Paolo Asso

Brill's Companion to Lucan (Brill's Companions in Classical Studies) Paolo Asso

Although it was labeled an anti-epic for trumping the celebratory scope of the Roman national epos, Lucans Bellum Civile is a hymn to lost republican liberty composed under Neros tyrannical empire. Lucan lost his life in a foiled conspiracy to replace the emperor, but his poem survived the wreckage of antiquity and enjoyed uninterrupted readership. The present collection samples the most current approaches to Lucans poem, its themes, its dialogue with other texts, its reception in medieval and early modern literature, and its relevance to audiences of all times.