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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
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
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
_____________
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
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
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
_____________
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
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
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
_____________
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
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
_____________
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
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
_____________
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
_____________
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
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
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
_____________
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
Conspectus Siglorum
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
_____________
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
1-10 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
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
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
(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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
geous for the Petreian and Afranian survivors, who will earn Caesar’s
pardon and will get to go home. Lucky men!
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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).
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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Wissowa. Stuttgart: A. Druckenmüller.
References and Abbreviations 315
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.