Lucan Civil War 7

ed. Edward Ridley

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Civil War. Lucan. ed. Edward Ridley. London. 1905.

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Current edition Perseus

Civil War (English) (Lucan. The Pharsalia of Lucan. Ridley, Edward, Sir, translator. New York: Longman, Green, and Company, 1905.)

Editions (1)
Pharsalia Perseus (Lucan. M.Annaei Lucani Pharsaliae Libri X. Weisse, Karl Hermann, editor. Leipzig: G. Bassus, 1835.) — 7 focus

Notes on the current edition

Civil War

1.
It is, methinks, a morning full of fate!
It riseth slowly, as her sullen car
Had all the weight of sleep and death hung at it!
And her sick head is bound about with clouds
As if she threatened night ere noon of day.
Ben Jonson, 'Catiline,' i., 1.
2. See Book VI., 576.
3. As to the sun finding fuel in the clouds, see Book I., line 472.
4. Pompeius triumphed first in 81 B.C. for his victories in Sicily and Africa , at the age of twenty-four. Sulla at first objected, but finally yielded and said, 'Let him triumph then in God's name.' The triumph for the defeat of Sertorius was not till 71 B.C., in which year Pompeius was elected Consul along with Crassus. (Compare Book IX., 706.)
5. These two lines are taken from Ben Jonson's 'Catiline,' act v., scene 6.
6. See Book IV., 668. ' Pallene ' (line 175) is to be understood as meaning Phlegra.
7. Henceforth to be the standards of the Emperor.
8. A lake at the foot of Mount Ossa. Pindus, Ossa, Olympus , and, above all, Haemus (the Balkans ) were at a long distance from Pharsalia. Comp. Book VI., 678.
9. Gades ( Cadiz ) is stated to have been founded by the Phoenicians about 1000 BC.
10. This alludes to the story told by Plutarch ('Caesar,' 47), that, at Patavium , Caius Cornelius, a man reputed for skill in divination, and a friend of Livy the historian, was sitting to watch the birds that day. 'And first of all (as Livius says) he discovered the time of the battle, and he said to those present that the affair was now deciding and the men were going into action. Looking again, and observing the signs, he sprang up with enthusiasm and called out, "You conquer, Caesar."' (Long's translation.)
11. The Fontes Aponi were warm springs near Padua . An altar, inscribed to Apollo Aponus, was found at Ribchester , and is now at St. John's College, Cambridge . ( Wright , 'Celt, Roman, and Saxon ,' p. 320.)
12. See Book I., 412 and following lines.
13. Quoted by the Attorney-General in his speech at the trial of Harrison the regicide. 'Now they speak plainly, and call this blessed king, this glorious saint, the Grand Delinquent.
Hac acies victum factura nocentem est
.' 'State Trials,' v. 1014.
14. For the contempt here expressed for the Greek gymnastic schools, see also Tacitus, 'Annals,' 14, 21. It is well known that Nero instituted games called Neronia which were borrowed from the Greeks; and that many ofthe Roman citizens despised them as foreign and profligate. Merivale, chapter liii., cites this passage.
15. Thus paraphrased by Dean Stanley:
I tremble not with terror, but with hope,
As the great day reveals its coming scope;
Never in earlier days, our hearts to cheer,
Have such bright gifts of Heaven been brought so near,
Nor ever has been kept the aspiring soul
By space so narrow from so grand a goal.
Inaugural address at St. Andrews , 1873, on the 'Study of Greatness.'
16. That such were Caesar's orders is attested by Appian.
17. See Book V., 465.
18. That is, marked out the new colony with a plough-share. This was regarded as a religious ceremony, and therefore performed by the Consul with his toga worn in ancient fashion.
19.
"Hath Jove no thunder?"
Ben Jonson, 'Catiline,' iii., 2.
20. Compare Book I., line 603.
21. This act of Crastinus is recorded by Plutarch ('Pompeius,' 71), and by Caesar, 'De Bello Celtico,' Book III., 91. Caesar called him by name and said: 'Well, Crastinus, shall we win to-day?' 'We shall win with glory, Caesar,' he replied in a loud voice, 'and to-day you will praise me, living or dead.' - Drury, 'History of Rome ,' vol. iii., 312. He was placed in a special tomb after the battle.
22. See on line 203.
23. That is, lashes on his team terrified by the Gorgon shield in the ranks of the enemy.
24. Plutarch states that Brutus after the battle escaped and made his way to Larissa, whence he wrote to Caesar. Caesar, pleased that he was alive, asked him to come to him; and it was on Brutus' opinion that Caesar determined to hurry to Egypt as the most probable refuge of Pompeius. Caesar entrusted Brutus with the command of Cisalpine Gaul when he was in Africa .
25. 'He perished, after a career of furious partisanship, disgraced with cruelty and treachery, on the field of Pharsalia' (Merivale, 'Hist. Romans under the Empire,' chapter lii.). Unless this man had been an ancestor of Nero it is impossible to suppose that Lucan would have thus singled him out. But he appears to have been the only leader who fell. (Compare Book II., lines 534-590, for his conduct at Corfinium .)
26. This appears to be the only possible meaning of the text. But in truth, although Cornelia was not by her husband's side at his murder, she was present at the scene.
27. Book VI., 420.
28. The whole of this passage is foreign to Caesar's character, and unfounded in fact. 15,000 Pompeians perished on the field, and 24,000 were taken prisoners. When Caesar passed over the field he is recorded to have said in pity, 'They would have it so; after all my exploits I should have been condemned to death had I not thrown myself upon the protection of my soldiers.' - Plutarch, 'Caesar,' 46; Duruy, 'History of Rome ,vol. iii., p. 311.
29. Alluding to the general conflagration in which (by the Stoic doctrines)all the universe would one day perish. Comp. Browne, ' Religio Medici,part i., section xlv.
30. Quoted in More's 'Utopia,' Book I., p. 28 ( Lupton 's edition), and in Browne, 'Religio Medici,' part i., section xl. ' Nor do I altogether allow that Rodomontado of Lucan,
caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam
.'
31. Wrongly supposed by Lucan to feed on carrion.
32. Alluding to the naval war waged by Sextus Pompeius after Caesar's death. He took possession of Sicily , and had command of the seas, but was ultimately defeated by the fleet of Octavius under Agrippa in B.C. 36. Pachynus was the S.E. promontory of the island, but is used in the sense of Sicily , for this battle took place on the north coast.