Lucan De bello civili Book II [Paperback]

The first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem De bello civili.The first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey pays particular attention to Lucan's inheritance from Virgil's Augustan epic and responds to its challenge.The first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey pays particular attention to Lucan's inheritance from Virgil's Augustan epic and responds to its challenge.This edition offers the first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey: De bello civili. It pays particular attention to Lucan's inheritance from Virgil's Augustan epic and response to its challenge. The introduction gives a general account of Lucan's life and work, a discussion of his narrative, a survey of language, style and meter, and a brief history of the text. The commentary offers assistance with grammar and translation and aims to provide the political, historical and geographical background to Lucan's epic narrative.Introduction; 1. De bello civili: the poet and the poem; 2. Lucan's work in the epic tradition; 3. The Civil War: history and poetic interpretation; 4. Language, style and versification; 5. The text M. Annaei Lvcani De bello civili liber secvndvs; Commentary; Chronological table of events from 8849 BC; Parallel summaries of Lucan, De bello civili I-II, Livy, Periocha and Caesar, Bellum civile 1; Appendices: 1. A Neronian critic of Lucan?; 2. The capture of Corfinium; 3. Cato's decision and Seneca's appraisal; Bibliography; Index. From the commentary's wealth of insights, observations and contextualizations one could single out items from every page which are worthy of note or lead to further literary reflection. Suffice it to say that in the preparation of this commentary [Elaine Fantham] has done Lucan and his readersló