Marcus Annaeus Lucanus

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (November 3, 39

Year 39 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar....
AD–April 30, 65

Year 65 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar....
AD, age 26), better known in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
as Lucan, was a Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba

Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
), in the Hispania Baetica

Hispania Baetica

Hispania Baetica was one of three Imperial Roman provincesin Hispania, . Hispania Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania , and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis....
. Despite his short life, he is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Silver Latin

Classical Latin

Classical Latin is the form of the Latin used by the ancient Rome in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries....
period. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets.
brief ancient biographies by Vacca

Vacca

Vacca was a sixth century grammarian who studied and commented on the works of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus. Little is known of Vacca other than he wrote Vita Lucani , which is not to be confused with Suetonius' Vita Lucani....
and Suetonius

Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
, along with references in Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
's Annals and one of Statius

Statius

Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatorio section of Dante Alighieri epic poem The Divine Comedy....
's Silvae, allow for the reconstruction of a modest biography.

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (November 3, 39

Year 39 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar....
AD–April 30, 65

Year 65 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar....
AD, age 26), better known in English

English language

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba

Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
), in the Hispania Baetica

Hispania Baetica

Classical Latin

Life

Two brief ancient biographies by Vacca

Vacca

Suetonius

Tacitus

Statius

Seneca the Elder

Lucius, or Marcus, Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician , was a Ancient Rome rhetorician and writer, born of a wealthy Equestrian family of C?rdoba, Spain, Hispania....
and grew up under the tutelage of his uncle Seneca the Younger

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
. Born into a wealthy family, he studied rhetoric at Athens and was probably provided philosophical and Stoicist

Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
education by his uncle.

He found success under Nero

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
, became one of the emperor's close friends and was rewarded with a quaestorship in advance of the legal age. In 60 AD, he won a prize for extemporizing Orpheus and Laudes Neronis at the quinquennial Neronia

Quinquennial Neronia

The quinquennial Neronia was a massive Greek-style festival created by Nero. The festival was in three parts. The first being music, oratory and poetry, the second being gymnastics, and the third being riding....
, and was again rewarded when the emperor appointed him to the augurate. During this time he circulated the first three books of his epic poem, Pharsalia
Pharsalia

Pharsalia is a Roman literature Epic poetry by the poet Lucan , telling of the Caesar's civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great....
(labelled De Bello civili in the manuscripts), which told the story of the civil war between Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, commonly known as Pompey /'p?mpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman Republic....
.

At some point, a feud began between Nero and Lucan. Two very different accounts of the events have survived that both trivialize the feud. According to Tacitus, Nero became jealous of Lucan and forbade him to publish his poems. According to Suetonius, Nero lost interest in Lucan and Lucan responded by writing insulting poems about Nero that Nero continued to ignore.

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

Lucan later joined the 65 AD conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso

Gaius Calpurnius Piso

Gaius Calpurnius Piso was a Roman senator in the 1st century. He was the focal figure in the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 A.D., the most famous and wide-ranging plot against the throne of Nero....
against Nero. His treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
discovered, he was obliged to commit suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"....
by opening a vein at the age of 25, but not before incriminating his mother, among others, in hopes of a pardon

Pardon

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent Roman Catholic Church authority....
. According to Tacitus, as Lucan bled to death, "(he) recalled some poetry he had composed in which he had told the story of a wounded soldier dying a similar kind of death, and he recited the very lines. These were his last words."

His father was involved in the proscription

Proscription

Proscription is the public identification and official condemnation of enemy of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically-charged word frequently used to refer to state-approved murder or persecution....
but his mother escaped. Statius' poem about Lucan was addressed to his widow Polla Argentaria upon the occasion of his birthday during the reign of Domitian

Domitian

Titus Flavius Domitianus , commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 14 September 81 until his death. Domitian was the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Domitian's father Vespasian , his elder brother Titus , and that of Domitian himself...
(Silvae, ii.7, the Genethliacon Lucani).

Works

According to Vacca and Statius, Lucan's works included:

Surviving work:

Pharsalia
Pharsalia

Pharsalia is a Roman literature Epic poetry by the poet Lucan , telling of the Caesar's civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great....
(Civil War), on the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey

Often attributed to him (but to others as well):

Laus Pisonis
Laus Pisonis

The Laus Pisonis is a Latin verse panegyric of the 1st?century AD in praise of a man of the Pisones family. The exact identity of the subject is not completely certain, but current scholarly consensus identifies him with Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul in AD 57....
(Praise of Piso), a panegyric of a member of the Piso family

Lost works:

Catachthonion
Iliacon from the Trojan cycle
Epigrammata
Adlocutio
Adlocutio

In ancient Rome, an adlocutio was an address by a general to his massed army and a general salute from the army to their leader. It is often portrayed in sculpture, either simply as a single, life-size contraposto figure of the general with his arm outstretched , or a relief scene of the general on a podium addressing the army....
ad Pollam
Silvae
Saturnalia
Medea
Salticae Fabulae
Laudes Neronis, a praise of Nero
Orpheus
Prosa oratio in Octavium Sagittam
Epistulae ex Campania
De Incendio Urbis, on the Roman fire of 64, perhaps accusing Nero of arson

External links

: text, concordances and frequency list