brief but conspicuous by
suicide.’ (Saylor 1990, 296).
539 tanta est fiducia mortis This half line resonates with the Aeneas’
labor of founding the Roman race memorably described in Verg. A.
1.33 as tantae molis erat. If the association with Virgil’s famous line is
not arbitrary, L.’s point is to heighten the paradox of self-annihilation
by echoing Rome’s orgins in the Opitergians’ end.
210 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

540-9 Volteius dies first, pierced by more than one of his men’s
swords, and thus leads them all in death.
544-5 per uulnera nostra | testetur se uelle mori Volteius urges his
men to demonstrate their death wish.
545 uiscera non unus iam dudum transigit ensis Whether non unus
ensis is to be taken literally or hyperbolically, the situation is so ex-
treme as to eclipse such distinctions. The killing of fellow Romans is
the horror of Pharsalus: 7.491 odiis solus ciuilibus ensis | sufficit, et
dextras Romana in uiscera ducit, except that at Pharsalus the killing of
one’s kin does not take place within the same faction.
548-9 totumque in partibus unis | bellorum fecere nefas L. here dis-
tances himself from the aberrant act and condemns the suicide of the
Opitergians (Esposito 2001, 59). L. shows that the Caesarians display
all the evil (totum… nefas) of civil war in its hopeless senselessness
because even within the reversed logic of civil strife that pits kin
against kin, the Opitergians go one step further in turning against one
another within their own faction on the same side of the civil war. The
phrase totum… nefas literally contains in hyperbaton what civil-war
evil consists in (see 172 above). The hyperbaton emphasizes the poet’s
unique opportunity to miniaturize in the Opitergians’ death the nefas
brought on by Caesar and the Caesarians upon Rome. By a process of
exemplification and dilation (Gorman 2001, 282; McGuire 1997), the
action of the mass suicide is emblematic of the whole enterprise of civil
war, for L. makes the Volteius episode function as a synecdoche pars
pro toto for the war.
548 unis The rare plural of unus, which expectedly has the same mean-
ing as the singular, attracted the attention of the grammarian Priscian,
De figuris numerorum, who glosses in partibus unis as pro ‘in una
parte’; Esposito 2001, 59 n 55.
549-56 The myth simile adds grandeur and fratricidal pathos in evoking
the myth of Thebes’ foundation, characterized by the fratricidal strife of
the Spartoi and the Seven against Thebes.
550 Dircaea cohors These are the Spartoi, warriors sprung out of the
dragon’s teeth sawn by Cadmus. Per antonomasia, the epithet means
Theban, from Dirce (Sen. Oed. 42), the Boeotian spring into which of
 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 211

Theban King Lycus’ wife was said to have been turned (Ov. Met.
2.239).
551 dirum Thebanis fratribus omen The mutual slaughter of the
Spartoi is an omen of fratricide (see 563 below). The Theban brothers
are Eteocles and Polynices, Oedipus’ children.
553 terrigenae The epithet denotes per antonomasia the monsters born
from the soil against whom Jason fought with the help of Medea’s
magical herbs.
554 cognato… sanguine The mythic paradigm of fratricide is a matter
of kin blood, obviously, but the redundancy is necessary to create in the
audience that morbid attraction to the spectacle of internecine slaughter.
556-62 When these desperate men finally die, their fall is described in
epic terminology, and the expected paradox is that ‘the conventional
association of virtus with the assault on the breast is acknowledged in
order to be denied […] no skill or courage is required because the vic-
tim does not resist’ (Leigh 1997, 219).
557 minimumque in morte uirorum | mors uirtutis habet See
Esposito 2001, 42-3.
562-81 Brothers, fathers, and sons kill each other in mutual suicide.
Some drag themselves to the gangplanks and bleed into the sea. When
the raft is finally piled up with bodies, the enemy are astounded at the
worth their leader had to these men.
sorte cruenta The bloodied destiny reoccurs below at 570 as strage
cruenta.
568-70 This sentence is arranged in three noun-clauses acting as the
grammatical object of 570 iuuat. The three verbs, 568 cernere, 569
spectare, and 570 sentire, encompass the range of perceptions experi-
enced by the dying men: seeing, staring, and feeling.
568 despectam cernere lucem See 534 above.
569 uictoresque suos uoltu spectare superbo The Opitergians’ deadly
stare, inflicted to the winners, attests to their defiance.
570 mortem sentire To enjoy the feeling of one’s death seems to be a
uniquely Lucanian notion; compare 9.758.
212 Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581

573-4 nullam… |… ratem The hyperbole betrays the poet’s ambition

of competing with Argo, the ship whose fame wins over all other ships.
575-81 After sealing the Opitergians’ episode as a paradigm of heroism
(see 575n. below), L.’s opinion on the ship sounds quite explicit, but it
has lent itself to diverging interpretations. Scholars inevitably agree in
seeing the Opitergians’ suicide as an exemplum uirtutis, but the nature
of the uirtus in question has been taken for granted as a ‘perverted’ kind
of uirtus; see 576n. uirtus below.
575-6 non tamen ignauae post haec exempla uirorum | percipient
gentes The ignauae gentes are he ‘weakling cowards’ jejune of war
(ignauus < in + nauus is the antonym of strenuuus, as noted by
Gagliardi 1975, 46 ad 7.272), who have not earned distinction in mili-
tary valor. L. makes them also incapable of profiting from the Opitergi-
ans’ example of virtue.
576 quam sit non ardua uirtus This is what the ignauae gentes inca-
pable of comprehending, i.e., that, all things considered, uirtus is in fact
not that hard to achieve. One’s ultimate choice, i.e., taking one’s own
life, is always within arm’s reach.
579 ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses These words
were engraved on the swords of the French National Guard during the
French Revolution; see Due 1962, 80, and Housman’s comment: ‘ne-
que enim aut Libertas aut liberi animi homines uerum ensium usum
ingnorant.’
580 mors The authorial apostrophe to mors appropriately seals and
grants some sense to the Opitergians’ senseless tragedy.
581 sed uirtus te sola daret Undoubtedly ‘death only’ may give kleos,
but the logic is perverse because these soldiers die of friendly blows.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

The third and last section of Book IV deals with the Africa campaign in
which Curio’s legions are annihilated. After the quick change of scen-
ery (581-8), L. launches the famous digression on the strife of Hercules
and Antaeus (589-660). The war narrative resumes with Curio’s defeat
of Varus (661-714), followed by Curio’s own defeat against King
Juba’s forces (715-98). The poet’s apostrophe to Curio closes the book
(799-824).

581–8 From Vulteius’ aristeia in Illyricum to Curio’s arrival in

Africa
The narrative shifts from Illyricum to Africa (581-2). Curio sails from
Sicily to Libya and marches to the Bagrada (583-8).
These seven and a half lines take us from Illyricum to Africa. The ac-
tual transition is rather quick, as it occurs all at once in 581-2. L. feels
the need to prepare his reader for what is about to come, for some mo-
mentous incidents in the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey took
place in Africa. As will be seen, this land of marvels plays a conspicu-
ous role in Lucan’s poem. The deaths of both Cato and Pompey, the
two Republican champions, are associated with Africa.
The disastrous campaign of Curio in Africa contrasts the preceding
section (402-581), in which L. has celebrated the suicide of Vulteius
and his contingent. Contrasting these two episodes, L. balances simi-
larities and differences: both the Illyrian fight, with the suicide of the
Opitergini, and Curio’s battles against Varus and Juba are equally
fierce (see below 581n. on non segnior), despite being fought on limi-
nal terrains, i.e., one between land and sea off the Illyrian shore, the
others in an arid area on the edge of the African desert. As L. himself
reminds us at the outset of Book V, the whole of Book IV is character-
ized by alternate victories and defeats of Caesar’s faction (cf. 5.1-3 sic
alterna duces bellorum uolnera passos / in Macetum terras miscens
214 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

aduersa secundis / seruauit fortuna pares). The mid-line break, pausing

before the narrative of the African campaign begins, quickly introduces
the transition from Illyricum to Libya, and the words non segnior might
also suggest the narrator’s urgency to move on. And yet, after the
change of location, a delaying device will slow down the narrative, that
is, the tale of the mythical struggle of Hercules against Antaeus (see
below intro. to 589-660). As often seen with the Homeric technique of
suspense-building, e.g., Zeus prophesying Patroclos’ death in Il. VIII,
eight books before the event, L. lets the audience learn something im-
portant is going to take place, but then takes as long as possible to get
to it. (I owe the Homeric parallel to Michael McCosker.) On delay and
‘mora’ in L. see Masters 1992: 4-5, 24, 54-5, and passim.
581-2 The strong caesura in the fourth foot marks the beginning of a
new narrative section: the theater of war has shifted from Illyricum to
Africa. Such midline breaks are not uncommon; cf. e.g., 1.522 in
Shackleton Bailey. An illustrious precedent is Verg. A. 7.45; see also
Hom. Od. 13.187.
581 non segnior The antecedent of qui has been omitted. Segnis in
litotes twice more in L.: 6.181 and 10.115; cf. Verg. A. 4.149-50 haud
segnior ibat / Aeneas, and 8.414 nec tempore segnior illo, where seg-
nior is used in both cases in a transitional formula (Gransden 1976 ad
8.414). In a few instances Virgil uses an emphatic negative, e.g., G.
1.483 nec tempore eodem, with Mynors 1990 ad loc.; 3.531, as Thomas
notes, introducing ‘a contemporaneous occurrence.’ Similarly, Virgil
employs the comparative, as Horsfall notes, to create ‘a rare form of
explicit link between simile and narrative’ at Aen. 7.383 non cursu seg-
nior illo, cf. G. 4.80, A. 5.862, 12.525. Yet none of the Virgilian exam-
ples collected in Horsfall occurs at a major change of scene in the nar-
rative such as L. 4.581. Unlike the analogous expression at 4.402 non
eadem belli totum fortuna per orbem, contrasting the ‘happy ending’ of
Caesar pardoning Afranius and Petreius in Spain with the death of the
Caesarians in Illyria, here the trope emphasizes continuity and similar-
ity between two narrative sections, even though the change of scene is
abrupt: see intro. on 581-8 above.
582 Libycis… in aruis The passing mention of the ‘Libyan terrain’
suggests that one ought not to be concerned with Libya/Africa’s geo-
graphical position for the time being; before a short ethnographic cata-
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 215

log, L. will give Africa’s geographical coordinates when describing

Juba’s kingdom at 671-5 (see below) and later in Book IX he will
launch on a detailed excursus on Libya (9.411-97; see Asso 2002a ad
loc.). Here, as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that L.’s reader
must concentrate on the primordial hostility of Africa. A hypostasis of
Mother Earth (see 593-4nn. below), Libya/Africa acquires specific anti-
Roman traits (see Asso 2002b). For the African land as Rome-hating,
see Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 2.1.25-6, and also Fantham ad 2.93
Libycas... iras (i.e., Carthage and Numidia) on the association of
Marius with Antaeus and the role of Africa in Book IX. On Lucan’s
Africa, see finally Hinkle 1996 passim.
exarsit has here the sense of percaluit, but unlike percalescere, exard-
escere may be also employed metaphorically, as here; for the strictly
physical sense, cf. Cic. ND 1.24 pars earum [regionum] adpulsu solis
exarserit; for the metaphorical use, see esp. Sen. Thy. 171 qua [sc. siti]
cum percaluit sanguis et igneis exarsit facibus (TLL V.2.1179.65, 69-
70, 76-7, cf. also X.1.1193). The compound form exardesco is not as
common in poetry as the simple ardeo and ardesco (only twenty-six
occurrences of exardesco in poetry always in the perfect tense); in L.
only here and at 7.140. Otherwise used of war only in prose (cf. TLL
V.2.1181.63ff.; Sil. 8.626 attonitis pila exarsere maniplis is one of the
prodigies before Cannae, when the javelins spontaneously combusted,
cf. TLL V.2.1179.29-30). For L.’s prosaic diction, see Introduction 21-3
above; Bramble 1982, 541-2, and below on 585, 588, 617, 627-9, 630-
1, 645, 667, 697, 722-3, 750, 780; see also Asso 2002a ad 9.434, 497.
583-8 Curio sets off to sail from Cape Lilybaeum in Sicily and lands on
the African shore somewhere between the site of Carthage and Cape
Bon (= Clipea/Aspis). From his landing point (maybe Anquillaria, see
586n. below) he immediately marches on towards the Bagrada. Cf.
Caes. BC 2.24.1 biduique iter progressus ad flumen Bagradam peru-
enit.
583 audax Curio is qualified as audax when L. first mentions him at
1.269 (see Getty ad loc.; cf. Turnus in Verg. A. 7.409, 475 with Horsfall
ad loc.); but see Hinkle 1996, 72-7 for a useful correction of Ahl 1976,
88-9, who too hastily assumes L.’s hostility to Curio; cf. Vell. Pat.
2.48.3 C. Curio tribunus plebis... uir nobilis, eloquens, audax (with the
n. in Woodman 1983); see Weische 1966, 71-3, and Wirzubski 1961,
216 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

12: ‘the attribute audax was traditional for Curio.’ See also next n. and
809n.
Hardly a commendation in the context of Roman public life (see
Wirzubski 1961), audacia is understandably desirable in war. In L.,
however, audacia is not necessarily negative, as most conspicuously
shown in 3.499 audax iuuentus, apropos of the Massilians’ brave, as
well as doomed, resistance to Caesar; and in 9.302 where the adjective
describes Cato before the Syrtes. For a morally negative connotation,
see 3.144 audaci... coepto, of Caesar’s determination in appropriating
the public treasure.
Woodman 1983 ad Vell. Pat. 2.48.3 lists Roman political figures
associated with audacia: Clodius, Cinna, for whom Vell. Pat. 2.24.5
displays an ambiguously understated admiration (see Elefante ad loc.),
C. Fimbria, Antony, and finally Catiline, on whom see Sall. C. 5.4; cf.
Catiline’s own words to the conspirators at 20.3, and to his soldiers at
58.2, 58.12, 58.15, and 58.17. Cicero often refers to Catiline’s audacia,
see e.g., Cat. 1.1, 1.4, Mur. 17, Phil. 2.1, Or. 129, etc. Be it positive or
negative, audacia is a remarkably convenient narrative engine because
it renders the audaces interesting and appealing and makes them per-
form their (narrative) roles. As with Catiline in Sallust and Turnus in
the Aeneid, Curio’s audacia spurs the narrative on.
Curio C. Scribonius Curio (84-48 BCE; cf. Münzer in RE IIA.1.867-76
s.v. ‘Scribonius’ Nr. 11) was a gifted orator (Cic. Brutus 280-1); cf.
809n. below. As tribune of the plebs in 50 he became notorious for
switching from Pompey to Caesar. On Curio see also: Longi 1955;
Lacey 1961; Schrempp 1964, 71-4; Saylor 1982; Esposito 2000a.
Lilybaeo litore The reference to Lilybaeum may be either a metonymy
for Drepanum (or even Panormum) or an actual reference to Cape Lily-
baeum. Against the latter hypothesis, cf. Caes. BC 2.23.1 Curio in Afri-
cam profectus ex Sicilia. No other ancient source mentions as explicitly
as L. the embarkation point from which Curio left Sicily. Cape Lily-
baeum might be mentioned specifically because it had been both a Pu-
nic stronghold in Sicily and the port from which Scipio Africanus sailed
in 202 BCE (Liv. 29.24, cf. Hinkle 1996: 87). However, Caesar himself
will sail to Africa from Lilybaeum (B. Afr. 1.1 Caesar itineribus iustis
confectis nullo die intermisso a.d. xiiii Ian. Lilybaeum peruenit statim-
que ostendit sese nauis uelle conscendere, cf. 2.3 and Appian BC 2.95),
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 217

and Lilybaeum will play an important part in the war against Sextus
Pompey (Appian BC 5.97, 98, 122). Whether or not Curio actually
sailed from Lilybaeum, L. may have chosen to name Lilybaeum be-
cause it evokes all these campaigns.
584 nec The negative here has copulative value and equals et non, cf.
Getty ad 1.72 nec se Roma ferens, 138; Mayer ad 8.303 spicula nec
solo spargunt fidentia ferro; Clausen ad Verg. E. 2.40 nec tuta mihi
ualle; Housman ad Manil. 4.738; Kühner/Stegman II, 39-40;
Hofmann/Szantyr 1965, 448 and 480.
nec forti... Aquilone If we accept Housman’s comma between Curio
and nec, this would be the only place in Latin literature where Aquilo is
non fortis, that is, lenis; which is still preferable to the impossible syn-
tax produced by Martina 1995, 196 (punctuating with a comma be-
tween nec and forti). Unlike Aeneas, who was shipwrecked by a wind
storm (instigated by Juno) in those very waters (see e.g., Verg. A.
1.102-4 talia iactanti [sc. Aeneae] stridens Aquilone procella / uellum
aduersa ferit fluctusque ad sidera tollit. / franguntur remi…; cf. also
1.170 and Della Corte 1985, 81ff.), Curio sails uneventfully. And
unlike Aeneas leaving Drepanum north-eastbound to Latium (cf. Serv.
A. 1.103 ad Italiam nauigantibus Aquilo contrarius est), Curio is mean-
ing to go to Africa and is not driven off course by the north wind: au-
dacemque Aquilo fortis Curionem iuuat. A favorable wind will escort
the Caesarian proconsul Alienus on the route from Lilybaeum to Cae-
sar’s African camp in Ruspina (B. Afr. 34.5 naues ventum secundum
nactae quarto die in portum ad Ruspinam ubi Caesar castra habuerat
incolumes peruenerunt).
585 semirutas The adjective semirutus (lit. ‘half-ruined’) applies stric-
tiore sensu to architectural structures such as urbs, tecta, castella, muri,
moenia, uallum; in a metaphorical sense it may also apply to patria
(Liv. 26.32.4) and uestigia (Apul. M. 9.4.16). It is rare in Latin prose
and even rarer in poetry. It occurs a total of seventeen times in the en-
tire extant corpus of classical Latin, starting with Sallust Hist. 2 frg.
64.3 Maurenbrecher semiruta moenia (of Saguntum). Of the only three
occurrences in poetry, two are found in L. (here and at 1.24-5 at nunc
semirutis pendent quod moenia tectis / urbibus Italiae), and one in St.
S. 5.3.104, where it is metaphorically applied to uultus. Cf. also Florus
Epit. 1.31.44 semiruta Carthagine.
218 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

586 tenuit... litora For the technical sense of tenere here, see 3.182
tenent naualia puppes, with Housman’s n. See Verg. A. 5.159 tenebant
with Servius’ n.: ‘nauticum verbum’; Housman (ad 3.181-3) offers the
following parallels from L.: 515-16 classis / Stoechados arua tenens;
755-6 naualia... tenuere; 5.720 Nymphaeumque tenent; 8.463 nec
tenuit... montem. See also OLD s.v. ‘teneo’ 5.
stationis litora notae recalls Caes. BC 2.23.2 non incommodam sta-
tionem. L. does not say what this statio was called. In Caesar’s BC Cu-
rio lands on a Tunisian beach protected by two high headlands ad eum
locum qui appellatur Anquillaria, perhaps situated on the site of pre-
sent-day El Hauria, in the Gulf of Carthage to the west of Cape Bon.
Cf. Barrington Atlas 32G2.
587 qua se Here and at 10.486 (cf. Berti’s n.) L. echoes such line end-
ings as Verg. A. 3.151; cf. ibid. 2.224, with Austin’s n. Page (cited by
Williams 1960 ad Verg. A. 5.372) argues for a spondaic ‘heaviness’
conveyed by this type of line ending. Monosyllabic words are rare as
line endings after Lucretius. But double monosyllables have the same
effect on ictus and accent coincidence as dissyllabic words, and are
therefore not felt as abrupt. For se at end of line preceded by a mono-
syllable (usually a preposition like ab, ad, ex, in, or per) see e.g., Lucr.
1.445, 729; 2.241, etc.; cf. Norden 1926, 438.
588 Bagrada The mention of this river, already famous after Regulus’
killing of a monstrous serpent during the First Punic War (Tubero 8
Peter = Gell. 7.3; Liv. per. 18; Plin. NH 8.37; Val. Max. 1.8 ext. 19; Sil.
6.140-205; cf. P. v. Rohden in RE II.2087.27; Dessau, ibid., 2773.42),
prepares the reader for further historical associations, notably the refer-
ence to P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior. As the digression on An-
taeus (589-660) clearly shows, the memory of Scipio’s African cam-
paign of 202 BCE informs and contrasts L.’s narrative of Curio’s
campaign for the rest of the book (see below intro. and n. to 589-660,
esp. 656-60). The reason why in three different Libyan campaigns the
Romans pitched camp on the same spot is the presence of a river in a
land so poor in water; cf. how Marus explains the choice of the camp-
site in the First Punic War in his account to Serranus in Sil. 6.141-5:
non ullo Libycis in finibus amne / uictus limosas extendere latius undas
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 219

/ et stagnante uado patulos inuoluere campos. / hic studio laticum, quo-

rum est haud prodiga tellus, / per ripas laeti saeuis consedimus aruis.
Bagrada lentus agit siccae sulcator harenae The spondees in the third
and fourth feet effectively render the image of the river Bagrada slug-
gishly (lentus), almost lazily, ‘ploughing’ the desert, i.e., digging a
furrow in the sand, rather like a snake than a stream of water would do.
The line is imitated by Silius in his excursus on Regulus and the First
Punic War: Sil. 6.140-1 turbidus arentes lento pede sulcat arenas /
Bagrada. L. might have transformed an Ovidian snake into an African
rivulet: Ov. M. 15.725-6 litoream tractu squamae crepitantis harenam /
sulcat; perhaps via the association with the historical serpent killed by
Regulus; see 588n. above. The hissing alliteration in the voiceless sibi-
lant makes us think of a snake, and in combining it with the insistence
on the voiceless velar plosive in siccae sulcator L. highlights the con-
trast between the wetness of the exiguous flow and the dry landscape
across which the river runs.
sulcator This rare post-Virgilian derivative of sulcare, personifies the
river Bagrada in a unique image. Compare the other three occurrences
of the noun: Sil. 7.363 sulcator nauita ponti (Häussler 1978, 163), St.
Theb. 8.18 sulcator pallidus undae, 11.588 pigri sulcator Auerni. The
noun sulcus and its derivative verb sulco occur a few times in poetry in
sailing contexts with ratis, puppes, and/or carina; see e.g., Verg. A.
5.158 (repeated verbatim in Sil. 17.155); 10.197, and 295-8 (with
Harrison 1991) Ov. M. 15.726-7; P. 1.4.35-6. This metaphorical usage
of sulco also occurs at L. 3.550-1 puppes / sulcato... gurgite; but here
sulcator undoes the sailing metaphor, as the Bagrada hopelessly
ploughs an unfruitful sicca harena. On prosaic nouns in –tor, see above
ad 4 rector. Häussler’s parallel (Häussler 1978, 163; cf. Fröhlich 2000,
189) with Ov. M. 15.15.725-6 may suggest that in describing the river
furrow with this epithet L. alludes to the trace left by a serpent and his
Ovidian echo activates the resonance of Regulus’ African destiny. Cu-
rio’s future will turn out to be just as doomed.
220 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

4.589–660 Hercules and Antaeus

Curio reaches the site of Hercules’ fight with Antaeus (589-90) and
asks a local peasant why the place is called Antaeus’ Kingdom (591-2).
The local peasant replies by telling a myth. Antaeus is a Giant, a son of
Earth, but his mother did not deploy him at Phlegrai, where his broth-
ers fought against Jupiter (593-600). His strength is magically restored
by contact with mother Earth; he feeds on lions, lives in a cave, and
kills strangers (601-9). He meets Hercules in a wrestling match; both
adversaries marvel at each other’s strength (610-16). The poet exploits
the opposing similarities of the two adversaries as the struggle begins;
Antaeus resists then falls down to touch the ground and recover
strength (617-44). Hercules realizes Antaeus’ secret and speaks his
only words ever in this epic as he forces the Giant to stand and fight
(645-50). Antaeus dies in Hercules’ powerful clasp (650-3). The local
peasant closes the etymological aition by reminding Curio that the
place is also known as Castra Cornelia (654-60).
After the quick transition from Illyricum to Africa (581-9), the narrative
is delayed by the digression on Antaeus and Hercules, a section rich in
mythological detail. Extensive mythological accounts are uncommon in
L. Only the Medusa excursus in Book IX matches this one in length
and relevance. Hercules’ victorious fight against Antaeus prefigures
Curio’s subsequent action in Africa, who first wins against Roman Va-
rus and then loses against African Juba. It is in close relation to Curio’s
African campaign that the Antaeus’ episode must be read if we want to
make full sense of its presence in the poem.
The episode of Hercules and Antaeus is especially significant be-
cause it invites the reader to contemplate five crucial factors, each of
them functioning at one and the same time on three levels, the literary,
the historical, and the political: 1) Libya as an elemental force of na-
ture; 2) Libya/Africa as a geopolitical entity; 3) the myth of the Gigan-
tomachy as a hyperbole for civil war; 4) the civil war as a historical
event and a literary theme; 5) the story of Hercules and Cacus from
Virgil’s Aeneid as Lucan’s literary precedent. All of these five factors
are inextricably linked to one another. Relying on linguistic artifice and
rhetorical technique, L.’s poetic language seamlessly weaves the liter-
ary, historical, and political threads in the symbolical narrative of the
famous myth. The five factors need to be outlined one by one.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 221

The first and most prominent factor is 1) Libya, the mother of An-
taeus, whose presence as an elemental force of nature breeding monster
Antaeus in her shallow caves allows her to function as a hypostasis of
Earth (=Tellus=Ge). For the insistence in referring to Earth, see n. on
4.593 Tellus below. The idea of land, embedded in the concept of Libya
as Mother-Earth, represents the second factor. Constituted as a Roman
province after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE; on the evocation
of ‘elemental’ civil war, see the insightful remarks of Henderson 1998,
190ff. on the battle at Ilerda and the opening of Book IV; 2)
Libya/Africa is a signifier of anti-Roman hostility and epitomizes the
historical forces and processes that brought Rome to fight wars on Afri-
can soil. Next, the mention of the Giants at the very outset of the story
(4.593) activates the third and most complex of the factors, for the
struggle of Hercules vs. Antaeus recalls the theological/cosmological
forces facing one another in the 3) mythical battle in which the Earth-
born Giants strove, and failed, to subvert the Olympian order consti-
tuted by Zeus. In L. Olympian Hercules overcomes the threat of chaos
represented by the Libyan Giant, which brings us to our fourth factor.
The struggle of Hercules vs. Antaeus evokes the 4) political forces that
face each other in the civil conflict. The Gigantomachy functions as a
mythical background to the fight and a hyperbolic metaphor for the
civil war. On the Gigantomachy in Lucan, see Feeney 1991, 297 esp. n.
184 citing 1.34-6, 3.315-20, 6.347-8, 389-90, 410-12, 7.144-50, 9.655-
8, and 298-9 on the Gigantomachy ‘as the context for Nero’s present
position’ in 1.33-8. On Virgil, see Hardie 1983, 1986. For the whole
theme of civil war and Gigantomachy, see Nisbet/Hubbard 1978, 190
ad Hor. C. 2.12.7, who trace the theme as far back as Xenophanes and
Pindar (on which see Vian 1952), and down to Roman times via Calli-
machus. See RE Suppl. 3.656-60 for the literary sources on the Giants
(cf. RE 18.1.305 on piling up Ossa and Pelion; esp. Ov. M. 1.151-62
with Bömer ad loc., and St. Ach. 1.147-58). Cf. finally Mart. 8.50 and
78 on Domitian’s victory against the Sarmatians. The Gigantomachy
hyperbole finally invites us to explore a fifth and final factor, the liter-
ary resonance in our passage of 5) Hercules and Cacus from Aeneid
VIII. In L., however, the hyperbole highlights the paradox generated by
the civil conflict, for the success of Caesar’s rebellion against a previ-
ously established order activates the analogy between the Roman civil
war and the Gigantomachy. The paradoxical force of the hyperbole
222 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

questions the very concepts of ‘order’ and ‘chaos’, not to mention the
(im)possibility of telling the one from the other in this poem. In other
words, as an image of chaos, the civil war threatens the Republican
order. Caesar and his faction, these Giant figures of Roman history, will
win by destroying the Republican order and will establish their own
‘order’, an order that defies definition in its being so closely analogous
to primal chaos. On the reader’s disorientation resulting from ‘Lucan’s
amplification from the military to the cosmic order,’ see Henderson
1998, 210 and passim.
589-92 These lines rapidly switch from the historical to the mythical
register. The link with myth is given by Curio’s geographical and ety-
mological curiosity. On change of registers, see ad 654-60; Asso 2002a
ad 9.303-19, 348-67; 368-78; 411-20; 449-97.
589-660 See Sen. HF 480-7 in Billerbeck/Guex 2002.
589 tumulos: ‘hills’ (Haskins). The tomb of Antaeus is mentioned in
Plut. Sert. 9 and Strabo 17.3.8 [829]. Strabo names his source as some
Gabinius, cf. RE VII.1 nr. 1, but see Peter in HRR 2.49.1 for Tanusius
Geminus. The story, as told in Plutarch and Strabo, about Sertorius
uncovering a skeleton larger than human size, might have originated in
an oral epichoric tradition (see the rudis incola 592n. below), perhaps
stimulated by the local configuration of the terrain; cf. Mela 3.106: hic
[sc. Mauretaniae] Antaeus regnasse dicitur, et signum quod fabulae
clarum prorsus ostenditur collis modicus resupini hominis imagine
iacentis, illius ut incolae ferunt tumulus: unde ubi aliqua pars eruta est
solent imbres spargi, et donec effossa repleantur eueniunt.
Mela seems to say that whenever a bit of earth is removed from the
hillock water (imbres) comes out until the dug-out dirt (effossa) is re-
stored (repleantur); for this interpretation see Fradin 1827: ‘des eaux
qui circulent çà et là dans les terres viennet aussitôt combler le vide.’
Whatever the origins of these waters, L. ignores the phenomenon. And
yet the erosion Mela describes does remind one of L.’s exesas… rupes
below. It is however impossible to ascertain any dependence of L. on
either Mela or the Hellenistic source used by Strabo and Plutarch.
exesas… undique rupes ‘eroded on all sides.’ The participle exesus is
common in poetry, but is almost exclusively used as an adjective rather
than a verb, see TLL V.2.1317.53ff. It mostly applies to things of nature
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 223

(e.g., land, mountains, rocks, trees, caves; cf. 9.464 exesis…cauernis)

and is often rendered with ‘hollow’ (cf. Sil. 5.396 and 14.57, clearly
reminiscent of Virgil’s passing reference to the Cyclops’ cave in A.
8.418 specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis; cf. also Proteus’ cave in G.
4.418). The phrase describes the landscape erosion typical of a dry area
on the edge of the African desert.
590 Antaei… regna L.’s learned geography of western Africa strikes
us rather for its literary and poetic erudition than for its systematic de-
scription of sites. In fact the actual location of Antaeus’ kingdom is not
uniformly attested. Pliny the Elder mentions Antaeus as the founder of
Tingi on the Atlantic coast of Africa (Barrington Atlas 28B3), but also
as having a regia in Lixus (Barrington Atlas 28C2); cf. Plin. NH 5.2.6
nunc est Tingi, quondam ab Antaeo conditum, postea a Claudio Cae-
sare, cum coloniam faceret; and 5.3.1 colonia a Claudio Caesare facta
Lixos, uel fabulosissime antiquis narrata: ibi regia Antaei certamenque
cum Hercule et Hesperidum horti; see also above 589n. The sources on
Antaeus are conveniently listed in Frazer’s note on Apollod. Bibl.
2.5.11 (Frazer 1921, 223 n. 2), now superseded by the detailed appara-
tus of loci similes in Scarpi 1996 (ad Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 [115]); but
see also RE I.2.2339-43; Roscher I.1.362-4; LIMC I.1.800-1.
L. shows awareness of the earliest surviving texts mentioning two
(different?) characters both named Antaeus; cf. Gentili/Bernardini
1995, 239 n. 1 (= intro ad Pind. P. 9). In Pind. P. 9.185 (composed in
474 BCE) Antaeus is the king of an African city called Irasa, but in I.
4.87 (composed ca. 476 BCE) he is the Giant defeated by Hercules. The
detail of the skulls adorning Antaeus’ father’s (Poseidon) temple (Pind.
I. 4.54b) is known to L. 2.162-4 scelerum non… tantum / uidit…
pendere… / postibus Antaei Libye, clearly reminiscent of Cacus’ cave
in Verg. A. 8.196-7 foribusque adfixa superbis / ora uirum tristi pende-
bant pallida tabo.
Pindar’s Irasa could, yet need not, be identical with the city of the
same name mentioned in Herodotus (4.158). In Herodotus Irasa is situ-
ated to the east of Cyrene whereas the site of the fight between Hercu-
les and the Giant is usually located to the west of Cyrene. In a fragment
ascribed to Pherekydes of Athens (floruit Ol. 81.1 = 456 BCE, accord-
ing to Eusebius) Irasa is said to be located in the area of Lake Tritonis
(on which see Asso 2002a ad 9.348-67). However, as Jacoby rightly
remarks, ‘The city of Irasa… and the lake Tritonis do not fit together’
224 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

(F gr Hist 3 F 75 ap. schol. Pind. P. 9.185a, with Komm. I: 414).

Jacoby goes on to explain that Pherekydes’ fragment is evidence of the
conflation of different versions in the compilations of the genealogists.
This conflation must have happened at a very early stage, because the
6th cent. BCE Rhodian epicist Peisander mentions Alkeis, king An-
taeus’ daughter, marrying Hercules after the fight; see Pisander frg. 6
Bernabé = 7 Davies ap. schol. Pind. P. 9.185a (Drachmann 2.238);
LfgrE I.499 s.v. Ἀλκηΐς.
non uana uetustas Arnulf ad 592: ‘PER MVLTOS PATRES Literati
per historias annalium nouerunt antiqua, rustici uero per successionem
patrum sibi ad inuicem dicentium.’ Although Antaeus’ tale is repre-
sented as oral tradition through the figure of the nameless peasant, L.
belongs to Arnulf’s first category, the literati, and in fact his tale of
Antaeus is a learned mythic account relying on ancient authority, which
for L. must have been available in a bookish format. For a different
nuance of the expression, see e.g., 3.406 si qua fidem meruit superos
mirata uetustas. After telling the aition, the nameless Libyan will de-
scribe this uetustas as famosa (see 654n below), that is, ‘rich in fama’;
cf. Asso 2002a ad 9.348. Nuances in reporting mythological or other-
wise traditional material might indicate different degrees of credibility,
or more plausibly, erudite (dis)agreement on less known mythic vari-
ants (Stinton 1976); for the same phenomenon in Virgil, cf. Horsfall
1990. On the feature known as the ‘Alexandrian footnote’, see Hinds
1998, 1-16 on ‘Reflexivity: allusion and self-annotation.’
591 nominis… causas designates the digression on Antaei… regna as
an etymological aition, interestingly flagged with the substantive nomen
(655n. below). The learned interest in etymology is an aspect of the
epic fondness for historical causality and mythic aetiology, both fea-
tures being so essential to Roman epic discourse; cf. Heinze 1915, 480
n. 1: ‘Übrigens ist die Vorliebe für Namensetymologien in der
römischen Poesie alt,’ who provides examples from Naevius and En-
nius’ Medea; and see now O'Hara 1996, esp. his ch. 1: ‘Etymological
Thinking and Wordplay before Virgil.’
noscere causas Cf. 10.189 nihil est quod noscere malim | quam fluuii
causas, where Caesar’s appetite to learn about the origins of the Nile is
proportionately greater than his legate’s (Berti 2000 ad loc.). The
phrase has a distinctly Virgilian (and Epicurean) tinge, cf. G. 2.490 (on
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 225

which see Mynors 1990; pace Thomas 1988), but is ultimately of Lu-
cretian origin, e.g., Lucr. 3.1055, 5.775 (cf. 1185). Sil. 6.139 cogno-
scere causam probably imitates L.; in Silius Marus sets out to tell
Serranus about the African struggle of Regulus against the Bagrada
serpent, one of the highlights of Silius’ digression on the First Punic
War.
592 docuit rudis incola A nameless peasant will tell Curio of Antaeus’
struggle against Hercules. L. plays on the meaning of the adjective
rudis, which as a derivative of rus can mean ‘of the country’, and there-
fore rudis incola may simply mean ‘an inhabitant of the land’. And yet
the oxymoron ‘docuit rudis’ suggests for rudis also the sense ‘uncouth,
ignorant’, which is thus pointing to the paradox that an ignorant peasant
(see OLD s.v. ‘rudis’ 4 and 6) may be doctus enough to lecture Curio
about local African (Greek) myth.
593-7 L. alludes to the Gigantomachy elsewhere (cf. e.g., 1.36; 3.316;
6.347, 389; 7.145) in relation to the Civil War theme, see Feeney 1991,
297: ‘The civil war is consistently represented under the guise of Gi-
gantomachy’; and Henderson 1998, 165-211: ‘Lucan/The Word at
War’. In replying to Caesar’s summons to join his faction in civil strife,
the Massilians decline and compare Caesar to the Giants: see 3.315-20
(with Hunink’s comments) si caelicolis furor arma dedisset / aut si
terrigenae temptarent astra gigantes / non tamen auderet pietas hu-
mana uel armis / uel uotis prodesse Ioui sortisque deorum / ignarum
mortale genus per fulmina tantum / sciret adhuc caelo regnare To-
nantem. Hyperbolic comparing of human to divine feats returns in
7.145ff. si liceat superis hominum conferre labores… For the Giganto-
machy theme in Roman epic, see Hardie 1983, 1986, 1993; O'Hara
1994.
593-4 nondum… antris The nameless peasant begins his etymologi-
cal/ aetiological tale of the struggle between Hercules and Antaeus by
recurring to a series of etymological and bilingual puns, whose purpose
is to emphasize both Antaeus’ parentage and the resulting Gigan-
tomachic implications of the struggle to follow: nondum post genitos
Tellus effeta gigantas / terribilem partum concepit in antris. The figura
etymologica is arranged in a chiasmus around effeta: genitos matches
–gantas ([γε-]γαοντας) as Tellus matches gi- (Γῆ; cf. Maltby 1991, 259
s.v. ‘gigas’; Isid. Orig. 11.3.13 Gigantes dictos iuxta Graeci sermonis
226 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

etymologiam, qui eos γηγενεῖς existimant, id est terrigenas; cf. also

Voss in Weber ad 4.593: ‘Gigantes dicuntur quasi Gegentes i.e. terrae
gentes; nam sunt filii terrae, γῆ enim Graece, Latine dicitur terra, unde
Gigantes’). The ge- in genitos and the gi- in gigantas are bilingually
echoed both in Tellus and terr- (of terribilem). As O'Hara 1996, 61-2
observes, even though natural quantity cannot be altogether ignored,
‘changes in vowel quantities alone do not prevent etymologizing.’ See
also 3.316 terrigenae… gigantes; Verg. G. 1.278 partu Terra nefando
with Thomas 1988 ad loc.
593 Tellus personified, as Ge, for she is the hypostasis of Earth and the
mother of the Giants. The rudis incola repeatedly refers to the Earth:
599 Terra; 629 arida tellus (or Tellus? i.e., Africa); 636 Telluris uiri-
bus; 644 Tellus; 647 Terra.
effeta Housman’s ecfeta against effeta of the MSS. may give emphasis
to the etymological figure centered on effeta (593-4n.), which might
explain why he chooses to print ecfeta here but effetas at 9.285. The
prefix ec- (ex- before vowel, cf. Greek ἐκ/ἐξ; Ernout/Meillet 1939, 312-
13) may mean, among other things, ‘out of’ with the nuance ‘deprived’;
cf. the compounds expers, exsanguis, exanimis. Here the adjective
means ‘out of fetus’, i.e., no longer capable of fertility, and in this sense
is used of Tellus also in Lucr. 2.1150 and 6.843; cf. Horsfall 2000 ad
Verg. A. 7.440. In the simile at 9.285, however, effetas describes the
hive cells (ceras) having released the bees and therefore ‘out of fetus’
as if ‘hatched’ (so Duff 1928, probably on the basis of Verg. G. 4.21-2
cum prima noui ducent exanima reges / uere suo ludetque fauis emissa
iuuentus).
594 terribilem is the only adjective that directly qualifies Antaeus; see
above 593-4n. An analogous kind of wordplay may be found in Hor. C.
3.4.49 Magnum illa terrorem intulerat Ioui / ... iuuentus, where the
sound of the noun terror echoes Terra, the mother of illa iuuentus, i.e.,
the Giants.
595 gloria terrarum plural for singular or rather for Terra in all of her
hypostases; see below on Typhon, and 596n. on Tityos and Briareus, all
sprung out of Ge.
Typhon appears to be mentioned here as a Giant (one more argument,
if at all needed, in favor of this variant against Python; see the ap. crit.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 227

in Housman 1927), but in 6.92 he represents the fetid exhalations of

Nisida. The Roman poetic tradition often confuses Titans and Giants,
see Lyne 1978: 115 ad Cirim 32-4. Both Typhon and Tityos appear to
be mentioned as Giants in Sen. Thy. 804-12. In Hes. Th. 820-80 Typhon
is the monster born of Ge and Tartarus to oppose Zeus after the latter’s
defeat of the Titans. The early Greek mythological tradition is itself
varied about the birth of Typhon; see now Fowler 2000 in index verb.
2: ‘Nomina Propria’ s.v. ‘Τυφών (Τυφάων)’. In the Homeric Hymn to
Apollo Typhon is born by parthenogenesis of Hera alone, jealous of
Zeus’ own offspring Athena (305-55). The scholiast to Il. 2.783 has
Typhon born of two eggs rubbed with Kronos’ semen and buried in the
earth; see West 1966, 380 ad Hes. Th. 820-80. As Kronos’ belated off-
spring Typhon is a Titan. As for Antaeus (590n. above), L. may be
aware of the inconsistencies of the tradition. His referring inclusively to
these monsters as Giants might signify his stance on the erudite matter,
or adherence to the position most common in his own time. See Hunink
1992b ad 3.150. Similarly, Val. Fl. 4.200 calls Amycus a saeuus gigas
(cf. 148-9 Amycus... qui uertice nubila pulset) even though he is not a
direct offspring of Ge, but of Poseidon and a nymph (see on Tityos
596n. below).
596 Tityos L. is not explicit about Tityos’ gigantism, but see Lucr.
3.988, Verg. A. 6.595-7, Hor. C. 3.4.77; Sen. HF 976-8 (with
Billerbeck/Guex 2002 and Fitch 1987 ad loc.); and Thy. 804-12. Tityos’
vastness is a topic in poetry since Homer’s underworld: Od. 11.576; see
Prop. 3.5.44; Ov. Am. 3.12.25; M. 4.457-8; Sen. Thy. 9. Cf. also St. Th.
1.710; 6.753.
Either Zeus (Hygin. Fab. 55), or Apollo, or Artemis (Pherekydes,
cited below), killed Tityos because, instigated by Hera, he assaulted
Leto (Od. 11.580-1). His punishment in the underworld is to have his
liver perpetually eaten by vultures. Unlike Od. 11.576, L. does not ex-
plicitly say that Tityos is a son of Ge; the ambiguity is already in Virgil
A. 6.595 Terrae omniparentis alumnum, see Norden 1926 and Austin
1977 ad loc.; cf. terrigena in St. Th. 1.710. In Ap. Rh. 1.761-2, Tityos
is a son of Zeus by Elara, a Boeotian heroine, perhaps to be considered
as a peculiar hypostasis of Ge according to Waser in Roscher
5.1034.17. L. may be aware of the tradition attested in Pherekydes of
Athens (F gr Hist 3 F 55 ap. schol. Ap. Rh. 1.760b) that when Elara
was pregnant with Tityos, Zeus concealed her under the earth to hide
228 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

her from jealous Hera. When the time came, Tityos sprang out of Earth.
As Earth-born, Tityos qualifies, at least etymologically, as a Giant.
Tityos’ physical vastness implicitly emphasizes the magnitude of his
(foster) brother Antaeus. If the figure who is about to be pierced by
Leto’s torch on the Pergamon frieze is Tityos, this would be his earliest
attestation in a Gigantomachic context; see LIMC 6.1, 260, s.v. ‘Leto’
nr. 46; K. Scherling in RE VI A 2: 1594-5, 1605-6 s.v. ‘Tityos’. On L.’s
awareness of traditional inconsistencies, see 590n. on Antaeus and
596n. on Typhon.
Briareus Like Tityos, Briareus is also a denizen of the netherworld;
Verg. A. 6.287. In Hes. Th. 149 he is born of Ge like the other two
Hundred-Handers, Kottos and Gyges. Briareus is his divine name; hu-
mans know him as Aigaion (Il. 1.403). In Homer and Hesiod Th. 617-
735 the Hundred-Handers help Zeus against the Titans, but in Virgil A.
10.565-8 Aigaion (= Briareus) fights against Jove (see Harrison 1991
ad loc.). A tradition attested in Eumelos’ Titanomachia Cyclica frg. 2
(schol. Ap. Rh. 1.1165) makes Aigaion and Kottos side with the Giants
against Zeus; see LfgrE II.95 s.v. Βριάρεως. According to the grammar-
ian Lukillos (schol. Ap. Rh. 1.1165d; cf. RE XIII.2.1785-91), Aigaion
(= Briareus) was a Giant. For the relevance of L.’s mythological erudi-
tion, see 596n. on Typhon.
caeloque pepercit Ge did not deploy Antaeus in the Thessalian plain of
Phlegrai, where the gods fought against the Giants. The text here makes
it explicit that Ge is the common parent of Antaeus and the Giants,
among whom also these three monsters, Typhon, Tityos, and Briareus
are included.
598-600 Order: Terra cumulauit tam uastas uires sui fetus hoc quoque
munere, quod membra iam defecta uigent renouato robore cum tetigere
parentem. The syntactical arrangement invites the reader to pause and
marvel at Antaeus’ gift, as indicated by hoc quoque in emphatic posi-
tion at the beginning of the sentence. Just as Terra accumulates her gifts
to her son Antaeus, so does L. accumulate hyperbata to produce aston-
ishment in his audience.
598 cumulauit munere The phrase occurs only here and in Verg. A.
5.532 Aeneas laetum amplexus Acesten / muneribus cumulat magnis.
Throughout the episode of the mythic struggle, L. insists on Antaeus’
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 229

magic gift of self-reinvigoration by contact with the mother; cf. 604-5;

607-9; 615-16; 629-32; 636-7; 642.
599 Terra... parentem Even though belonging to separate syntactical
units, the first and last word of the line contain an element of hyper-
baton, in a line that begins and ends with Mother Earth. On aspects of
word order, see next n.
600 iam defecta... membra Antaeus’ exhausted limbs are restored with
renewed strength (robore, on which see 608 below), which mimetically
stands enclosed in the andjective-noun phrase; for similar instances of
encosling word-order, cf. 1.55 unde tuam... Romam; 136 qualis frugife-
ro quercus sublimis in agro; 269 audax uenali comitatur Curio lingua;
655 si saeuum… leonem; etc. Referring to another and even more fre-
quent feature of word order, that of a noun and adjective framing the
entire line, Norden 391 notes that this kind of word symmetry is charac-
teristically employed by the Neoterics to heighten the elegance of their
verses. Pearce 1968 offers a copious list of examples from Catullus 64
and Virgil among others. See Feeney 1982, 25-8 ad 21-33.
601 haec illi spelunca domus L. is modeling Antaeus’ abode on Ca-
cus’ cave; Verg. A. 8.193 hic spelunca fuit. Antaeus inhabits a cavern-
ous recess of the earth, traditionally secluded in a remote depth, 601-2
latuisse sub alta / rupe ferunt.
602 Antaeus’ lion-based diet, a detail unique to L., may be his innova-
tion. The only other known lion eater is Achilles, who is reported to
have fed on bear and lion marrows (schol. Il. 16.36, with Robertson
1940 and Heslin 2005, 173-5 on Achilles’ food). By virtue of sympa-
thetic magic, a lion-based diet should provide Achilles with the lion’s
strength (Frazer 1921 ad Apollod. 3.13.6) and ira, µῆνις, the narrative
engine of the Iliad; on angry lions see 685-6n. below. See also how
Achilles replies to Diomedes inquiring about his unusual upbringing in
St. Ach. 2.96-100 dicor et in teneris et adhuc reptantibus annis, / Thes-
salus ut rigido senior me monte recepit, / non ullos ex more cibos hau-
sisse nec almis / uberibus satiasse famem, sed spissa leonum / viscera
semianimisque lupae traxisse medullas (Fantham 1999, 63-4 nt. 14; cf.
Heslin 2005, 179).
Lions are African creatures, more precisely, they are Gaetulian (cf.
Hor. C. 1.23.10 and 3.20.2; Verg. A. 5.351). Lions appear on the coins
230 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

of both Juba I of Numidia and his learned son, the historian Juba II of
Mauretania. Juba II wrote also about lions (F gr Hist 275 F 47-61) and
it is possible that L. had access to his works; see Asso 2002a on 9.478.
Juba II was restored to his father’s kingdom after fighting for Octavian
at Actium (Dio 51.15.6; Nisbet/Hubbard 1980 on Hor. C 1.22.15); cf.
F. Jacoby in RE IX.2.2384-95 s.v. ‘Iuba 2’; Der neue Pauly V.1185-6
s.v. ‘Iuba 2’.
605 in nuda tellure iacens Like the fierce beasts he feeds on, Antaeus
sleeps on the bare earth, without the usual animal hides or leaves, obvi-
ously because of the reinvigorating magic depending on contact with
Mother Ge. Cf. Comm. Bern. 4.605 ‘ut pote supra matrem.’
605-6 Antaeus’ human victims include not only the local peasants,
coloni aruorum Libyae, but also the unsuspecting sea-farers, quos ap-
pulit aequor. Amycus likewise challenges the Argonauts to fight in Ap.
Rh. 2.11-18; cf. Val. Fl. 4.145-56.
606 appulit Etymologically applied to sheep and cattle (e.g., Accius
Praetext. 19-20 Ribbeck [ap. Cic. Diu. 1.22.44] pastorem ad me adpel-
lere pecus lanigerum; Ov. F. 6.80; cf. TLL II.275-6 with Horsfall ad
Verg. A. 7.39), the verb is also used metaphorically in nautical contexts,
cf. Afran. Com. 137 appellant huc ad molem nostram nauiculam. L.
uses it only three times in this latter sense; cf. 8.563, 567. With the
exceptions of Ov. F. 6.80 and Val. Fl. 2.446 and 559, the dactylic ap-
pulit/adpulit occurs in the fifth foot in thirteen out of sixteen instances
in dactylic poetry. In the formula appulit oris it occurs four times in
Virgil, always in the fifth and sixth feet; see Verg. A. 1.377 tempestas;
3.338 deus; 715 deus; 7.39 exercitus (three out of four times the gram-
matical subject of appulit in Verg. is more than human; in 7.39 as well
as in L. here it is an army that lands on the beach); cf. Ov. F. 3.621;
Val. Fl. 4.484; 5.277; Sil. 8.159; 14.113.
607-8 Order: uirtus, diu non usa auxilio cadendi, spernit opes terrae.
For long (diu) Antaeus needed not have recourse to the earth’s power
(terrae opes), as he remained invincible by everyone even without his
mother’s help. There is a jarring oxymoron in the phrase auxilio ca-
dendi.
608 inuictus robore The Roman cult title of Hercules is here applied to
his antagonist Antaeus; Hercules is referred to simply as uictor at 626.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 231

The significance of the epithet inuictus here as ‘strongly evocative of

both Hercules and Alexander’ (Ahl 1976, 272); Ahl’s opinion of Cato
as the ‘only unconquerable man’ (9.18 inuicti… Catonis, cf. Ahl 1976,
274) relies on a fundamentally Stoic reading of the Bellum Ciuile. In
9.18 inuictus means ‘unshaken in resolve’ (see OLD 4) although it can
evoke the sense ‘unconquerable’, i.e., the Latin translation of the origi-
nally poetic epithet άνίητος, later applied by the Delphic oracle to
Alexander; cf. Plut. Alex. 14.7 and LSJ.
L. uses the adjective inuictus only five times in the poem. At 3.334
it applies to Rome, whose (almost) proverbial invincibility (cf. Hunink
ad loc. and Rhet. ad Her. 4.66 urbs inuictissima) in the utterance of the
Massilian ambassadors to Caesar may betray the understandable oppor-
tunism of their flattering intentions – that is, if one does not resist the
temptation of taking 3.334 inuictae... urbi as a plain metonymy, ad-
dressed as it is to ‘Caesar inuictus.’ Ductor inuictus is what Caesar
calls himself at 5.324 in haranguing his mutinied soldiers, and similarly
at 10.346 he is referred to as dux inuictus, both contexts in which inuic-
tus is part of a formula referring to either a commander or, later, to the
ruler in the imperial etiquette, as attested for Scipio Africanus Maior in
Enn. var. 3 Vahlen ap. Cic. Or. 45.152, cf. Cic. De re p. 6.9 and Suet.
Iul. 59; for Hannibal, cf. Cic. leg. agr. 2.95, Nep. Hann. 6.1, Liv.
22.44.4, etc.; for Caesar in Cic. pro Marcello 12, cf. Val. Max. 7.6.5;
for Augustus in Hor. Serm. 2.1.11, Ov. Tr. 5.1.41, Manil. 1.925; for
Tiberius in Ov. Tr. 4.2.44, cf. Suet. Tib. 17.2; for Domitian in St. S.
4.7.49; for Trajan in Frontin. Aq. 31 (cf. Plin. Pan. 8.2). Finally, the
epithet becomes a constant component in imperial cult inscriptions
from Commodus to Constantine, see e.g., Inscr. Afr. 612 (191-2 CE)
pro salute et incolumitate imp. Caesaris L. Aeli Aurel. Commodi pii
inuicti felicis Herculis Romani... (Berti 2000, 256 ad 10.346 is regretta-
bly very concise; but see the passages cited above from TLL VII.2.186).
For the interesting argument that inuictus came to be applied to heroes
only after its use for Alexander the Great, see Tarn 1948, 2.338-9 (cited
by Ahl 1976, 272 nt. 51). On the early and mid-imperial history of the
epithet inuictus at Rome, see the fundamental article by Weinstock
1957.
L. must have been aware of the rich nuances as well as the irony of
applying such an epithet to Caesar (and Cato 9.18, on which see above),
and unexpectedly to Antaeus and not to Hercules. The jarring effect of
232 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

qualifying Hercules’ opponent with a cultic epithet ritually reserved to

Hercules himself as a Roman god is even more striking when we notice
that the limit set by the immediately following ablative of limitation
robore is rounded off by cunctis – which ultimately makes Antaeus’
robur limitless. L. repeatedly uses robur in pointing to Antaeus’ ex-
traordinary vigor: 600 iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra; 633
constitit Alcides stupefactus robore tanto; 642 sponte cadit maiorque
accepto robore surgit.
610 fama Rumor about Antaeus attracts Hercules to Africa. Remarka-
bly, the struggle against Antaeus is mentioned in isolation, for it is not
explicitly linked to any of the canonical twelve labors.
terras monstris aequorque leuantem The participial clause concisely
epitomizes Hercules’ beneficial action in ridding the world of monsters.
The polar expression terras… aequorque is meant to embrace the total-
ity of the bestial monsters killed by Hercules, as in Pind. N. 1.62-3; see
Carey 1981: 125 ad Pind. N. 1.62-3: ‘Heracles’ cleansing of land and
sea is of course one of the most important aspects of the legend.’ Cf.
Pind. N. 3.22 (killer of sea-monsters and explorer of seas); I. 4.55-7
(explorer of land and sea); Eur. HF 225-6 (killer of monsters on both
land and sea), and 400 with Bond’s learned n. on sea-clearing, citing
Hercules’ victory over Triton (in the Great Syrte: cf. Strabo 17.3.20 and
Plin. NH 5.5, RE VII.A.253ff.), as seen on an archaic pediment from
the Athenian acropolis with the remains of a fish-tailed Triton fighting
Heracles (Richter 1950, 120 pl. 379); more pictures of Heracles fight-
ing sea or river monsters in Beazley 1963, 54-5; Soph. Tr. 1012 (trav-
eler through sea and forests), 1059-61 (winner over Giants and wild
beasts, traveler through every land). For the polarity earth/sea, see
Kemmer 1903, 160.
611 magnanimum Alciden Both rhythm and metrical position echo
Verg. A. 1.260 and 9.204. On the heroic epithet, very frequent in Ro-
man epic, see Fantham on 2.234 (Brutus), and Harrison on Verg. A.
10.139. It occurs four more times in L.; cf. 475n. above (Vulteius’ uox);
9.133 (Pompey); 9.807 (a disciple of Cato). The epithet describes Her-
cules also in Sen. HF 310 magnanimi Herculis and, as noted by Biller-
beck/Guex 2002, 235, applies to Theseus too, as at HF 646-7 comes /
magnanime, and Thy. 869 magnanime Theseu; cf. finally Val. Fl. 1.634.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 233

612-13 Cleonaei... Libyci Hercules and Antaeus take off their lion
hides, but only on a superficial level are the two opponents similar to
each other (Ahl 1976, 95). Hercules adorns himself with the lion hide
after ridding Nemea, which is here denoted by a synecdoche with the
mention of the nearby Argive city of Cleone, as in Sen. HF 798 and HO
1891; see Moreno Soldevila 2006, 421 ad Mart. 4.60.2. As a predator of
lions, however, Antaeus is more akin to the Nemean beast itself than to
Hercules, yet one should add that the similarity effectively emphasizes
Hercules’ risk and effort in facing an equal-looking opponent. The po-
larity of the opponents is first and foremost genealogical: Hercules is a
son of Zeus and a human, while Antaeus is the offspring of Ge and
Poseidon. This type of genealogical opposition supports those inclined
to interpret the episode of the struggle as pitting the Olympian forces of
order against the earlier generations of immortals (esp. Grimal 1949;
but see contra Ahl 1976, 62-81, esp. 80). Here, however, we have two
mortals facing each other, as in the boxing match between Amycus and
Polydeuces (Ap. Rh. 2.1-96), in which Apollonius emphasizes the polar
diversity of the opponent in genealogical terms, likening Amycus to
‘Typhoeus or one of the monstrous offspring of Ge’ (Ap. Rh. 2.38-40),
and Polydeuces to the evening star, alluding to the well known cataster-
ism.
613-14 perfudit... palaestrae Just like a Greek athlete, Hercules
smears his body with oil. Oil smearing was part of the preliminaries to
a wrestling match. For what follows is a wrestling match (617-53n.
below). The detailed description of the fight suggests L. and his audi-
ence’s interest in athletic wrestling. Wrestling was popular in ancient
Greece; see Gardiner 1905; Gardiner 1910, 372-401 (repeated more or
less verbatim in Gardiner 1930, 180-196); Poliakoff 1987, 23-53. Even
though an athletarum certamen was first introduced at Rome by M.
Fulvius Nobilior among the celebrations during the ludi organized in
186 BCE after the Aetolian war (Liv. 29.22.2), Graeca certamina (an
expression used derogatorily about the Neronia in Tac. Ann. 14.21.1-2),
including various types of agonistic performances, did not become
popular at Rome until much later. We know of two occasions dating
from the age of Caesar in which competitive combat sports were per-
formed at Rome: the agones gymnikoi kai mousikoi offered by Pompey
to inaugurate his theater in 55 BCE (see Plut. Pom. 52.4; cf. Cic. Fam.
7.1; Dio 39.38.1), and the munus funebre offered by Curio on the occa-
234 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

sion of his father’s death in 53 BCE (see Plin. NH 36.24.120), featuring

performances by both athletae and gladiatores; cf. Caldelli 1993, 1-52,
esp. 16-17. By having him listening to the peasant’s account of the
wrestling match between Hercules and Antaeus, L. might point to Cu-
rio’s munus funebre of 53 BCE. By Nero’s time, however, athletic
competitions inherited from Greece, such as wrestling and boxing, were
finally gaining popularity at Rome in spite of more conservative taste;
see e.g., Harris 1972, 63-74; Köhne/Ewigleben/Jackson 2000, 75-85.
Competitive sports are institutionally established under Domitian with
the foundation of the agon Capitolinus in 86 CE (for the date, see Cens.
De die nat. 18.15; cf. Suet. Dom. 4.8; Caldelli 1993: 54). In Flavian
times Statius reveals a keen interest in athletic wrestling; see e.g., the
struggle of Tydeus and Agylleus in St. Theb. 6.847-910.
614 hospes Hercules is the foreign guest per antonomasia, for he trav-
els the world far and wide to rid it of its monsters. Cf. Ov. F. 4.66-7 and
Sil. 3.421; cf. also 610n. above.
Olympiacae seruato more palaestrae ‘according to the custom of the
Olympian wrestling-school (palaestra).’ The mention of the Olympic
games, a festival in honor of Zeus, reminds the reader of Hercules’
divine father. On more palaestrae see Hor. C. 1.10.4 and TLL X.1.99.
615 parum fidens pedibus contingere Antaeus does not feel he can
simply rely on his feet for the reinvigorating contact with his mother.
And yet, the construction of fidens (which both as adj. and participle
normally requires the gen. or dat.; cf. 5.577; 6.1; 8.303; 9.373) with the
infinitive has puzzled Haskins 1887, who wrongly notes here: ‘con-
tingere is equivalent to quod contingere.’ It is better to intend the parti-
ciple fidens as governing the inf.: [Antaeus] parum fidens [se is not
needed, but could stand here] contingere matrem pedibus; for the con-
struction of fido (which normally requires either abl. or dat.) with either
the sole inf. or acc. and inf. is indeed possible both in prose and verse
(starting with Cic.; see TLL VI.696.81-697.7; cf. IV.208.69ff., and
V.1.1102.41ff.). In Verg. A. 5.69 seu crudo fidit pugnam committere
caestu, therefore, one need not (pace Williams 1960 ad loc.) explain the
inf. committere on the ground that fidit has the sense audet, since ‘The
poets, partly because of its metrical neatness, greatly enlarged the func-
tion of the infinitive in comparison with the prose usage [sc. with the
personal construction of sufficio],’ thus Williams 1960, 42 ad Verg. A.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 235

5.21-2 obniti... sufficimus, where he produces L. 5.153-4 conplere...

sufficiens (a feature of L.’s Sprachgebrauch which has not gone unob-
served in Barratt 1979 ad 5.152-4).
616 auxilium membris calidas infudit harenas In contrast to Hercu-
les, who is said to smear only oil on his limbs, Antaeus covers himself
with sand to secure contact with his reinvigorating parent. Spreading
dust over their oil-smeared body allows the wrestlers a firmer grip on
each other; see Achelous’ match against Hercules in Ov. M. 9.35-6 ille
cavis hausto spargit me puluere palmis, / inque uicem fuluae tactu
flauescit harenae; cf. St. Theb. 6.848-9, 874; Mart. 7.67; Iuv. 6.421;
Harris 1972, 58-9.
617-53 The technical vocabulary and expressions qualify the struggle
as a wrestling match; cf. Gagliardi 1976, 117-19.
617 conseruere... nexu The struggle begins. This and the following
line begin in a dactylic rhythm (-uu-uu-), which slows down in 619
immotumque caput, giving the idea of the opponents’ eagerness to start
the fight followed by a partial immobility as they lock their arms and
hands in a powerful clasp. For visual representations of the hand- and
arm-hold on Greek vase-painting, see the handsome color reproduction
of a ca. 500 BCE red-figure pelike (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) in
Yalouris 1979, 204 fig. 107.
conseruere manus The expression conserere manus generally denotes
fighting. Here it applies to wrestling in a technical sense. It occurs
seven times in poetry; it is repeated verbatim from Ov. Her. 12.100
inter se strictas conseruere manus (of the spartoi sown by Jason); but
see also F. 3.282 conseruisse manus; Sen. HF 562 conseruit... manus;
Sil. 9.10 consertaeque manus; St. Theb. 3.18 conserta manus; Val. Fl.
3.30-1 manus... conserat.
nexus ‘hold’, a technical term in wrestling: see above all Quint. Inst.
2.8.13; cf. Ov. M. 6.241-3 transierant ad opus nitidae iuvenale pa-
laestrae; / et iam contulerant arto luctantia nexu / pectora pectoribus;
and St. Theb. 6.889.
618-19 colla... lacertis... caput... fronte The four different terms de-
noting body-parts in the space of two lines graphically illustrate the
236 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

sense of the previous line where manus and bracchia join in multo
nexu.
620 parem Gladiatorial term, Haskins ad 1.7 pares; cf. 636n. and 710n.
below. ‘Par/pares (‘equal’) is one of the poem’s key words’ Feeney
1991, 297; cf. also Ahl 1976, 86-8; Masters 1992, 35, 44, 109-10, 155;
Leigh 1997, 235 n. 4; Henderson 1998, 165-211; Jal 1963, 341 on par
in other writers). For the idea of opposition of ‘equals’ in civil war, see
e.g., 1.7 pares aquilas (with the notes in Haskins 1887 and Getty 1940
on the context of the poem’s exordium); 129 pares, Getty ad loc.:
‘‘equally matched’ like gladiators.’ For L.’s fondness of the gladiatorial
metaphor in representing the opposing factions in the civil war, see
Heitland 1887, xc, who lists 1.7, 97 commisit, 348 uiribus utendum est
quas fecimus (see Haskins’s n. and Quint. 10.3.3 uires faciamus), 4.710
odere pares (see below ad loc.); 5.469 composuit (cf. Haskins’s n. and
1.97), 6.3 parque suom (with Haskins’s n.), 63 aestuat angusta rabies
ciuilis harena, 191 parque nouum (with Conte 1988, 84 ad loc.), 7.695
sed par quod semper habemus / libertas et Caesar erunt (with
Dilke/Postgate 1978 and Gagliardi 1975 ad loc.); to these, add 1.129.
Cf. finally Sen. Prov. 1.3.4 fortissimos sibi pares quaerit (sc. fortuna),
Const. Sap. 2.8.3 etc.; and on the ‘pares who are in fact not equal’, see
Masters 1992: 35 with n. 62; Ahl 1976: 88 with n. 12
622 exhausit cf. 638 exhaustas. The symptoms of exhaustion described
heretofore, e.g., sweat and panting, will be applied to Curio’s warhorse
at 754ff. (see below).
uirum Since Antaeus is a Giant, uir sounds odd. Generically uir may
stand for a male person previously named and, like homo, is often used
by poets to avoid the inflected forms of is (OLD 6), as often in L., e.g.,
3.304 with Hunink’s n. Cf. Verg. A. 6.174, 890 with Norden’s comment
on 174; Axelson 1945, 70; Austin 1955 ad Verg. A. 4.479; Küh-
ner/Stegman I, 618. Given the gladiatorial terminology found in the
context of this passage (see 620n. above), here uir might also be a
gladiatorial term to refer to one of the opponents (cf. e.g., Duff’s trans-
lation: ‘his foe’s yielding back’), even though in this latter sense it usu-
ally occurs repeated in polyptoton, e.g., uir uiro, see OLD 7.
622-3 quod creber anhelitus illi / prodidit et gelidus fesso de cor-
pore sudor The closest verbal parallel is Verg. A. 3.175 gelidus toto
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 237

manabat corpore sudor (cf. Turnus in the Allecto scene at 7.458-9 olli
somnum ingens rumpit pauor, ossaque et artus / perfudit toto proruptus
corpore sudor), but the context of fear does not apply: Aeneas’ telling
of his horror at his sudden waking up from the Penates dream (cf.
Austin 1964 ad 2.174 on the ‘typically Roman portent’ of the Palladium
sweating). Much closer in context to our passage is Verg. A. 5.432 uas-
tos quatit aeger anhelitus artus, which occurs in the boxing match be-
tween Dares and Entellus during the funeral games for Anchises, but
the verbal parallelism is confined to anhelitus, common enough to de-
note ‘panting under effort’ (cf. the rowing match at 5.199-200 tum cre-
ber anhelitus artus / aridaque ora quatit, with Williams ad loc. quoting
Il. 23.688-9). The clausula reappears at A. 9.812-14 tum toto corpore
sudor / liquitur et piceum (nec respirare potestas) / flumen agit; fessos
quatit aeger anhelitus (with Hardie’s excellent n.; 812-13 imitated by
Val. Fl. 3.577). Panting (anhelitus = ἄσθµα) and sweat (sudor = ἱδρώς)
as symptoms of fatigue in battle contexts are expectedly common in
ancient epic since Homer (e.g., Il. 16.109-10; cf. LfgrE I.1395 s.v.
‘ἄσθµα’ and II.1134-5 s.v. ‘ἱδρώς;’ cf. finally Ap. Rh. 2.85-7 on the
boxing match between Amycus and Polydeuces).
623 corpore sudor The formula corpore sudor occurs as a clausula
nine times in the corpus of Latin poetry; besides Ennius Ann. 416
Skutsch and the three Virgilian occurrences (A. 1.375; 7.459; 9.814)
quoted above, see Lucr. 5.487, 6.944, and the anon. frg. 14 Morel (= 38
Blänsdorf ap. Schol. Veron. Verg. A. 2.173 [421 H]) <salsus nam>que
laborando manat de corpore sudor. The clausula corpore sudor acqui-
res the prestige of a formula after Enn. 417 Skutsch. tunc timido manat
ex omni corpore sudor (Macr. Sat. 6.1.50; cf. Ann. 396 Skutsch totum
sudor habet corpus), adapting the Homeric formula to the Latin hexa-
meter (Macr. Sat. 6.3.1-4 ad Verg. A. 9.806-14; EV IV.1057 s.v. ‘su-
dor;’ Cassata 1984, 65-7).
624-5 tum... quati, tum... urgueri, tunc... labare The sequence of
adverbs coordinating the infinitives lets the reader concentrate on the
wrestler’s body-parts: 624 ceruix, pectus (see 624n. below), and 626
crura. The description suggests immediacy. For the anatomic vocabu-
lary, see André 1991, 626n. and 631n. below.
624 pectore pectus This alliterative polyptoton occurs in the same
metrical position, and also in a battle context, at 783 frangitur armatum
238 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

conliso pectore pectus (see 783 below), where it describes the fate of
Curio’s troops in the same terms as Antaeus’ death (cf. Hercules’ words
at 649 haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris; Hinkle 1996, 99-
100). See also Sil. 5.219 pressoque impellunt pectore pectus. The earli-
est attested occurrence in a similar context and in the same metrical
position is in Lucil. 8.305 tum latus conponit lateri et cum pectore pec-
tus. Cf. also 648 intra mea pectora below; Ov. M. 6.243 pectora pec-
toribus (see ad 617 nexus above). For different contexts, see e.g., Sen.
Phoen. 470, and TLL X.1.190.6-20.
626 crura L. uses crus only three times (cf. 3.637, with Hunink’s note;
9.763), Manilius and Statius also three times each, and Valerius Flaccus
never. In the Aeneid the term refers to human legs only once at 11.777
(11.639 refers to the legs of a horse, as G. 3.76 and 192, whereas 3.53
refers to a cow and 4.181 to the bees). Once in the Georgics the term
occurs in reference to the lower part of the human leg at 2.8, more pre-
cisely to the part covered by the ‘buskins (coturnis), the footwear of the
tragic actor’ (Thomas ad loc.). Likewise, the later epic poets, with the
exception of Ovid, tend to avoid crus. Adams 1980, 56-7 suggests that
the avoidance of crus and the preference of Latin epic for mentioning
rather its parts (pes, sura, planta, femur, poples) may be explained with
a close imitation of the Homeric model, for in Homer the human leg is
mentioned explicitly only once (Il. 16.314). For the epic habit of privi-
leging the mention of certain anatomic parts against others, see 626n.
above, and Adams 1980, 57: ‘The leg is the sum of its parts in Virgil
and later writers.’
626-9 iam terga... uirum Waistlock and throw: ‘The victor [Hercules]
applies a fast grip on the yielding back of his foe, holding him tight by
the waist (medium... artat) and squeezing his loins. By thrusting his
own knees (insertis pedibus), [Hercules] strains his foe’s groin and
spreads him out on the ground for the whole length of his body.’ Hercu-
les succeeds in applying on Antaeus the waistlock from the back (terga
uiri... alligat). It is less clear what type of action is meant with the abla-
tive absolute insertis pedibus (627), where the translation above under-
stands pes as a metonymy for knee (genu) but it could also be a synec-
doche for the whole leg, following the logic according to which
anatomical terms may be used pars pro toto even to represent the whole
person (prevalently, but not exclusively, sexual parts, e.g., Catullus’
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 239

mentula; see Adams 1982). If pedes is metonymic for genua, one must
picture Hercules inserting his thighs/knees between the giant’s legs so
as to force Antaeus’ legs apart and lift him off the ground, while (per-
haps) also pounding his knees from below against Antaeus’ groins. The
initial grip of a waistlock from behind, perhaps not as efficacious as the
one applied by Hercules on Antaeus in L.’s description, is pictured on a
black-figure Panathenaic vase from Eretria (360/50 BCE; Eretria Mu-
seum; Poliakoff 1987, 41 fig. 31). On a red-figure Attic amphora from
Vulci by the Andokides painter (ca. 525 BCE; Staatliche Museum Ber-
lin 2159; Poliakoff 1987, 36 fig. 22) a trainer is portrayed in the act of
watching wrestlers in what appear to be two different moments of a
waistlock move: in the scene on the left a wrestler attempts to slip be-
hind his opponent to gain the back waistlock; on the scene on the right
a wrestler has lifted his opponent in a back waistlock. Finally, a Helle-
nistic bronze statuette (ca. 150 BCE; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
54.972; Poliakoff 1987, 42 fig. 32) shows a wrestler who has lifted the
opponent in a back waistlock and looks as if he might be in the act of
throwing him on the ground. For images of Herakles and Antaeus fight-
ing see Poliakoff 1987, 29 fig. 12, 39 fig. 27, 48 fig. 45.
626 uiri see 622n. above.
627 alligat et... artat Artare, ‘constrict’, a derivative of artus, here
used as a synonym of alligo, occurs (at least) seven times in L.: 2.678,
3.398, 4.370, 5.234, 7.143, 9.35 (variant aptare in 8.655, see Hous-
man’s note, cf. 7.143). Before L. artare is found in poetry one time
each in Plautus (Capt. 304) and Lucretius (1.576; perhaps not in Manil-
ius 5.660, where artare is Scaliger’s conjecture, accepted by Hous-
man); in prose, it occurs once only in Livy (45.36.4) but becomes more
frequent in post-Augustan literature, beginning with Velleius, Colu-
mella, and the philosophical works of Seneca. After L., it is common in
Silver Latin poetry, e.g., Silius, Statius, and Martial; cf. TLL II.707-9.
628-9 omnem / explicuit per membra uirum Antaeus’ body, thrown
to the ground by Hercules, spreads out in all of its gigantic length. Ex-
plico is used for bodies stretching out in death or sleep starting with L.,
cf. also 5.80-1 rudibus Paean Pythona sagittis / explicuit; Sil. 2.147
membra super nati moribundos explicat artus; imitated by Statius’ allu-
sion to Python at Th. 1.569, also St. S. 5.3.260-1 te torpor iners et mors
imitata quietem / explicuit; cf. TLL V.2.1725.22-6. Virgil uses explico
240 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

only three times in three slightly different senses: ‘to extend in space’
in G. 2.279-80 cum longa cohortis / explicuit legio (OLD 4a); ‘to free
from folds’ in G. 2.335 frondes explicat omnis (OLD 1a); and ‘to ex-
plain, unfold in words’ in A. 2.362 quis funera fando explicet? (OLD
9a, undoubtedly derived from sense 1a).
The Adnotationes 629 helpfully gloss explicuit with extendit (per-
haps extendit is to be read in the lacuna at Comm. Bern. 629 ‘legitur et
* *’, but see Usener in the ap. crit.). Arnulf: ‘EXPLICUIT terre exten-
dit. PER MEMBRA VIRUM ita scilicet quod non remansit aliquod
membrorum inextensum.’ As Haskins notes, omnem… uirum points to
Antaeus’ large body; for this use of uirum, see 622n. above.
629 arida tellus Perhaps Tellus. The phrase occurs in poetry only here
and in St. Theb. 4.454 quantum bibit arida tellus, in the same metrical
position; cf. St. Theb. 6.419 bibit albentis humus arida nimbos. Cf. also
Hor. C. 1.22.15-16 nec Iubae tellus generat, leonum / arida nutrix; Tib.
1.7.26 te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres, / arida nec pluuio
supplicat herba noui. The adjective aridus is more common with terra;
cf. TLL II.565; more simplistically, Arnulf: ‘ARIDA causa est quare
melius receperit.’ Here, however, arida is contrasted with the following
630 sudorem.
630 sudorem The dry Libyan sand ‘absorbs’, rapit, Antaeus’ sudor;
which here stands for the giant’s exhaustion, as if the Libyan land her-
self were toiling in Antaeus’ place; cf. 636-7, and 644. For the expres-
sion, see Enn. trag. 338 Ribbeck (ap. Cic. Off. 1.18.61, with Dyck 1996
ad loc.) Salmacida spolia sine sudore et sanguine (Otto 1890, 334 s.v.
‘sudor’).
630-1 calido... artus The description of Antaeus’ becoming reinvigo-
rated displays medico-scientific terminology. L. is aware of the vital
function of blood and blood-circulation in making live bodies move
(1.363 dum mouet haec calidus spirantia corpora sanguis) and in keep-
ing them alive as long as the blood remaining in them is sufficient in
quantity (3.746-7 nondum destituit calidus tua uolnera sanguis /
semianimisque iaces; 6.751 in uenas extremaque membra cucurrit), see
Migliorini 1997, 95-125, esp. 97-9. For the role of Stoic doctrine in
human physiology, see Schotes 1969, 47-73. The redundancy, however,
is not unusual and is in line with L.’s taste for repetition and detail in
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 241

his search for pathos and other rhetorical effects; cf. Fraenkel 1970;
Syndikus 1958, 44-57; Seitz 1965; Schrijvers 1989.
conplentur sanguine The phrase occurs only three times in poetry
(here, 7.539, and Sil. 10.237) and three more times otherwise (Marcius
Vates ap. Liv. 25.12.6; Varro Men. 200; Cic. Verr. II.5.142). Such pro-
saic precision is surprising in a poetic text: the veins on Antaeus’ neck
fill with blood and make his muscles swell (631n.). The literal precision
of the expression seems unique to this passage in all of Latin poetry.
For different contexts, cf. 7.539 compleri sanguine (of the fields of
Pharsalus); cf. Liv. 25.12.6 compleri sanguine campum; Varro Men.
200 sanguine riuos compleret; and finally Sil. 10.237 compleuit san-
guine uultus, ‘covered in blood’, as in Cic. Verr. II.5.142 sanguis os
oculosque complesset.
631 intumuere tori The plural tori (see OLD s.v.) denotes visibly bulg-
ing muscles (especially, but not only, in animals), as in Ov. M. 15.229
(of Hercules); cf. Cels. 7.18; Sen. Phaedr. 1042 opima ceruix arduos
tollit toros (of the bull’s neck); Val. Fl. 4.244 horrendosque toris in-
formibus artus (of Amycus).
induruit The first attestation of induresco is in Verg. G. 3.366 (see
Thomas’ n.). This is the only occurrence in L. One would expect in-
duresco to be fairly common; it occurs sixty-three times in all of the
extant corpus, and only nine times in poetry but always in the same
form (Ov. M. 4.745, 5.233, 9.219, 10.105, 241, 15.306; Tr. 5.2.5). Its
frequency in Celsus, as well as the context in which it occurs here, sug-
gest that the verb specializes in a medical sense.
632 nodos cf. Verg. A. 8.260 in nodum, and Plin. NH 28.63.
633-5 Hercules’ bewilderment at Antaeus’ magical reinvigoration is
emphasized by 635 constitit in a prominent position at the beginning of
the line. Cf. Verg. A. 6.559.
634 Inachiis... undis The slaying of the hydra in the marshes alimented
by the river Inachus came only second, after the Nemean lion, in the
tradition of the twelve labors, which explains quamvis rudis esset.
636 conflixere pares cf. 620, with n. above, and esp. 710 odere pares
(see n. below), in Curio’s speech/monologue to his legions before en-
gaging in battle against Varus.
242 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

636-7 pares, Telluris uiribus ille, ille suis pares is effectively glossed
with the explanation why Antaeus and Hercules are such a perfect
match for each other, one with his mother’s strength, the other for his
own.
637 saeuae... nouercae It is Juno’s cruelty that causes Hercules’ labors.
Juno exercises her saeuitas also against Aeneas (e.g. A. 1.4 with Hors-
fall ad 7.287 and 592). The malevolence of the stepmother is a cliché in
Latin poetry; see Watson 1985, 92-134. L.’s closest precedent may be
Juno’s prologue in Sen. HF 35 (cf. 32 and Hercules’ own words in Ov.
M. 9.199 saeua Iouis coniunx.) See also Otto s.v.; Verg. G. 2.128 (with
Thomas’ n.); Ov. Her. 6.126, 12.188; [Sen.] Oct. 21; St. S. 2.1.49; and
also Sil. 2.478 (with Spaltenstein’s n.) and Val. Fl. 3.580 (cf. 3.506 and
Sil. 3.91); Courtney 1980 ad Iuv. 6.627.
638 exhaustos sudoribus artus / ceruicemque uiri Cf. 622 exhau-
sitque uirum, but now the uir is Hercules, see above 622n.
639 siccam Hercules’ strength had not undergone as much challenge
when he sustained the vault of the sky to grant rest to Atlas.
643-4 Solve the hyperbaton: quisquis spiritus inest terris egeritur in
fessos artus.
645 ut tandem This adverbial phrase, usually connoting the fulfillment
of an either explicit or implied expectation out of fear or hope, occurs
in emphatic position at the beginning of the line also in Verg. A 2.531
and four more times in poetry (Ov. P. 4.8.84; Val. Fl. 7.579; Mart.
6.35.5, 10.83.10). The text insists on Antaeus’ falling. Redundancy is a
conspicuous characteristic in L., who has been blamed for his ‘tedious
prolixity’ (Frazer ad Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 (115) p. 223 n. 2). Far from
tedious, L.’s insistence on Antaeus’ falling effectively stages the spec-
tacle of the heroic fight. We should imagine that during a wrestling
match at the games, the second fall of one of the wrestlers marked a
moment of heightened suspense in the audience (see 646-9n.).
646 Alcides sensit Hercules’ realization of Antaeus’ secret has been
profusely anticipated. The aoristic sensit merely isolates the moment in
which it actually happened. L.’ might have innovated on the tradition in
disregarding the intervention of Athena; cf.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 243

Comm. Bern. 646: dissimulat poeta Minervam hoc inuenisse consil-

ium. But see Martindale 1981, 79 n. 11, who rightly points out that
‘Athena’s assistance features only in the second Vatican mythographer
§ 164 vol. I p. 131 in [Bodé 1834] (monitus a Minerua).’ See also the
introduction to 589-660 above.
646-9 standum... cades Hercules pronounces the outcome of the match
in the form of an order imparted to Antaeus. These are the only words
spoken by Hercules in the entire poem. Hercules does not speak in
Evander’s narrative from Aeneid VIII (or in Livy I), nor does he speak
in either Silius or Valerius; but he does speak in Ov. M. 9.120-6, before
striking the centaur to rescue Deianira. Both Ovid and L. might be imi-
tating the Homeric model of the victor who speaks to taunt the loser.
When Antaeus falls for the third time the wrestling match comes to
a close and Hercules is victorious. No extant ancient source offers a
summary of ancient rules for wrestling, but there certainly were fixed
rules: Plat. Lg. 833e, Ael. VH 11.1 (Jüthner in RE XVIII.2.2, 83). We
do know, however, that the wrestling match is pronounced over when-
ever one of the opponents has been thrown down and has fallen for
three consecutive times: Sen. Ben. 5.3 luctator ter abiectus perdidit
palmam; cf. A. Eu. 589, Plat. Phdr. 256b, and the poet of AP 9.588.5
(Gardiner 1903, 63-5; Jüthner ibid.). In this case, however, Antaeus’
magical capacity produces the paradox standum… cades, that is, An-
taeus shall ‘fall’ (i.e., lose) remaining in a standing position because
Hercules is holding him; cf. the oxymoron auxilio cadendi in 607 and
648n. below.
647 non credere solo As the scansion shows, credere (two long and
one short) is here the second person from the future passive, lit. ‘you
shall not be entrusted to the ground,’ parallel to the following uetabere.
The sense of the metaphor is patently explained by the following coor-
dinate clause.
sternique uetabere terra explains the sense of the previous clause.
Usually sternere (in the active form) means ‘to cause to lie down’ and
is a common euphemism for ‘kill, i.e., defeat’ (in nineteen out of a total
of twenty-three occurrences of sternere) in the Aeneid, e.g. 7.426 Tyr-
rhenas, i, sterne acies, with Horsfall ad loc.: ‘‘Lay low’, part of the
ample lexicon of synonyms (not all, like sternere, euphemistic) for
‘kill’ or ‘defeat’ open to the poets... At least as early as Acc.trag.557,
244 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

trag.inc. 61;’ similarly, sterni (either middle or passive) denotes lying

down in death (nine out of fourteen occurrences in the Aeneid): cf. OLD
7; Horsfall ad 7.533; Axelson 1945, 67; Lyne 1989, 107; Austin 1964
ad 2.398; Harrison ad 10.119.
Paradox: to win the wrestling match Hercules has to forbid
(uetabere) his opponent to lie down. In regular combat, throwing one’s
opponent to the ground is the only way to win a wrestling match (646-
9n. above). The paradox highlights the extraordinary character of this
struggle in a poem in which paradox is the rule; see Bartsch 1997, in-
dex s.v. ‘paradox’. Finally, as a synonym for ‘defeat’, sternere might
have been part of the technical vocabulary for wrestling.
648 haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris The idea of con-
striction expressed in the future haerebis is repeated for emphasis in the
participle pressis; cf. Verg. A. 8.259-61 Cacum…/… corripit in nodum
complexus, et angit inhaerens, with Gransden’s translation: ‘He grabs
him, clasping him into a knot…’ Cf. also Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 (115)
τοὑτῳ παλαίειν ἀναγκαζόµενος Ἠρακλἣς ἀράµενος ἅµµασι µετέωρου
κλάσας ἀπέκτεινε; where ἅµµατα (‘clinches’, see 5 in LSJ) is techni-
cally applied to a wrestler’s hug, as in Plut. Fab. Max. 23 and Alcib. 2
(Frazer 1921, 223 n. 2).
651 permittere The compound, common in poetry since Plautus and
Ennius (TLL X.1.1551.46), funtions here as the simple mittere, as in
Sen. Clem. 4.17.4 uirtus lumen suum in omnium animos permittit; cf.
TLL X.1.1552.6-9 and esp. 43ff. In line with L.’s redundant style, it
may function as a synonym of 644 egeritur.
652-3 Alcides... tenuit... hostem Understand: ‘While Antaeus’ chest
had been now strangled in motionless (pigro) frigidity, Alcides held
him in suspension (i.e., by standing in between, medio, the Earth and
her son; see Housman quoted below 652n.) and no longer entrusted his
enemy to the earth.’.
652 medio Housman shows why his choice is correct in the ap. crit.
(quoted below), pace Fränkel 1926: 513, who opts for medium, thinking
it impossible that tenuit can at one and the same time govern both the
ablative (with locative sense) medio and the accusative pectora. Hous-
man: ‘medio ZMG, -um PUV et ad 50 c [= Comm. Bern. quoted at
653n. below]: illud recte Hosius recepit. quid tum, si medium tenuit
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 245

Antaeum? ideo uicit quia medio, hoc est medio inter Tellurem et natum
loco constitutus tenuit. intellexit Bentleius, sed praeter necessitatem
medius nouauit.’ If Bentley’s conjecture medius (pace Shackleton Bai-
ley who prints it in his text, cf. Fraenkel 1964, 286-7) had been a vari-
ant reading, medio attested in ZMG should still be preferred as a lectio
difficilior—and not too difficult at that, since medium as a noun, mean-
ing ‘the place occupying the middle position (relative to two or more
things)’, is attested throughout Latinity, to say nothing of the noun’s
locative sense in the ablative, for which see Verg. A. 3.354 aulai medio
(with Williams’ n.); 7.59, 563 (with Horsfall’s notes). Liv. 5.41.2 also
has the plain ablative medio aedium, which (perhaps wrongly) puzzles
Ogilvie who suspects in is to be restored. Cf. OLD s.v. ‘medium’ and
TLL VIII.587.75-80.
653 gelu is metonymical for death despite the fact that one would ex-
pect the adjective piger to qualify the cold winter season. The epithet
pigro agreeing with gelu may rather describe bruma as if by enallage
rather than hypallage. See Comm. Bern. 4.50: ‘PIGRO BRVMA GELV
µετονυµικῶς, sicut ‘Alcides medium tenuit. iam pectora pigro stricta
gelu’;’ cf. Rhet. Her. 4.43 frigus pigrum quia pigros efficit.
stricta has here the sense of the compound constringere: cf. 4.51
bruma… aethere constricto pluvias in nube tenebant, and TLL IV.545.
It renders the idea of a closely compact density (OLD 1), as when ap-
plying a fast grip. In addition to ‘compression’, the context here also
conveys an idea of death-like frigidity, as in 3.613 deriguitque tenens
strictis inmortua neruis (with Hunink’s excellent n.). For stringo of
cold, cf. Curt. 3.13.7 humus rigebat gelu tum astricta.
Introduced in poetry by Virgil (Horsfall ad 7.526; EV IV s.v.
‘stringo’), stringere is used in the Aeneid mostly for brandishing swords
(with mucro, ensis, ferrum, or gladius as objects; often in Ovid too,
who varies with culter and telum as objects), as also in L. 5.143 scit non
esse ducis strictos sed militis enses.
654-60 The rudis incola’s closing remarks return the narrative from the
mythical to the historical register: Curio’s campaign in Africa. The first
word of 661 is indeed ‘Curio’. The passage can be analyzed in two
sections: a) 654-5 mark the episode of Antaeus as a traditional myth
and qualify it as an etymological aition; b) 656-60 point to another
name by which these Antaea regna are known as the site where P. Cor-
246 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

nelius Scipio Africanus Maior pitched camp in the campaign of 202

BCE, when the Romans routed Hannibal’s army at Naraggara near
Zama in the battle that ended the Second Punic War.
654 hinc, aeui ueteris custos, famosa uetustas Housman’s punctua-
tion, preserved by Shackleton Bailey, helps us feel the triadic rhythm of
this line. The emphasis rests on famosa uetustas. The story of the fight
belongs to a mythical past of more than human proportions.
famosa ‘Rich in renown’, hence ‘conferring renown’; cf. Plin. Ep.
6.23.1 causam... pulchram... et famosam (OLD s.v. 7; cf. TLL
VI.1.258.21ff.). One may ask whether this story is a true paradigm or
the product of a credulous age; cf. Haskins’s: ‘full of rumors’ and next
note.
655 miratrixque sui The phrase may be read as a rejection of tradi-
tional views of the past and thereby become a mark of L.’s anti-
classical (read anti-Virgilian) poetics, in line with the progressive be-
lief-system of the Annaei (Gagliardi 1976, 69). Cf. Sen. Phaedr. 742
fama miratrix senioris aeui.
signauit nomine To designate with a name is to bring something out of
obscurity into renown, a principle embedded in the epic genre itself.
Antaei regna identifies the specific place in Africa where the mythical
struggle took place. In closing the peasant’s account, L. highlights once
more the etymological nature of the digression. For the ‘naming’ prac-
tice, cf. Verg. A. 7.3 with Horsfall’s n. and O'Hara 1996, 75-9.
656 maiora... cognomina The comparative maior alludes to P. Corne-
lius Scipio Africanus Maior after whom the site got to be called Castra
Cornelia, from Scipio’s nomen ‘Cornelius’; whereas the phrase maiora
cognomina refers to Scipio’s cognomen ‘Maior’. Corneliana in no way
would fit into the hexameter, and yet L.’s elaborate allusiveness makes
explicit naming completely superfluous; at least up to 658, where
Scipio is named in emphatic position at the beginning of the line. On
the literary resonance of Curio’s African campaign, see Henderson
1998, 108-62, esp. 141-3 on Hor. C. 2.1.
658 Scipio... potito Scipio frames this line, which, like the following,
begins with a dactyl emphatically isolated by the diaeresis.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 247

Libyca tellure potito Scipio succeeded where Curio will fail. For the
expression see Verg. A. 3.278 insperata tandem tellure potiti (albeit
here potiti only means that Aeneas and the Trojans landed on Leucas
after escaping the bane of the Harpies); 10.500 quo nunc Turnus ouat
spolio gaudetque potitus; the trisyllabic participle is a convenient line
ending in Virgil, cf. A. 3.278, 296, 6.624, 9.363 (cf. 9.267 with the in-
finitive), 450; cf. also Lucr. 4.761 and 766. L. indeed uses potior only
six times, always in the participle and only as line ending: 4.160, 385,
5.165, 589 (with the same sense as Verg. A. 3.278 quoted above),
7.610.
659 en ueteris cernis uestigia ualli The interjection, followed by the
alliterative expression, reveals what Curio has been beholding through-
out the narrative: the mere uestigia of Scipio’s camp.
660 Romana hos primum tenuit uictoria campos This closing remark
deceives Curio into believing that Romana uictoria is a good omen for
himself; but see below 663n. felici non fausta loco tentoria ponens.

4.661–714 Curio defeats Varus

Elated by the positive omen he reads in the peasant’s account, Curio
encamps at Castra Cornelia, the spot of Scipio’s camp during the Afri-
can campaign of 202 BCE (661-5). L. launches in a catalog, a display
of ethnographic erudition, before introducing the African king Juba
(666-86). Juba and Curio are old enemies: Curio as tribune had tried
to take Juba’s kingdom away from him (686-93). Feeling insecure
about his troops’ loyalty to Caesar’s cause (694-701), Curio delivers a
monologue about his resolve for an aggressive strategy (702-10) and
succeeds in defeating Varus (710-14).
Curio’s operations in Africa are not easy to follow. The accounts of
Appian and L. diverge in numerous instances and are each lacking in
several respects. Appian makes no mention of Varus’ attempts to attract
the Caesarian troops on his side. The battle ending with Varus’ defeat is
reported in Appian’s narrative with the bare mention of the casualties
(one on Curio’s side vs. Varus’ six-hundred; cf. Appian BC 2.44, with
Pichon 1912, 114). If Pichon is right in seeing in Livy L.’s main source
for Varus’ defeat (cf. Per. 109-16, with Jal 1963, 24 and n. 4), the
scanty details about this event in Appian, in addition to the fact that
248 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

also Dio 41.41.2 barely mentions Varus’ defeat in passing, require the
historian of Curio’s African campaign of 49 to pay some attention to L.
as a historical source in complementing Caesar’s narrative. For a con-
veniently concise summary of L.’s sources, especially in connection to
Livy’s lost books, it is still profitable to consult C. Vitelli 1902.
661-5 Transition from the aetiological digression to the military opera-
tions in Africa.
661 laetatus Curio’s elation after the rudis incola’s account is due to
self-deception. Curio errs in evaluating the proper course of action. He
persists in his misjudgment when driving Varus’ soldiers away from the
fields: 711-12 deceptura… fortuna (Hinkle 1996, 95). A state of mind
analogous to Curio, albeit in the aftermath of an actual victory, is as-
cribed to Hannibal in Liv. 22.51.3: Hannibali nimis laeta res est uisa
maiorque quam ut eam statim capere animo posset. As Lucan’s Curio
deceives himself by interpreting the mythical tale of Hercules’ victory
as an omen favorable to his own endeavor, so does Livy’s Hannibal
about the significance of his own victory; cf. Maharbal’s warning in
Liv. 22.51.4: ‘non omnia nimirum eidem di dedere. uincere scis, Han-
nibal; uictoria uti nescis.’ It is difficult therefore to agree with Arnulf
ad L. 4.661: ‘ecce causa digressionis, inducta est enim digressio pro
uanitate et stulticia Curionis ostendenda.’ The digression on Antaeus
does more, if at all, than merely showing Curio’s vanitas and stulticia.
The question about Curio’s laetitia is not answered by simply decoding
laetitia as vanitas and/or stulticia. In line with L.’s taste for paradox,
the mythological digression succeeds in conveying to the reader the
hopeful expectation, although contrasted with the foreknowledge of
Curio’s imminent ruin (cf. Hinkle 1996, 78-144, esp. 88 n. 31: ‘Curio is
the plaything throughout of forces beyond his control, e.g., Fortuna
allows Curio to win the first battle easily, only to impose upon him
utter defeat later.’).
fortuna The word denotes an important and complex concept. It occurs
five more times in the narrative of Curio’s doomed campaign in Africa:
712, 730, 737, 785, 789. The importance of Fortuna in L. is attested to
by 147 occurrences of the word in the poem; see Gagliardi 1989 ad
1.111 non cepit Fortuna duos: ‘La posizione di Fortuna nel verso riba-
disce il potere determinante di questa forza cieca nelle cose umane.’ On
Fortuna in L., cf. 1.84, 111, 160, 226, 264 with Gagliardi’s notes; but
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 249

on the role of Fortuna as a pathos intensifier (understanding pathos in

the Roman way, in the context of the rhetorical recourse to emotion as a
means of persuasion, cf. Fraenkel 1970) see Fantham 1992, 10-11 (with
n. 33, quoting Liebeschuetz 1979, 147), and esp. Hunink 1992, 42 ad
3.21: ‘The precise relation of Lucan’s Fortuna with fatum and the Gods
remains a matter of dispute, but in recent years many scholars have
subscribed to the view that Fortuna, Fatum and dei in [the] B[ellum]
C[iuile] are merely synonyms for one evil power’ (a view already ex-
plored in the late 14th century by the Italian humanists, see e.g Coluccio
Salutati De Fato et Fortuna 2.5). Examples of synonymal proximity
among fatum, fortuna and the gods are collected in Schotes 1969, 142-
3, esp. n. 477-80, cf. Liebeschuetz 1979, 142-3; cf. also Friedrich 1970;
Dick 1967; Schönberger 1968, 172-6, with further bibliography passim;
Ahl 1976, 290-305, with further bibliography 293 n. 36. Kajanto 1981,
549-51 offers a helpful synthesis on Fortuna; on the concept of destiny
in relation with L.’s ‘sense of history’, see most recently Salemme
2000, 2001. Scarcia’s concise entry on ‘Fortuna’ in EV II.563-7 man-
ages to cover the range of complexities attached to the concept in
Virgil. On the fundamental value of fortuna in imperial times, see
Hellegouarc'h 1963, with the remarks of Lazzarini 1984, 163 nt. 13.
fortuna locorum The context suggests that the fortuna of these specific
loci is subject to change; see below 662n. The phrase denotes here a
special characteristic of the place (see transl. 661-2n.). Haskins com-
pares Liv. 6.28 fortunae loci delegauerant spes suas and Ov. M. 4.565
(quoted below). Cf. TLL VI.1188.75ff., 1194.24 s.v. ‘fortuna’. In Ovid
the phrase occurs twice in the same metrical position: M. 4.563-6 luctu
serieque malorum / uictus et ostentis, quae plurima uiderat, exit / con-
ditor urbe sua, tamquam fortuna locorum, / non sua se premeret (‘as if
it were the place’s fortune, not Cadmus’ own that oppressed him’);
Bömer’s comment ad loc. points to Fortuna as a divine concept; 15.261
sic totiens uersa est fortuna locorum (Pythagoras is showing that noth-
ing stays the same); see also M. 10.335 fortunaque loci laedor (Myrrha
complaining of having been born where incest with one’s father is a
crime). Ov. F. 1.209 postquam fortuna loci caput extulit huius (‘after
the fortune of this places raised [Rome’s] head’ or also ‘after Fortune
raised the head of this place’) probably refers to Verg. E. 1.24: the for-
tune of Rome was based on her site, e.g. Camillus in Liv. 5.54.6. Fi-
nally, cf. also Sil. 7.345 quid fortuna loci poscat.
250 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

661-2 tamquam... priorum Clearly tamquam in the sense OLD 5: ‘As

though the fortuna locorum could wage war and preserve for Curio the
fata of the previous commanders.’ Followed by the subjunctive 662
gerat, the conjunction tamquam immediately reduces the hopes about
Curio’s campaign. In fact, there is a strident contrast between Curio’s
interpretation of Scipio’s successful precedent of Zama and this cam-
paign’s actual fortuna (or fate, or whatever one calls that which the
gods have in store for Curio; see next n.).
662 ducum… fata priorum Both plurals may stand for a singular and
therefore refer solely to Scipio. And yet, the notion that the time stretch
covered by this fortuna loci may go as far back as the First Punic War
makes one think that Scipio Africanus Maior is not the only dux one
may have in mind here. After defeating Hanno and Hamilcar in the
waters off the Ecnomus promontory (Polyb. 1.27; cf. Liv. Per. 17), M.
Atilius Regulus also camped in Africa at Tunes, (Polyb. 1.30) in 256-5
BCE. The prodigious story of Regulus killing a monstrous serpent (see
588n. above, and Liv. Per. 18) takes place on the banks of the Bagrada,
whose waters are not too far from Castra Cornelia. True, it is primarily
of Scipio that we must think, but L.’s emphasis here on fatum and for-
tuna in relation to the upcoming campaign may remind the reader of
Polybius’ well known reflections on the double reversal of Fortune of
Regulus on the one hand and Carthage on the other under the Spartan
Xanthippus (Polyb. 1.35 with Walbank 1957 ad locum).
663 felici non fausta loco tentoria The alliterative quasi-oxymoron
felici non fausta, accompanied by a common feature of word order
(abAB), alternates Curio’s camp-related hope (felici… loco) with his
actual camp-related fate (non fausta… tentoria). There might also be an
echo of Sulla Felix and his son Faustus, who served as pro-magistrate
in Africa and was killed after the defeat of Thapsus, being denied par-
don by Caesar (Suet. Iul. 75.3): Fantham on 2.464-5.
664 indulsit castris Lit.: ‘Curio let himself be seduced by (the positive
omen he derived from the previous fortune of) the camp,’ see Hudson-
Williams 1984: 458. The conjecture inclusit with colles as object (from
collibus), accepted in Shackleton Bailey’s text, for indulsit of the
manuscripts is not persuasive, despite the remarks of Shackleton Bailey
1987: 80-1: ‘indulsit castris remains odd and ambiguous.’ Castris is a
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 251

metaphor for temeritas; cf. Housman: ‘Nimium permisit priore fortuna

inuitantibus ad temeritatem.’ Sil. 8.168 indulgere quieti.
abstulit omen Curio ‘took away, stole the omen;’ cf. Comm. Bern.:
‘quoniam non isdem pugnauit auspiciis quibus Scipio, si quidem ille
uictus est;’ and the Adnotationes: ‘id est felicitatem locorum sua, quia
illic uictus est, infelicitate subvertit.’
666 omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis is the grammatical
subject of 667 fuit (see n. ad loc.): ‘All of the African territories who
had surrendered to the Roman standards,’ in other words, the Roman
province of Africa.
667 Vari P. At(t)ius Varus (32 RE II.2.2256-7) had held the province of
Africa as praetor a few years earlier (the precise date is not known; see
Caes. BC 1.31.2 paucis ante annis ex praetura prouinciam obtinuerat;
Cic. Lig. 3; Brennan 2000, 546 and 712). The senate had designated L.
Aelius Tubero as C. Considius’ successor in the praetorship of Africa
for the year 49 (Caes. BC 1.31.2 Africam sorte Tubero obtinere debe-
bat), but the situation took an unforeseen turn. After suffering defeat in
Picenum, the Pompeian Varus fled to Africa and seized the command
of the province, which he found shaken by the news of the outbreak of
the civil war, as we know from Cicero defending Q. Ligarius before
Caesar in 46 BCE: Cic. Lig. 3 interim P. Attius Varus, qui praetor Afri-
cam obtinuerat, Vticam uenit: ad eum statim concursum est; atque ille
non mediocri cupiditate adripuit imperium, si illud imperium esse po-
tuit, quod priuato clamore multitudinis imperitae, nullo publico con-
silio deferebatur. Considius had previously left the province (between
the end of 50 and the beginning of 49) in the hands of his legate Q.
Ligarius. While Tubero was sailing towards Utica, Attius Varus forbade
him to land, despite the fact that he traveled with his son ill on board
(Caes. BC 1.31.3). Thus Varus managed to hold the province. Few
more details about Varus’ actions in Africa and in Spain, until his death
at Munda in 45 (Bell. Hisp. 31), are available in the sources collected in
RE (cited above) and Der neue Pauly II.261 s.v. ‘Attius Varus, P.’ I 4,
but very little is known about Varus’ movements between the defection
of his legions to Caesar in Picenum and his arrival in Africa.
sub iure is not as common as other prepositional phrases with the abla-
tive iure, see Vocab. Iurisp. s.v. ‘ius’. Only seven instances of the
252 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

phrase sub iure are known to occur in poetry. Four are found in L., the
closest parallel being 10.95 sub iure Pothini, cf. Manil. 4.348 sub iure
trigoni (see also Ov. Tr. 2.199 and L. 7.63, 10.267). We lack the possi-
bility of comparing Livy’s account of the African events of 50-49 BCE,
and therefore neither approving nor condemning nuances are to be de-
duced from a perfectly neutral expression (Berti ad 10.95 does not help
because there is no ambiguity about Pothinus’ power schemes); cf.
Vocab. Iurisp. V.700-1 s.v. ‘sub’ II.C: ‘ad significandum, cui uel cuius
potestati quis aut quid subiectus subiectumve sit.’
667-8 robore… regis tamen… Varus puts his main trust in his Roman
soldiers, robore… confisus Latio. However, he also summoned, exciuit,
African allies among the local populations under King Juba’s domain,
which allows L. a chance to launch on an ethnographic digression about
the peoples of Libya.
669-70 extremaque… signa The metonymy (L. writes ‘standards’ to
mean ‘army’) describes the Libycas gentis and evokes the spectacle of
Juba’s army, coming from the far (extrema) African west. On world
extremity, cf. 4.1n. Together with a possible echo of Alexander the
Great, extrema might also carry the nuance ‘exotic’. Cf. 735 with n.
below.
670 non fusior For the litotes in a transitional formula, see 581n.
above. ‘More widely spread’ (Haskins, who compares Verg. A. 6.440
nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem lugentes campi).
671-3 ‘Where its length is the greatest, Juba’s kingdom stretches west-
ward up to Atlas next to Gades and eastward up to Hammon on the
border of the Syrtes.’ When discussing a country, the ancients indicate
territorial boundaries (e.g. Polyb. 2.14.3; Sall. Iug. 17.4; Tac. Germ. 1;
and further loci cited in Feeney 1982, 126-7 ad Sil. 1.195). Angular
coordinates were not common in antiquity until the famous Alexandrian
geographer, Claudius Ptolemy (fl. AD 146 - ca. 170), set the standard
for measuring terrestrial distances, and therefore allowed map drawing,
(see Ptol. Geogr. 1.2-3; cf. M. Folkerts in Der neue Pauly X.559-70 s.v.
‘Ptolemaios 65’, esp. 563-4). In giving the geographical coordinates of
Juba’s kingdom, L. is also situating the Roman province of Africa,
since Juba controls (almost?) all of the African inhabitants of the prov-
ince (669-70).
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 253

Geographical details about Africa are found in different places in

L.’s poem. In the immediately preceding lines, L. has defined Africa in
Roman political terms as a province governed by a Roman magistrate
(666-9). Elsewhere, Libya is the dry territory between the western
Mauri and the eastern Syrtes (cf. 3.294-5 with Hunink’ note). Compare
Silius emphasis on Libya’s heat and dryness in Pun. 1.193-4 (with
Feeney’s note) reminiscent of L.’s description of the Syrtes in 9.431-44
and 447-9, in the context of L.’s general excursus on Libya at 9.411-97
(see Asso 2002a); see also 582n. above.
671 longissima It is regrettably counterintuitive that longissima here
indicates not the longitude but the latitude of Juba’s kingdom, because
what L. gives immediately after are the western and eastern borders.
(see 674n. lata).
672 cardine ab occiduo ‘From the western edge.’ The meaning of
cardo is here very close to what we mean by ‘cardinal point’. In ancient
astronomy, cardo denotes one of the four regions (κέντρα) of the sky,
or better, the four points defined by horizon and meridian intersecting
the zodiac. As is clear from Manil. 2.788-800, the four points are the
eastern horizon, or horoscopus or ortus, the western horizon, or occa-
sus, the meridian overhead, or medium caelum, the meridian underfoot,
or the imum caelum; on the errors deriving from presuming that the
celestial horizon and meridian cut the zodiac into four equal parts
(which is not the case), see Housman 1903-1930, vol. 2 (1912), xxvi-
xxviii and ad Manil. 2.788-800; see now also Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia
1996 ad 2.788-807 and passim. Cardo has the same meaning as at 4.73
summus Olympi / cardo, 5.72 cardine Parnasos gemino petit aethera
colle, 7.381 ultima fata / deprecor ac turpe extremi cardinis annos
(metaphorical for ‘a portion of human life’, on which Housman 1919,
78-9 on Mart. 10.24.9 uitae tribus arcubus [arcubus Housman; areis
codd.] peractis; cf. Sen. Tr. 52 mortalis aeui cardinem extremum
premens), and 9.528 nihil obstat Phoebo cum cardine summo / stat
librata dies (the zenith); see Housman 1927 ad L. 4.73 and Manil.
2.788-800 with TLL III.444.54-9. It seems therefore that even though
astronomically cardo denotes either a point or a region of the sky,
cardo occiduus may denote here a line, as indeed the same term does in
the agrimensores (in opposition to decumanus, see H.J. Schulzki in Der
neue Pauly II.984-5 s.v. ‘Cardo’, E. Fabricius in RE XIII.672-701 s.v.
254 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

‘Limitatio’; A. Schulten in RE III.1587-8 s.v. ‘Cardo’); for the projec-

tion of a line on the celestial sphere is indeed a point. There follows that
if cardo denotes a line, the cardo occiduus marks here the western bor-
der of Juba’s kingdom.
There is only one occurrence of cardo in L. that has a different as-
tronomical sense: 1.552-3 tum cardine Tellus / subsedit, the axis on
which the earth turns (see 6.481-2 and TLL III.444.9-14).
673 medio sc. cardine; Housman: ‘pro a medio Bentleius et Maduigius
requirebant Eoo; sed medius cardo linea est orbis terrae antiquis noti
media inter ortum occasumque… dicit igitur longitudinem regni Iubae
ab Atlante usque ad Hammonem pertinere.’ As shown in the translation
at 671-3n. above, by medio cardine L. means the eastern border of
Juba’s kingdom.
674 lata Just as counterintuitively as for 671 longissima, here lata re-
fers to Juba’s kingdom’s longitude, because the ‘width’ is defined as a
north-south stretch.
674-5 After giving the longitude of Juba’s kingdom, now L. gives the
latitude: ‘And where its stretch is the broadest, the hot region of the
vast kingdom divides the Ocean from the burnt places (exusta, sc. loca)
of the torrid zone.’ Housman: ‘latitudo regni a septentrionibus Oceano
et, qui eius sinus est, mari interno, a meridie zona torrida terminatur.’
676-86 ‘Lists occur throughout the B[ellum] C[iuile]’ (Hunink 1992,
105), but there are only two more catalogs of forces, Caesar’s forces
from Gaul at 1.392-465 and Pompey’s eastern allies at 3.169-297. This
catalog of Africans is not a traditional epic catalog. The major feature
that distinguishes L.’s catalogs from, say, the Homeric catalog of
Achaeans and the Virgilian catalog of Italians, is that in L. the crowds
are more significant than the individuals, for no leaders are mentioned
among either Caesar’s or Pompey’s or Juba’s forces (Gagliardi 1989,
95). Traditionally, however, the catalog is a privileged locus for erudite
display. One could place this catalog within the category of ‘digressive’
ethnographical entertainment, a well-known form of the historiographi-
cal sub-genre represented by Tacitus’ Germania and some chapters of
Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum (e.g. 17) or Caesar’s Commentarii de
bello Gallico. On Sallust and the Romans’ ethnographic interests in
Africa, see Oniga 1995, 37-50 and passim, esp. 37 n. 2. Getty 1940,
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 255

xxxvii-xiv on ‘Lucan’s Geographical Knowledge’ is still useful, if lim-

ited to spotting L.’s ‘mistakes’ in localizing tribes and peoples men-
tioned in Book I. On the ethnographical tradition in Roman poetry, cf.
Thomas 1982, 108-23 (on L.), but also passim.
676 populi is proleptic for the following catalog of Juba’s allies.
Housman: ‘tot populi, castra enim Iubae sunt.’ L. mentions eleven Ha-
mitic groups (who probably spoke various forms of Berber): Autololes,
Numidians, Gaetulians, Mauri, Nasamones, Marmaridae, Garamantes,
Mazaces, Massylians, and maybe the Arzuges (for the latter see
Shackleton Bailey 1987, 81 and 684n. below). The catalog is meant to
impress a reader interested in geo-ethnographical erudition. As in Sal-
lust (Iug. 17-19), L.’s African ethnography is dominated by nomadic
peoples, which makes the task of the geo-ethnographer harder, since
these peoples are mobile and do not have fines.
677 Autololes Gaetulian tribe, located in north-western Africa, an area
known in antiquity as Mauretania Tingitana (Barrington Atlas 28-9;
Plin. NH 5.5 …Autololum gente, per quam iter est ad montem Africae
uel fabulosissimum Atlantem; 5.17 Gaetulae nunc tenent [sc. Tingi-
tanam prouinciam] gentes, Baniurae multoque ualidissimi Autololes…),
is mentioned only here in L. Silius mentions the Autololes several
times, most prominently in the catalog of the Carthaginian forces,
where in listing the peoples subject to the legendary African king Hiar-
bas (Pun. 2.59-64), Silius probably has this passage of L. in mind to-
gether with the classic Virgilian locus A. 4.326; for the Autololes in
Silius, see Pun. 2.63, cf. 3.306, 5.547, 6.675, 9.69, 15.671; 11.192 and
13.145 probably function as a synecdoche for African, see Spaltenstein
1986ad 2.63 and 13.145. Cf. RE II.2.2600.
Numidaeque uagi Before the time of the war against Jugurtha, by Nu-
midians the ancient sources usually mean not a specific people but a
group of Berber tribes; e.g. for Polyb. 3.5.1 Masinissa was king of the
Libyans (Windberg in RE 17.2.1348.35-7: ‘Die Numider sind in Wirk-
lichkeit keine eigene Rasse, sondern nomadisierende Berber oder Liby-
er’). By the time of the Hannibalic War the Numidian tribes organized
themselves in two confederacies under Syphax, allied of Carthage, and
Masinissa, allied of Rome (Windberg, ibidem, 1372). For the Greeks
the Numidians were νοµάδες, ‘itinerant, roaming about for pasture’
(LSJ s.v. ‘νοµάς’; Der neue Pauly VIII.1055-8 s.v. ‘Numidae, Nu-
256 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

midia’; OLD s.v. ‘Numida’). L. explains Numida with uagus in figura

etymologica; cf. 721 Numidae fugaces; Isid. Orig. 14.5.9 Numidia ab
incolis passim uagantibus sic uocata, quod nullam certam haberent
sedem. nam lingua eorum incertae sedes et uagae ‘numidia’ dicuntur.
It was the search for pasture that forced the Numidian tribes to perpet-
ual transhumance: Fest. p. 179 Lindsay Numidas dicimus quod Graeci
Nomadas, sive quod id genus hominum pecoribus negotietur, sive quod
herbis, ut pecora, aluntur. Despite Festus’ explicit note, Oric Bates
expresses doubts about the etymology of Numidae from νοµάς /
νοµάζειν (maybe based on Isidorus’ implicit hint that Numidia is origi-
nally not a Greek word?) but does not propose an alternative opinion
(Bates 1914, 255 n. 2). L. could draw information on the Numidians
from Sallust’s monograph on the war against Jugurtha; abundant his-
torical notes in Paul 1984, index s.v. ‘Numidia’.
678 inculto Gaetulus equo The Gaetuli, mentioned only here in L., are
(Numidian? see previous note) Berber tribes localized in the area be-
tween the Lesser Syrte and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Numidae and
Mauri and north of Sahara (Barrington Atlas 31; Der neue Pauly
IV.732-3 s.v. ‘Gaetuli’; RE 17.2.1360.23-31 s.v. ‘Numidia’). According
to Dessau (RE VII.1.464-5), the ancient Gaetulians are the ancestors of
the Saharian nomadic tribes of the Tuaregs (Tuwariks). Silius says that
they have no homes and live in tents that they reportedly carry around
in carts, also used for shelter: Sil. 3.290-1 nulla domus; plaustris habi-
tant; migrare per arua / mos atque errantes circumuectare penates; cf.
Sall. Iug. 19.5 partim in tuguriis… alios uagos agitare. In L. they are
characterized as expert horse riders, a feature they share with (their
fellow?) Numidians and other African peoples. Initially the name
Gaetuli ‘was applied to those inhabitants of indigenous stock who had
remained largely independent when the Mauretanian and Numidian
kingdoms were formed’ (Paul 1984 ad Sall. Iug. 18.1). It would be
interesting to know how much there was to know at Rome about
Gaetulians (see e.g., Pease 1935a ad 4.40 hinc Gaetulae urbes), or
whether L. and other Romans referred to the Gaetulians as a specific
ethnos or just as a generic name for nomadic tribes of North Africa, as
for instance Silius does with the Autololes at 11.192 and 13.145; see on
677 above. It is therefore difficult to distinguish clearly among the dif-
ferent ethnonyms, since the ancients tend to conflate the categories for
their specific ends, esp. in poetry; see Virgil’s elaboration on the figure
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 257

of the legendary king Hiarbas (A. 4.36ff.), who is said to have ruled
over many African tribes, including those named by L. (see Pease ad
4.196; A.M. Tupet in EV II.884-5 s.v. ‘Iarba’; and Sil. 2.59-64).
678-9 concolor Indo Maurus The figura etymologica shows that L.
supports the etymology from (ἀ)µαυρός, ‘dark’ (see LSJ s.v. ἀµαυρός
and µαυρός / µαῦρος), Manil. 4.729-30 Mauretania nomen / oris habet
titulumque suo fert ipsa colore; Isid. Orig. 14.5.10 Mauretania uocata
a colore populorum, Graeci enim nigrum µαῦρον uocant. On etymolo-
gizing in L. see above 591n., 593-4n., and 677n.
The first mention of the Mauri in the ancient classical sources oc-
curs in Polybius, who calls them Μαυρούσιοι (Polyb. 15.11.1; 38.7-9
with Walbank ad loc.; this same name appeared on a bilingual inscrip-
tion of Hannibal attested in Polyb. 3.33.15), cf. Plin. NH 5.17 who ex-
plains the Mauri as gentes in ea [sc. Tingitana prouincia]: quondam
praecipua Maurorum—unde nomen—quos plerique Maurusios appel-
lant; hence the adjective Maurusius occurring one time each in L. and
Virgil (L. 9.426 and Verg. A. 4.206 with Pease’s note; Servius traces an
earlier attestation in Coelius Antipater frg. 54 Peter from Seru. Auct. A.
4.206 Maurusii, qui iuxta Oceanum colunt), and several times in Silius
(see the index in Delz 1987). But their Latin name was Mauri: ‘Here
[sc. in Libya] live those whom the Greeks call Μαυρούσιοι and the
Romans and the natives Μαῦροι’ (Strabo 17.3.2). On the attractive
hypothesis of an etymology from Semitic Maouharim, ‘people of the
west’, see Gsell 1927, 88-90 and Weinstock in RE XIV.2.2349-52 s.v.
‘Mauretania’.
In Latin writing the name is Mauri: cf. B. Afr. 3, 6, 7 and 83. Rely-
ing on the Libri Punici of King Hiempsal, Sallust (Iug. 17.7 with Paul’s
note, and 18.10 nomen eorum paulatim Libyes corrupere barbara lin-
gua Mauros pro Medis appellant) makes the Mauri of Persian, Median
and/or Armenian origin, their name being a corruption of Medi: Sall.
Iug. 18.4 Medi, Persae et Armenii nauibus in Africam transuecti
proxumos nostro mari locos occupauere… Sallust’s etymology (obvi-
ously) cannot be accepted, but it helps to reconstruct the aetiological
and etymological background on which L.’s etymological figure relies
(Oniga 1995, 85; on aetiological etymology in Virgil, see O’Hara 1996,
index s.v. ‘aetiology’; in Silius, see Asso 1999, 2001).
258 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

679 inops Nasamon The Nasamones were a wandering people local-

ized along the eastern and northern shores of the Greater Syrte (Plin.
NH 5.33; 7.14-15; 13.104). In Book IX L. mentions the miserable Na-
samones for their huts dragged away by the strong southern wind
(9.458 pauper Nasamon, see below ad loc.), and for their drawing mea-
ger profits from the vessels that happened to shipwreck in the region of
the Syrtes; hence their characterization as inopes and pauperes. On
their customs see above all Hdt. 4.172 with the note in
Corcella/Medaglia/Fraschetti 1993; cf. Windberg in RE XVI.2.1776-8.
Garamante perusto Tribes of Berbers, the Garamantes occupy the
Libyan hinterland around Garama (today’s Jarmah in the Fezzan re-
gion, south of Tripolis), their capital city at the time of the Elder Pliny
and the geographer Ptolemy (Plin. NH 5.26; Ptol. Geogr. 4.16.2; Der
neue Pauly IV.783). Earlier in Book IV, L. has mentioned the Gara-
mantes as ploughing naked under the tropical sun (334 nudi Garaman-
tes arant), which explains their sunburn (perustus: either sun-burned or
black-skinned or both). Herodotus describes their curious practice of
sowing in the humid soil that they would have previously scattered over
the salty surface (Hdt. 4.183.1). Their housing facilities are as ‘volatile’
as those of the Nasamones: 9.559-60 uolitant a culmine raptae / detecto
Garamante casae. On their customs see Hdt. 4.183 with Corcella ad
loc.; cf. RE VII.1.751-2.
680 Marmaridae uolucres It is not clear in what way the Marmaridae
are winged or swift. Perhaps in reference to their nomadic life. They
might be identical with the Psylli at 9.893, praised for their knowledge
of poisons and remedies for snake bites; cf. Sil. 3.300 Marmaridae,
medicum uulgus. They were situated in the vast area immediately south
of the Pentapolis Cyrenaica (Barrington Atlas 38; Der neue Pauly
VII.926-7 s.v. ‘Marmarica’; cf. also RE XIV.2.1881-3 s.v. ‘Marmarica’,
a coastal region flanking the eastern edge of the vast territories across
which the Marmaridae spread).
681 tremulum cum torsit missile Mazax The collective singular Ma-
zax for Mazaces/Mazices (on the form see below) describes a people
localized in Mauretania: cf. Ptol. 4.1.5 with Müller’s note. They are
here characterized as expert archers and thereby compared to the Medes
(680). Elsewhere they are seen as a belligerent and enduring race, Am-
mian. 29.5.25 Mazices… bellicosum genus et durum.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 259

Mazax. The form Mazaces, whence L.’s sing. Mazax, appears in an

emendation: Suet. Nero 30 phalerataque Mazacum turba (Mazacum
Salmasius; cymazacum codd. plerique). In his note to the passage cited
from Ptolemy (681n. above), Müller invites to compare Μάζικες to
Μάζυες οἱ Λιβύης νοµάδες of Hecataeus FgrHist 1 F 334 and Herodo-
tus’ Μάξυες (Hdt. 4.191 with Corcella’s learned note; cf. Iustin. 18.6
Maxitani). In any case, the evidence is thin. Oric Bates suggests a
common ethnic name for Hamitic peoples of western Libya and recon-
structs a root MZGH, meaning ‘noble or free people’, combining (per-
haps too cleverly) Egyptian and Graeco-Roman evidence (Bates 1914,
42-3); cf. Weinstock, in RE 14.2.2358.22-3 s.v. ‘Mauretania’:
‘Μάζικες: 1. Alte einheimische Bezeichnung für alle berberischen
Stämme Nordafrikas,’ who, however, ignores Bates 1914.
682-3 et gens quae nudo residens Massylia dorso / ora leui flectit
frenorum nescia uirga The Massyli (RE XIV.2.2166 and Der neue
Pauly VII.994 s.v.) were an eastern Numidian tribe situated south of
ancient Numidia: Barrington Atlas 34.2E-F; cf. Huss 1989, Camps
1967, Decret/Fantar 1981, 99-115, Desanges 1962, 109-10.
Bareback riding is seen as a marvel by ancient authors (because it
was considered primitive? So Spaltenstein on Sil. 1.215). Here bare-
back riding is emphasized by the lack of reins (cf. Verg. 4.41 Numidae
infreni, with Pease ad loc.), which is especially noted in mentions of the
Numidians (B. Afr. 19.4, 48.1, 61.2; Sil. 2.115 with Feeney’s note),
whose horses are indeed represented unbridled on the Column of Tra-
jan. More generally on this custom, see Strabo 17.828 (Mauri), Arr.
Cyneg. 24.3 (Libyans), Dict. ant. II.2: 1334b s.v. ‘frenum’; des Noëttes
1931, 227-8; Lhote 1953, 1182 ff. (esp. 1172 fig. 8.3 and 4: two 202
BCE coins of Syphax showing Numidians riding with the uirga);
Anderson 1961, 40.
684 Arzux is J.D. Morgan’s (see Shackleton Bailey in ap. crit.) brilliant
emendation for Afer of the tradition, probably originated from a gloss.
After listing such exotic ethnonyms, Afer uenator sounds odd;
Shackleton Bailey 1987, 81 supports Morgan’s emendation quoting
Sidonius Carm. 5.336-7 Gaetulis, Nomadis, Garamantibus, Autolo-
lisque, / Arzuge, Marmarida, Psyllo, Nasamone timetur. The Arzuges
were localized in Africa Tripolitana, south of the Lesser Syrte; see Bar-
rington Atlas 35.1C; RE II.2.1498-9 s.v. ‘Arzuges’. J.-P. Martin per
260 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

litteras informs me that in the “Archives d’Outre-Mer – Aix-en-

Provence série F 80” is reported that “Dans la nuit du 24 au 25 mai
1849, dans la Montagne des Lions (Djebel Khar), au lieu-dit Arzelef,
situé près de la route Oran-Mostaganem, le dénommé Bartolo Navarro,
berger de son état, à tué d’un coup de fusil la dernière lionne de la mon-
tagne, qui attenait son troupeau de moutons. L’animal mesurait 2 m, 60
de la tête à la queue. Attesté par le capitaine du Génie Pascal Eugène
Chaplain, Directeur du centre de colonisation de Saint-Cloud (Gdydal),
le 25 mai 1849.” J.-P. Martin also observes that the toponym Arzelef
might indicate that the area of the Arzuges extended from the sea to the
mountains of the lions, which might explain why the fishermen of Ar-
zew (coast locality) caught their fish by utilizing a technique very simi-
lar to the one described by L. for capturing lions.
685-6 ferrique simul fiducia non est / uestibus iratos laxis operire
leones When they can no longer trust their weapons against angered
lions, the Arzuges throw their large cloaks over them—using them as
nets? Such erudite curiosities must have interested L.’s contemporaries.
A probable source could have been Juba’s work on lions, see Nis-
bet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.22.15; cf. Aelian. HA 7.23, Plin. NH 8.48,
and Plut. Sert. 9.5. On the lion’s wrath and vengefulness, see Nis-
bet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.16.15; cf. 602n. above.
687 studiis ciuilibus Studium is one among many nouns that denote
civil war when accompanied by the adjective ciuilis (TLL III.1215-16).
The phrase occurs with the same sense in Sall. Iug. 5.2 ut studiis ciuili-
bus atque uastitas Italiae finem faceret, with Kraus 1999: 219-21,
whereas in Tac. Ann. 3.75.1 studiis ciuilibus adsecutus refers to Ateius
Capito’s knowledge of the juristic discipline.
688 priuatae… bella… irae Juba’s reasons to fight Curio are also of a
personal nature; see 690n. below.
Iuba Juba I, son of Hiempsal II of Numidia; see Lenschau in RE
IX.2.2381-4, Badian in OCD s.v. ‘Juba (1)’; Der neue Pauly V.1185
s.v. ‘Iuba 1’. In Appian BC 2.44, Juba is ‘the king of the Numidian
people of Mauretania.’
689 superosque humanaque polluit The polar juxtaposition of gods
and humans gives solemnity to the expression; see Kemmer 1900 and
Ehlers in TLL VI.3.3090.44-74; 3089.53. L. refers to Curio’s change of
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 261

allegiance; cf. Caelius in Cic. Fam. 8.6.5 transfugit ad populum et pro

Caesare loqui coepit.
690 lege tribunicia Months after his election to the tribunate (held in
August 51 BCE, according to Caelius in Cic. Fam. 8.4.2), Curio failed
to pass a land law which was part of a series of bills in favor of veterans
and plebs he proposed early in his term, probably in February 50 BCE.
To acquire sufficient land Curio not only planned to purchase it from
the ager Campanus but also proposed to dethrone King Juba and incor-
porate his kingdom; Caes. BC 2.25.4; Dio 41.41.3; Wiseman in CAH
IX (1994) 418; esp. Gruen 1974, 472-3.
692 dum regnum te, Roma, facit The apostrophe is among L.’s favor-
ite figures, cf. 799-824 below. Here, the apostrophe to Roma brushes
the passage with a tragic tinge of pathos, enriched with the strident
contrast implied in Curio’s past position of tribune of the plebs as the
guarantor of the Roman people’s libertas, vis-à-vis his present loyalty
to a faction which, as the reader unfailingly knows, will end that very
libertas. There is a strident paradox in Curio’s act of taking the Nu-
midian throne from Juba while imposing a despot on Rome.
692-3 memor ille doloris / hoc bellum sceptri fructum putat esse
retenti Juba seizes the opportunity to take his revenge on Curio (see
690n. above and Dio 41.41.4 quoted at 721n. below).
694-701 Curio fears Juba also because he doubts his own troops’ loy-
alty to Caesar’s cause.
694-5 hac… trepidat… fama… / et quod… The syntax suggests that
for two reasons is Curio afraid of King Juba: hac… fama refers to what
precedes (689-93) as a sufficient motive for Juba’s revenge, whereas
695 et quod… points to Curio’s doubts about the loyalty of his legions
to the Caesarian cause. On political propaganda and the instrumentation
of the esprit de corps in the legions, always faithful to their commander
rather than to an abstract political or ideological cause, see Jal 1963,
132.
695-6 Caesareis numquam deuota iuuentus / illa nimis castris Note
the enclosing word order of adjective and noun followed and preceded
by temporal (numquam) and modal (nimis) adverbs respectively, and
resulting in a chiastic arrangement on either side of deuota iuuentus /
262 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

illa, which holds a prominent position at the center of the expression

and carries the main meaning. On word order, see notes on 599, 600
and 663 above.
695 deuuota iuuentus The phrase occurs also earlier in Book IV in the
episode of Vulteius’ aristeia 533-4 stabat deuota iuuentus / damnata…
696-7 nec Rheni miles in undis / exploratus erat ‘Nor had the sol-
diery been tested in the waters of the Rhine.’ These soldiers had served
on Pompey’s side under Domitius (Nero’s ancestor, consul in 54 BCE)
but did not fight at Corfinium. They surrendered to Caesar, cf. 2.507
nefas belli, as well as 2.478-525 with Fantham 1992, 171 ad loc. and
231-3 on the affair at Corfinium.
697 exploratus Not common in poetry, explorare occurs a total of
seven times in L. It has here the sense ‘to test, try out’; cf. its occur-
rence in the same sense in the famous simile in which Pompey in flight
through Apulia towards Brundisium is compared to a bull trying his
strength against the trees at 2.603 aduersis explorat cornua truncis; and
also at 8.581-2 in hac ceruice tyranni / explorate fidem (Pompey to his
wife and son).
697 Corfini captus in arce Curio’s legions were at Corfinium the pre-
vious year under the then quaestor Sextus Quinctilius Varus (Caes. BC
1.23.3). They eventually swore loyalty to Caesar (Caes. BC 1.23.5).
Defeated by Caesar, they passed to the latter’s side but had no time to
prove their loyalty to the Caesarian cause; hence Curio’s doubts, cf.
696-7n. above.
698 infidus nouis ducibus dubiusque priori Before telling about the
doubts of their present leader, L. succeeds in presenting the paradoxical
situation in which the soldiers are as they prepare to go to battle. For
dubius used of disloyalty, cf. 2.447.
699-700 languida segni / cernit cuncta metu The epithet segnis at-
tached to fear is an obstacle both to military action and to the narrative
(see 581n. on non segnior above). The athmosphere of inert idleness,
languida cuncta, is produced by fear. See next n. below.
700-1 nocturnaque munera ualli Curio realizes why everything seems
so still (see previous note): the night guards have deserted their posts.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 263

munera This is the reading of the consensus codicum and it is printed

both by Housman and Schack. One MS (U) has munia, and two more
(MV) add munia as a correction: see Housman ad loc. One wonders
whether munia, printed by Badalí in his text, might not be explained
either as a gloss or a wrongly interpreted abbreviation. Munia is the
transmitted reading at 5.8 belli per munia (only occurrence in L.),
which perhaps explains Badalí’s choice to print munia also here. In
fact, munera can refer to a soldier’s duties, as Housman notes by quot-
ing Liv. 32.16.15 segnius munere belli obeunt, but see also OLD s.v.
‘munus’ 1c.
702-10 It is reasonable to read this monologue in L. as a speculation on
what Curio had been thinking when he spoke to his soldiers in Caes.
BC 2.32. As Caesar notes (ibid. 33.1), Curio’s harangue impressed the
soldiers and was therefore successful in securing their support. On
monologue in ancient epic and drama, see Lefèvre in EV III.568-70 s.v.
‘monologo’, with bibliography.
702 audendo magnus tegitur timor This sententia has a gnomic tone
and its weight is emphasized by alliteration in the voiceless dental stop
and a quasi-homeoteleuton –ur –or. On audendo, see above 583n. au-
dax. Note also how Curio speaks (profatur) in a fearful state of mind
(trepida mente), and nonetheless his first word is audendo, as it be-
hooves audax Curio. His audacia can hide his fears.
702-3 arma capessam / ipse prior Curio’s resolution is the demonstra-
tion and the result of his audacia. With his example Curio exhorts his
legions to engage the enemy in battle.
704-5 uariam semper dant otia mentem. / eripe consilium pugna
These further gnomic statements after 702 intensify Curio’s resolution
and lend a Senecan tinge to the passage. Curio’s solution is to defy
uncertainty (varia mens) by repressing the leisure (otium) of reflection
and deliberation (on the pregnancy of consilium, see TLL IV.441-4 and
OLD esp. senses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) with the busy violence of battle.
705 eripe Curio figuratively apostrophizes his own mens to exemplify
how any doubts should be dispelled.
dira uoluptas The oxymoron efficaciously expresses in two words
what the violence and gore of battle is for both soldiers and civilian on-
264 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

lookers (or readers) alike. With uoluptas the phrase is unique to L.;
elsewhere an analogous idea is conveyed with synonyms: Lucr. 4.1046
dira lubido; Verg. G. 1.37 dira cupido; TLL V.1.1273.5-9.
707 quis conferre duces meminit, quis pendere causas? Curio reas-
sures himself that his soldiers are not going to compare the worth of
their present and past leaders. Nor are they likely to question the valid-
ity of the cause supported by the faction for which they are fighting. On
the ‘amphitheatrical’ sense of conferre, equivalent to committere
‘matching against each other’ (Haskins), see Leigh 1997, 291 n. 137
and cf. 803-4n. below.
708 qua stetit, inde fauet sc. miles. Here comes the answer to the
doubts Curio expressed in the previous line. By default the legion’s
loyalty is mechanical, but Curio (and L.) knows all too well that the
legions’ loyalty is on sale at the best offer.
qua The antecedent is causa.
708-9 ueluti fatalis harenae / muneribus When two factions are op-
posed to one another they act like gladiators in the arena, an image that
evokes Hercules and Antaeus pitted against one another as wrestlers in
the arena. In the mythical match, however, Hercules’ victory against the
violence of the monster is a point in favor of civilization. Here instead,
as Ahl 1976, 98 notes, ‘The dispassionate struggle between Curio and
Varus serves only to damage civilization and works to the advantage of
neither victor nor vanquished.’
harenae gladiatorial term; see 620n. above and 710n. below; cf. Jal
1963, 341 and Leigh 1997, 235 n. 4.
710 odere pares ‘They hate each other as opponents do,’ i.e., as gladia-
tors matched against one another in the arena; it is impossible to render
the concept as incisively and concisely in a translation. For the gladia-
torial term par/pares, see 620n. above. The expression resembles 636
conflixere pares (see n. above), sc., Hercules and Antaeus. On the func-
tion of gladiatorial similes in Book IV, see Ahl 1976, 82-115, esp. 88
and 97-9 (with the quote at 708-9n. above).
710 Curio defeats Varus. L. limits the report of this battle to the bare
essential.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 265

710 sic fatus Not just ‘Thus spake he.’ L.’s Neronian reader is aware of
Curio’s upcoming end. Given therefore the tragic irony of the context,
it is tempting to read in fatus also the nuance of prophecy (cf. Vollmer
in TLL VI.1.1029.75-6): ‘So he foretold,’ that is, to be reduced to a par
against another par; Roman Curio equals Roman Varus. (How many
gladiators were actual Roman citizens?) The double entendre is not
merely ironical; it also heightens the tragedy of Curio’s ruin following
the deceitfully promising victory against Varus. On the Homeric pedi-
gree of such speech formulas as sic effatus, dixerat, etc., see Pease 1935
ad Verg. A. 4.30; Harrison ad 10.246-7 and 535-6.
711 instruxit In L. instruo occurs only here in the military sense ‘draw
up in battle order’ (OLD 2), and two more times elsewhere in the sense
‘provide’ (OLD 7): 6.486 mortibus instruit artes and 8.541-2 ex-
iguam… carinam / instruit.
711-12 quem blanda futuris / deceptura malis belli Fortuna recepit
The nuance of ‘deceit’ is doubly conveyed by Fortuna’s double epithet:
the adjective blandus (‘flattering deceptively’OLD 3) and the future
participle. The future tense implies Curio’s viewpoint because, strictly
speaking, Fortuna is deceiving Curio now. And yet the result of this
deceit is in the future battle against Juba. On the association of Fortuna
with deception, see 2.461 dubiamque fidem fortuna ferebat, and esp.
4.730 fraudibus euentum dederat fortuna, with n. below. On Fortuna in
L., see 661n. above.

4.715-98 Curio and his army surprised

and annihilated by King Juba
Glad to have his chance to earn glory in the aftermath of Varus’ defeat,
King Juba prepares to attack by surprise (715-19). Sabbura, the king’s
second in command, is sent ahead with a small contingent while Juba,
swift and deceptive as a mongoose, gathers his forces (720-9). Un-
aware of Juba’s moves, Curio sends out the cavalry on a nocturnal
foray (730-3). Disregarding the warnings against Punic fraudulence,
the following morning Curio orders his men to leave the camp (734-9),
mistakes the movements of Juba’s forces as flight (739-45), and is sur-
rounded (746-9). The state of mind of Curio and his army is conveyed
through a description of the horses in Curio’s cavalry (750-64). The
assault of the Numidian cavalry devastates Curio’s infantry (765-72).
266 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

Denied their chance to escape or charge in counteroffensive, Curio’s

soldiers die on the spot (772-87). Curio fights back and dies (788-98).
In recording the preliminaries to the battle, L. highlights Curio’s hasti-
ness and lack of caution; cf. esp. 719 and 731. Perceptive comments on
this section (esp. 738-9, 750-87 and 796-8) are available in Bramble
1982, 548-54.
716 laetus See 661 laetatus, with n. above, analogously describing
Curio’s mood after hearing about Hercules and Antaeus. Note the con-
trast with Varus’ tristia proelia from the previous line.
717 rapit agmina furtim Note the immediacy and rapidity of Juba’s
reaction to the news about Varus. Furtim introduces the vocabulary of
treachery: 722 simulator, 725 ludit, 730 fraudibus, 742 fraude.
719 hoc solum metuens incauto ex hoste, timeri ‘Juba feared only
one thing from an incautious enemy: to be feared.’ Shackleton Bailey’s
minimal corrections are to be preferred to Housman’s hoc solum in-
cauto metuentis ab hoste (see Anderson 1917, 29).
L. highlights Juba’s cautiousness in taking full advantage of Curio’s
want of caution; hence Juba’s fear of being feared, i.e., of alerting Cu-
rio and allow him to escape. Cf. Dio 41.41.4-5: ‘Juba did not attack
with the whole of his army because he feared that Curio might be
driven away if informed [of Juba’s approach].’ Dio goes on to say that
Juba was interested more in taking his revenge on Curio than in driving
him away from Utica; cf. 690n. and 692-3 above.
722 ‘Pretending that the war had been entrusted to him’ (Haskins), with
simulator functioning as a participle. Sabbura, Juba’s second in com-
mand, pretends that he is attacking of his own initiative. Caes. BC
1.38.1-2 informs us that Sabbura was in charge of the Numidian con-
tingent encamped at the Bagrada.
ut sibi ‘As if to himself…’, with the dative governed by commissi.
commissi… belli participial clause functioning as object of simulator.
simulator Only here in L. and four more times in Latin poetry: Ov. AA.
1.615, 2.311; M. 11.634; St. Th. 4.551 simulatrix. Less uncommon in
prose, it is applied in its earliest attestation to Catiline in a famous
paronomasia: Sall. Cat. 5.4 quoius rei lubet simulator ac dissimulator,
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 267

cf. Fronto Ant. 3.1.1 van den Hout 1999. On L.’s nouns in –tor, see
588n. above on sulcator.
A ‘feigner’, Sabbura is characterized as Juba’s instrument of deceit;
cf. 744 with n. below. Sabbura’s trick consists in deploying his forces
in order of battle but having them recede a little so as to make Curio
believe in a retreat; cf. Caes. BC 2.40.2-3 where Juba makes his troops
gradually withdraw as if they were afraid, his imperat ut simulatione
timoris paulatim cedant.
Sabbura Thus spelled for metrical reasons; otherwise Saburra, as e.g.
in Caes. BC 2.38.2, but see Frontin. Str. 2.5.40 tamquam fugientem
Sabboram.
724-9 Juba deceiving Curio is compared to an ichneumon deceiving a
serpent. On the duel of a snake and an ichneumon, see Plin. NH 8.88,
cf. Arist. HA 9.6.612a15-20 and Strabo 17.39. For a perceptive com-
ment on the simile, see Hinkle 1996, 96-7: ‘[Juba] is in touch with the
land in the same way his troops are, and as is Antaeus. Juba knows the
‘trick’ for surviving and winning in Africa.’
724 aspidas… Pharias The metonymy of Pharian for Egyptian begins
with Augustan poetry. L. is the first who makes it very common: see
Berti ad 10.65, and cf. OLD s.v. ‘Pharos’ and ‘Pharius’. Strictly speak-
ing, Egypt is not Africa, but it is contiguous with it, which allows the
metonymy, eventually resulting in a synecdoche pars pro toto, where
Egypt of course is the part. The Pharian asps might be foreshadowing
the Alexandrian phase of the civil war, the subject of Books 8-10, end-
ing ultimately with Cleopatra’s famous suicide, which lies outside of
L.’s narrative.
725 incerta… umbra This daring figure conveys the idea of the ich-
neumon’s rapidity of movement; see 753n. below. Incerta could also
work as a transferred epithet referring to the snake’s uncertainty at the
ichneumon’s movement; for a similar type of ‘misapplied’ epithet
(Lanham 1968, 86 s.v. ‘hypallage’), or ‘enallage adiectivi’, see Fan-
tham ad 2.65. The phrase is attested only here and in Verg. E. 5.5 sub
incertas Zephyris motantibus umbras, where Mopsus analogously calls
‘uncertain’ the shadow of the elms shaken by the breeze; see Servius’
note: incertae autem umbrae sunt et ex solis circuitu et ex mobilitate
ventorum.
268 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

prouocat Gladiatorial term. For the profession of the prouocator, cf.

Cic. Sest. 134 and CIL V.4502; see Leigh 1997, 274 n. 104.
728 letiferam First attested in Catull. 64.394 in letifero belli certamine,
this solemn compound neatly fits the hexameter. L. inherits it from
Virgil (cf. L. 3.500 with Hunink’s n.); used of snakes also at 9.384 and
729. It is attested only in epic poetry, with the sole exception of Colum.
RR 7.12.14 letifer morbus. It occurs twice in Virgil (A. 3.139, 10.169)
and often in Flavian poetry, e.g. with snakes in Sil. 3.191 letifero
stridebat turbine serpens, and St. Theb. 5.628 and 737 letifer anguis.
Nominal compounds occur three more times in this final section of
Book IV: 750 sonipes, 762 cornipes, 800 signifer. For a full list of such
compounds covering the whole poem, see Gagliardi 1999, 106-7.
729 faucesque fluunt The snake’s jaws ‘melt’, i.e., their poisonous
strength ‘flows out’. Alternation of the fricatives (/f/) and sibilant (/s/)
might evoke the hissing sound produced by the snake emitting its
vainly spent venom. For the sense of fluo, see 1.241 and OLD s.v. ‘dif-
fluo’ in senses 2 and 3; TLL V.1.972.18ff.; and finally Lucr. 4.919 dis-
soluuntur membra… fluuntque, of a body that relaxes and loses force
while falling asleep.
pereunte ueneno L. is fond of the paradox that a cause of perishing can
itself perish: 2.143 periere nocentes; 4.252 pereat scelus; 7.558 ne qua
parte sui pereat scelus; 8.868-9 mortisque peribunt / argumenta tuae;
9.969 etiam periere ruinae.
730-48 Curio has the cavalry go out of the camp on a foray by night,
then at dawn he himself exits the camp with the infantry. Cf. Caes. BC
2.38-40.
730 fraudibus euentum dederat Fortuna ‘Fortuna granted success to
the treachery.’ L. does not explain that some deserters informed Curio
that Juba stayed behind in his kingdom to attend to some internal con-
flict among the people of Leptis (Caes. BC 2.38.1). On the association
of Fortuna with deception, see 711-12n. above.
ferox ‘Belligerent, warlike’: cf. 822 (applied to Marius). One of two
epithets which directly describe Curio in this poem; the other is audax,
see 583n. above.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 269

731 non exploratis occulti uiribus hostis Curio neglected to perform a

reconnaissance into the surrounding area. Juba’s cavalry was in fact
only six miles away, cf. Caes. BC 2.38.3 rex omnibus copiis insequeba-
tur et sex milium passuum interuallo a Saburra consederat.
732-3 nocturnum… equitem Curio has the cavalry go on a dangerous
sortie by night. The epithet nocturnum, agreeing with equitem, has here
an adverbial force better applied to erumpere; cf. Verg. A. 5.868 with
Williams’ note.
733 ignotis . . . campis The phrase, framing the line, denotes expan-
siveness and emphasizes the danger of a foray in unfamiliar terrain. In
recording the same event, Caesar does not mention the soldiers’ lack of
familiarity with the terrain: BC 2.38.3 equitatum omnem prima nocte ad
castra hostium mittit ad flumen Bagradam.
734 ipse sub aurorae primos . . . motus Curio himself leaves the camp
at the crack of dawn; cf. Caes. BC 2.39.1 Curio cum omnibus copiis
quarta uigilia exierat. On getting up at the crack of dawn, cf. Q. Luta-
tius Catulus Epigr. frg. 2.1-2 Blänsdorf (= Cic. ND 1.79) constiteram
exorientem Auroram forte salutans / cum subito a laeua Roscius exo-
ritur; Liv. 1.7.6 (Hercules find a few heads of cattle have been stolen);
Ov. Her. 8.112; 19.195; M. 3.600-1; etc.
735 signa For this frequent metonymy, see 1.6-7, 4.669-70n. above,
and 740 below.
multum frustraque rogatus These warnings against the notorious
Libycas fraudes, on which see below, are not mentioned by Caesar,
who instead emphasizes the soldiers’ eagerness to fight and seeks to
rouse his reader’s pity for Curio whose only mistake was believing
what he was told by Numidian deserters and prisoners (Caes. BC
2.38.1-3 and 39.1-4). Caesar understandably pictures his legate as fa-
vorably as he can. And yet, the question remains about Curio’s opti-
mism, which from the strictly tactical viewpoint seems an avoidable
mistake: Curio could have saved his men’s lives as well as his own had
he made sure that Juba was actually retreating. On the figure of the
adviser and its narrative function, see Bischoff 1932, 1-5 (on Homer)
and Lattimore 1939; cf. also Laocoon in Verg. A. 2.40-56.
270 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

multum frustraque On this phrase and adversative –que, cf. Hor. AP

241 (with Brink 1971 ad loc.).
736-7 ut Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper / Punica bella
dolis The phrase Libycas… fraudes, which with a synecdoche pars pro
toto extends a notorious Carthaginian feature to the whole of
Libya/Africa, appears to be unique to L. Punic fraudulence is a topos.
In fact, L. is not the first who connects the Carthaginians’ deceitful
nature with their African homeland: cf. Cic. Agr. 2.95 Carthaginienses
fraudulenti et mendaces non genere, sed natura loci; Livy on Hannibal
at 21.4.9 inhumana crudelitas, perfidia plus quam Punica…; cf. Otto
1890, 291 s.v. ‘Punicus’; Feeney ad Sil. 1.5. Strictly speaking, Juba and
Sabbura are Numidian, not Punic. L. renews the memory of the Punic
Wars wherever Africa is mentioned: see e.g. 588n., and esp. 654-60
with notes above; 2.79-93 (with Fantham ad 2.93).
infectaque semper / Punica bella dolis To say that Punic Wars are
always ‘infected with deceit’ is an exaggeration that puts Scipio Afri-
canus in a bad light. On ‘infection’ in L., see 7.769 (with Dilke’s n.),
851 (Deferrari wrongly lists the present occurrence of infecta s.v. ‘in-
festus’).
737-8 leti fortuna propinqui / tradiderat fatis iuuenem ‘The fortuna
of approaching death had handed the young man over to his destiny
(fata)’: the pluperfect indicates that the matter has already been de-
cided. If fortuna and fata are to be disentangled, one can say that for-
tuna, set within the genitive phrase leti . . . propinqui, denotes the way
events appear to mortals, who are unaware of fatum before it becomes
factum: propinqui can therefore be read as a focalizing epithet, suggest-
ing the perspective of Curio as his death approaches. The reader, how-
ever, already knows that fortuna and fata coincide. On fatum and for-
tuna, see 661n. on fortuna above and the next n.
738 iuuenem Cf. 813 below. Iuuenis is ‘technically, any adult male up
to the age of 45’ (OLD 1), i.e., the fighting age: cf. Cens. 14.2 (= Varro
Ant. Rer. Hum. 14 frg. 4 Mirsch ) …usque quinque et quadraginta an-
nos, iuuenes appellatos eo quod rem publicam in re militari possent
iuuare. Born before 84 BCE (Neue Pauly 11.302), Curio could have
been 37 or older; but here L. might be alluding to the epic topos of
youth wasted by untimely death: 2.198 tot simul infesto iuuenes occum-
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 271

bere leto (with Fantham’s n.); cf. also the mordant irony at 6.168 (on
which, see Conte 1988, 76). The epic archetype of this kind of death is
Achilles (e.g. TLL VII.1.736).
738-9 tradiderat… trahebat Framing the line, these two verbs both
distinguish and conflate the actions of fortuna (sc. leti propinqui) and
bellum (sc. ciuile) respectively; see previous and following notes.
bellumque trahebat / auctorem ciuile suum L. says that the bellum
ciuile is claiming Curio as its auctor (Duff’s translation in the Loeb), or
better ‘civil war was claiming the man who made it’ (Bramble 1982,
548). The narrative of the Civil War begins in our sources with a letter
read by the tribune of the plebs Marc Antony to the senate in session on
January 1, 49 BCE. The letter contained Caesar’s ultimatum proposing
the simultaneous disarming of his own and Pompey’s armies, and had
been delivered to the consuls by none other than Curio, upon his depar-
ture to join Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul at the expiration of his mandate as
a tribune of the plebs (December 10, 50 BCE): Caes. BC 1.1, with more
detail in Dio 41.1-2. Cf. also 803-4n. below.
739-43 Translate as only one sentence from super ardua to committeret
aruis: ‘As Curio is leading (ducit) his maniples (signa) through a steep
path, on top of tall rocks, over fragments thereof (cautes), the enemy,
detected (conspecti) on top of the hills from a distance, pretend (fraude
sua) to recede (cessere), while (dum) Curio abandons the hill and lets
his army spread across the plain valley.’ Lit.: ‘Having abandoned the
hill, Curio entrusts his spreading (effusam) army to the flat (patulis)
fields.’
739-40 super ardua…saxa super cautes… Almost identical syno-
nyms, cautes and saxa highlight the unfriendliness of the terrain; cf.
6.34; Verg. A. 3.699; Apul. M. 5.7; TLL III.711.
740 abrupto limite ‘steep path’, completes the image of a perilous and
toilsome march through a deserted landscape; St. Theb. 1.332 scopu-
loso in limite. Here applied by L. in its primary sense of ‘pathway
track’, limes elsewhere denotes a sanctioned limit or boundary line that
should not be crossed, see Fantham ad 2.11. For the adjective abruptus,
cf. 8.46 rupis… abruptae (in figura etymologica).
272 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

signa Following Nutting 1934: 323-4, Shackleton Bailey correctly

punctuates with a comma after signa. Signa is the object of 739 ducit.
For the metonymy, see 669-70n. above.
741-2 cum procul… conspecti… / …cessere The cum-inuersum
clause is complicated with the participle conspecti, of the type known
as participium coniunctum because it agrees in gender, number and
case with the agent to which it refers (Kühner/Stegman I, 771), in this
case the nominative hostes (741). Grammatically, the action of cessere
should be prior to the action of ducit. In fact, the two verbs denote al-
most simultaneous actions: as Curio is leading his men through the
difficult path, the enemy, who has suddenly appeared on the hills, pre-
tend to recede as if in retreat; see the translation at 739-43n. above.
741 cum procul L. is fond of this variation of cum subito and cum re-
pente; e.g. 41; 10.436 (Nutting 1934, 323-4).
742 parum This adverb usually means ‘too little’, occasionally ap-
proaching the force of a negation, see TLL X.1.571.33ff. In this sense, it
might suggest that Curio did not wait for the enemy to withdraw far
enough. And yet, given the rapidity with which the Numidian cavalry
surround Curio and his men (746 fugaces), perhaps one should under-
stand parum here as ‘a little’, i.e., the Numidians were far enough as to
require their proverbial swiftness to cut Curio’s retreat.
744 ille fugam credens simulatae nescius artis Having believed his
false informants, see 730 above and Caes. 2.38.2 temere credens, Curio
now thinks he is seeing the Numidians in flight, see 741-2 above.
745 ut uictor Convinced that the Numidian cavalry are fleeing, Curio
acts as a winner and orders his men to come down in the plain; cf.
608n. inuictus above.
746 patuere doli in the same place in the line at 5.141 (cf. Val. Fl.
1.64); echo of Verg. A. 2.309-10 tum uero manifest fides Danaumque
patescunt / insidiae
746-7 Numidaeque fugaces /… clauserunt fugax here denotes the act
of fleeing (cf. 744n. fugam credens above), as shown in the oxymoron
fugaces clauserunt. And yet, the Numidian cavalry were notoriously
‘swift’; for this latter sense, cf. 2.588 Tethynque fugacem; and esp. Hor.
C. 2.1.19 iam fulgor armorum fugacis terret equos, with Porphyr. ad
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 273

loc.: ‘fugacis pro uelocibus accipe,’ TLL VI.1.1474.61ff., but OLD 3

and Nisbet/Hubbard incline towards the sense ‘running away, fleeing’.
748 obstipuit Only here in L. In sixteen out of seventeen occurrences
of obstipescere in Virgil (exclusively in the perfect indicative, either
with obstipuit or obstipuere) the verb begins the line, as almost always
in poetry, see TLL IX.2.260.43ff. The sense of the compound implies ‘a
blockage of function’ (Austin 1971 ad Verg. A. 1.513 and 2.120) usu-
ally marked in the rhythm with a strong pause at the end of the syntac-
tical unit governed by obstipuit/obstipuere, e.g. Verg. G. 4.350-1
uitreisque sedilibus omnes / obstipuere (with Thomas ad loc.), A. 9.123
obstipuere animis Rutuli.
749 non timidi petiere fugam, non proelia fortes Brave and coward
are denied their usual actions (Bramble 1982, 549). In conveying the
image of Curio’s army surrounded by Juba’s, L. creates a vivid contrast
between fright and courage. The anadiplosis of the negative establishes
a static equipoise between timidi and fortes. L.’s fondness for litotes
extends to listing what does not happen in peculiar detail, a feature we
could call ‘negative enumeration’ (with Berti ad 10.16-17). A famous
example is the scene of Marcia’s remarriage to Cato in Book Two (cf.
2.354-71 with Fantham ad loc.), listing the accessories to the ritual only
to specify that they are missing. Likewise, in the following description
of Curio’s cavalry at 750-8 below, L. tells how the horses behave be-
fore a cavalry charge, except that this time the horses do not behave as
described because the charge is not happening. On this feature in L., see
Bramble 1982, 544-5. With their emphasis on lack of normality, these
negative lists effectively contribute to heightening the pathos. For par-
allels (and a suggestive interpretation of Marcia’s wedding), see
Bartsch 1997, 126-7 and esp. n. 69.
750-8 On this section, see Bramble 1982, 549-50.
750-3 quippe… tumultu echo Verg. G. 3.83-4 tum, si qua sonum pro-
cul arma dedere / stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus, in
which the sense is opposite, that is the horses in Virgil are active
whereas L. says what the horses are not doing: denial of epic action. Cf.
Bramble 1982, 549.
750 quippe Explanatory, as always in L. (cf. 2.377 with Fantham’s
note, 5.118, 259, 7.240, 8.282, 572; Verg. G. 1.268, 505; A. 1.59 and
274 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

661 with Austin’s note). The particle introduces a brilliant description

of the cavalry’s mood focused on the horses. Axelson 1945, 48 treats
quippe among such other prosaic words as quodsi, quare, and quidem.
Quippe is understandably common in Lucretius, but occurs only nine
times in Virgil and seven times each in Lucan and Propertius.
sonipes See 225n. above. Lit. ‘making a sound with its foot;’ which is
precisely what these horses are not doing (753 pedum tumultu). Here it
seems to have collective sense, i.e., singular for plural (as perhaps also
at 2.501). In this collective sense it is not previously attested.
clangore tubarum For the expression, see 1.237 and 10.401 with
Berti’s good note. Initially referring to the song of birds, from Virgil
(cf. A. 2.313, 8.526, 11.192) onwards onomatopoeic clangor applies in
epic to the sound of the martial instruments, especially the tuba.
751 pulsu Used of galloping and/or foot-stamping since Enn. Scen. 341
Vahlen (for galloping, cf. Verg. A. 6.591, 12.533; for foot-stamping, cf.
Enn. Ann. 1 pulsatis, Verg. A. 7.722 with Horsfall’s n., 12.334), in L.
puls- based forms denote some kind of beat or stroke (2.456, 5.119,
10.480; cf. Verg. G. 4.49) or are applied in medical sense to the pulse,
as at 1.629, or to some analogous throbbing in a living animal, as in 757
below.
752 ora… iubas… aures Three parts of the horse’s head help the
reader focus on the animal’s mood, as well as on its rider’s.
753 incerto… tumultu The phrase frames the line and nicely conveys
the restless moving of the feet which may occur when a warhorse is
held still—although this description is in the negative, and we are being
told everything the horse is not doing; cf. 749n. above. The restless
warhorse usually foreshadows victory and therefore L.’s graphic meta-
phor (see next. n.) creates an even more jarring effect in the context of
Roman defeat. For the sense of incerto, conveying both hesitation and
rapidity, see the translation at 750-8n. and cf. 725n. above. Note how
this line ends the ‘negative enumeration’ (see 749n. above) with the
bracketing word order of noun and adjective (observed at 600n. above).
pedum… tumultu ‘With an uproar of feet’. This particular metaphori-
cal use of tumultus applied to feet seems unique.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 275

754-8 ceruix… artus / ora… lingua / pectora… / …ilia Note the de-
tailed enumeration of body parts, and cf. 752n. above. The same tech-
nique is used also for Antaeus; cf. 618-19n. above. This passage is re-
modeling Verg. G. 3.500-1, 505-8, 516 to reflect L.’s ‘ignoble theme’
(Bramble 1982, 550).
754 fessa iacet ceruix Cf. Verg. G. 3.500 demissae aures and 524 ad
terram fluit deuexo pondere ceruix. After the negative formulations of
749-53, this is the first positive statement relating to the horse. One
would therefore expect a strongly adversative conjunction to introduce
it. But L. has chosen to convey the contrast with fessa, and thereby
keep the sequence of the description unbroken by a particle. As noted
by an early commentator, the present enumeration is phrased as a posi-
tive statement but casts a dark omen on the outcome of the battle:
Comm. Bern. ad loc. ‘haec ominosa, illa [sc. 749-53] felicia.’ Note how
for the horse’s exhaustion L. employs the same vocabulary he used for
Antaeus; cf. 622-3n. and 638n. above.
fumant sudoribus artus Cf. Verg. G. 3.500-1 incertus ibidem / sudor
and 515 duro fumans sub uomere Taurus.
755 oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua Cf. Verg. G. 3.501-2
aret / pellis and 508 obsessa fauces premit aspera lingua.
756 pectora rauca gemunt, quae creber anhelitus urguet Cf. 622n.
above on Antaeus; Verg. G. 3.497 tussis anhela, 505-6 attractus ab alto
/ spiritus.
758 siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis Cf. 6.398. Note the
insistence on the hissing sibilant, whose phonic effect expands on the
emphasis put on panting in 756-7. The bloodstained bit graphically
renders the image of the worn-out, exhausted animal. L. is here expand-
ing on the topos of the exhausted horse’s ‘frothing mouth’: e.g., Calli-
mach. Hymn. 5.13; Verg. G. 3.507-8 it naribus ater / sanguis, 516 mix-
tum spumes uomit ore cruorem; A. 4.135 stat sonipes ac frena ferox
spumantia mandit (imitated by Sil. 5.147, cf. 12.254-5 and Ov. M.
5.518) with Pease and Serv. ad loc., 11.195, 12.372-3; St. Theb. 7.766
iam lubrica tabo frena, 8.542 saucius extremo… cum sanguine frenos
respuit (sc. equus); and Claud. Rapt. Pros. 2.202 sanguine frena calent
(TLL VI.1291-3).
276 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

lupatis ‘lupi (λῦκοι or ἐχῖνοι) were spikes in the mouthpiece of a bit

used to hurt the horse’s tongue and palate’ (Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor. C.
1.8.6, who note the cruelty of ancient taming methods and add an anec-
dote from Dio Chrys. 63.5); cf. Verg. G. 3.208. This particular type of
jagged-toothed bit is used for horses that are hard to tame; perhaps es-
pecially for warhorses? Cf. TLL VII.2.1848.37ff. On ancient bits, see
Anderson 1961, 40 ff.; des Noëttes 1931, pl. 62, 248; Dict. ant. II.2,
1339a-b s.v. ‘frenum’.
759-60 iamque gradum… addunt The adverbial iamque suggests
immediacy, urge to move on. And yet the negative adverbs that imme-
diately follow thwart the expectation.
761 uolneribus coguntur equi Since all else fails, the horses are
spurred on by stabbing—which will eventually fail, too.
762 cornipedum As a noun it occurs twice in L., cf. 8.3; as and adjec-
tive, twice each in Virgil and Ovid. Henceforth it is frequent as a noun
in Silius and Statius. It might be a Virgilian coinage after such words as
sonipes (Norden ad Verg. A. 6.591; Feeney ad Sil. 1.223; Horsfall ad
Verg. A. 7.779).
762-3 neque enim impetus ille / incursusque fuit: tantum perfertur
ad hostem total denial of epic action.
764 et spatium iaculis oblato uolnere donat The bracketing word
order (here also denoting closure, see e.g. 753n. above) imitates the
dynamics of the action described. Note the intentional vagueness of the
impersonal phrasing, with donat apparently lacking a proper grammati-
cal subject, but in fact deriving it from the impersonal perfertur. The
agent is therefore Curio’s cavalry in general, e.g. eques understood
collectively as equitatus, though by hypallage cornipes is the gram-
matical subject of perfertur. The cavalry are the spatium through which
the weapons travel (lit. they give spatium to the iacula). And the abla-
tive absolute oblato uolnere audaciously describes their passivity in a
daring hypallage: offering themselves as vehicles for iacula they are
already wounds. Cf. Hübner 1972, 593: ‘Das Ziel bohrt sich in seinem
Treffer. Die extravagante sprachliche Wendung setzt das Wiedersinnige
der Situation in grelles Licht.’
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 277

765-8 at uagus Afer equos… traxitque tenebras The motif of the

galloping horse goes as far back as Homer Il. 10.535. It resonates in
Latin literature from Ennius Ann. 439 Vahlen, to Lucr. 2.329-30, Verg.
A. 8.596, 9.599-600 and 975, St. Theb. 12.651 and Sil. 4.95-6. Bramble
1982, 549 n. 1.
765 uagus Afer i.e., ‘Numidian’, cf. the figura etymologica at 677n.
above.
766 terraque soluta One of L.’s daring images: the earth ‘dissolves’,
i.e., it is released in the air as the Numidian cavalry charge. By the end
of the next line, this terra will have dissolved into dust, 767 puluis. The
image of the sand being released into the air returns almost obsessively
in Book IX; cf. esp. the tableau of Cato and his soldiers caught in a
desert windstorm: 9.451 liquidas se turbine soluit in auras, 456-6 pars
plurima terrae / tollitur, and notes below. On the motif of the dust
cloud, see Homer Il. 3.10ff.; the motif is absent in Verg. A. 11.876-7,
908-9, 12.407-8, and 444-5 (Bramble 1982, 549 n. 1).
767 quantus Bistonio torquetur turbine By synecdoche the adjective
Bistonius (also Bistonis, from the ethnomym Bistones or Bistonii, cf.
TLL II.2015-16) stands for Thracius. Reference to the Bistonians is not
very common. Chiefly applied to mythical figures such as Orpheus,
Diomedes, and Tereus, the epithet occurs four more times in L. and
elsewhere only in poetry: it is absent in Virgil and occurs only once
each in Lucretius and Horace, first becoming popular with Ovid, who
ostensibly follows Hellenistic models. Its occurrence here, in a simile in
which the dusty gusts aroused by the charging Numidian cavalry are
compared to the Thracian wind, alludes to the proverbial ferocity of the
Bistonians, a people dear to Mars: cf. 7.569 and RE III.504ff. It may
also evoke by association with Thrace the Orphic Bacchanal and its
loud, gory and boisterous ritual, as well as the sanguinary King of the
Bistonians, Diomedes (alluded to at 2.163); cf. Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor.
C. 2.19.20 and Lyne on Ciris 165.
768 texit traxitque tenebras The insisting assonance in the voiceless
dental lends this threefold alliteration a rhythmic beat, perhaps evoking
the tinny clangs of the weapons audible in the dark and dusty confusion
as the charging cavalry approaches the target.
278 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

769-87 The actual battle is described. Note the emphasis on lack of

space and movement, as in Caes. BC 2.41.
770-1 nullo dubii discrimine Martis / ancipites steterunt casus
‘There was no doubting about outcome (ancipites casus) in the perils
(discrimine) of Mars the fickle (dubii Martis).’ Redundancy is a typical
feature of L.’s expression. Here the idea of war’s dual outcome is ap-
plied to both casus and Mars, and since anceps is a compound of ambo
with caput, there might be etymological play with dubius, which con-
tains the root of the numeral duo, and with dis- of discrimine, in the
latter case also highlighted by alliteration. The epithets anceps and
dubius are found together in at least thirteen occurrences from Livy to
Tacitus; in L. cf. 2.447-8 tunc urbes Latii dubiae uarioque fauore /
ancipites… cessurae, 8.283 hinc anceps dubii terret sollertia Mauri
(with Mayer’s n.), 9.581-2 sortilegis egeant dubii semperque futuris /
casibus ancipites; cf. also 389-90; Liv. 7.25.4; Vell. 2.79.3; Tac. Ann.
4.73.4.
770 dubii… Martis cf. Verg. G. 2.283, on which Thomas: ‘perhaps
suggested by the formulaic metonymy dubio Marte’ (cf. A. 11.899;
Vell. 2.55.3), hence L.’s use of dubius as epithet where of course there
is no doubt about the outcome of the war. The metonymy was current
in the late Republic: Cic. Att. 7.8.4 (quoting Il. 18.39).
discrimine Martis For this hexameter ending, see 3.336 (with Hun-
ink’s n.), 5.723 (cf. also 8.389 discrimina belli); Sil. 5.660. For the
sense of the phrase, see also 4.48 and TLL V.1.1362.23-30. On discri-
men in L., see ad 9.493 below.
771-2 tempora pugnae / mors tenuit Lit. ‘Death held the time of bat-
tle.’ This seems to be the only place with tempora as direct object of
tenere in a military context, but the epexegetic pugnae gives tenere the
well attested military sense of ‘occupy, be in control of’ (OLD 9). L. is
describing the result of the fatum belli (769) falling on Curio’s pedites
in the form of Juba’s cavalry; see following note.
772-3 neque enim licuit procurrere contra / et miscere manus As
the turn of phrase neque enim shows, this sentence explains the previ-
ous one: since there was no room to move (see 782n. below), it was
impossible to counterattack.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 279

773 undique saepta iuuentus Here the soldiers begin to lose room for
movement: they are surrounded on all sides.
774 comminus… eminus These two adverbs describe the deadly
strikes coming aslant (when from near) and straight down (when
thrown from afar). The point of view belongs to the saepta iuuentus of
the previous line.
775-6 non uolneribus nec sanguine solum, / telorum nimbo peritura
et pondere ferri The point here is that Curio’s soldiers are not going to
perish of wounds and blood-loss only. They are crushed under the
weight of a cloud of weapons; but telorum nimbo peritura is reversing
the topos that a cloud of weapons usually does no harm (e.g. Persian
missiles against Phocians at Thermopylae in Hdt. 7.218.3). Cf. the dead
bodies crushing the living in the Sullan massacre at 2.204-6 (with Fan-
tham’s n.); Bartsch 1997, 17. As seen in his recalling the Gigantomachy
in the telling of the struggle of Hercules and Antaeus, L. is very fond of
hyperbole; cf. intro. and notes to 589-661 above.
777 acies tantae paruum spissantur in orbem In this image of large
crowds concentrating in a small circle, note the contrast in tantae pa-
ruum and the sense of density in both sound and rhythm with a series of
seven long syllables, expanding on the idea of heaviness expressed in
the previous line with pondere.
spissantur As a technical term, spissare denotes condensation. L. uses
it only here and 77; not attested before Ovid, who uses it only once: Ov.
M. 15.250 ignis enim densum spissatum in aera transit (with Bömer ad
loc.); cf. Sen. NQ. 3.15.7, 25.12; 5.6.
777-81 Note the ‘circular’ phrasing and vocabulary to describe how the
army folds into a circular mass: 777 acies…. orbem… 780 globus… 781
gyros acies;
777 orbem For the metaphor to describe soldiers, see 780 globus be-
low.
778-81 ac, si quis… acies L. illustrates in what way the army is
crushed onto itself, as it were, in a vice-like grip. Translate: ‘If anyone
seized by fright (metuens) crawled (correpsit) into the middle of the
mass (medium in agmen), he could scarcely move about (uix conuerti-
tur) unhurt (779 inpune) amidst allied swords (suos inter ensis). And
280 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

the throng (780 globus) thickened as much as the receding (pede relato)
front line tightened (781 constrinxit) the circle.’
780 globus Probably an extension of the concept introduced by 777
orbem, this is the only occurrence in L. of globus as a metaphor for
crowd (Gregorius 1893, 12) in the military sense of ‘closely packed
mass’ sc. of soldiers (OLD 4a); in its other two occurrences in L. it
mainly carries the idea of density, cf. 4.74, 9.801. Attested as a military
term since Cato Mil. frg. 11, it is sometimes applied in poetry to a com-
pact group of soldiers, e.g. Verg. A. 10.373 globus ille uirum densis-
simus.
781-2 non arma mouendi / iam locus est pressis Total denial of op-
portunity for epic action (non arma): there was no room for maneuver-
ing the weapons. Note how the syntax emphasizes the paradoxical cir-
cumstance that the agent, expressed by the dative pressis, is denied
room for action. Starting with 777, the degree of immobility, as it were,
has been constantly increasing. On the topos of the weapons that cannot
be wielded, see Masters 1992, 57-8 n. 29.
782 stipataque membra teruntur The soldiers are no longer identifi-
able as a group of individuals. They are just stipata membra, for the
synecdoche conveys the sense of frustration proper to an army caught
in dire straits and prevented from reacting by lack of room. The only
action that is possible for these ‘packed limbs’ is passively to rub
against one another. L. is innovating on a topos: not mere ‘limbs’
(membra) or chests (see ad 783 pectore pectus), but arms and feet are
supposed to rub on one another; for analogous expressions in battle
contexts, see Enn. Ann. 572 Vahlen (cf. Bell. Hisp. 31.6) pes premitur
pede et armis arma teruntur (with Vahlen’ s n. ad loc. tracing the topos
as far back as Hom. Il. 13.131 and 16.215); Furius Bibaculus Ann. 10
Blänsdorf (cf. Macrob. sat. 6.3.5) pressatur pede pes, mucro mucrone,
uiro uir; Verg. A. 10.361 haeret pede pes densusque uiro uir.
stipata usually of protective bodyguards: e.g. 4.208. Here there might
be an implied paradox.
783 frangitur armatum conliso pectore pectus This polyptoton
shows the extent of L.’s innovation on the topos (see previous n.): usu-
ally the nouns denote the opposing sides in a battle, whereas here both
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 281

pectores belong to the same side. On the clausula pectore pectus, see
624n. above.
conliso This is the only occurrence of conlidere in L. Attested also one
time each in Lucretius, Horace, Ovid, Manilius and Nemesianus, twice
in Statius and five times in Silius (TLL III.1601.74-7), collidere is defi-
nitely more common in prose.
784 laeta This adjective recalls the very beginning of the campaign
narrative, when Curio was laetatus by the fortuna locorum, thus enclos-
ing Curio’s African campaign in a kind of ring-composition; cf. 661n.
above.
784-7 non tam laeta… spectacula / quam Fortuna dabat… / …non
ille… / uidet… / corpora Juba’s Numidians (784 Maurus has collec-
tive sense) could not enjoy the spectacle of their own victory because
the corpses were too many and amassed in too narrow a space. On the
theatrical/gladiatorial aspects of construing a slaughter as a show, see
Leigh 1997, ch. 7 ‘A view to a Kill’, esp. 290. See next n.
787 compressum turba stetit omne cadauer ‘Every corpse stood up-
right compressed by the crowding.’ The hyperbole ends L.’s account of
Curio’s defeat. Cf. 776n. above and Bartsch 1997, 17. Note the insis-
tence on stare: 753; 771.
cadauer There are thirty-six occurrences of this noun in L., five in Se-
neca’s tragedies, seventeen in Silius, and three in Statius’ Thebaid. It is
not attested in Horace, Tibullus or Propertius. Norden 1926, 178 shows
how Virgil preferred corpus (ad 6.149; cf. Axelson 1945, 49-50); inter-
estingly Virgil uses cadauer twice, but not for human corpses, cf. G.
3.557 (beasts) and A. 8.264 (Cacus). On this word in L., see Bramble
1982, 541.
788-90 ‘May Fortune evoke with renewed burial offerings the loathed
ghosts of cruel Carthage; may gory Hannibal and the spirits of the Pu-
nic dead welcome these ghastly expiations.’ Almost unobtrusively, L.
sets the mood for the long apostrophe that will follow Curio’s death.
Though he does it in a wishful tone, or nothing good is expected from
Fortuna, as the vocabulary of funereal ritual shows.
788-9 excitet… ferat… Even though in L. both tone and chronological
perspective are different, it is useful to be reminded of Dido’s anath-
282 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

ema: Verg. A. 4.625 exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor (with

Pease ad loc.). Dido’s curse is spoken as a prophecy in the future tense,
and in a startling second person singular, whereas L.’s subjunctives of
wish could almost function as an exhortation (i.e., if they were in the
first person plural) and express the hope that Curio’s army can in fact
serve as funeral offerings (inferiis) to appease Hannibal’s ghost. Dido is
addressing Hannibal whereas in L. it is Fortune who shall allow this
expiatory sacrifice of Roman lives in retribution, as it were, for the
failure of Dido’s prophecy.
789 inferiis For the metaphorical use, see 2.176 piacula and 3.292 ex-
sequias (with Gregorius 1893, 12). Here inferiae are the ‘last rites’
offered to the manes of the dead; cf. Thomson ad Catull. 101.2; Ov. F.
5.422. The metaphor suggests that the Roman dead are offered in expia-
tion to placate the manes of a defeated enemy, an idea that resurfaces at
6.309-11 nec…/ Poenorumque umbras placasset sanguine fuso / Scipio
(= Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, defeated at Thapsus in 46). Also
in the Aeneid the offerings to the dead include human sacrifice; for
instance when Aeneas, seized by homicidal frenzy (furor), slaughters
two groups of four brothers, 10.519 inferias quos immolet umbris, to
avenge Pallas killed by Turnus; cf. also Dido’s anathema quoted in
previous n. Historians of religion have noted the ancients’ need to pla-
cate furor ‘with the sacrifice of human and animal victims in the order
of ritual revenge’ (De Martino 1958, 221; Massenzio in EV II.963 s.v.
‘inferiae’). The chain of nemesis does not function here in strictly ge-
nealogical terms, at least not for the offended, since Juba is neither a
Carthaginian nor a descendant of Hannibal: cf. Hor. C. 2.1.29 inferias
Iugurthae, with Nisbet/Hubbard’s suggestion that L. ‘is not just imitat-
ing Horace (who seems to complicate a familiar topic by introducing
Jugurtha), and Pollio has been suggested as a common source;’ on Pol-
lio as a source, see Dahlmann 1965, 144. L.’s conceit implies a synec-
doche pars pro toto: both Juba and Hannibal belong in Africa, who is
taking her revenge upon Rome, see 793n. below.
790 dira piacula ‘It is both appropriate and ironic that a man named
Curio should bring the first piaculum to Hannibal and Carthage in Af-
rica. No Roman reader would have been unaware that Curio’s name
recalls the sacerdos curio sacris faciundis, the priestly curio in charge
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 283

of sacrifice. And Lucan probably knew also that Curio was himself a
pontifex [Dio 40.62]’ (Ahl 1976, 113 and n. 51-2).
791-3 In an outburst phrased as an address to the gods, which almost
functions as a prelude to the longer apostrophe (799-824) that will fol-
low the account of Curio’s death, L. points to the indignity that the
death of Romans benefits other Romans by favoring the righteous cause
of Pompey and the senate: ‘O gods, [it is] impious (nefas) that the dis-
grace of Rome on African soil benefit Pompey and the wishes of the
senate! Let rather Africa win over us for her own sake (sibi).’
791 Romanam, superi, Libyca tellure ruinam The enclosing word
order (Romanam… ruinam) highlights the paradox that the victory in a
battle against the enemy of the Republic is a disgrace for Rome; but see
next note.
792 prodesse nefas has the force of an oxymoron: it is a disgrace that
so many Roman deaths should be a benefit for Pompey and the senate.
793 Africa nos potius uincat sibi As 788 excitet and 789 ferat , also
uincat is a subjunctive of wish. L.’s opinion is that it would have been
better for Rome if Juba’s Numidians had won for themselves, i.e., not
on Pompey’s behalf – which points to the paradox that Africa defeating
Romans is much more shameful because the Romans are using Africa
against one another.
794-5 ut… et cernere tantas / permisit clades conpressus sanguine
puluuis ‘As soon as Curio saw his army lying (fusas) on the battlefield,
as soon as the dust laid by the blood allowed the sight of the slaugh-
ter…’ The concept of the blood allowing the dust to settle and offer a
clear view of the corpses is perhaps not as hyperbolic as it sounds. It
certainly conveys well the mood of Curio pausing and looking at the
grim spectacle of his slaughtered army.
796-8 On Curio’s death, see Caes. BC 2.42.
796 animam producere Curio cannot bear to live on after losing the
legions which Caesar had entrusted to him, cf. Caes. BC 2.42.4 Curio
numquam se amisso exercitu, quem a Caesare fidei commissum acce-
perat, in eius conspectum reuersurum confirmat atque ita proelians
interficitur; but the tragic tone of producere animam, highlights the
pathos of his despair. Anima clearly has the sense of uita, and the
284 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

phrase, not attested before L., therefore means ‘go on living’; cf. Iuv.
15.93-4 Vascones, ut fama est, alimentis talibus usi / produxere animas.
Note, however, that producere occasionally also has the sense ‘come to
life, be born’, cf. OLD 5.
797 ceciditque in strage suorum Curio dies fighting and his corpse
tops the heap. In Caes. BC 2.42.3-4, the prefect of the horse offers Cu-
rio a chance to seek safety in flight, but Curio is resolved to die with his
infantry, proelians interficitur.
798 inpiger ad letum et fortis uirtute coacta L.’s tone has a tinge of
admiration for Curio’s choice to die as a uir fortis. Yet Curio’s act of
uirtus, albeit worthy of praise (cf. 809 below), is not the result of choice
(coacta) as it should have been, and is clearly unfortunate (ad letum).
On inpiger, see 8n. above.

4.799–824 The final apostrophe

Book IV ends with a complex apostrophe. After an address to Curio
(799-804) and the party leaders (805-6), there follows a general moral-
izing reflection (807-10) and a second address to Curio (811-13). At
last, evils past and present are attributed to the wretched times, and the
book is sealed off with an epigram expressing the poet’s angry disgust
at Curio (814-24).
The funerary commemoration of an important person is a characteristic
of the historiographical mode: Sen. Suas. 6.21: quotiens magni alicuius
uiri mors ab historicis narrata est, totiens fere consummatio totius uitae
et quasi funebris laudatio redditur. Obituaries ‘give the historian scope
for epigram, for praise or blame without subsequent appeal’ (Syme
1958, 312-13 on Tacitus’ obituaries; see also Pomeroy 1991, 110-225
from Sallust to Tacitus). L.’s eulogy contains both praise and blame and
is delivered in the form of a long apostrophe to Curio that serves as an
epigrammatic seal to the account of Curio’s disastrous African cam-
paign. On L.’s apostrophes, see Asso 2008, Martindale 1993, 67, the
Introduction above, and Viansino 1974, 47-75. On apostrophe in L. see
index s.v.; on the use of apostrophe in Latin epic it is still profitable to
consult Curcio 1903, Endt 1905 and Hampel 1908.
799 quid… tibi With the apostrophe to dead Curio, this exordium effi-
caciously conveys the heightened sense of tragedy. After the practice of
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 285

oratorical peroration (cf. esp. ad Herenn. 2. 47-49, Cic. Inv. 1. 100-105,

Quint. Inst. 6. 1. 12 ff.), the tone is meant to stir the reader’s indigna-
tion: Curio’s qualities did not save him. In the following two lines L.
offers a summary of Curio’s career: rostra and forum (on Curio’s gift
for oratory, see next n. below), tribunate of the plebs (see 800n. below),
civil war and illegal pro-praetorship of Sicily (see 801n. below). Cf.
Hor. C. 4.7.23-4 non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te / resti-
tuet pietas.
prosunt On the funerary motif of nil profuit, see Courtney 1993 on
Porcius 3.8; Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.28.4; Prop. 3.18.11; Corne-
lius Severus 13.8-9 [ap. Sen. Suas. 6.26] (with Courtney’s n.). Note the
reiteration of prodesse: 761; 792; 811.
rostra… turbata forumque The hendiadys is best solved: ‘the ruckus
provoked at the rostra in the forum,’ with turbata functioning also as a
transferred epithet for forum (hypallage). Curio naturam habuit ad-
mirabile ad dicendum, as we know from Cic. Brutus 280, who remem-
bers him for his skill in rounding off deep thoughts with elegant and
fluent turns of phrases, facile soluteque uerbis uoluebat satis interdum
acutas, crebras quidem certe sententias, ut nihil posset ornatius esse,
nihil expeditius.
800 tribunicia plebeius signifer arce The hendiadys plebeius signifer
solves into ‘standard bearer of the plebs.’ Cf. 1.270-71 uox quondam
populi libertatemque tueri / ausus. Curio had been tribune for 50 BCE,
the year before the African campaign, and in that capacity he had
proved a defender of the people when trying unsuccessfully to pass an
agrarian law; see 690n. above.
signifer On this metaphor, see Suet. Vita Lucani 23 (Rostagni 1944,
147) ad extremum paene signifer Pisonianae coniurationis extitit.
This compound, used as a noun in its military sense of standard-
bearer (here in metaphor), occurs three times in L. (cf. 7.163, 9.737);
four more times it occurs as an adjective, in three cases referring to the
sky, more properly the zodiac, as ‘holding constellations (signa)’, cf.
3.254, 7.363, 8.172, but in one case applying the military sense of
‘standard-bearer’ to the flag-ship, cf. 3.558.
801 arma dabas populis In the place of arma one would expect iura
with reference to Rome’s traditional role of civilizing foreign, con-
286 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

quered nations: cf. Verg. G. 4.561-2 per populos da iura (Octavian); cf.
Austin ad Verg. A. 1.293; Hor. C. 3.3.44 Roma ferox dare iura Medis.
The problem here is that, given the context about Curio’ tribunate in 50
BCE, the plural populis refers to the Roman people (L. might be using
the plural to allude to the formula iura dare populis). The sense of
arma is clearly metaphorical and probably political: until his tribunate,
Curio’s policy favored the people and opposed the despotism of the
triumvirs (Lacey 1961, 319-20). On ‘putting weapons in someone’s
hands’ in metaphorical sense, see TLL II.595.79ff.
prodita iura senatus This may refer to Caesar’s resistance to recall
implied in the letter Curio delivered to the consuls (see 738-9n. above);
and also to the right of the senate to appoint the governor of the prov-
inces, blatantly broken by Curio’s taking possession of Sicily as pro-
praetor with the two legions given him by Caesar in March 49 BCE; cf.
Caes. BC 1.30.2; Cic. Att. 10.4.9; Münzer in RE II.1.872.41-5.
802 et gener atque socer bello concurrere iussi The participle iussi
gives the impression that Pompey and Caesar were forced to go to war
– which is probably Curio’s view, given that L. is addressing him in the
second person (e.g. 801 dabas). In April 49, once the war was being
fought, Cicero calls it a bellum… non iniustum… quidem sed cum pium
tum etiam necessarium (Cic. Att. 10.4.3).
gener atque socer Cf. 1.289-90; 10.417. Forced by her father Caesar,
Julia had to break off a previous engagement and marry Pompey in 59
BCE. The earliest attestation of this talismanic phrase in poetry is Ca-
tull. 29.24; cf. Verg. A. 6.830-1; 7.317 (with Horsfall ad. loc.); Mart.
9.70.3. On the use of socer and gener in L., see Viansino 1974, 9-15.
803-4 ante iaces quam dira duces Pharsalia confert / spectandum-
que tibi bellum ciuile negatum est Curio is dead and shall therefore
miss the show of Pharsalus, thus being spared the embarrassment of
facing the question put to Pompey at 7.698-9 nonne iuuat pulsum bellis
cessisse nec istud / perspectasse nefas? Leigh 1997, 291 and n. 137
points to the ‘political dynamic of Lucan’s amphitheatre’ and interest-
ingly compares 803 duces… confert with Curio’s conferre duces at 707,
rightly highlighting the ‘amphitheatrical sense of conferre’ (ibid. n.
137). The show of the bellum ciuile may go on even without its auctor,
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 287

i.e., Curio, as L. already implied at 738-9 bellumque trahebat / auc-

torem ciuile suum, on which see n. above.
805-6 Understand: ‘This is the vengeance (poenas, see next n.) that
with your blood (uestro de sanguine) you make our wretched city suffer
(ferre datis): [for] thus you atone for the [civil] wars (arma) with your
life (iugulo).’ The syntax is hard to render in English, but L. does a
good job of conveying the paradox of the warlords’ deaths being the
cause of Rome’s double penalty of tyranny and grief for the deaths of
some of her greatest citizens. Introduced in the previous mention of 802
gener atque socer, the vocative potentes shifts L.’s address from Curio
to the leaders of the factions opposing one another in the civil war:
Pompey, whose death figures in L.’s poem in Book VIII (613ff.), and
Caesar, whose death lies out of L.’s narrative. Mention of Curio to-
gether with the potentes occurs also at 1.270-71 uox quondam populi
libertatemque tueri / ausus et armatos plebi miscere potentis, on which
see 583n. on audax, 801n. above, and the notes below.
805 has… poenas As in the Aeneid (and perhaps also in Ennius, see
next note), poena has here its ancient sense of ‘compensation’ exacted
from the body itself of the offender: cf. Paus. 3.15.6; Hom. Il. 13.659,
14.483, 16.398, 21.28; Od. 23.312; Hdt. 2.134, 136; see EV IV.153 s.v.
‘poena’. The enclosing word order imitates Verg. A. 7.595 ipsi has
sacrilego pendetis sanguine poenas, where King Latinus’ emphasis is
on ipsi, i.e., the Rutulians and Turnus, on whose blood Aeneas will take
his revenge for the death of Pallas. Here L.’s emphasis is on the re-
venge itself, which rather than retributive is paradoxically punitive for
Rome; hence the phrase has poenas encloses the whole line while also
referring to Latinus’ words; for this ultimately Ennian intertext, see
next note.
sanguine poenas The clausula sanguine poenas has an august pedigree.
L. is imitating quite closely Romulus’ words as he is about to kill Re-
mus in Enn. Ann 95 Skutsch (= 100 Vahlen = 103 Flores) nam mi
calido dabis sanguine poenas; repeated almost verbatim by the
Rutulian Volcens as he is about to kill Euryalus in Verg. A. 9.422-3
calido mihi sanguine poenas / persolues (with Hardie 1994 ad loc.);
Virgil uses this exact phrase four more times: A. 7.595, 766, 10.617,
11.592; but cf. also 2.72 and 366; Ov. F. 4.239 (with Fantham’s n.);
[Sen.] Oct. 812.
288 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

By going all the way back to the earliest historical legends of

Rome, the Ennian intertext fills L.’s apostrophe to the potentes with
profoundly complex ideological, political, and religious/ancestral im-
plications. Through the reference to the foundational fratricide, the
massacre of Curio is elevated to the level of the Romans’ ancestral
memory and thereby acquires ‘mythical’ proportions. In other words,
Rome’s myth of foundation revolves around an impious act that is fated
to repeat itself in the past, present, and future civil wars and imperial
dynastic strife; cf. Asso 2002b.
806 luitis iugulo sic arma As at 3.135-6 haud… iugulo se polluet isto
nostra… manus (Caesar to Metellus blocking access to the public treas-
ure), iugulum is here almost metonymic for ‘blood’, and therefore ‘life’
(TLL VII.2.638.71-2). There is a possible echo of Hor. C. 1.6.1 delicta
maiorum inmeritus lues.
807-24 Curio’s moment; the tribune is praised for his natural talents but
blamed for his political opportunism. After the address to Curio (799-
804) and to Caesar and Pompey (805-6), 807-9 are spoken generally,
almost as an incidental interjection of the poet’s persona, but they also
fit the syntactical context very nicely, switching unobtrusively to the
third person. Then the poet addresses Curio for the last time (811-13),
and concludes (814-24) with a eulogy that is offset by a scathing judg-
ment, giving an epigrammatic seal to the book: 824 emere omnes, hic
vendidit urbem. Curio’s death comes at the end of Book IV and, as in
Caesar (BC II), the end of Curio in Africa marks the end of both a book
and a phase in the war. For the characterization of Curio, cf. Vell. Pat.
2.48.3 (cf. 583n. above), modeled on the Sallustian portraits of Aemil-
ius Scaurus (Iug. 15.4) and Catilina (Cat. 5.4).
807 Felix Roma quidem ciuisque habitura beatos The main verb
fuisset (cf. e.g. Kühner/Stegman II.408-9 on conditional sentences pre-
ceded by ‘non dubito quin’) is not needed, given the presence of the
future participle: translate as the apodosis of a conditional sentence,
‘Rome could have surely (quidem) been considered lucky and her citi-
zens a happy lot, if…’ or even ‘Rome would now be…’ (verb absence
may encourage contemporary application). The mention of the state
along with its citizens has a grim tone, embittered by the poet’s histori-
cal hindsight as well as his personal experience as a subject under a
despotic rule. The adjectives felix and beatos are not intended ironi-
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 289

cally, though it is hard for modern sensibility not to see some irony in
this statement. One should take L.’s remark as acknowledging what
Rome was not during both the time of the narrative and the poet’s own
time; see next n. below.
808-9 si libertatis superis tam cura placeret / quam uindicta placet
‘…if the superi had cared (superis… cura placeret ) for freedom as
much as they care for revenge;’ cf. Tac. Hist. 1.3 (Haskins). This typi-
cally Lucanian sententia is one of the many sign posts the poet leaves
on his way to build up to Pharsalus in Book VII (Malcovati 1940, 28).
Curio’s death is avenging the superi, as one can clearly see from what
follows in 809-10. These superi – always referred collectively in L. –
do take interest in the war and their presence invites us further to con-
sider L.’s moral point. These superi are avenged by Curio’s death and
also by his lack of burial. On (poetic) morality and justice in human
affairs, or lack thereof, in relation with fate, gods and Fortuna, see
Pichon 1912, 180-1, Syndikus 1958, 82-3, Schotes 1969, 100-55,
Narducci 1979, 76-7; and esp. Fantham 2003.
809-10 Libycas, en, nobile corpus, / pascit aues nullo contectus Cu-
rio busto The qualifier nobile (Curio was the son of a Roman consul),
with the direct apostrophe and praeconia that follow, expresses genuine
regret that such a man is unburied. The apostrophe to Curio’s nobile
corpus emphasizes both the uirtus of his final act and the paradox that
his noble death does not guarantee him the burial honors proper to a
Roman (a foretaste of Pompey’s delayed burial in Book VIII). The
pathos is intensified by the mention of his name ‘Curio’, in reference to
Curio’s religious pontificate: cf. Dio 40.62 and 790n. above.
811-13 Like many other victims of the war, Curio too lacks burial.
These lines addressed to him cannot conceal L.’s admiration for his
character. On this apostrophe, see Endt 1905, 121.
811 non proderit ista silere To draw attention to his eulogy for Curio,
L.’s litotes varies on the panegyric formula ‘non silebo’ (by mixing it
with the ‘quid profuit’ motif): cf. h. Ap. 1.1 µνήσοµαι οὐδὲ λάθοµαι; cf.
Cic. Red. Sen. 30; Verg. A. 7.733 (with Horsfall ad loc.); 10.793; Hor.
C. 1.12.21 neque te silebo, with Nisbet/Hubbard ad loc., OLD s.v.
‘sileo’ 3b, Endt 1905, 120-2.
290 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

812 a quibus omne aeui senium sua fama repellit ‘the fame of which
[a quibus refers to 811 ista] rebuffs all decay of time.’ In other words, it
will do no good (811 non proderit) to overlook the mention of deeds
whose fame will forever last.
senium A pejorative synonym of senectus, senium esp. connotes de-
crepitude and decay: Haskins ad loc. and Mayer 1981 ad 8.476, cf. the
other two occurrences at 1.130 (Pompey) and 10.162 (wine aging).
Rare in poetry before Seneca (seven times), senium figures once each in
Ennius, Horace and Valerius, twelve times in Silius and sixteen in Sta-
tius: cf. Lyne 1978 on Ciris 248-9.
813 digna damus, iuuenis, meritae preconia uitae A funerary eulogy,
marked with a typical panegyric formula: digna… praeconia uitae var-
ies e.g., [Tib.] 3.7.177 non ego sum satis ad tantae praeconia laudis; cf.
Ov. Her. 17.207 praeconia famae, M. 12.773 praeconia rebus, Tr.
1.6.35-6, 4.9.19-20 nostra per immensas ibunt praeconia gentes ‫׀‬
quodque querar notum qua patet orbis erit, St. Theb. 2.176 praeconia
famae. The noun praeconia is metonymical for poetry (of praise): see
above all Cic. Fam. 5.12.7 praeconium…ab Homero Achilli tributum,
cf. OLD 1c.
iuuenis L. was 25 years old when wrting this: it is striking that he so
addresses a character who in the narrative is about 20 years his senior.
On iuuenis, see 738n. above.
814 haut alium tanta ciuem tulit indole Roma ‘Rome scarce pro-
duced another of such inborn talent…’ Ostensibly foreshadowed by the
address to Curio as iuuenis in the former line, this remark comes as no
small praise. One could detect a veil of irony, supported by the epi-
grammatic seal at 824. But the context suggests actual praise for the
dead Curio; see also next note.
815 aut cui plus leges deberent recta sequenti ‘…nor [anyone] to
whom the laws would have owed more if only he had followed the right
course.’ The circumstantial partciciple sequenti (with recta as its ob-
ject) is here equivalent to a proviso clause: Curio once did follow recta
and was therefore honored by ‘the laws’; cf. Caelius to Cicero (August
1, 51 BCE) on Curio’s candidacy to the tribunate: Cic. Fam. 8.4.2 ut se
fert ipse [sc. Curio] bonos et senatum mallet.
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 291

816 perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula This is L.’s sad excusatio to
explain the state’s fall – victim of the times – under tyrannical leaders.
The phrase urbi nocuerunt is glossed by Housman with nocendo Curi-
oni, i.e., a kind of circularity analogous to what was expressed earlier,
cf. 805-6n. above: the perdita saecula are harmful both to the state and
Curio, who in turn is harmful to the state.
817 ambitus et luxus et opum metuenda facultas Corruption, luxury,
and the fearsome power of riches are the vices of the age that proved
fatal to Curio; here elegantly arranged in a tricolon occupying a whole
line. On luxus in L., cf. 1.160-73; 4.373-81; 10.111-71 (Cleopatra’s
palace and banquet), esp. 146-54; Sall. Cat. 10.2; 12; Iug. 41; Viansino
1974, 19-31.
818 transuerso… torrente tulerunt The alliteration concentrates the
attention on the beginning and the end of the line, emphasizing the mis-
leading confusion generated by the false values of ambition, riches and
luxurious decadence (817). Literally, the adjective transuersus means
‘crosswise’, but in a figurative sense it means ‘off the true or proper
course in conduct or understanding’ (OLD 2b) and thereby might be
near to our ‘perverse’.
mentem dubiam Curio’s wavering morals are graphically drowned
midline in a torrent of perversion.
transverso… torrente ‘stream of perversion’ As often in Latin, the
prepositional compound enforces and intensifies the meaning of the
verbal stem; .
819 momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum The turning point was
determined by Curio’s changing sides; on metaphor of the weight
movement (momentum < mouimentum) on the scale, see 3.357-8 and ad
4.3 above. But cf. Hor. C. 2.1.1 (with Nisbet/Hubbard ad loc.), pin-
pointing the agreement between Pompey and Caesar during the consul-
ship of Q. Metellus Celer in 60 BCE as the true key moment (probably
the beginning of the war according to Asinius Pollio); L. 1.84-5. On the
expression, see also Liv. 3.12.6 maximum momentum rerum.
820 Gallorum captus spoliis Caesaris auro Curio’s price. L. believes
that Curio had been bribed by Caesar to side with the populares, per-
haps as a result of the senate’s rejection of his ambitious land bill dur-
292 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824

ing his tribunate. Cf. Badian in OCD s.v. ‘Scribonius Curio, C.’; Cic.
Brutus 280.20 (with Douglas 1966 ad loc.); Val. Max. 9.1.6; Suet. Iul.
29; Lacey 1961.
821 ius licet in iugulos nostros sibi fecerit ensis For ius ensis, see
Housman and cf. 5.312 ferri… ius, 387. In iugulos nostros recalls the
powerful image evoked at 806 above.
822 Sulla potens L. has dedicated ample space to the account of Sulla’s
reign of terror in the second section of a spoken narrative from a survi-
vor of the earlier civil wars: 2.139-222. The epithet given him is not his
famous agnomen Felix, but the less alluring and more matter-of-fact
potens. Here his name is the first in a series of ultra-powerful leaders
that culminates with the Caesars. The context of this enumeration is
coherent with the perdita saecula of 816.
Mariusque ferox Marius is here mentioned second in reverse chrono-
logical order after Sulla. He is mentioned again with Sulla at 9.204. He
also received much attention earlier in the first section of the spoken
narrative of a survivor from the previous civil wars: 2.70-133. The sol-
dierly epithet is not flattering, as at 534 (the Opitergini), and it probably
simply has the sense ‘violent, fierce and therefore warlike’, e.g. when it
applies to Petreius’ ira at 211 (cf. 284) or to Curio (see 730n. above).
et Cinna cruentus As at 2.546 Cinnas Mariosque, Cinna is explicitly
mentioned only in connection with Marius. The epithet is elsewhere
applied to Mars (24) or warlike killing and slaughter (e.g. 2.111, 156,
212, 7.826 etc.) or baneful mortals as in 609 (Antaeus), 789 (Hannibal),
9.15 (Caesar).
823 Caesareaque domus series Caesar and his descendants are the
emptores, just as Marius, Cinna and Sulla before them.
823-4 cui tanta potestas / concessa est? This question introduces the
sneering remark of disgust that closes the book and the first tetrad.
There is more to it than just a condemnation of Curio. The enumeration
of potentes from Marius to the Caesars makes Curio disappear as small
fry in their company.
824 emere omnes hic uendidit urbem A fulfillment of Jugurtha’s
‘prophecy’ in Sall. Iug. 35.10 postquam Roma egressus est, fertur sa-
epe eo tacitus respiciens postremo dixisse: ‘urbem uenalem et mature
 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 293

perituram si emptorem inuenerit’. These are L.’s last words on Curio.

Comm. Bern. points to Verg. A. 6.621 uendidit hic auro patriam.
 References and Abbreviations

Adams, J. N. 1980. "Anatomical Terminology in Latin Epic." Bulletin

of the Institute of Classical Studies 27, 50-62.
—. 1982. The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. London: Duckworth.
Adcock, F.E. 1932. "The Civil War" in The Cambridge Ancient
History, vol. IX, edited by Albert S. Cook, F.E. Adcock, and
M.P. Charlesworth. New York/Cambridge: The Macmillan
Company/Cambridge Universiity Press, 638-90.
Adn. = Adnotationes super Lucanum. 1909. Edited by Johannes Endt.
Leipzig: Teubner.
Ahl, Frederick M. 1971. "Lucan's De Incendio Urbis, Epistulae ex
Campania and Nero's Ban." Transactions and Proceedings of the
American Philological Association 102, 1-27.
—. 1976. Lucan: An Introduction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
Albrecht, Michael von. 1964. Silius Italicus: Freiheit und
Gebundenheit römischer Epik. Amsterdam: Schippers.
Almagro Gorbea, Martín and Gonzalo Ruíz Zapatero. 1992.
Paleoetnología de la península libérica: actas de la reunión
celebrada en la Facultad de Geografía e Historía de la
Universidad Complutense, Madrid, 13-15 diciembre 1989.
Madrid: Editorial Complutense.
Anderson, Andrew Runni. 1928. "Heracles and His Successors: A
Study of a Heroic Ideal and the Recurrence of a Heroic Type."
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 39, 7-58.
Anderson, John Kinloch. 1961. Ancient Greek Horsemanship (with a
translation of Xenophon's Treatise on Equitation). Berkeley:
University of California Press.
—. 1985. Hunting in the Ancient World. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
296 References and Abbreviations

Anderson, W. B. 1917. "Notes on Lucan V." The Classical Quarterly

11, 98-101.
André, Jacques. 1949. Etude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue
latine. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.
—. 1985. Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique. Paris: Les Belles
Lettres.
—. 1991. Le vocabulaire latin de l'anatomie. Paris: Belles Lettres.
Armisen-Marchetti, Mireille. 2003. "Les liens familiaux dans le «
Bellum civile » de Lucain" in Gli Annei: una famiglia nella
storia e nella cultura di Roma imperiale: atti del convegno
internazionale di Milano-Pavia, 2-6 maggio 2000, edited by
Gualandri and Mazzoli. Como: New Press, 245-258.
Arnulf. 1958. Arnulfi Aurelianensis Glosule super Lucanum. Edited by
Berthe M. Marti. Rome: American Academy in Rome.
Asso, Paolo. 1999. "Passione eziologica nei Punica di Silio Italico:
Trasimeno, Sagunto, Ercole e i Fabii." Vichiana, 75-87.
—. 2001. "Passione eziologica nei Punica di Silio Italico: la morte di
Pirene." Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Naples,
Dipartimento di Studi del mondo classico e del Mediterraneo
antico, Sezione filologico-letteraria, 215-32.
—. 2002a. Myth and History in Lucan's African Interlude: A
Commentary on Bellum Civile 4.581-824 and 9.300-510. PhD
Thesis, Classics, Princeton University, Princeton.
—. 2002b. "The Function of the Fight: Hercules and Antaeus in
Lucan." Vichiana 4, 59-73.
—. 2008. "The Intrusive Trope – Apostrophe in Lucan." Materiali e
discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 61, 161-73.
—. 2010 (forthcoming). Brill Companion to Lucan. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Austin, R. G. 1955. Aeneidos liber quartus. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
—. 1964. Aeneidos. Liber secundus. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
—. 1971. P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos liber primus. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
—. 1977. P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos, Liber Sextus with a
Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
 References and Abbreviations 297

Avery, H.C. 1993. "A lost episode in Caesar's Civil War." Hermes.
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 121, 452-469.
Axelson, Bertil. 1945. Unpoetische Wörter, ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis
der lateinischen Dichtersprache. Lund: H. Ohlssons Boktryckeri.
Bachofen, A. 1972. Caesars und Lucans Bellum Civile - Ein
Inhaltsvergleich. Zürich: Juris-Verlag.
Badalì, Renato. 1973. "I codici romani di Lucano." Bolletino del
Comitato per la preparazione dell'Edizione nazionale dei
Classici greci e latini 21, 3-47.
—. 1974a. "I codici bolognesi di Lucano." Rivista di cultura classica e
medioevale 16, 191-213.
—. 1974b. "I codici romani di Lucano II." Bolletino del Comitato per la
preparazione dell'Edizione nazionale dei Classici greci e latini
22, 3-48.
—. 1975. "I codici romani di Lucano III." Bolletino del Comitato per la
preparazione dell'Edizione nazionale dei Classici greci e latini
23, 15-89.
—. 1992. Lucani Opera. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato
Bailey, Ciril. 1947. T. Lucretius Carus: De Rerum Natura, 3 vols.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barchiesi, Alessandro. 2005. Ovidio: Metamorfosi: Libri I-II, vol. 1,
Edited by Alessandro Barchiesi, Charles Segal, Richard Tarrant,
and Ludovica Koch. Rome/Milan: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla: A.
Mondadori.
Barker, E. P. 1914. The Poet in the Forcing-house. Cambridge:
University press
Barratt, P. 1979. M. Annaeus Lucanus: Belli Civilis Liber V, vol. 4.
Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert.
Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. 2000. Edited by
Richard J. A. Talbert and Roger S. Bagnall. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Bartsch, S. 1997. Ideology in Cold Blood: A Reading of Lucan's Civil
War. : Harvard University Press
Bates, Oric. 1914. The Eastern Libyans: An Essay. London: F. Cass.
298 References and Abbreviations

Batstone, William Wendell, and Cynthia Damon. 2006. Caesar's Civil

War. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beazley, J. D. 1963. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 3 vols. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Berlin, Netta Ruth. 1994. Dreams in Roman Epic: The Hermeneutics of
a Narrative Technique. PhD Thesis, Classical Studies, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Berti, Emanuele. 2000. M. Annaeus Lucanus, Bellum Civile, Liber X.
Florence: Le Monnier.
Billerbeck, Margarethe. 1999. Seneca: Hercules Furens.
Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Billerbeck, Margarethe, and Sophie Guex. 2002. Sénèque, Hercule
furieux: introduction, texte, traduction et commentaire. Bern: P.
Lang
Bischoff, Bernhard. 1932. Der Warner bei Herodot. PhD Thesis,
Marburg.
Blänsdorf, Jürgen. 1995. Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum epicorum et
lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium. Edited by Willy Morel,
Karl Büchner, and Jürgen Blänsdorf. Stuttgart: Teubner.
Bodé, Georg Heinrich. 1834. Scriptores rerum mythicarum latini tres
Romae nuper reperti. Cellis: E.H.C. Schulze.
Boll, Franz. 1903. Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und
Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Sternbilder. Leipzig:
Teubner.
Bömer, Franz. 1969-2004. P. Ovidius Naso: Metamorphosen.
Kommentar, 7 vols. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Bonner, Stanley F. 1966. "Lucan and the Declamation Schools." The
American Journal of Philology 87, 257-289.
Bramble, J. C. 1982. "Lucan" in The Cambridge History of Classical
Literature, edited by P. E. Easterling and E. J. Kenney.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 533-557.
Braund, S. H. 1992. Lucan: Civil war. Oxford/New York: Clarendon
Press/Oxford University Press.
Braund, Susanna Morton, and Glenn W. Most. 2003. Ancient Anger
Perspectives from Homer to Galen. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
 References and Abbreviations 299

Brennan, T. Corey. 2000. The Praetorship in the Roman Republic.

Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. 2007-. Edited
by Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester,
Christine F. Salazar, and August Friedrich von Pauly. Leiden:
Brill.
Brink, C. O. 1971. Horace on Poetry: The Ars Poetica. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Brisset, Jacqueline. 1964. Les idées politiques de Lucain. Paris: Les
Belles Lettres.
Broughton, T. Robert S. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic,
2 vols. New York: American Philological Association.
Bruère, Richard T. 1950. "The Scope of Lucan's Historical Epic."
Classical Philology 45, 217-235.
Burmann, Peter. 1740. M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalia, cum comm. P.
Burmanni. Leiden: Conrad Wishoff.
Cairns, Francis. 1989. Virgil's Augustan Epic. Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press
Caldelli, Maria Letizia. 1993. L'agon Capitolinus: storia e protagonisti
dall'istituzione domizianea al IV secolo. Rome: Istituto italiano
per la storia antica.
Camps, G. 1967. "Origines du royaume Massyle." Revue d’histoire et
de civilization du Maghreb 3, 29-38.
Canali, Luca. 2004. Lucano: Farsaglia, o La guerra civile. Milan:
Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli.
Carter, J. M. 1991. Julius Caesar: The Civil War, Books I & II.
Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Casali, Sergio 1999. "Mercurio a Ilerda: Pharsalia ed Eneide 4", edited
by Esposito and Nicastri, 223-236.
Cassata, L. 1984. "Dall'afasia di Saffo a quella di Catullo" in Disiecti
membra poetae : studi di poesia latina in frammenti, edited by
Maria G. Bianco and Vincenzo Tandoi. Foggia: Atlantica, v. <1-
3 >.
Cazzaniga, I. 1955. Problemi intorno alla Farsaglia. Milan: Edizioni
Universitarie La Goliardica.
300 References and Abbreviations

CIL 1862-. Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum. Edited by Deutsche

Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin and Akademie der
Wissenschaften der DDR. Berlin: G. Reimer.
Comm. Bern. = M. Annaei Lucani Commenta Bernensia. 1869. Edited
by Hermann Usener. Leipzig: Teubner.
Conte, Gian Biagio. 1988. La "Guerra civile" di Lucano: studi e prove
di commento. Urbino: QuattroVenti
Corcella, Aldo, Silvio M. Medaglia, and Augusto Fraschetti. 1993. Le
storie. Libro IV, La Scizia e la Libia. Milan: Fondazione Lorenzo
Valla: A. Mondadori.
Courtney, E. 1993. The Fragmentary Latin Poets. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Courtney, Edward. 1980. A Commentary on the Satires of Juvenal.
London: Athlone Press.
Culler, Jonathan D. 1977. "Apostrophe in Poetry: A Lecture delivered
at the Harvard College Library, Woodberry Poetry Room."
Harvard University.
—. 1981. The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Curcio, Gaetano. 1903. L'apostrofe nella poesia latina: ricerca di
stilistica storica. Catania: C. Battiato.
D'Alessandro Behr, Francesca. 2000. Apostrophe, Irony, and Death in
Lucan’s Bellum Civile. PhD Thesis, State University of New
York, Buffalo, NY.
—. 2007. Feeling History: Lucan, Stoicism and the Poetics of Passion.
Athens: Ohio State University Press.
Dahlmann, H. 1965. "Zu Horaz, c. 2, 1, 25-28." RhM 108, 142-146.
De Martino, Ernesto. 1958. Morte e pianto rituale nel mondo antico;
dal lamento pagano al pianto di Maria. Turin: Einaudi.
De Nadaï, Jean-Christophe. 2000. Rhétorique et poétique dans la
Pharsale de Lucain: la crise de la représentation dans la poésie
antique. Louvain: Editions Peeters.
Decret, François, and Muhammad Fantar. 1981. L'Afrique du Nord
dans l'antiquité: histoire et civilisation (des origines au Ve
siècle). Paris: Payot.
 References and Abbreviations 301

Deferrari, Roy Joseph, Sister Maria Walburg Fanning, and Sister Anne
Stanislaus Sullivan. 1965. A Concordance of Lucan. Washington:
The Catholic University of America Press
Degl'Innocenti Pierini, Rita. 1996. "Venit ad pigros cana senectus (Sen.
Herc. F. 198). Un motivo dei cori senecani tra filosofia ed
attualità" in Nove studi sui cori tragici di Seneca. Biblioteca di
Aevum Antiquum: Istituto di Filologia Classica e di Papirologia,
edited by L. Castagna. Milan: Vita e Pensiero: Pubblicazioni
dell'Università Cattolica, 37-56.
Della Corte, Francesco. 1985. La mappa dell'Eneide. Florence: La
Nuova Italia.
Delz, Josef. 1987. Sili Italici Punica. Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner.
Der neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike: Altertum. 1996. Edited by
Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, August Friedrich von Pauly,
Georg Wissowa, B. Egger, and Jochen Derlien. Stuttgart: J.B.
Metzler.
Deroux, Carl. 1992. Studies in Latin literature and Roman history.
Bruxelles: Latomus.
des Noëttes, Lefebvre. 1931. L'attelage: le cheval de selle à travers les
âges. Contribution à l'histoire de l'esclavage, 2 vols. Paris: A.
Picard.
Desanges, Jehan. 1962. Catalogue des tribus africaines de l'antiquité
classique à l'ouest du Nil. Dakar: University of Dakar, Faculté
des lettres et sciences humaines.
Dewald, Carolyn, and John Marincola. 2006. The Cambridge
Companion to Herodotus. Cambridge, U.K./New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Dewar, Michael J. 1991. Statius: Thebaid IX. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dick, Bernard F. 1967. "Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile."
Classical Philology 62, 235-42.
Dict. ant. = Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines d'après
les textes et les monuments. 1877-1919. Edited by Charles
Daremberg, Edm Saglio, Edmond Pottier, Georges Lafaye, and J.
Normand. Paris: Hachette.
302 References and Abbreviations

Dilke, Oswald Ashton Wentworth, and J. P. Postgate. 1978. M.

Annaeus Lucanus De bello civili VII. Bristol: Bristol Classical
Press
Douglas, Alan Edward. 1966. M. Tulli Ciceronis Brutus. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Drachmann, Anders Björn. 1903. Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina, 3
vols. Amsterdam,: Adolph M. Hakkert.
Duckworth, George Eckel. 1967. "Five Centuries of Latin Hexameter
Poetry: Silver Age and Late Empire." Transactions and
Proceedings of the American Philological Association 98, 77-
150.
Due, O. S. 1962. "An Essay on Lucan." Classica et Mediaevalia 23, 68-
132.
Duff, J. D. 1928. Lucan: The Civil War (Pharsalia). Cambridge, Mass./
London: Harvard University Press/W. Heinemann.
Duff, J. Wight. 1960. A literary History of Rome in the Silver Age, from
Tiberius to Hadrian. London: E. Benn.
Dyck, Andrew R. 1996. A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Dzino, Danijel. 2005. Illyrian Policy of Rome in the Late Republic and
Early Principate. PhD Thesis, Classics, Univeristy of Adelaide,
Adelaide
Easterling, P. E., and E. J. Kenney. 1982. The Cambridge History of
Classical Literature. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Enciclopedia Oraziana. 1996-1998. Edited by Scevola Mariotti. Rome:
Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana.
Endt, J. 1905. "Die Gebrauch der Apostrophe bei den lateinischen
Epikern." Wiener Studien 27, 106-29.
Ernout, Alfred, and Antoine Meillet. 1939. Dictionnaire étymologique
de la langue latine, histoire des mots. Paris: C. Klincksieck.
Esposito, Paolo. 1987. Il racconto della strage: le battaglie nella
'Pharsalia'. Naples Loffredo
—. 1999. "Problemi e prospettive della scholiastica lucanea." Vichiana
4a ser 1, 33-44.
 References and Abbreviations 303

—. 2000a. "La fine di Curione in Lucano (Phars. IV 581-824)."

Vichiana, 4a ser 2, 37-54.
—. 2000b. "Un commento inedito a Lucano? Di alcune glosse lucanee
in cerca d'autore" in Parrhasiana, edited by L. Gualdo Rosa, L.
Munzi, and F. Stok. Naples, 63-5.
—. 2001. "Paradosso ed esemplarità nell'episodio di Vulteio (B.C. IV
402-581)." Vichiana 3, 39-63.
—. 2004a. "Lucano e la 'negazione per antitesi'" in Esposito, Paolo and
Enrico Maria Ariemma. 2004. Lucano e la tradizione dell'epica
latina: atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Fisciano-
Salerno, 19-20 ottobre 2001. Naples: Guida Editori, 39-67.
—. 2004b. Gli scolii a Lucano ed altra scoliastica latina. Pisa: ETS
Esposito, Paolo, and Luciano Nicastri. 1999. Interpretare Lucano:
Μiscellanea di studi. Naples: Arte Tipografica.
EV = Enciclopedia Virgiliana. 1984-1991. 6 vols. Edited by Francesco
Della Corte. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana.
F gr Hist = Die fragmente der griechischen Historiker. 1923-. Edited
by Felix Jacoby. Berlin: Weidmann.
Fantham, R. Elaine. 1992a. Lucan, De Bello Civili, Book II. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
—. 1992b. "Lucan's Medusa-excursus. Its Design and Purpose."
Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 29, 95-119.
—. 1995. "The ambiguity of virtus in Lucan's Civil War and Statius'
Thebaid." Arachnion - A Journal of Ancient Literature and
History on the Web 1.3.
—. 1999. "Chironis Exemplum: On Teachers and Surrogate Fathers in
Achilleid and Silvae." Hermathena 167.
—. 2003. "The Angry Poet and the Angry Gods: Problems of Theodicy
in Lucan's Epic of Defeat" in Ancient Anger: Perspectives from
Homer to Galen, Yale Classical Studies 32, edited by Susanna
Braund and Glenn W. Most. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Feeney, Denis C. 1982. A Commentary on Silius Italicus Book 1. D.
Phil. Thesis, Oxford University, Oxford.
—. 1991. The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical
Tradition. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press
304 References and Abbreviations

Ferri, Rolando. 2003. Octavia: A play attributed to Seneca. Cambridge,

UK/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fick, Joseph. 1890. Kritische und sprachliche Untersuchungen zu
Lukan. Straubing: (Progr. Straubing).
Fitch, John G. 1987. Seneca's Hercules Furens: A Critical Text with
Introduction and Commentary. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Flores, Enrico. 2000. Quinto Ennio: Annali. Naples: Liguori.
Flores, Enrico, Paolo Esposito, Giorgio Jackson, and Domenico
Tomasco. 2002. Quinto Ennio: Annali (Libri I-VIII):
Commentari. Naples: Liguori.
Flores, Enrico, Simonetta Feraboli, and Riccardo Scarcia. 1996.
Manilio: Il poema degli astri. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori
Flower, Michael. 2006. "Herodotus and Persia" in The Cambridge
Companion to Herodotus, edited by Carolyn Dewald and John
Marincola. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 274-89.
Fradin, Charles Pierre. 1827. Pomponius Mela, 3 vols. Paris: Brissot-
Thivars et cie.
Fraenkel, Eduard. 1916. "Zur Geschichte des Wortes Fides." Rheinische
Museum für Philologie 71, 187-99.
—. 1964. Kleine Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie. Rome: Edizioni
di storia e letteratura.
—. 1970. "Lucan als Mittler des antiken Pathos" in Rutz 1970, 15-50.
Francken, Cornelis Marinus. 1896. M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalia, cum
commentario critico. Utrecht.
Frazer, James George. 1921. Apollodorus: The Library, 2 vols.
London/Cambridge, MA: W. Heinemann/Harvard University
Press.
Friedrich, W.-H. 1970. "Cato, Caesar und Fortuna bei Lucan" in Rutz
1970, 70-102.
Fröhlich, Uwe. 2000. Regulus, Archetyp römischer Fides. Das sechste
Buch als Schlüssel zu den "Punica" des Silius Italicus:
Interpretation, Kommentar und Übersetzung. Tübingen:
Stauffenburg.
Gagliardi, Donato. 1975. M. Annaei Lucani Belli Civilis, Liber
Septimus. Florence: La Nuova Italia.
 References and Abbreviations 305

—. 1976. Lucano poeta della libertà. Naples: Loffredo.

—. 1989. M. Annaei Lucani Belli Civilis Liber Primus. Naples: M.
d'Auria
—. 1999. "Sui composti nominali in Lucano" in Interpretare Lucano:
Μiscellanea di studi, edited by Paolo Esposito and Luciano
Nicastri. Naples: Arte Tipografica, 87-107.
Gall, D. 2005. "Masse, Heere und Feldherren in Lucans Pharsalia" in
Lucan im 21. Jahrhundert/Lucan in the 21st Century, edited by
C. Walde. Munich/Leipzig
Gardiner, E. Norman. 1905. "Wrestling." Journal of Hellenic Studies
25, 14-31 and 263-93.
—. 1910. Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals. London: Macmillan.
—. 1930. Athletics of the Ancient World. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Gentili, Bruno, and Paola Bernardini. 1995. Pindaro: Le Pitiche.
Rome/Milan: A. Mondadori.
Getty, Robert John. 1940. M. Annaei Lucani De bello civili liber I.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gildersleeve, Basil L., and Gonzalez Lodge. 1894. Gildersleeve's Latin
Grammar. Boston: D.C. Heath.
Goold, George P. 1977. Manilius: Astronomica. Edited by G.P. Goold.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gorman, Vanessa B. 2001. "Lucan's Epic Aristeia and the Hero of the
Bellum Civile." The Classical Journal 96, 263-290.
Gotoff, H.C. 1971. The transmission of the text of Lucan in the ninth
century, Loeb classical monographs. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
Univeristy Press.
Grainger, John D. 1995. "The Campaign of Cn. Manlius Vulso in Asia
Minor." Anatolian Studies 45, 23-42.
Gransden, K. W. 1976. Virgil: Aeneid. Book VIII. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Gregorius, Adolph. 1893. De M. Annaei Lucani Pharsaliae tropis. Pars
prior (De metaphora, synecdoche, antonomasia). Leipzig: M.
Hoffmann.
Griffin, Miriam T. 1972. "The Elder Seneca and Spain." The Journal of
Roman Studies 62, 1-19.
306 References and Abbreviations

—. 1976. Seneca: a philosopher in politics. Oxford: Clarendon Press

—. 1984. Nero: The End of a Dynasty. London: B.T. Batsford
Grimal, P. 1949. "L'épisode d'Antée dans la Pharsale." Latomus 8, 55-
61.
Grisé, Yolande. 1982. Le suicide dans la Rome antique. Paris: Les
Belles Lettres.
Gruen, Erich S. 1974. The Last Generation of the Roman Republic.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gsell, Stéphane. 1927. Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du nord: 5. Les
royaumes indigènes. Organisation sociale, politique et
économique - 6. Les royaumes indigènes. Vie matérielle,
intellectuelle et morale, 8 vols. Paris: Hachette.
Gualandri, Isabella, and Giancarlo Mazzoli. 2003. Gli Annei: una
famiglia nella storia e nella cultura di Roma imperiale: atti del
convegno internazionale di Milano-Pavia, 2-6 maggio 2000.
Como: New Press.
Hampel, Erwin. 1908. De apostrophae apud Romanorum poetas usu.
PhD Thesis, Universität Jena, Jena.
Harden, D.B. 1954. "Vasa Murrina Again." Journal of Roman Studies
44, 53.
Hardie, Philip. 1983. "Some Themes from Gigantomachy in the
Aeneid." Hermes. Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 111, 311-
26.
—. 1986. Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
—. 1993. The Epic Successors of Virgil. A Study in the Dynamics of a
Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—. 1994. Aeneid: Book IX. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, Harold Arthur. 1972. Sport in Greece and Rome. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Harrison, S. J. 1991. Vergil, Aeneid 10. Oxford/New York: Clarendon
Press/Oxford University Press.
Haskins, Charles Edmund. 1887. M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalia. London:
G. Bell
 References and Abbreviations 307

Häussler, Reinhard. 1978. Das historische Epos von Lucan bis Silius
und seine Theorie: Studien zum historischen Epos der Antike.
Heidelberg: Winter.
Healy, John F. 1978. Mining and Metallurgy in the Greek and Roman
world. London: Thames and Hudson.
Heinze, Richard. 1915. Virgils Epische Technik. Leipzig: B. G.
Teubner.
—. 1928. "Fides." Hermes. Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 64,
140-166.
Heitland, W. E. 1887. "Introduction" in M. Annaei Lucani Pharsalia,
edited by C.E. Haskins. London: G. Bell, v-cxxxi.
Hellegouarc'h, Joseph. 1963. Le vocabulaire latin des relations et des
partis politiques sous la République. Paris: Les Belles Lettres
Henderson, J. 1987. "Lucan: The world at war." Ramus 16, 122-64.
—. 1996. "XPDNC/Writing Caesar (Bellum Civile)." Classical
Antiquity 15, 261-88.
—. 1998. Fighting for Rome. Poets and Caesars, History and Civil
War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heslin, P. J. 2005. The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in
Statius' Achilleid. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Hill, Timothy. 2004. Ambitiosa Mors: Suicide and the Self in Roman
Thought and Literature. New York and London: Routledge.
Hinds, Stephen. 1998. Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of
Appropriation in Roman Poetry. Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Hinkle, D.W. 1996. Lucan's Africa. PhD Thesis, Classics, Columbia,
New York.
Hofmann, J. B., and Anton Szantyr. 1965. Lateinische Syntax und
Stilistik. Munich: C. Beck.
Horsfall, Nicholas. 1982. "The Caudine Forks: Topography and
Illusion." PBRS 50, 45-52.
—. 1985. "Illusion and Reality in Latin Topographical Writing."
Greece & Rome 32, 197-208.
308 References and Abbreviations

—. 1990. "Virgil and the Illusory Footnote." Papers of the Liverpool

Latin Seminar 6, 49-63.
—. 2000. Virgil, Aeneid 7: A Commentary. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
—. 2003. Virgil, Aeneid 11: A Commentary. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
—. 2006. Virgil, Aeneid 3: A Commentary. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Hosius, Carl. 1913. M. Annaei Lucani Belli Civilis Libri Decem.
Leipzig: Teubner.
Housman, A. E. 1903-1930. M. Manilii Astronomicon Libri V, 5 vols.
London: Richards.
—. 1919. "Notes on Martial." Classical Quarterly 13, 68-80.
Housman, A.E. 1927. M. Annaei Lucani Belli Ciuilis Libri Decem
(editorum in usum edidit A.E.H.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Hübner, U. 1972. "Hypallage in Lucans Pharsalia." Hermes. Zeitschrift
für Klassische Philologie 100, 577-600.
Hunink, Vincent. 1992a. "Lucan's last words" in Studies in Latin
literature and Roman history, vol. 6, edited by Deroux. Brussels:
Latomus, 390-407.
—. 1992b. M. Annaeus Lucanus: Bellum Civile Book III: A
Commentary. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben
Huss, W. 1989. "Die westmassylischen Könige." Ancient Society 20,
209-20.
Hutchinson, G.O. 1993. Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: A
Critical Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Jal, Paul. 1963. La guerre civile à Rome: étude littéraire et morale.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Jones, R. 1976. "The Roman Military Occupation of North-West
Spain." Journal of Roman Studies 66, 45-66.
Joyce, Jane Wilson. 1993. Lucan: Pharsalia. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press.
Kajanto, I. 1981. "Fortuna." Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen
Welt II.17.1, 502-58.
Kamp, H. W. 1933. "A Misinterpretation in Regard to Seneca's Son."
The Classical Journal 29, 129-130.
Karamanou, Ioanna. 2006. Euripides, Danae and Dictys: Introduction,
text and commentary. Munich: K.G. Saur
 References and Abbreviations 309

Kaster, Robert A. 2005. Emotion, Restraint, and Community in Ancient

Rome. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Keil, Heinrich, and Hermann Hagen. 1961. Grammatici latini, 8 vols.
Hildesheim: G. Olms.
Kemmer, Ernst. 1903. Die polare Ausdrucksweise in der griechischen
Literatur. Würzburg: A. Stuber.
Köhne, Eckart, Cornelia Ewigleben, and Ralph Jackson. 2000.
Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient
Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press.
König, F. 1970. "Mensch und Welt bei Lukan im Spiegel bildhafter
Darstellung (Auszug)" in Rutz 1970, 439-76.
Köstermann, Erich. 1968. Cornelius Tacitus: Annalen: Band 4 Buch 14
- 16. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag
Kromayer, Johannes, and Georg Veith. 1922. Schlachten-atlas zur
antiken Kriegsgeschichte. Leipzig: H. Wagner & E. Debes.
Kühner, Raphael, and Karl Friedrich Ludwig Anton Stegmann. 1955.
Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache. Edited by
Raphael Kühner, Karl Friedrich Ludwig Anton Stegmann, and
Andreas Thierfelder. Leverkusen: Gottschalk.
Lacey, W.K. 1961. "The tribunate of Curio." Historia: Zeitschrift für
alte Geschichte 10, 318-29.
Landolfi, Luciano and Paolo Monella, eds. 2007. Doctus Lucanus:
Aspetti dell'erudizione nella Pharsalia di Lucano: Seminari sulla
poesia latina di età imperiale (I). Bologna: Pàtron.
Lanham, Richard A. 1968. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms: A guide for
Students of English Literature. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Lapidge, M. 1979. "Lucan's Imagery of Cosmic Dissolution." Hermes
107, 344-70.
Lattimore, Richmond. 1939. "The Wise Adviser in Herodotus."
Classical Philology 34, 24-35.
Lazzarini, C. 1984. "Historia/fabula: forme della costruzione poetica
virgiliana nel commento di Servio all'Eneide." Materiali e
Discussioni 12, 117-44.
Lebek, Wolfgang Dieter. 1976. Lucans Pharsalia: Dichtungsstruktur
und Zeitbezug. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
310 References and Abbreviations

Leigh, M. 1997. Lucan: Spectacle and Engagement. Oxford/New York:

Oxford University Press.
LfgrE = Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos. 1979-. 4 vols. Edited by
Bruno Snell. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
Lhote, Henri. 1953. "Le Cheval et le Chameau dans les peintures et
gravures rupestres du Sahara." Bulletin de l'Institut Français
d'Afrique Noire 15, 1212-1225.
LIMC = Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. 1981-. 8
vols. Edited by Hans Christoph Ackermann and Jean-Robert
Gisler. Zürich: Artemis.
Lindsay, Wallace M. 1913. Sexti Pompei Festi De verborum significatu
quae supersunt cum Pauli epitome. Lipsiae,: B. G. Teubner.
Loewental, A.I., D.B. Harden, and C.E.N. Bromehead. 1949. "Vasa
Murrina." Journal of Roman Studies 37, 31-7.
Lomas Salmonte, Francisco Javier. 1975. Asturia preromana y
altoimperial Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla.
Lombardi Vallauri, Luigi. 1961. Dalla "fides" alla "bona fides.". Milan:
Giuffrè.
Long, A. 2007. "Lucan and Moral Luck." Classical Quarterly 57, 183-
97.
Longi, E. 1955. "Tre episodi del poema di Lucano" in Studi in onore di
Gino Funaioli. Rome: Signorelli, 181-88.
Loupiac, A. 1998. La poétique des éléments dans la Pharsale de
Lucain. Bruxelles: Société d'Etudes latines.
Luck, Georg. 1985. Lukan: Der Bürgerkrieg (Lateinisch und Deutsch).
Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Lyne, R. O. A. M. 1978. Ciris: A Poem Attributed to Vergil.
Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
—. 1989. Words and the Poet: Characteristic Techniques of Style in
Vergil's Aeneid. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford
University Press.
MacMullen, Ramsay. 1966. Enemies of the Roman order: treason,
unrest, and alienation in the Empire. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press
Malcovati, Enrica. 1940. M. Anneo Lucano. Milan: Hoepli
 References and Abbreviations 311

Maltby, Robert. 1991. A Lexicon of Ancient Latin Etymologies. Leeds:

F. Cairns.
Mankin, David. 1995. Horace: Epodes. Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Marasco, Gabriele. 1995. "L'Illyriké di Appiano." Aufstieg und
Niedergang der Römischen Welt 2.34.1, 463-95.
—. 1997. "Aulo Gabinio e l'Illiria al tempo di Cesare." Latomus 56 (2),
307-26.
Marti, B. M. 1975. "Lucan's Narrative Techniques." La Parola del
Passato 30, 74-90.
Martina, Mario. 1995. "Lucano, Bell. Civ. 4, 581-590." Materiali e
discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 34, 195-97.
Martindale, Charles. 1981. "Lucan's Hercules. Padding or paradigm? A
Note on De Bello Civili 4.589-660." Symbolae Osloenses 56, 71-
80.
—. 1984. "The Politician Lucan." Greece & Rome 31, 64-79.
—. 1993. Redeeming the Text: Latin Poetry and the Hermeneutics of
Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Masters, Jamie. 1992. Poetry and civil war in Lucan's Bellum civile.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Maurenbrecher, B. 1891. C. Sallusti Crispi Historiarum reliquiae.
Leipzig: B.G. Teubner.
Mayer, R. 1982. "Neronian Classicism." American Journal of Philology
103, 305-18.
Mayer, Roland. 1981. Civil war VIII. Warminster, Wilts.: Aris &
Phillips.
McGuire, Donald T. 1997. Acts of Silence: Civil War, Tyranny, and
Suicide in the Flavian Epics. Hildesheim and New York: Olms-
Weidmann.
Mendell, Clarence W. 1942. "Lucan's rivers." Yale Classical Studies 8,
3-22.
Migliorini, Paola. 1997. Scienza e terminologia medica nella
letteratura latina di età neroniana: Seneca, Lucano, Persio,
Petronio. Frankfurt am Main/New York: P. Lang.
312 References and Abbreviations

Mirsch, Paul. 1882. De M. Terenti Varronis Antiquitatum rerum

humanarum libris XXV / dissertatio inauguralis quam ... scripsit
Paullus Mirsch. Leipzig: J.B. Hirschfeldii.
Morel, Willy. 1963. Fragmenta poetarum latinorum epicorum et
lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium. Stuttgart: Teubner.
Moreno Soldevila, Rosario. 2006. Martial, Book IV: A Commentary.
Leiden: Brill.
Morford, Mark Percy Owen. 1967. The Poet Lucan: Studies in
Rhetorical Epic. Oxford: Blackwell.
Müller, Konrad. 2003. Petronii Arbitri Satyricon reliquiae. Münich:
K.G. Saur.
Müller, Lucian. 1894. De re metrica poetarum Latinorum.
Petropolis/Leipzig: C. Ricker.
Mynors, R. A. B. 1990. Virgil: Georgics. Oxford/New York: Clarendon
Press/Oxford University Press.
Narducci, Emanuele. 1979. La provvidenza crudele Lucano e la
distruzione dei miti augustei. Pisa: Giardini
—. 1983. "Pauper Amyclas (Modelli etici e poetici in un episodio della
Pharsalia)." Maia XXXV, 183-194.
—. 1985. "Ideologia e tecnica allusiva nella Pharsalia." Aufstieg und
Niedergang der Römischen Welt II.32.3, 1538-64.
—. 1999a. "Deconstructing Lucan ovvero Le nozze (coi fichi secchi) di
Ermete Trismegisto e di Filologia." Maia 51, 349-87.
—. 1999b. Interpretare Lucano : miscellanea di studi. Naples Arte
Tipografica
—. 2002. Lucano: un'epica contro l'impero: interpretazione della
"Pharsalia". Rome: Laterza
Nelis, D. 2004. "Georgics 2.458-542: Virgil, Aratus, and Empedocles."
Dictynna. Revue de poétique latine 1, 1-21.
Newlands, Carole E. 2010 (forthcoming). "The First ‘Life’ of Lucan:
Statius Siluae 2.7" in Brill Companion to Lucan, edited by Paolo
Asso. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
Nisbet, R. G. M. 1963. "Rev of Lombardi Vallauri 1961." The Classical
Review 13, 231-2.
 References and Abbreviations 313

Nisbet, R. G. M., and Margaret Hubbard. 1978. A Commentary on

Horace, Odes, Book II. Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon Press.
—. 1980. A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book I. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
Nisbet, Robin G. M., and Niall Rudd. 2004. A Commentary on Horace,
Odes, Book III. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Norden, Eduard. 1926. P. Vergilius Maro Aeneis Buch VI. Leipzig: B.
G. Teubner.
North, J. A. 1975. "Praesens Divus." The Journal of Roman Studies 65,
171-177.
Nutting, H. C. 1934. "Notes on Lucan: Second Group." The American
Journal of Philology 55, 49-61.
O'Hara, James J. 1994. "They might be Giants: Inconsistency and
Indeterminacy in Vergil's War in Italy." Colby Quarterly 30,
206-26.
—. 1996. True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of
Etymological Wordplay. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press.
OCD = 1996. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Edited by Simon
Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
OED = The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1989. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
OLD = Oxford Latin Dictionary. 1982. Edited by P.G.W. Glare.
Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
Oniga, Renato. 1995. Sallustio e l'etnografia. Pisa: Giardini.
ORF = Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta. 1930. Edited by Enrica
Malcovati. Turin: Paravia.
Otto, August. 1890. Die Sprichwörter und sprichwörtlichen
Redensarten der Römer. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
Oudendorp, Frans van. 1728. M. Annaei Lucani Cordubensis Pharsalia,
sive Belli Civilis Libri decem, cum scholiaste, hucusque inedito,
et notis integris Henrici Glareani, Jacobi Micylli, et excerptis
Omniboni Vicenti, Joannis Sulpitii Verulani, nec non Thomae
Maji supplementis, & apologia Jacobi Palmerii, curante
Francisco Oudendorpio. Leiden: S. Luchtmans.
314 References and Abbreviations

Park, Poe Joe. 1965. "Success and Failure in the Mission of Aeneas."
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological
Association 96, 321-36.
Paul, G. M. 1984. A Historical Commentary on Sallust's Bellum
Jugurthinum. Revision of the author's PhD thesis Thesis, F.
Cairns/University of London, Liverpool.
Pearce, T. E. V. 1968. "The Enclosing Word Order in the Latin
Hexamter." Classical Quarterly 18, 334-54.
Pease, Arthur Stanley. 1935a. Aeneidos liber quartus. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
—. 1935b. Publi Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Quartus. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Peter, Hermann. 1906. HRR = Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae.
Leipzig: B. G. Teubner
Pfeiffer, Rudolf. 1968. History of Classical scholarship. From the
Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
Phillips, O. C. 1968. "Lucan's Grove." Classical Philology 63, 296-300.
Pichon, René. 1912. Les sources de Lucain. Paris E. Leroux
Poliakoff, Michael. 1987. Combat Sports in the Ancient World:
Competition, Violence, and Culture. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Pomeroy, Arthur John. 1991. The Appropriate Comment: Death
Notices in the Ancient Historians. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang.
Powell, J. U. 1970. Collectanea Alexandrina: reliquiae minores
poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, 323-146 A.C.,
epicorum, elegiacorum, lyricorum, ethicorum. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Radicke, Jan. 2004. Lucans poetische Technik: Studien zum
historischen Epos. Leiden/Boston: Brill
Raschle, C.R. 2007. "Lucano e la forma sferica della terra" in Landolfi
and Monella 2007, 49-82.
RE = Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
1893-1978. Edited by August Friedrich von Pauly and Georg
Wissowa. Stuttgart: A. Druckenmüller.
 References and Abbreviations 315

Reynolds, L. D., and Peter K. Marshall. 1983. Texts and Transmission:

A Survey of the Latin Classics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ribbeck, Otto. 1897. Scaenicae Romanorum poesis fragmenta, 2 vols.
Leipzig: Teubner.
Richter, Gisela Marie Augusta. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of
the Greeks. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Robertson, D. S. 1940. "The Food of Achilles." The Classical Review
54, 177-80.
Roscher, Wilhelm Heinrich. 1884-37. Ausführliches Lexikon der
griechischen und römischen Mythologie, 6 in 9 vols. Leipzig: B.
G. Teubner.
Rose, Kenneth F. C. 1966. "Problems of Chronology in Lucan's
Career." Transactions and Proceedings of the American
Philological Association 97, 379-396.
Rostagni, Augusto. 1944. Suetonio De poetis e biografi minori. Turin:
Chiantore.
Rowe, Nicholas. 1718. Lucan's Pharsalia. Translated into English
verse by Nicholas Rowe. London: Jacob Tonson.
Rutz, W. 1950. Studien zur Kompositionskunst und zur epischen
Technik Lucans. Kiel.
—. 1960. "Amor mortis bei Lucan." Hermes. Zeitschrift für Klassische
Philologie LXXXVIII, 462-75.
—, ed. 1970. Lucan. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftiche Buchgesellschaft.
Salemme, Carmelo. 2000. "Sul 'senso della storia nella' Pharsalia di
Lucano." Bollettino di studi latini 30, 514-29.
—. 2001. "Le ragioni della storia: da Tucidide a Lucano." Bollettino di
studi latini 31, 458-67.
—. 2002. Lucano la storia verso la rovina. Naples: Loffredo
Salutati, Coluccio. 1985. De fato et fortuna. Edited by Concetta Bianca.
Firenze: L.S. Olschki.
Sanford, Eva Matthews. 1934. "Quotations from Lucan in Mediaeval
Latin Authors." The American Journal of Philology 55, 1-19.
Sannicandro, Lisa. 2006. "Catone, Cesare, Pompeo: Appunti su durus
in Lucano." Sileno 32, 153-74.
316 References and Abbreviations

Santos Yanguas, Narciso. 1981. El ejército romano y la romanización

de los astures. Oviedo: Asturlibros.
—. 1992. "Astures y Cántabros: estudio etnográfico", edited by
Almagro Gorbea and Ruiz Zapatero, 431-47.
—. 2004. El Imperio Romano y el oro de los Astures. Oviedo, España:
CajAstur.
—. 2006. Asturias, los astures y la cultura castreña. Oviedo: KRK
Ediciones.
Saylor, Charles. 1982. "Curio and Antaeus: The African Episode of
Lucan Pharsalia IV." Transactions of the American Philological
Association (1974-) 112, 169-177.
—. 1986. "Wine, blood, and water. The imagery of Lucan Pharsalia
IV.148-401." Eranos LXXXIV, 149-56.
—. 1990. "Lux Extrema: Lucan, Pharsalia 4.402-581." Transactions of
the American Philological Association (1974-) 120, 291-300.
Scarpi, Paolo. 1996. Apollodoro: I miti greci (Biblioteca). Milan:
Fondazione Lorenzo Valla: A. Mondadori Editore.
Schanz, Martin, and Carl Hosius. 1935. Geschichte der römischen
Literatur bis zum Gesetzgebungswerk des Kaisers Justinian.
Zweiter Teil: Die römische Literatur in der Zeit der Monarchie
bis auf Hadrian. Munich: C. H. Beck
Schönberger, Otto. 1957. "Zur Komposition des Lucan." Hermes.
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie LXXXV, 251-54.
—. 1958. "Zu Lucan. Ein Nachtrag." Hermes. Zeitschrift für Klassische
Philologie 86, 230-39.
—. 1964. "Ein Dichter römischer Freiheit, M. Annaeus Lucanus."
Altertum 10, 26-40.
—. 1968. Untersuchungen zur Wiederholungstechnik Lucans. Munich:
W. Fink.
—. 1970. "Ein Dichter römischer Freiheit" in Lucan, edited by Rutz.
Darmstadt 525-45.
Schotes, H. A. 1969. Stoische Physik, Psychologie und Theologie bei
Lucan. Bonn Habelt
Schrempp, O. 1964. Prophezeiung und Rückschau in Lucans Bellum
civile. Winterthur: Schellenberg.
 References and Abbreviations 317

Schrijvers, Pieter H. 1989. "Interpréter Lucain par Lucain. La Pharsale

i, 1-8, ii, 234-325." Mnemosyne XLII, 62-75.
Schulten, Adolf. 1943. Los Cántabros y Astures y su Guerra con Roma.
Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
Schwyzer, Eduard, Karl Brugmann, and Demetrius J. Georgacas. 1939.
Griechische Grammatik: auf der Grundlage von Karl
Grugmanns Griechischer Grammatik, 3 vols. Munich: C. H.
Beck.
Seitz, K. 1965. "Der pathetische Erzählstil Lukans." Hermes. Zeitschrift
für Klassische Philologie XCIII, 204-32.
Shackleton Bailey, David Roy. 1987. "Lucan revisited." Proceedings of
the Cambridge Philological Society 33, 74-91.
—. 1988. M. Annaeus Lucanus: De Bello Civili Libri X. Stuttgart:
Teubner
Sklenář, Robert. 2003. The Taste for Nothingness a Study of Virtus and
Related Themes in Lucan's Bellum Civile. Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press.
Skutsch, Otto. 1985. The Annals of Quintus Ennius. Oxford/New York:
Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
Smith, Ray Winfield. 1949. "The Significance of Roman Glass." The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8, 49-60.
Spaltenstein, François. 1986. Commentaire des Punica de Silius
Italicus, (Livres 1 à 8). Geneva: Librairie Droz.
Stinton, T. C. W. 1976. "Si credere dignum est: Some Expressions of
Disbelief in Euripides and Others." Proceedings of the
Cambridge Philological Society 202, 60-89.
SVF = Stoicorum veterum fragmenta. 1903. Edited by Hans Friedrich
August von Arnim. Leipzig: Teubner.
Syme, Ronald. 1958. Tacitus, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Syndikus, Hans Peter. 1958. Lucans Gedicht vom Bürgerkrieg:
Untersuchungen zur epischen Technik und zu den Grundlagen
des Werkes. PhD Thesis, Ludwig Maximilians Universität,
Munich.
Tarn, W. W. 1948. Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
318 References and Abbreviations

Tarrant, R. J. 1976. Seneca: Agamemnon. Cambridge/New York:

Cambridge University Press.
—. 1983. "Lucan", edited by Reynolds and Marshall, 215-18.
Thierfelder. 1970. "Der Dichter Lucan", edited by Rutz, 50-69.
Thomas, Richard F. 1982. Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The
Ethnographical Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological
Society.
—. 1988. Virgil: Georgics. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Thompson, Lynette, and R. T. Bruère. 1968. "Lucan's Use of Virgilian
Reminiscence." Classical Philology 63, 1-21.
—. 1970. "The Virgilian Background of Lucan's Fourth Book."
Classical Philology 65, 152-172.
TLL = 1900-. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, ed. by the Bayerische
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Kommission für die Herausgabe
des Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Leipzig/Munich/Berlin/New
York: B. G. Teubner/K.G. Saur Verlag/Walter De Gruyter.
Traina, Alfonso. 1997. Virgilio: l'utopia e la storia. Il libro XII
dell'Eneide e antologia delle opere, ed. by Scevola Mariotti.
Turin: Loescher.
Trampe, Ernest. 1884. De Lucani arte metrica. Berlin: Otto Lange.
Tranoy, Alain. 1981. La Galice romaine: recherches sur le nord-ouest
de la péninsule ibérique dans l'Antiquité. Paris: Boccard.
Tucker, Robert A. 1987. "Tacitus and the death of Lucan." Latomus 46,
330-337.
Vahlen, Johannes. 1903. Ennianae poesis reliquiae. Leipzig: B.G.
Teubner.
van den Hout, Michael Petrus Josephus. 1999. A Commentary on the
Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto, vol. 190. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Veith, G. 1924. "Zu den Kämpfen der Caesarianer in Illyrien" in Strena
Buliciana. Commentationes gratulatoriae Francisco Bulic ob XV
vitae lustra feliciter peracta, edited by Frane sac Bulic, Mihovil
Abramic, and Viktor Hoffiller. Zagreb/Split: Stampala zaklada
tiskare "narodnih novina" u Zagrebu 267-74.
 References and Abbreviations 319

Vian, Francis. 1952. La guerre des géants: le mythe avant l'époque

hellénistique. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.
Viansino, Giovanni. 1974. Studi sul Bellum civile di Lucano. Salerno:
Società editrice salernitana.
Vocabularium Iurisprudentiae Romanae. 1903. 5 vols. Edited by Otto
Gradenwitz, Bernard Kuebler, E. T. Schulze, and Rudolf Helm.
Berlin: G. Reimer.
Walbank, F. W. 1957. A Historical Commentary on Polybius. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Walde, Christine. 2007. "Per un'idrologia poetica: fiumi e acque nella
Pharsalia di Lucano" in Landolfi and Monella 2007, 13-48.
Watson, Patricia. 1985. "Axelson Revisited: The Selection of
Vocabulary in Latin Poetry." The Classical Quarterly 35, 430-
48.
Weinstock, Stefan. 1957. "Victor and Invictus." Harvard Studies in
Classical Philology, 211-47.
—. 1971. Divus Julius. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Weische, Alfons. 1966. Studien zur politischen Sprache der römischen
Republik. Münster: Aschendorff.
West, Martin L. 1966. Hesiod: Theogony. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Whittick, G.C. 1952. "Vasa Murrina and the Lexica." Journal of
Roman Studies 42, 66-7.
Wick, Claudia. 2004. M. Annaeus Lucanus, Bellum civile, Liber IX, 2
vols. Munich: K.G. Saur
Wilkes, John Joseph. 1969. Dalmatia. London: Routledge.
Williams, Robert Deryck. 1960. Aeneid V. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wirszubski, Chaim. 1950. Libertas as a political idea at Rome during
the late republic and early principate. Cambridge: University
Press
—. 1961. "Audaces: A Study in Political Phraseology." Journal of
Roman Studies 51.
Woodman, A. J. 1983. Velleius Paterculus: The Caesarian and
Augustan Narrative (2.41-93). Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press.
320 References and Abbreviations

Wuilleumier, Pierre, and Henri Le Bonniec. 1962. Lucain: Bellum

civile: liber primus = La Pharsale: livre premier. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France
Yalouris, Nikolaos. 1979. The Eternal Olympics: The Art and History
of Sport. New Rochelle, NY: Caratzas Brothers.
 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

AESCHYLUS 2.191: 192 1.76.4-5: 165

5.97: 217 1.77: 166
Eumenides
5.98: 217 1.81.6: 168
77: 192 5.122: 217 1.81.7: 168
589: 243 1.82.2-3: 169
Prometeus ARISTOTLE
1.84: 183
133: 159 Historia Animalium 1.84-8: 158
9.1.608a28: 195 1.85.6: 109
AELIANUS 9.6.612a15-20: 1.86.4: 160
Historia Animalium 267 2.23.1: 216
7.23: 260 2.23.2: 218
CATO THE ELDER
APOLLODORUS 2.24: 111
De re militari 2.24.1: 215
MYTHOGRAPHUS frg. 11: 280 2.25.4: 261
Bibliotheca Orationum fragmenta 2.32: 263
1.9.1: 125 frg. 30.1 in ORF: 2.38-40: 268
2.5.11: 223, 242, 132 2.38.1-3: 269
244 2.38.1: 268
3.13.6: 229 CAESAR 2.38.2: 267, 272
De bello ciuili 2.38.3
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS
1.1: 271 2.39.1
Argonautica 2.39.1-4: 269
1.23.3: 262
1.760 (scholia): 1.23.5: 262 2.40.2-3: 267
227 1.30.2: 286 2.41: 278
1.761-2: 227 1.31.2: 251 2.42: 283
1.1165: 228 1.31.3: 251 2.42.3-4: 284
2.11-18: 230 1.38-55: 100 2.42.4
2.1-96: 233 1.38.1: 104 3.5.3: 209
2.38-40: 233 1.38.1-3: 266 3.19.2: 132
2.85-7: 237 1.39: 100 De bello Gallico
4.789-90: 197 1.39.1: 109, 110 1.1.7: 132
APPENDIX VERGILIANA 1.40: 100 1.25.3: 196
1.41-55: 100 1.37.1: 132
Ciris
1.41.3: 114 4.20.4: 184
165: 277 1.41.3-6: 118 4.27.4: 181
248-9: 290 1.48: 125
Culex 1.48.3: 114 CELSUS
167: 178 1.52: 134 De Medicina
APPIAN 1.54: 141-2 1.2.7: 174
Bellum Ciuile 1.61-84: 100 2.1.11: 175
2.18: 108 1.61-2: 143 2.10.10: 175
2.42: 114, 154 1.74: 152, 154, 2.17.1: 175
2.44: 247, 260 155 3.9: 174: 174
2.95: 216 1.74-5: 152 4.1.3: 185
1.75: 155, 182 5.26.3b: 174
322 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

5.6.23a: 175 De re publica [CICERO]

5.27.10: 110 2.51: 108
5.27.13: 124 Rheorica ad Herennium
6.9: 231
5.28.17b: 179 Letters to Atticus 2.47-9: 285
7.9: 172 4.66: 231
1.18.8: 108
7.18: 241 QUINTUS CICERO
7.8.4: 278
CATULLUS 9.6A: 105 Carminum fragmenta
29.24: 286 9.11A: 105 2: 125
63.41: 159 10.4.3: 286
64: 229 10.4.9: 286 DIO
64.28-9: 130 Letters to His Friends 39.38.1: 233
64.89-90: 26 5.12.7: 290 39.39: 108
64.368: 140 7.1: 233 40.62: 283, 289
64.394: 268 8.4.2: 261, 290 41.1-2: 271
68.44: 163 8.6.5 41.40: 192
100.7: 178 16.26.2 41.41.2: 248
101.2: 30, 282 Pro Ligario 41.41.3: 261
41.41.4: 261
CICERO 3: 251
41.41.4-5: 266
Arati Phaenomena Pro Marcello
42.11.1: 194
frg. 34.230-1: 122 12: 231 51.15.6: 230
frg. 34.143: 178 Pro Milone 57.29.4: 2
Brutus 50: 163 60.8.5: 4
280-1: 216, 292 91: 163 61.21.1
Carminum fragmenta Pro Murena 62.29.4: 8
frg. 34.6 17: 216 DIO CHRYSOSTOMUS
Blänsdorf: 176 Orator
63.5: 276
Catilinarians 129: 216
1.1: 216 45.152: 231 ENNIUS (ed. Vahlen,
1.4: 216 Philippics unless otherwise
De divinatione 2.1: 216 noted)
1.20.4: 131 2.71: 176 Annales
1.22.24: 230 11.10: 176 1: 274
1.66: 205 14.6: 203 33 Skutsch: 170
De inventione Post Reditum in Senatu 58: 114
1.100-5: 285 30: 289 100: 287
De lege agraria Pro Sestio 310: 26
99: 170 416: 237
2.95: 231, 270 417 Skutsch: 237
De natura deorum 134: 268
Tusculanae 439: 277
1.24: 215 572: 280
Disputationes
2.109: 207 Saturae
2.114: 178 2.20.2-4
2.44.20 68: 138
2.138: 179 Scenica
De officiis In Vatinium
6: 176 90: 170
1.18.61: 240 341: 274
1.124: 107 Verrines
Tragediae
De oratore 2.3.7: 197
2.5.142: 241 38 Ribbeck: 240
1.225: 176 Varia
3.167: 26 3.155-7: 197
3: 231
 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 323
EURIPIDES 3.10ff.: 277 3.20.2: 229
Dictys 6.448: 11 4.7.23-4: 285
8: 214 Epistulae
frg. 1 = TrGF
10.535: 277 1.6.63: 194
**330b Snell: 192
13.131: 280 1.12.19: 109
Hercules Furens
13.659: 287 Epodes
225-6: 232 14.483: 287
400: 232 1.12.19: 151
15.185-93: 136
1.19.13: 153
FLORUS 16.109-10: 237
6.5: 195
16.36: 229
Epitome 3.8.3-4: 153
16.215: 280
1.31.44: 217 16.6: 127
16.314:238
1.35: 177 Sermones
16.398: 287
2.13.30: 191 18.39: 278 2.1.11: 231
2.13.32: 193 21.28: 287 2.6.114: 195
2.13.33: 197, 191 23.688-9: 237
4.2: 191
JUVENAL
Odyssey 6.627: 242
FRONTINUS
5.295-6: 121 6.421: 235
De Aquis Vrbis Romae 11.576: 227 14.312: 23
31: 231 11.580-1: 227 15.93-4: 284
Stratagemata 12.80-4: 196
13.187: 214 LIVY
2.5.40: 267
3.7.6: 177 19.173: 192 1.7.6: 269
23.312: 287 2.10: 145
FRONTO 2.10.11: 115
Ad M. Antoninum
HORACE 2.13: 145
Imperatorem Ars Poetica 3.12.6: 291
Epistulae 14-18: 113 5.41.2: 245
3.1.1: 267 241: 270 5.44.7: 139
Carmina 5.54.6: 249
GERMANICUS 6.4.10: 119
1.1.7: 206
Aratea 1.6.1: 288 6.28: 249
11-12: 122 1.8.6: 276 7.25.4: 278
540ff.: 207 1.10.4: 234 9.45.18: 181
543-6: 208 1.12.1: 289 17 (Per.): 250
frg. 4.142-3: 123 1.16.15: 260 18 (Per.): 218,
1.22.15: 230, 260 250
HYGINUS 21.4.9: 270
1.22.15-16: 240
Astronomica 1.23.10: 229 21.23.4: 132
2.22: 207, 208 1.26.3: 129 21.30.5: 132
1.28.4: 285 22.15.4: 114
HERODOTUS 22.51.3: 248
1.28.16: 168
1.189: 143 22.51.4: 248
1.37.26: 184
2.134: 287 21.54.7: 132
2.1: 246
4.172: 258 22.44.4: 231
2.1.1: 291
4.183.1: 258 22.51.4: 248
2.1.25-6: 215
4.191: 259 23.30.19: 205
2.1.29: 282
7.218.3: 279 24.30: 206
2.12.7: 221
HOMER 2.18.26-8: 187 25.12.6: 241
3.27.18: 117 26.32.4: 217
Iliad 27.14.9: 202
3.3.44: 286
1.403: 228 29.22.2: 233
3.4.49: 226
2.145: 126 29.24: 216
3.4.65-8: 162
2.783: 227 32.16.15: 263
3.4.77: 227
324 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

36.45.1: 167 MANILIUS OVID

38.49.5: 164 Astronomica Amores
40.8.9: 170
1.45: 22 2.2.55: 120
45.36.4: 239
1.283: 129 2.13.4: 171
100.10-15 (Per.):
1.135: 178 3.10.3: 193
190
1.270: 208 Ars Amandi
109-16 (Per.): 247
1.265: 207 1.615: 266
LUCRETIUS 1.316: 207 2.248: 204
De Rerum Natura 1.716: 164 2.311: 266
1.925: 231 3.12.25: 227
1.445: 218
1.576: 239 2.33: 208 3.393: 142
1.722: 197 2.445: 139 3.579: 120
2.251: 187 3.765: 141
1.729: 218
1.1080: 185 2.788-800 Epistulae ex Ponto
2.241: 218 3.6: 131
1.4.35-6: 219
4.348: 252
2.329-30 1.5.59: 120
2.917: 168 4.396: 159
1.8.19: 106
2.1150: 226 4.532: 128
2.9.67: 106
4.582: 178
3.1-2: 187 4.8.24: 242
3.79-82: 144 4.726: 133
4.14.24: 219
3.293: 184 4.729-30: 257
Epistulae Heroidum
4.738: 217
3.988: 227 6.126: 242
3.1055: 225 4.752: 133
5.542: 133 8.112: 269
4.227: 195 12.100: 235
4.761: 247 5.660: 239
12.188: 242
4.766: 247 MARTIAL 17.207: 290
4.919: 268 Epigrammata 19.195: 269
4.1046: 264 Fasti
1.24.3: 23
5.466: 134
1.52.3: 23 1.209: 249
5.487: 237
4.3.1: 139 1.285: 152
5.488: 13
4.18.6: 205 1.350: 106
5.775: 225
4.60.2: 233 1.680: 123
5.1108-19: 158
4.85.1: 185 2.227: 202
5.1185: 225
6.35.5: 242 3.282: 235
5.1241-96: 158
7.21-3: 2 3.577: 175
5.1210: 122
7.67: 235 3.621: 230
5.1241-96: 158
8.50: 221 3.729: 127
5.1296-339: 158
8.78: 221 4.66-7: 234
5.1442: 158
9.70.3: 286 4.224: 160
6.250: 128
9.71.7: 125 4.239: 287
6.267: 133
10.24.9: 253 4.634: 123
6.326: 171
10.64: 2 5.422: 282
6.405: 133
10.83.10: 242 5.693ff: 207
6.482: 134
14.194: 11-12 6.80: 230
6.495: 131
14.199.2: 173 6.241-3: 235
6.518: 131
6.835: 171 MELA 6.321: 160
6.841: 124 Medicamina faciei
De Chorographia
6.843: 226 55: 141
2.57.1: 192 99: 141
6.931: 195
3.13.2: 110 Metamorphoses
6.944: 237
3.13.6: 110
6.1041: 171 3.21.1: 132 1.30: 192
6.1142: 133 1.61: 126, 127
3.106: 222
 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 325
1.138: 159 10.335: 249 PLATO
1.149-50: 140 10.447: 207 Gorgias
1.151-62: 221 10.476: 163
423a: 136
1.268: 131 11.146: 175
Ion
1.275-82: 136 11.195: 125
1.276-92: 137 11.521: 164 535c: 205
1.283: 137 11.596: 198 Phaedrus
1.290-2: 133 11.634: 266 241e: 205
1.343-4: 140 11.786: 170 Meno
1.345: 140 12.119: 205 99d: 205
1.346-7: 140 12.301: 141
1.433: 151 12. 370: 168 PLINY THE ELDER
2.239-59: 113 12.582: 175 Naturalis Historia
2.239: 211 12.773: 290 2.119: 121
2.258: 137 14.547: 168 2.127: 123
2.379: 175 14.693: 175 2.156: 133
3.41: 178 15.221: 192 3.28: 110
3.397-8: 171 15.229: 241 3.134: 132
3.600-1: 269 15.250: 279 3.140: 192
4.1: 104 15.261: 249 3.142: 192
4.21: 127 15.306: 241 3.152: 192
4.126: 140 15.624: 192 5.2.6: 223
4.253: 141 15.627: 133 5.3.1: 223
4.401: 198 15.725-6: 219 5.5: 232, 255
4.414: 175 15.739: 192 5.17: 255, 257
4.481: 140 15.823-4: 141 5.26: 258
4.457-8: 227 Remedia amoris 5.33: 258
4.563-6: 249 522: 120 5.50: 142
4.565: 249 Tristia 7.14-15: 258
4.745: 241 7.121: 176
1.6.35-6: 290
5.78: 140 7.208: 142
1.7.21: 175
5.137: 205 8.37: 218
1.11.5: 128
5.233: 241 8.48: 260
2.3: 158
5.518: 275 8.88: 267
2.24: 160
5.590: 140 9.56.4: 178
2.199: 252
6.243: 238 11.4: 160
3.4.48: 123
6.396: 141 11.63: 178
4.2.44: 231
6.527-8: 140 13.81: 142
4.4.81: 175
6.529: 140 13.104: 258
4.4.83: 144
7.7: 125 16.77: 140
4.9.19-20: 290
7.145: 175 25.84: 110
5.1.41: 231
7.415-19: 177 27.4: 177
5.2.5: 241
7.554-7: 178 27.9: 177
7.556: 178 NEPOS 27.10: 177
8.183: 175 28.63: 241
8.342: 169 Eumenes 36.24.120: 234
8.402: 141 3.4: 184
37.18-22: 185
8.443-4: 205 Hannibal
37.84.9: 128
9.35-6: 235 6.1: 231
9.120-6: 243 PLINY THE YOUNGER
PETRONIUS
9.199: 242 Letters
9.219: 241 frg. xviii Müller:
6.23.1
10.105: 241 142
10.241: 241
326 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

Panegyricus 15.4: 288 De Clementia

8.2: 231 17-19: 255 4.17.4: 244
49.5: 152 17: 254 De Constantia Sapientis
17.4: 252
PLUTARCH 2.8.3: 236
17.7: 257
De Providentia
Alcibiades 18.1: 256
2: 244 18.4: 257 1.1.3: 122
18.10: 257 1.3.4: 236
Alexander the Great
19.5: 256 De Vita Beata (= Dial.
14.7: 231 7)
35.10: 291
Caesar
41: 291 22.7: 197
36: 104 De coniuratione De Vita Patris
38.5: 203 Catilinae
Fabius Maximus frg. 1 Peter: 4
5.4: 216, 266, 288 Epistulae ad Lucilium
23: 244 10.2: 291
Pompey 14.6: 178
12: 291 18.10: 185
41: 127 20.3: 216 21.10: 185
44: 108 56.9: 108 31.5: 191
52.4: 233 58.2: 216 45.10: 185
53: 108 58.12: 216 51.6: 175
64: 209 58.15: 216 77.4: 172
Sertorius 58.17: 216 78.23: 132
9: 222 Historiae 79.11-12: 191
9.5: 260 2 frg. 64.3 85.16: 117
19: 108 Maurenbrecher: 122.6: 176
PTOLEMAEUS 217 Hercules Furens
Geographia SENECA THE ELDER 32: 242
35: 242
4.16.2: 258 Controversiae
80: 137
QUINTILIAN 1.praef.11: 4 125: 117
1.6.4: 114 130-1: 207
Institutio Oratoria 2.1.13: 185 155: 196
2.8.13: 235 Suasoriae 236: 128
3.8.24: 191 6.21: 284 310: 232
3.8.30: 191 6.26: 285 480-7: 222
6.1.12: 285 6.27: 4 562: 235
8.6.28: 27
SENECA THE YOUNGER 646-7: 232
10.1.90: 18
673: 137
10.3.3: 236 Ad Helviam Matrem 686: 137
10.3.13: 172 18.4-5: 3 704: 122
11.3.38: 167 Ad Marciam 798: 233
[QUINTILIAN] 26.5.2: 144 884: 145
Declamationes Maiores Agamemnon 869: 232
123: 193 976-8: 227
4.10.19: 200
134: 148 1060: 125
16.17: 169
461: 117 1072: 150
Declamationes Minores
519: 202 1100-1: 148
258.8: 153 1245: 168
271.13.2: 117 572: 167
De Beneficiis Medea
301 p. 187: 152
1.1.5: 172 768: 145
SALLUST 5.3: 243 977: 202
Bellum Iugurthinum 1023: 179
5.2: 260
 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 327
Naturales Quaestiones SERVIUS 7.455: 182
1.3.8: 131 In Vergilii Aeneidos 8.70: 133
1.4.2: 134 Libros 8.159: 230
2: 130 8.168: 251
1.praef.70: 11
2.1.2: 175 8.626: 215
1.103: 217
2.21.1: 131 9.10: 235
1.382: 12
3.11.5: 123 9.560: 160
4.1: 192
3.15.1: 179 10.237: 241
4.135: 275
3.15.7: 279 11.419: 202
4.206: 257
3.25.12: 279 12.254-5: 275
5.159: 218
5.2.3: 121 12.733: 104
In Vergilii Bucolicon
5.6: 279 13.562-3: 138
Librum 13.698-701: 19,
5.16.4-9: 126
6.6.2: 139 5.5: 267 119
Oedipus In Vergilii Georgicon 13.845: 22
Libros 14.57: 223
42: 210
1.58: 159 14.113: 230
43: 167
14.256: 197
233-5: 106 SILIUS ITALICUS 14.500: 159
427: 127 Punica 14.585: 21
582-3: 137
1.5: 270 15.110: 153
1049: 164
1.195: 252 15.434: 153
Phaedra
1.215: 259 17.155: 219
32: 195 1.223: 276
41: 198 SOPHOCLES
1.228: 173
742: 246 1.289: 192 Trachiniae
955-6: 134 2.59-64: 257 1012: 232
1042: 241 2.147: 239 1059-61: 232
Phoenissae 3.191: 268 1260: 159
422: 134 3.290-1: 256 SUETONIUS
470: 238 3.300: 258
Thyestes 2.478: 242 Divus Iulius
9: 227 3.91: 242 29: 292
171: 215 3.334: 110 59: 231
742: 171 3.340: 111 75.3: 250
804-12: 227 3.415: 132 Domitianus
Troades 3.421: 234 4.8: 134
4.95-6: 277 Nero
52: 253
4.408: 160 12.3-4: 6
114: 148
4.589-90: 171 30: 259
939: 169
4.701: 153 Tiberius
1139: 139
5.147: 275
[SENECA] 5.219: 238 17.2: 231
5.273: 22 Vita Lucani (ed. Badalì)
Hercules [Oetaeus]
5.396: 223 23 Rostagni: 285
1891: 233 400.10-11: 5
Octavia 5.660: 278
6.26: 200 400.19-401.22: 9
21: 242 6.139: 225 400.19: 7
50-1: 193 6.140-205: 218-19 401.31-2: 2
678: 117 6.141-5: 218
714: 176 STATIUS
6.140-1: 219
735-6: 148 Achilleid
7.108: 144
745: 148 7.345: 249 1.560: 104
812: 287 7.363: 219
328 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

2.61: 160 9.27: 134 5.277: 230

2.96-100: 229 9.717: 200 5.412: 134
Silvae 9.846: 23 5.442: 192
1.2.119: 21, 104 10.49: 104 5.581: 21
2.1.49: 242 11.218: 23 6.161: 23
2.6.6: 104 11.588: 219 6.200: 202
2.7: 2 12.464: 104 6.289: 175
2.7.54-72: 7 12.651: 277 7.65: 139
2.7.54-7: 6 12.665: 104 7.143: 182
2.7.57: 6 7.579: 242
TACITUS
2.7.58-9: 6 VALERIUS MAXIMUS
Agricola
2.7.60-1: 7
10: 141 Facta et dicta
3.1.84: 23
Annals memorabilia
3.1.127: 134
3.1.181: 21 3.75.1: 260 1.8. ext. 19: 218
3.3.92: 23 4.73.4: 278 7.6.5: 231
3.5.103: 23 14.21.1-2: 233 9.1.6: 292
4.3.136: 21 14.16: 6 VELLEIUS PATERCULUS
4.7.49: 231 14.20.1: 6
Historia Romana
5.2.135: 23 15.49: 2
5.3.104: 217 15.49.3: 8 2.24.5: 216
5.3.195-6: 149 15.56: 2 2.48: 108
5.3.260-1: 239 15.70: 2, 9 2.48.3: 215, 216,
Thebaid 15.70.1: 9 288
Histories 2.55.3: 278
1.147-58: 221 2.79.3: 278
1.332: 271 1.16.1-2: 13
1.346: 134 1.3: 289 VIRGIL
1.710: 227 2.49: 153 Aeneid
2.74: 153 Germania 1.1: 32
2.176: 290 1: 252 1.7: 167
2.527: 134 1.33: 209
3.18: 235 VALERIUS FLACCUS
1.59: 273
3.318: 171 Argonautica
1.102-4: 217
3.604: 23 1.64: 272 1.170: 217
4.150: 23 1.158: 104 1.260: 232
4.454: 240 1.277-8: 153 1.293: 286
4.494: 22 1.634: 232 1.375: 237
4.551: 266 2.35: 118 1.377: 230
5.628: 268 2.446: 230 1.464-5: 164
5.737: 268 2.559: 230 1.513: 273
6.419: 240 3.30-1: 235 1.520: 170
6.753: 227 3.506: 242 1.661: 273-4
6.847-910: 234 3.577: 237 2.40-56: 269
6.848-9: 235 3.580: 242 2.72: 287
6.874: 235 3.582: 22 2.120: 273
6.880: 23 4.61: 182 2.159: 117
6.889: 235 4.145-56: 230 2.174: 237
7.720: 23 4.148-9: 227 2.309-10: 272
7.766: 275 4.199: 104 2.324-5: 11
8.18: 219 4.200: 227 2.366: 287
8.91: 23 4.244: 241 2.397: 163
8.542: 275 4.484: 230 2.459: 120
8.675: 21 4.497: 175 2.531: 242
8.694: 22
 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 329
2.701: 149 6.890: 236 10.295-8: 219
3.56-7: 134 7.1 ff.: 29 10.361: 280
3.151: 218 7.3: 246 10.373: 280
3.175: 236 7.39: 230 10.486: 205
3.217-18: 133 7.45: 214 10.500: 247
3.278: 247 7.59: 245 10.535-6: 265
3.296: 247 7.113: 133 10.617: 287
3.338: 230 7.317: 286 10.690: 119
3.354: 245 7.383: 214 11.192: 143
3.471: 194 7.409: 215 11.195: 275
3.483: 171 7.440: 226 11.230: 181
3.582: 134 7.461: 161 11.248: 171
3.699: 271 7.458-9: 237 11.522-9: 146
3.715: 230 7.459: 237 11.522-5: 147
4.1: 104 7.475: 215 11.559: 169
4.27: 115 7.563: 245 11.592: 287
4.30: 265 7.595: 287 11.635: 182
4.41· 259 7.631: 160 11.876-7: 277
4.135: 159, 275 7.722: 274 11.899: 278
4.149-50: 214 7.766: 287 11.908-9: 277
4.206: 257 7.779: 276 12.113-33: 152
4.551: 176 7.797: 115 12.117-19: 152
4.625: 282 8.176: 152 12.217: 122
4.686: 182 8.193: 229 12.260: 166
4.479: 236 8.196-7: 223 12.334: 274
5.21-2: 235 8.197: 133 12.372-3: 275
5.69: 234 8.259-61: 244 12.407-8: 277
5.158: 219 8.260: 241 12.444-5: 277
5.159: 218 8.280: 117 12.525: 214
5.199-200: 237 8.414: 214 12.533: 274
5.330: 140 8.446: 159 12.553: 195
5.351: 229 8.478-9: 112 12.676: 149
5.368: 195 8.596: 277 12.875: 149
5.372: 218 8.700: 169 12.940: 149
5.432: 237 9.123: 273 Eclogues
5.442: 120 9.166-7: 153 1.24: 249
5.458: 195 9.204: 232 2.40: 217
5.514: 169 9.267: 247 4.1: 192
5.532: 228 9.363: 247 4.21: 176
5.538: 204 9.422-3: 287 5.5: 267
5.679: 174 9.446: 11 8.3: 176
5.862: 214 9.450: 247 Georgics
5.868: 269 9.599-600: 277
1.37: 264
6.174: 236 9.720: 170
1.58: 159
6.287: 228 9.806-14: 237
1.93: 123
6.303: 142 9.812-14: 237
1.96: 193
6.435: 169 9.812-13: 237
1.233: 129
6.440: 252 9.814: 237
1.240: 138
6.559: 241 9.975: 277
1.240-3: 135
6.591: 274, 276 10.139: 232
1.268: 273
6.595-7: 227 10.174: 159
1.278: 226
6.621: 293 10.197: 219
1.380-1: 131
6.624: 247 10.246-7: 265
1.397: 139
6.830-1: 286 10.253: 160
1.466-514: 12
330 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque

1.483: 214 3.208: 276 3.508: 275

1.505: 273 3.366: 241 3.516: 275
2.13: 140 3.405: 195 3.524: 275
2.128: 242 3.382: 138 3.531: 214
2.171: 104 3.456: 128 4.21-2: 226
2.283: 278 3.497: 275 4.49: 274
2.401: 187 3.500-1: 275 4.80: 214
2.490: 187 3.500: 275 4.289: 142
2.498: 187 3.501-2: 275 4.350-1: 273
3.83-4: 273 3.505-8: 275 4.408: 178
3.110: 195 3.505-6: 275 4.506: 142
3.165: 206 3.507-8: 275 4.561-2: 286
 Index nominum et rerum

abstract: 115, 162, 194, Caesar (Caius Iulius lust for death (amor
261 Caesar Dictator; see mortis; uelle mori):
Afranius, Lucius: 15, 24, also index locorum): 48-9, 143-4, 201
38-9, 64-5, 100-4, 4, 11-17, 24, 38-41, metaphors concerning
106-11, 113-14, 118, 44-5, 48-55, 58-9, death: 130, 135, 138,
139, 150, 154-5, 166- 62-9, 74-5, 88, 96-7, 161, 205, 239, 244-5,
7, 181-4, 191, 204, 100-19, 124, 127, 278
214 133, 138-50, 154-8,
160-1, 164-70, 177-8, untimely death motif:
Afranius 181-4, 186, 189-95, 270-1
Burrus: 5 199, 202-10, 213-14, enallage: 245, 267
anadiplosis: 25, 26, 273 216-18, 221-5, 231,
233, 236, 247-8, 250- enclosing word order: 23-
anaphora: 21, 25, 26, 136, 1, 254, 261-3, 269, 4, 109, 124, 126, 142,
169 271, 283, 286-8, 291- 147, 153, 199, 261,
anastrophe: 146, 175 2 281, 283, 287
Antonius (Caius Antonius, caesura: 31-2, 144, 145, gladiator (gladiatorial
brother of the 146, 184, 214, 254, language): 6,7, 28-9,
triumvir): 68, 108, 100, 107, 139, 170,
Cato (Marcus Porcius 234, 236, 264-5, 268,
189, 190, 192, 193, Cato the Younger):
194, 195 281
14, 17, 25, 27-8, 31,
antonomasia: 26, 27, 133, 105, 124, 135, 161, Helles (see also myth): 42,
210, 211, 234, 202, 213, 216, 219, 125
231-2, 273, 277 hendiadys: 158, 173, 205,
apostrophe: 17, 25, 27, 29,
30, 114, 115, 116, Cinga (river): 38-9, 111- 212, 285
134, 136, 137, 144, 12, 114-15 hero (heroism, heroic
148, 149, 150, 156, Curio (C. Scribonius paradigm): 79, 136,
161, 166, 167, 175, Curio): 15-17, 21, 23, 139, 152, 173, 178,
176, 177, 181, 185, 27-8, 30, 80-1, 84-91, 187, 190, 194, 200,
186, 199, 202, 203, 94-7, 100, 107-8, 202, 212, 227, 231,
206, 212, 213, 261, 110, 115, 190, 213- 232, 242
281, 283, 284, 288, 93 Hiberus (river): 38, 111,
289, 289 113-15
death (generic): 9, 27,
astronomy: 121, 180, 185 168, 172, 185, 187 hypallage: 26-8, 133, 153,
206, 253 163-4, 167, 172, 174,
apostrophe to death: 115
audax (audacia): 19, 26-7, 176-7, 180, 198-9,
80, 122, 215, 216-17, fate and death: 203, 270 205-6, 245, 267, 276,
229, 263, 268, 268, feeling death: 211 285
287 hyperbaton: 23-6, 118,
glory and death: 198-9,
Basilus, Lucius Minucius: 200, 202, 209-10, 124, 126, 148, 155,
68, 69, 189, 193 212 184, 191, 199, 210,
Boreas (wind): 26, 42, 229, 242
120, 126, 129
332 Index nominum et rerum

hyperbole: 28, 133, 134, 195, 200, 208-9, 216, philosophy: see Stoicism
136, 140, 161, 183, 231, 238-9, 245, 252, polyptoton: 237-7, 280
205, 210, 212, 220-1, 267, 269, 272, 278,
225, 229, 281, 283 288, 290 Pompey (Cnaeus
Pompeius Magnus):
inversion: 196 myth (mythological 4, 11-14, 17, 24, 39,
law (legality, legal vocabulary): 10-11, 69, 71, 95, 107-8,
language): 16, 41, 57, 13, 26-8, 103, 121, 113, 115, 124, 127-8,
87, 89, 95, 97, 107, 125, 162, 177, 194, 208-9, 213, 216-17,
109, 117, 148, 150, 210, 211, 214, 220-2, 232-3, 254, 262, 271,
157, 181, 261, 285, 224-5, 227-8, 243, 283, 286-91
290 245-6, 248, 264, 277,
288 prolepsis: 206
Libya (Africa, Africans, register (linguistic; see
Libyans): 15-16, 26, negative enumeration: 25,
28, 135, 156, 158, also legal, medical,
28-32, 81-7, 91, 93-5, mythological,
97, 100, 108, 110, 169, 173, 185, 273-4
scientific
112, 191, 213-93 neologism: 19, 22, 128, vocabulary): 18-20,
(esp. 213-15, 218, 141, 192 22, 222,
220-1, 224, 230, 240, Octavius (C. Octavius):
252-3, 255, 257-9, sacrifice (sacrificial
71, 189-90, 192, 194- language): 23, 95,
270) 5 140, 152-3, 168-9,
life: 67, 73, 75, 77, 95, 97, Opitergium (Opitergian, 199, 201-2, 205, 209,
172, 186, 199, 200, Opitergini): 72-3, 282-3
253, 284, 288 124, 189-213, 292 science (scientific
granting life: 65, 182 paradox: 28, 103, 106, vocabulary): 5, 19,
hatred of life: 59, 209 119-20, 123, 132-3, 22, 24, 103, 112,
death, suicide: 202, 212 136, 139, 144, 148, 120-2, 130, 163, 172,
155-6, 160-1, 164, 194, 240
litotes (and emphatic 167, 175, 180-1, 183,
negative): 158, 191, Sicoris (river): 38-9, 48-9,
193, 199-201, 206, 65, 101-2, 111-15,
214, 252, 273, 289 209, 211, 221, 225, 116, 140, 143
Magnus, Cn. Pompeius 243-4, 248, 261-2,
Magnus 268, 280, 283, 287, Stoicism: 3, 5, 30, 122,
289 124, 131, 137, 151,
medical vocabulary: 19, 185, 198, 201, 231,
21, 28, 103, 141, 170, paronomasia: 266 239-40
172, 174, 177-9, 240- pars pro toto: 27, 119,
1, 258, 274 suicide (self-annihilation,
159, 180, 210, 238, self-destruction; see
metaphor (metaphorical 267, 270, 282 also life): 9, 124, 135,
language): 28, 107, pathos: 18, 21-2, 25-6, 28, 187-212, 213, 267
122-3, 133, 139, 149, 30, 118, 133-4, 136,
163, 170, 176, 194, synecdoche: 27, 112, 119,
178, 210, 241, 249, 157, 159, 180, 210,
202, 215, 217, 219, 261, 273, 283, 289
221, 230, 236, 243, 233, 238, 255, 267,
251, 253, 274, 279, Petreius: 15, 24-5, 28, 38- 270, 277, 280, 282
280, 282, 285-6, 291 9, 48-9, 55, 100-4, syntax: 24, 26, 120, 138,
107-11, 116, 138-9, 144, 146, 149, 157,
metonymy: 26-7, 106, 143-5, 150, 154-62,
111, 121, 126-7, 129- 199, 217, 261, 280,
165, 167-70, 182, 287
30, 132, 135, 147, 184, 191, 199, 204,
159, 170, 180, 185, 214, 292
 Index nominum et rerum 333
trope: see apostrophe, Volteius (also Vulteius): zeugma (see also
metaphor, metonymy, 187-212 hypallage): 153
pars pro toto,
synecdoche, etc.