Lucanus
Marco Anneo Lucano (Corduba, 39 - Rome, 65) was a Roman poet, of Hispanic origin, author of the epic poem Pharsalia.
Biography
Lucano was born in Corduba, Baetica, on November 3, 39. He was the grandson of Marco Anneo Seneca (Seneca the Elder) and nephew of the philosopher Seneca. His father, Marco Anneo Mela, belonged to the class of knights. His mother, Acilia, was the daughter of a well-known orator. When Lucanus was eight months old, his father moved with the whole family to Rome, the city where he had lived and where his uncle, the philosopher, had acquired notable fame. However, the latter had to suffer exile on the island of Corsica by order of Emperor Claudius in the year 41. In the year 49 Seneca returned from this exile determined to deal with the instruction of his beloved nephew.
Lucano showed signs of extreme precocity that led him to be a poet laureate at an early age. He also exhibited a great productive capacity, which was violently cut short by his death at the age of twenty-six. His considerable work is composed, among other titles, by Iliaca , Saturnalia , Catachthonion and Silvas ; a tragedy, Medea; 14 scripts of pantomimes conceived for the dance; a letter addressed to his young wife, Pola Argentaria, etc. However, only his epic has come down to us in ten songs about the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, which bears the title of Farsalia .
At the age of sixteen, Lucanus was already the author of three compositions and could recite in Latin and Greek. He went to Athens on a training trip, but had to return soon at the request of Nero himself, who at that time gave him all his esteem and included him in his cohors amicorum , that is, his circle of friends. At the age of twenty-one he received the dignity of poet laureate, and Nero honored him by naming him augur and even giving him the position of quaestor in an honorary way before reaching the statutory age. He also intervened publicly in the year 60 in the Neronia , artistic shows created by Nero.
Soon, however, the insane conduct of the emperor, who was also a poet and envied him, changed direction for him, prohibiting him from holding public readings, with which he fell into disgrace ever since. The following four years, from 62 to 65, Lucanus not only alternated his writings with satirical and accusatory compositions against the emperor and his collaborators, but also came to participate actively in Piso's conspiracy that was being forged against him. emperor.
When the conspiracy was discovered due to the imprudence of one of those involved, according to the testimony of Tacitus and Suetonius, Lucanus had to undergo cruel interrogations, throughout which he alternately denied, admitted and retracted his guilt. Although these testimonies are not very credible, he apparently even went so far as to accuse his own mother to lessen his responsibilities. On this point, it is possible to think that he was part of Nero's smear campaign, since a process was never opened against the woman. The truth is that, after receiving his death sentence, whose manner of execution was left to his choice, he assumed a dignified attitude and, in the best possible example of stoicism, cut his wrists on April 30, 65, and expired. reciting some verses in which he had described the end of a soldier who suffered his own death, as described by the contemporary historian Tacitus. However, these verses are not preserved today.
About his life, various vitae offer data, one of them composed by Suetonius. His wife Pola Argentaria kept his memory faithfully and invited the poets Marcial and Estacio to her birth party.
Sham
The original title was Bellum civile. It is a very realistic narrative poem that narrates the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, although the hero seems to be a republican, Cato of Utica, who committed suicide representing the virtues of stoicism; the truth is that Lucano's family was Hispanic and Hispanics were Pompeians,[citation required ] therefore, in the poem, the figure of Pompey appears more sympathetic than that of the ambitious Caesar; the fidelity to the data and the realism that shines through the poem (for example, it dispenses with involving the gods in human affairs) led some to consider that it was more about history than an epic, despite its undoubted expressive successes and lyrical. It is clear that rhetorical and declamatory effects dominate in it. The proem contains a dedication, perhaps ironic, in favor of Nero, and ten complete books follow, the last being the shortest. The sources for him are primarily Titus Livy and a lost historical work by his grandfather, Seneca the Elder. The tenth book is interrupted at verse 546. The first three books, dedicated to Nero, appeared during the author's lifetime. The rest were published posthumously due to the veto of the emperor, who clearly distinguished anti-monarchical motives in them. Critical editions of the work were made by C. Hosius (1913) and A. E. Housman (1926). There are also abundant old commentaries on this work, edited by Hermann Usener in his M. Annaei Lucani Comments on Bernensia, 1969.