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Lauded after his death as ‘champion of the English Commonwealth’, but also derided as a ‘most servile wit, and mercenary pen’, the poet, dramatist and historian Thomas May (c.1595–1650) produced the first full translation into English of Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile shortly before a ruinous civil war engulfed his own country. Lucan, whose epic had lamented the Roman Republic’s doomed struggle to preserve liberty and inevitable enslavement to the Caesars, and who was forced to commit suicide at the behest of the emperor Nero, was a figure of fascination in early modern Europe. May’s accomplished rendition of his challenging poem marked an important moment in the history of its English reception. This is a modernized edition of the first complete (1627) edition of the translation. It includes prefatory materials, dedications and May’s own historical notes on the text. Besides an introduction contextualising May’s life and work and the key features of his translation, it offers a full commentary to the text highlighting how May responded to contemporary editions and commentaries on Lucan, and explaining points of literary, political, philosophical interest. There is also a detailed glossary and bibliography, and a set of textual notes enumerating the chief differences between the 1627 edition and the others produced in May’s lifetime. This volume aims not just to provide an accessible path into the dense, sometimes provocative poem May shapes from Lucan, but also a broader appreciation of the translator’s literary merits and the role his work plays in the history of the English reception of Roman literature and culture.
The only surviving work of the Roman poet Lucan and 1 of the supreme achievements of Augustan verse. Lucan was a Roman poet of Spanish origin, the nephew of Seneca. The only 1 of his works to have survived is a sweeping historical epic about the civil wars between Pompey and Caesar, written in 10 books, which both Shelley and Macauley admired.
Manuscript on paper of Lucan, Pharsalia. With commentary, verse summary, and verse argumenta of each book.
Born in 39 C.E., the Roman poet Lucan lived during the turbulent reign of the emperor Nero. Prior to his death in 65 C.E., Lucan wrote prolifically, yet beyond some fragments, only his epic poem, the Civil War, has survived. Acclaimed by critics as one of the greatest literary achievements of the Roman Empire, the Civil War is a stirring account of the war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the republican senate led by Pompey the Great. Reading Lucan’s Civil War is the first comprehensive guide to this important poem. Accessible to all readers, it is especially well suited for students encountering the work for the first time. As the editor, Paul Roche, explains in his introduction, the Civil War (alternatively known in Latin as Bellum Civile, De Bello Civili, or Pharsalia) is most likely an unfinished work. Roche places the poem in historical and literary contexts that will be helpful to first-time readers. The volume presents, chapter-by-chapter, essays that cover each of the Civil War’s ten extant books. Five further chapters address topics and issues pertaining to the entire work, including religion and ritual, philosophy, gender dynamics, and Lucan’s relationships to Vergil and Julius Caesar. The contributors to this volume are all expert scholars who have published widely on Lucan’s work and Roman imperial literature. Their essays provide readers with a detailed understanding of and appreciation for the poem’s unique features. The contributors take special care to include translations of all original Latin passages and explain unfamiliar Latin and Greek terms. The volume is enhanced by a map of Lucan’s Roman world and a glossary of key terms.
" . . . eminently readable, supple, and coherent . . . essential . . . " —Choice " . . . translated into English verse with great force and precision . . . " —History "There is . . . a very real need for a new poetic version, and Mr. Widdows has carried out the difficult task most creditably. . . . his translation is both accurate and readable, and in our age, so much kinder to baroque art than the ages that preceded it, he should have many readers." —New York Review of Books "On all counts this translation of the Pharsalia is a resounding success and will, one predicts, stand as the definitive English version. Readers . . . will welcome this verse edition by Widdows with its readability, accuracy, and, above all, its poetic sensibility. . . . Widdows' translation deserves acclaim, and both classicist and student of epic poetry in general will want this edition on their bookshelves . . . " —Classical World Told in a series of gripping, dramatic episodes, Widdows' powerful verse translation of Lucan's unfinished epic of the Roman civil war starts with the crossing of the Rubicon and ends with Caesar narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Egyptian army.
The Pharsalia, Lucan's epic on the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey, is a document of fundamental importance for students of the history and literature of Rome in the early imperial period. For historians concerned with the defence of Republican traditions under the emperors as much as for literary critics mapping the transformation of epic in the wake of Vergil, it is impossible to ignore this poem.
Die Beiträge zur Altertumskunde enthalten Monographien, Sammelbände, Editionen, Übersetzungen und Kommentare zu Themen aus den Bereichen Klassische, Mittel- und Neulateinische Philologie, Alte Geschichte, Archäologie, Antike Philosophie sowie Nachwirken der Antike bis in die Neuzeit. Dadurch leistet die Reihe einen umfassenden Beitrag zur Erschließung klassischer Literatur und zur Forschung im gesamten Gebiet der Altertumswissenschaften.
Lucan's great poem, Pharsalia, recounts events surrounding the decisive battle fought near Pharsalus in 48 B.C. during the civil war between the forces of Pompey and Julius Caesar. Though the subject of this unfinished masterpiece is historical, many of its features are characteristic of epic poetry: Rousing battle scenes; tales of witches, monsters, and miracle; detailed catalogues; intricate similes; and speeches with a high degree of rhetorical elegance. However, Lucan's deft mix of humor and horror, of political satire, literary parody, history, and epic is entirely his own. Jane Wilson Joyce's superb translation conveys the drama and poetry of the original. Her use of natural English rhythms in a loose six-beat line comes close to matching the original Latin hexameters, wile her language preserves Lucan's sequence of images. An enlightening introduction, notes, and a full glossary augment the translation.
Compelled by the emperor Nero to commit suicide at age 25 after writing uncomplimentary poems, Latin poet Lucan nevertheless left behind a significant body of work, including the Bellum Civile (Civil War). Sometimes also called the Pharsalia, this epic describes the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey.Author Giulio Celotto provides an interpretation of this civil war based on the examination of an aspect completely neglected by previous scholarship: Lucan’s literary adaptation of the cosmological dialectic of Love and Strife. According to a reading that has found favor over the last three decades, the poem is an unconventional epic that does not conform to Aristotelian norms: Lucan composes a poem characterized by fragmentation and disorder, lacking a conventional teleology, and whose narrative flow is constantly delayed. Celotto’s study challenges this interpretation by illustrating how Lucan invokes imagery of cosmic dissolution, but without altogether obliterating epic norms. The poem transforms them from within, condemning the establishment of the Principate and the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
A lively and accessible guide to the rich literary, philosophical and artistic achievements of the notorious age of Nero.