Paolo Asso A Commentary on Lucan, De bello civili IV
TEXTE UND KOMMENTARE Eine altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe
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Paolo Asso A Commentary on Lucan, De bello civili IV
TEXTE UND KOMMENTARE Eine altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe
Herausgegeben von
Siegmar Döpp, Adolf Köhnken, Ruth Scodel
Band 33
De Gruyter
A Commentary on Lucan, De bello civili IV Introduction, Edition, and Translation
by
Paolo Asso
De Gruyter
ISBN 978-3-11-020385-1 e-ISBN 978-3-11-021651-6 ISSN 0563-3087 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Asso, Paolo, 1965A commentary on Lucan, "De bello civili IV" : introduction, edition, and translation / by Paolo Asso. p. cm. -- (Texte und Kommentare : eine altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe ; Bd. 33) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-020385-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia. Liber 4. 2. Rome--History--Civil War, 49-45 B.C.-Literature and the war. 3. Epic poetry, Latin--History and criticism. 4. Caesar, Julius-In literature. I. Lucan, 39-65. Pharsalia. Liber 4. English & Latin. II. Title. PA6480.A87 2009 873'.01--dc22 2009050252 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ∞ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com
MATRI PATRIQVE AMATISSIMIS
Table of Contents Acknowledgements...............................................................................IX Note to Readers...................................................................................... X Introduction I. Lucan’s life and times: Vitae and other evidence.............................2 II. Lucan’s ‘antiphrastic’ epos.............................................................10 Book IV and its place in the poem .................................................14 III. Language and Style ........................................................................18 Diction ............................................................................................19 Syntax and word order....................................................................24 Rhetorical devices ..........................................................................25 Meter ..............................................................................................30 IV. Note on the Latin Text....................................................................33 Conspectus siglorum ......................................................................36 Text and Translation .............................................................................38 Commentary Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401.................................................100 1–23 Caesar’s arrival at Ilerda......................................................104 24–147 Skirmish at the Hillock and Caesarians in the Storm ......116 148–253 Fraternizing....................................................................144 254–336 Pompeians in Trouble....................................................166 337–401 Pardon............................................................................181
Table of Contents
VIII
Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 .........189 Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 .......................................................213 581–8 From Vulteius’ aristeia in Illyricum to Curio’s arrival in Africa.....................................................213 4.589–660 Hercules and Antaeus .................................................220 4.661–714 Curio defeats Varus ....................................................247 4.715–98 Curio and his army surprised and annihilated by King Juba.................................................265 4.799–824 The final apostrophe ...................................................284 References and Abbreviations ............................................................295 Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque..........................................321 Index nominum et rerum ....................................................................331
Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the institutions that supported my work: Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Kenyon College, the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, and especially my home institution, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Among all the individuals who offered their advice and feedback, I should mention Nicholas Horsfall and my mentors, Enrico Flores, Denis C. Feeney, Robert A. Kaster, and R. Elaine Fantham. Last and by no means least I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my students Perot Bissel, Martin Halprin, Colin Keiffer, and Michael McOsker, and to my colleagues J. Mira Seo, Ruth Scodel, and Frederick F. Wherry.
Note to Readers In referring to Lucan’s poem, whose title for us is Bellum Ciuile,1 the abbreviation BC is adopted. The text of Book IV has been established for the present edition on the basis of Housman 1927.2 In the lemmata and the Latin text there is no graphic distinction between consonantal and vocalic u, but the remaining Latin quotations follow the practice adopted in the editions of the individual authors as reproduced in the Packard Humanities Institute database of Latin texts. The names and titles of works of ancient authors are abbreviated according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., 1996), with occasional variations. Editions of fragmentary texts are identified by editor name following the fragment number. Works by modern authors, including translations as well as editions of fragmentary ancient texts, are cited by abbreviation. All abbreviated references and citations, including grammars, encyclopedias and lexica, are listed at the end in the comprehensive list ‘References and Abbreviations.’
_____________ 1 2
On the poem’s title, see the remarks and the discussion cited in Shackleton Bailey 1988, iii. See the ‘Note on the Latin Text’ on 33-5 below.
Introduction
I. Lucan’s life and times: Vitae and other evidence The extant information on Lucan’s short life is of ancient date and not especially scarce. The earliest sources are Statius, Martial, and Cassius Dio,1 against which we need to evaluate what we learn from three biographies (Vitae). The earliest one of these is attributed to Suetonius,2 the second to an otherwise unknown Vacca, a 6th century grammarian, and the third is anonymous and undated, but seems to depend to a large extent on the Suetonian life. The most reliable details reported in the three Vitae are those that we can match with the sparse information we find in other ancient authors.3 The facts are known and somewhat over-interpreted, but they bear repeating.4 Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (henceforth L.) was born in Corduba, capital of Hispania Baetica, on November 3, CE 39, to a prominent family of Italian stock.5 L. received his cognomen from his maternal grandfather, Acilius Lucanus, for his mother was Acilia,6 descendant from the illustrious local family,7 as confirmed by the inscriptions bearing the names of various Acilii that surfaced in some Spanish towns of Baetica and Lusitania.8 L.’s father was M. Annaeus _____________ 1 2
3
4
5 6 7
8
St. Silvae 2.7; Mart. Epigr. 7.21-3, 10.64; Tac. Ann. 15.49, 56, 70; Dio 57.29.4. The Suetonian authorship is confirmed by the similarity in phrasing with Jerome’s excerpts in Chron. ad Ol. 210.3 (mistakenly referred to 65 instead of 63 CE): M. Annaeus Lucanus Cordubensis poeta in Pisoniana coniuratione deprehensus, bracchium ad secandas uenas medico praebuit (see Gagliardi 1989, 13); which very closely corresponds with the Suetonian life, 401.31-2 Badalì bracchia ad secandas uenas praebuit medico. Notably, Statius, Martial, Tacitus, Petronius, Fronto. Still valuable is Heitland’s discussion of Lucan’s biography and its sources found in Haskins 1887, xiii-xx; see also Wuilleumier/Le Bonniec 1962, 1-3; Marx in RE I.2.2226-36. My extensive debts to scholars will be dutifully noted infra. Elaine Fantham’s chapter ‘A Controversial Life,’ which will open the forthcoming Brill Companion to Lucan, constitutes yet one more milestone in the continuing debate. Vacca Vita Lucani 402.14-16 Badalì natus est III Nonas Nouembris C. Caesare Germanico II L. Apronio Caesiano coss. RE I.1.259 Nr. 59. Roman colonists of prominent families were settled on the site of Corduba on the river Baetis (= Guadalquivir) by the consul M. Claudius Marcellus in 152 BCE; see Strabo 3.2.1; Griffin 1972, 17-19; Heitland 1887, xxiii. The Acilii in CIL II 2016-20 are from Singili[a] Barba (= modern El Castillon) not far from Anticaria (= modern Antequera) in Baetica (Barr. Atlas 26F4-27A4); CIL II 2234
Introduction
3
Mela, youngest child of the rhetorician L. Annaeus Seneca the Elder and younger brother of the famous tragic poet and Stoic philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca the Younger. The Elder Seneca’s oldest child was L. Annaeus Novatus, to whom Seneca dedicated two of his philosophical treatises.9 Scholars tend to agree that the Annaei were constantly engaged in what we would term ‘continuing their education’, and the family atmosphere of learning exerted a great influence on the poet. Taken to Rome as an infant of barely eight months, L. was brought up in high circles, receiving his education first and foremost from the members of his extended family. The Stoic philosopher, grammarian and rhetorician, L. Annaeus Cornutus was probably among L.’s teachers.10 In his consolation for his own exile addressed to his mother Helvia, Seneca singles out the little Marcus Annaeus Lucanus among his mother’s grandchildren as surely a source of incessant joy: Look at your grandchildren: Marcus, the greatest source of joy (blandissimum puerum), in whose presence no sadness may last. No one’s heart can be afflicted by any sorrow so great or so recent that Marcus’ embrace would not soothe.11
The emperor Claudius exiled L.’s uncle for alleged adultery with Julia Livilla (daughter of Germanicus and sister of the emperor Gaius Caligula), but the actual motivation was probably of a political nature and _____________ is from Corduba itself (Barr. Atlas 26F4), whereas 2188 is from Sacili, also in Baetica; 3840 and 3871 are from Saguntum (Barr. Atlas 27E2); see RE I.1.259 s.v. Acilius Nr. 53. The prominence of the Annaei is also attested in epigraphic sources; see the index of gens names in CIL II s.v. ‘Annaei, Annei, Annii, etc.’; for the variant spellings, see RE I.2.2225.3-7. 9 The three books De ira and the De vita beata; Duff 1960, 170-1. Novatus was adopted by the rhetorician L. Junius Gallio and changed his name to Junius Annaeus Gallio. Under emperor Claudius he became proconsul of the newly constituted senatorial province of Achaea. During his tenure of office (in CE 53) he dismissed the charge brought by the Jews against the apostle Paul (Acts xviii). 10 OCD 94; Nock in RE Suppl. 5.995 thinks that Cornutus might have been one of L.’s father’s freedmen; cf. Mayer 1982, 316. Probus Vita Persii 5; [Persius] cognouit per Cornutum etiam Annaeum Lucanum, aequaeuum auditorem Cornuti. 11 Sen. Ad Helv. 18.4-5 ad nepotes quoque respice: Marcum blandissimum puerum, ad cuius conspectum nulla potest durare tristitia; nihil tam magnum, nihil tam recens in cuiusquam pectore furit quod non circumfusus ille permulceat. Some assumed that the Marcus in question was one of Seneca’s own sons (e.g., Kamp 1933), but scholars now tend to identify him with Lucan; e.g., Griffin 1976, 58-9; Gagliardi 1976, 21; Duff 1960, 238; Cazzaniga 1955, 3.
4
Introduction
aimed at striking the opposition gathered around Germanicus’ closest relatives.12 The Annaei seem to have been supporters of the Republic. The socio-political import of the alleged Republican fervor of the Annaei is very hard to establish, but the information we find in the two Senecan corpora may either have arisen the unwarranted tradition of the family’s Republican sympathy or faithfully preserved indubitable traces of dissent. In dedicating his Controuersiae to his elder son Novatus, the Elder Seneca regrets not having been able to hear Cicero because the years of civil war terror prevented him from leaving his Spanish hometown to go to Rome.13 Clearly, it would be preposterous to claim that the Elder Seneca’s caution says anything about his family members’ political views. What is certain is that Corduba sided with Pompey during the civil war,14 which perhaps could explain the Elder Seneca’s caution about leaving town in the wake of so many Caesarian successes. Another Corduba-related fact, which might be seen in relation to the Corduban Republicanism of the Annaei, is that the theme of Civil War had already been expounded in epic by Sextilius Ena, the Corduban poet mentioned in one of L.’s grandfather’s Suasoriae as reciting a poem on the proscriptions of 43 BCE.15 Furthermore, in the biography of his father, the Younger Seneca informs us that his father wrote a history of Rome from the inception of the civil wars.16 It has been suggested that these histories ‘started with the wars that killed the Republic, the wars after which truth could be said to have disappeared.’17 The lone fragment we have of the Younger Seneca’s father’s biography seems to say that the Younger Seneca published his father’s histories, though perhaps they had been left incomplete, for the fragment suggests _____________ 12 13 14 15 16
Conte 1994, 408; Dio 60.8.5; see Griffin 1976, 61. Sen. Contr 1.praef.11. Caesar sacked the city in 45 BCE (Bell. Hisp. 59-60). Sen. Suas. 6.27. Sen. De Vita Patris frg. 1 (Peter 1906, HRR II.98) Si quaecumque composuit pater meus et edi uoluit, iam in manus populi emisissem, ad claritatem nominis sui satis sibi ipse prospexerat. […] quisquis legisset eius historias ab initio bellorum ciuilium, unde primum ueritas retro abiit, paene usque ad mortis suae diem, magno aestimasset scire, quibus natus esset parentibus ille qui res Roma…; after which the palimpsest breaks off. 17 Griffin 1972, 9; for the meaning of bella ciuilia in Seneca’s fragment from his De Vita Patris, see also Peter HRR II, 1906, cxviii.
Introduction
5
that the Elder Seneca was writing until the very end of his life. Although the Elder Seneca died when L. was still an infant, it is both plausible and likely that the civil wars were a theme that the Annaei discussed at home, and it is not impossible that L. actually studied his grandfather’s historical work. L. will have been exposed to the historical, scientific, and philosophical interests of his family circle but it is fair to say that his uncle exerted on him the largest influence. L.’s familiarity with Nero was doubtlessly a direct result of uncle Seneca’s role as the emperor’s preceptor. Recalled from exile in 49 through Agrippina’s intervention, who wanted him as her son’s teacher, Seneca exerted a beneficial influence on Nero until the young emperor first deposed Burrus in 55 and then succeeded in killing his own mother in 59.18 All expectations of recovering Nero from lapsing into tyrannical cruelty had vanished with the matricide; and with the death of Afranius Burrus in 62 Seneca’s last hopes had most certainly been killed.19 Crucial years in L.’s life were those between Nero’s accession to the Principate in 54 and Burrus’ death in 62. Although uncle Seneca never speaks of his nephew, scholars suppose that L. and his uncle spent together the greater part of the last fifteen years of their lives from 49/50 until their execution in 65. The exact chronology of L.’s life and works cannot be reconstructed with any degree of certainty, but the broad lines can be reasonably sketched. L. was ten years old when his uncle was recalled from exile and barely fifteen when Nero, aged seventeen, became emperor. At some point (presumably in 53, some months before emperor’s Claudius’ death), L. must have left Rome in order to pursue his studies in Athens, as was customary for elite Roman young men between sixteen and eighteen, and we know that Nero invited him to return to Rome in 55 and join his circle of friends.20 Tacitus explains the kind of activities in which such a circle of friends would engage and depicts the literary types that the emperor enjoyed not only as audience, but as the inspir_____________ 18
Tacitus informs us that Nero’s reason in deposing Burrus was the latter’s complacency toward Agrippina (Ann. 12.42), whose increasingly controlling behavior Nero was no longer willing to endure. 19 Tacitus insinuates that Burrus’ illness might have been helped with poison (Ann. 14.51). 20 Suet. Vita Lucani 400.10-11 Badalì reuocatus Athenis a Nerone, cohortique amicorum additu.
6
Introduction
ing milieu for his own artistic endeavors. Although Tacitus’ maliciousness is as impenetrable as entertaining, we gather that the talents Nero selected were yet to be recognized, which suggests the young emperor’s need to shine among and outdo the select group of literary and artistic ‘peers’.21 Nero must have been impressed by the young poet’s prolific production. For shortly after or somewhat around the time he was called from Athens, L. had probably already composed the Iliacon, an epic on Hector’s death at Troy (allegedly inspired by Nero’s speech in favor of the Trojans of CE 53).22 An Underworld (Catachthonion),23 and perhaps some Saturnalia are also to be dated around the time of L.’s arrival to court. We also hear of ten books of Siluae, which we can presume to have been similar in generic composition and literary intent to Statius’ extant collection, and the Laudes Neronis, an encomium for the living emperor that L. especially composed and recited for the Neronia of 60.24 At age twenty-one, the young poet’s skill must have been quite developed, if we are to believe that the epyllion Orpheus was composed extempore.25 In 60, in other words, L. was already a court poet, and his social stance benefited from the emperor’s favor with the special dispensation he received to enter two magistracies, the quaestorship and the augurate, before reaching the minimum legal age of twenty-five.26 Scholars have inferred from the sources that the Orpheus was extempo_____________ 21 22
Tac. Ann. 14.16. St. Silvae 2.7.54-7 ac primum teneris adhuc in annis | ludes Hectora Thessalosque currus | et supplex Priami potentis aurum; cf. Schanz/Hosius 1935, 495; and most recently Newlands 2010 (forthcoming) in Asso 2010 (forthcoming). 23 St. Silvae 2.7.57 et sedis reserabis inferorum. 24 Tac. Ann. 14.20.1; Dio 61.21.1; Suet. Nero. 12.3-4; St. Silvae 2.7.58-9 ingratus Nero dulcibus theatris | et noster tibi proferetur Orpheus. Some scholars identify the Catachthonion with the epyllion Orpheus. 25 Vacca Vita Lucani 404.33-6 Badalì gessit autem quaesturam, in qua cum collegis more tunc usitato munus gladiatorium edidit secundo pupuli fauore; sacerdotium etiam accepit auguratus (see Cazzaniga 1955, 10; cf. Ahl 1976, 37). If the practice of avoiding the overlapping of offices was maintained, we should expect that L. held the two offices subsequently rather than contemporaneously, starting from 61 until no later than 64, assuming that the quaestorship was a reward for the Laudes Neronis. The magistrates legally took office upon the first day of the year after their election had been secured. 26 E.g., Rose 1966, 381.
Introduction
7
rized at the Neronia of 60,27 and we might guess that the incomplete tragedy Medea must have been begun somewhat later, along with the first three books of the Bellum Ciuile. Finally, the list given by Vacca mentions also fourteen pantomime librettos (fabulae salticae), Epigrams, Letters from Campania, and The Great Fire (De Incendio Urbis),28 but these are only the works that Vacca could consult in his day.29 The actual number of works, therefore, might have been higher. Vacca does not mention the Adlocutio ad Pollam and a libelous poem (carmen famosum),30 about which we know from the poetic catalog of L.’s works extant in St. Silvae 2.7.54-72.31 L.’s productivity and literary output are impressive by any standard, regardless of whether we consider the quality of his work in proportion to his speed of composition. By virtue of his exceptional talent, he so impressed the artistically ambitious emperor as to elicit his jealousy and was thereby banned from public performances. Both Vacca and Suetonius mention, as confirmed also by Tacitus, that the quarrel resulted in the notorious ban.32 Shortly before, L. had published three books of his _____________ 27
Vacca Vita Lucani 403.39-404.45 Badalì cum inter amicos Caesaris tam conspicuus fieret profectus <eius> [coni. Reiffersheid] in poetica, frequenter ostendebatur; quippe et certamine pentaeterico acto in Pompei theatro laudibus recitatis in Neronem fuerat coronatus et ex tempore Orphea scriptum in experimentum aduersum conplures ediderat poetas et tres libros, quales uidemus. 28 St. Silvae 2.7.60-1 dices culminibus Remi uagantis | infandos domini nocentis ignis. 29 Vacca’s date has been established as later than the beginning of the 5th century, that is, after the abolition of the gladiatorial games in 404. This has been inferred from Vacca’s statement that as quaestor L. gave lavish games more tunc usitato, but as has been rightly observed, under Nero it was not customary at all for a quaestor to offer games: ‘If Lucan actually gave a gladiatorial show he was doing so of his own free will, not in accordance with normal or required practice. A first century scholar would have known this. […] Vacca is writing after the total abolition of the gladiatorial games in the sixth consulate of Honorius in 404 and is pointing out to his reader that Lucan was not being wantonly barbarous by giving such a display, but merely conforming to the usual practice of his times’ (Ahl 1976, 334). 30 Some scholars avow that the famosum carmen (a libelous poem) attributed to L. by Suetonius (Vita Lucani 400.19 Badalì) was identical with the De incendio urbis, composed after the ban, in which L. denounced the crimes of Nero and his entourage, and blamed the emperor for setting Rome on fire; see Narducci 2002, 8, 10; Ahl 1976, 351; Griffin 1984, 182-3. 31 Ahl 1976, 333. The chronology of the early works of L. has been reconstructed by Ahl 1971 (updated in Ahl 1976, 333-53, with a hypothesis on the composition of the BC). 32 See Gresseth 1957; Holmes 1999; Saylor 1999, 546 n. 1; Fantham 1992, 13-14; Conte 1994, 444-5; Ahl 1976, 47-9 and n. 54.
8
Introduction
epic ‘as we have them,’ quales uidemus, according to Vacca.33 In fact, the first three books of the Bellum Ciuile were composed and published sometime before the ban, which Dio dates at 65.34 The background for the ban is impossible to reconstruct, because the sources only report scant details but they all agree in relating the disagreement to artistic matters, which scholars are often too quick to construe as relating to L.’s revolutionary and anti-imperialistic poetics.35 The quarrel between L. and Nero, as it happens, has preserved for us one of the few fragments of Nero’s poetry: sub terris tonuisse putes, ‘you would think that thunder broke out under the earth.’ Suetonius reports these words as uttered by L. in a public latrine while breaking wind gustily. L.’s derisory intent in quoting Nero’s poetry in such a prosaic context is perhaps indicative of the poet’s abrasive personality, and the fact that the sources link the ban with L. joining the conspiracy to replace Nero with Calpurnius Piso should not surprise us. The ban undoubtedly exacerbated L.’s feelings against the emperor. Given how prolific L. was in the short life he lived, the ban on performing and on appearing in public must have been hard to bear for a person with L.’s artistic temperament. The sources concur in reporting an episode that emphasizes not just Nero’s artistic jealousy, but L.’s own pride and sense of self-worth as an artist, a sentiment that L. surely displayed in his recitations and which can only have worsened his relationship with his powerful friend. Not long before the ban, Nero is reported to have abandoned one of L.’s recitations with the pretext of summoning a senate meeting. Whether historical or not, the excuse of the senate meeting is to be seen not so much as a good excuse, in the sense that important affairs of _____________ 33 Vacca Vita Lucani 403.39-404.45 Badalì, quoted in full at n. 27 above. 34 Dio 62.29.4; Tac. Ann. 15.49.3; Gagliardi 1976, 80-5. Rose 1966 constructs an elaborate and detailed chronology for the composition of the Bellum Ciuile and concludes that L. had composed at least six books by 65. His argument largely relies on the fact that L. does not sound any angrier against Caesar (and the Principate) in Books 4-6 than he does in 1-3, whereas books 7-9 seem to contain the angriest anti-Caesarian utterances. 35 The extreme in seeing L. as a Freiheit poet is represented by Schönberger 1957, Schönberger 1958, and especially Schönberger 1964 (= Schönberger 1970 in Rutz 1970, 525-45). Still speculative but more rigorous in his reliance on the texts, is Gagliardi 1976, 47-66, who sees L.’s ‘revolt against classicism’ within the context of the contemporary trend in oratory and L.’s household inclination to the study of rhetoric.
Introduction
9
State call the ruler’s attention’, but as intended to belittle and somewhat disqualify L.’s poetic talent but putting the poet to his subordinate place. Two Lives, Vacca and Suetonius, agree in seeing the senate meeting as Nero’s excuse to leave. Whether we understand that Nero was bored by L.’s poetry or that he acted deliberately out of jealousy, the sources are adamant in showing that L. took Nero’s leaving as a personal outrage.36 Suetonius, in fact, goes so far as to claim that Lucan joined the Pisonian conspiracy and behaved as its standard-bearer in response to Nero’s ban.37 Be that as it may, when the conspiracy was unmasked, L. was ordered to open his veins and his last words seem to have been those spoken by one of his own characters, a soldier who bleeds to death.38 He died on April 30 of the year 65, a few months short of his twenty-sixth birthday.39
_____________ 36 37
Gagliardi 1976, 80-5. Suet. Vita Lucani 400.19-401.22 Badalì ad extremum paene signifer Pisonianae coniurationis exstitit; ibid. 54-5 dum uindictam expetit, in mortem ruit. 38 Tac. Ann. 15.70.1 is profluente sanguine ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab extremis cedere spiritum feruido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit, recordatus carmen a se compositum quo uulneratum militem per eius modi mortis imaginem obisse tradiderat, uersus ipsos rettulit eaque illi suprema uox fuit. Scholars have speculated that the lines might have been 3.635-46, i.e., the death of the Massiliote Licydas, as first proposed by Sulpitius, an early editor of Lucan (quoted by Oudendorp 1728), followed by Iustus Lipsius in his commentary on Tacitus’ Annals (Antwerp 1627; see Köstermann 1968, 320 ad Tac. Ann. 15.70.1; Gagliardi 1976, 31 n. 50). An alternative passage is 9.805-14 (a soldier dying from snakebite, e.g., Wick 2004, 2.343-5 ad 9.80514); but see Hunink 1992b, 238 ad 3.638, on the fact that no passage in the Bellum Ciuile exactly matches Tacitus’ description; full discussion in Hunink 1992a (in Deroux 1992). 39 Vacca Vita Lucani 404.54-405.57 Badalì sua sponte coactus uita excedere uenas sibi praecidit periitque pridie Kal. Maias Attico Vestino et Nerua Silano coss. XXVI aetatis annum agens. On the basis of the phrasing in Tac. Ann. 15.70.1 exim Annaei Lucani caedem imperat, R. Tacker takes issue with Vacca’s sua sponte and argues that L.’s death was staged as an actual execution rather than a forced suicide. The execution was depicted by the Eighteenth century engraver of the title page of Nicholas Rowe’s English translation (Rowe 1718), who represented L. ‘sitting on the edge of a pool inside a house […] submitting to three husky men who are opening his veins, while three armed soldiers stand guard and a stern tribune gives orders’ (Tucker 1987, 330 and pl. VIII).
II. Lucan’s ‘antiphrastic’ epos The list of L.’s lost works gives us nothing on the poet’s intellectual journey from his first writings to the BC. Such a crucial question as ‘To what extent does the BC break away from L.’s previous production?’ can be answered only hypothetically. The most persuasive hypothesis sees the BC as a break from the supposedly heavily mythological poetry of the Iliacon and the jocose adaptations of mythic materials in the pantomime librettos. One can imagine a first phase in which L. responds to the taste of Nero and the Neronian court for the poetics of entertainment, followed by a second innovative phase, inaugurated by the BC, in which the traditional mythological apparatus has been abandoned and an enlightened critique of the Principate is expressed in a style that remains nonetheless attuned to the contemporary taste for highly rhetorical poetry.40 Whether we are to view L.’s approach to epic in the BC as the result of gradual evolution or as a break from previous experiments, what is certain is that L.’s epic reads as a profoundly innovative response to Virgil’s Aeneid. An influential reading of the poem considers L.’s BC as an anti-Aeneid,41 an intentional break away from the Augustan myth of re-birth and restoration as propounded in the Aeneid.42 This view is based on a careful scrutiny of L.’s allusive references to Virgil, an imitation/emulation technique that the late Emanuele Narducci felicitously terms ‘antiphrastic allusiveness.’ This technique relies on a kind of allusivity that repeats the assertions found in the Virgilian model but reverses them by radically subverting the original meaning.43 One memorable example of this technique, that relies on close verbal correspondences as well as L.’s incomparably creative use of rhetorical arti_____________ 40 Cautious reservations against speculative reconstructions are voiced in Narducci 2002, 14, whose equally speculative albeit sound hypothesis, however, is that the BC represents a break in the evolution of L.’s poetics. Narducci is reacting against the excessively idealized vision of L. as a poet for freedom, e.g., Gagliardi 1976, 28-9, and Schönberger 1964, 32. 41 Thierfelder 1970; Narducci 1985, 1539 n. 1. 42 Still indispensable is the repertoire of Virgilian intertexts collected in Thompson/Bruère 1968 and Thompson/Bruère 1970. 43 Narducci 1979, summarized in Narducci 1985, and most clearly reformulated in Narducci 2002, 76-8.
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11
fice, occurs in L.’s BC during the preliminaries to the battle at Pharsalus. A seer prophesies that Rome’s ‘last day has come’ (uenit summa dies), for Caesar and Pompey will finally clash with their armies on the fields of Pharsalus.44 With a complex allusion to the fall of Troy as foreseen in Hector’s speech to his wife Andromache at the Scaean gates, ‘the day will come when sacred Troy shall perish,’45 L. repeats verbatim the first words spoken by the seer Panthus to Aeneas in Aeneid 2.324-5, ‘the last day has come (uenit summa dies), the unavoidable end for Troy.’46 The important difference, however, is that while Virgil and Homer talk of Troy’s last days, in L. the last day has come for Rome.47 L.’s choice of subject matter, the civil war, is per se antiVirgilian and anti-epic because the BC narrates historical events that are part of a relatively recent and much-feared past rather than distant, mythic events that celebrate the origins of Rome. L. writes historical epic about relatively recent events; but what is historical epic? The Greeks thought of the Iliad as historical epic and the Aeneid sings of the transformation of Trojan myth into Roman origins.48 Virgil’s double scope in the Aeneid, as Servius says, is to imitate Homer and celebrate Augustus’ divine ancestry,49 whereas L. imitates Virgil but his intent seems to have been to denigrate rather than praise. The understanding that epic is a celebratory genre has prevented L.’s early critics from appreciating the BC’s approach to the genre. In fact, L. was accused of writing versified history rather than poetry. Martial’s epigram in L.’s defense humorously exemplifies the pragmatic consequences in marketing L.’s BC as a poem (Mart. 14.194): _____________ 44 45 46
47 48 49
BC 7.195-6 ‘uenit summa dies, geritur res maxima’ dixit | ‘inpia concurrunt Pompei et Caesaris arma.’ Il. 6.448 ἔσσεται ἦµαρ ὅτ' ἄν ποτ' ὀλώλῃ Ἴλιος ἱρή. Verg. Aen. 2.324-5 uenit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus | Dardaniae. L.’s interest in the Trojan myth, and in the death of Hector as forestalling the ruin of Troy in particular, had probably found an output in his lost Iliacon. See Narducci 2002, 81; and Leigh 1997, 6-40, who reconstructs the tradition behind the prophecy uttered at BC 7.195-6. Fantham 1992a, 4. Serv. Aen. 1.praef.70 intentio Vergilii haec est, Homerum imitari et Augustum laudare a parentibus.
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Sunt quidam qui me dicant non esse poetam: sed qui me uendit bybliopola putat. There are some who say that I am not a poet: but the bookseller who sells me thinks I am.
The humor in Martial’s epigram depends on the fact that even a bookseller, whose interest in reading could be seen as subordinate to his interest in selling, can recognize a poem when he sees one, because the writing is obviously arranged differently on the scroll than in history works; for poets write in verse. The critique, however, is about whether the topic of civil war is suitable for an epic, as gleaned from the scholiasts, because the BC narrative follows too closely the historical events of the first two years of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (49-8 BCE).50 The question, then, revolves not so much on whether the hexameter is at all appropriate for recent war narrative, but on whether the civil war can be the sole topic of an entire epic poem, for such a topic a priori thwarts the genre’s celebratory scope, especially when the civil war theme had already been expounded in hexameters. The pro-Virgilian view, in other words, must have been that there was no need to retrace the horrors of the civil wars after Virgil compressed them so admirably in Georgics 1.466-514.51 The Aeneid, too, exploits the theme to some extent. Aeneas’ voyage from Troy to Latium is a story of transformation from Trojan to Roman. This transformation was far from painless. After escaping from burning Troy and after many years of wandering on the seas, Aeneas has to face the inhabitants of the fated place where divine will wants the new Troy to rise. Latium is the place, but it does not come free. King Latinus rules there and prince Turnus is to marry the woman who will eventually become Aeneas’ wife – which exposes Aeneas to the controversial potentiality of becoming both usurper and adulterer. And as if that were not enough, the war between the Trojans and the Italians narrated in Aeneid VII-XII, in other words, can be construed of as civil war, be_____________ 50
51
The accusation against Lucan not being a poet is echoed by the scholiast in Comm. Bern. 1.1 Lucanus dicitur a plerisque non esse in numero poetarum, quia omnino historiam sequitur, quod poeticae arti non conuenit; cf. Serv. Aen. 1.382 Lucanus … ideo in numero poetarum esse non meruit, quia uidetur historiam composuisse, non poema. Fantham 1992, 7.
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13
cause Turnus’ Italians and Aeneas’ Trojans share a progeny.52 The Aeneid, however, remains an epic centered on myth, and while its celebratory intent can certainly be discussed problematically, the apparatus of the genre, with divine interventions and gods and goddesses as characters, is prominent. L.’s choice of topic, by contrast, inevitably undermines the very possibility of epic as celebration because the civil war theme entails, both implicitly and explicitly, an open critique of empire. By L.’s time, the Romans had learned to welcome imperial domination as a matter of Realpolitik, as the necessary price to pay for peace and the end of civil war. The specter of civil discord makes it possible for poets like Virgil and historians like Livy to support the Augustan regime and what we understand as Augustan ideology. The Augustan regime was the solution to the civil war, and for this reason L. sometimes appears to be a nostalgic republican because of his praise of liberty, but in fact the underlying ideology in L.’s poem is much more nuanced. Under Nero one could be a nostalgic Republican ideologically, but in practice even L.’s co-conspirators had no illusions. If the Pisonian conspiracy had been successful, Piso would have replaced Nero rather than restoring the Republic. The Republican alternative had already been discarded upon the accession of Claudius after the assassination of Caligula. The militaristic character of the Julio-Claudian dynasty was in fact in the Pretorian guard. They wanted an emperor, and probably needed one in order to survive as a corps. Pretorians and Republic could not coexist. It seems possible, however, that L. had hoped for some degree of Republican liberty (i.e., libertas senatoria), in which the Senate would have been able to contribute significantly to government by freely expressing their views and directives as a political body.53 The poem as we have it, however, does not endorse any particular vision. No single character seems to embody the authorial views – whatever they may be. Caesar and Pompey loom large as leaders of the two factions opposed in the war, but it is impossible to identify Pompey with the senatorial liberty cause, at least not before his death in Book _____________ 52 53
Fantham 1992, 6, citing Cairns 1989, 93. The restoration of libertas senatoria is what Galba allegedly offered after Nero’s assassination in 69 (Tac. Hist. 1.16.1-2): Martindale 1984, 71; MacMullen 1966, 28-39; Wirszubski 1950, 136-8.
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VIII, when the leadership role is transferred to Cato. The character of Cato unifies the anti-Caesarian opposition but the poem breaks off with the tenth book. The incompleteness of the BC on the one hand frustrates a comprehensive interpretation of the poet’s ideology and on the other prevents us from evaluating the structure of the poem as a whole.
Book IV and its place in the poem The question of the formal unity of the BC is settled by its topic: the Civil War; but the fact that we are prevented from knowing how the poem ends undermines our appreciation of the poem’s structure. In other words, we do not even know whether L. planned to write a total of twelve books or more. I espouse the view that L. intended to write a total of twelve books to end with Cato’s death at Utica.54 The twelvebook structure is the one that presents the fewest difficulties, and it allows us to articulate the design of the extant narrative in book dyads, triads, tetrads, and eventually in two six-book long halves, just like the Aeneid. In order to situate the narrative of Book IV in its appropriate context, it is necessary to provide a brief analysis of Books I-III and to keep in mind that all of the events narrated in Book I-IV (with the exception of the flashbacks into the previous civil wars in Book II) occurred between January and October 49 BCE: I: II: III:
Preliminaries and causes of the war. Caesar crosses the Rubicon: Panic at Rome; Rubicon is crossed on January 10, 49 BCE Flashback on previous civil wars. Pompey retires to Capua. Domitius is defeated at Corfinium (February 21). Pompey reaches Brundisium and passes into Epirus (March) Caesar comes to Rome and robs the treasury (April), then crosses the Alps toward Marseille, which his army takes after a siege (April – October)
When the narrative reaches Book IV, Caesar and Pompey have already been presented to the reader. Important events have taken place, but most of the narrative in Books I-III contains dialogues and flashbacks, with the exception of Book III, which is almost entirely filled with the _____________ 54
For a discussion of the many scholarly opinions on the poem’s structure, see Radicke 2004, 45-81; on the date up to which L. intended to bring his narrative, see Bruère 1950 (= Rutz 1970, 217-56).
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war action at Marseille. After Marseille, Book IV opens with a brief pause to describe the nature of the Spanish terrain and the preliminaries to the battle of Ilerda, but whereas Book III has focused on the episode of the siege at Marseille, Book IV is articulated into three plots of unequal length that cover three different theatres of war each with several battles: 1-401 Caesar defeats Afranius and Petreius at Ilerda, in Spain (August – October) 402-581 A small contingent of Caesarians in Illyricum kill one another to avoid falling into Pompeian hands 581-824 Caesar’s legate Curio is defeated in North Africa After a geographic introduction to the terrain, L. says that on the first day of the Spanish campaign there was no battle. The Spanish campaign, however, is one of the several campaigns of the larger war, a bellum within a larger bellum. L. has called the total of the war bella plus quam ciuilia (1.1). In discussing Book IV, Masters’ clever argument surmises how L.’s exordium of the battle narrative as a bloodless, and therefore non-battle kind of event, is purposefully designed to delay the narrative until the appropriate battle narrative of Pharsalus will be allowed to take place (three books later in Book VII)—a technique that allegedly pits Lucan in an anti-Callimachean polemic, for this poem is a big book and makes no attempt to be lighter and shorter, but it conversely grows longer and longer by means of calculated narrative delays (Masters 1992, 53-8). Though superbly informed and sophisticated, Masters’ argument is overstated, because what we see at 24 and ff. is a series of ritual moves expected to take place before the battle (see note on 4.24 below). The comparison with Caesar’s narrative in his BC is particularly enlightening in appreciating L.’s narrative strategy. The Ilerda narrative is presented by Caesar, BC Book I, in two substantial groups of chapters (38-55 and 61-84), separated by two short chapters (59-60), in which Caesar continues the narrative of the Marseille siege (left unfinished in 34-7).55 Batstone and Damon have shown how Caesar in the Civil War uses ‘structure as argument,’ as demonstrated by his deliberate abandonment of the annalistic style used in the Gallic War, in which _____________ 55 After reporting his capture of Sicily and Sardinia (30-3).
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each book began and ended with the beginning and the end of the consular year (January-December). Book II of Caesar’s Civil War begins with the end of the narrative of the siege at Marseilles, while Book I ends with the end of the battle at Ilerda. Book II, in other words, begins with events that happened before those narrated at the end of Book I. Caesar has varied the annalistic structure he used in the Gallic War because the events of 49 BCE did not lend themselves to the annalistic treatment. By placing Ilerda at the end of Book I, Caesar can conclude the book with a victorious battle, but he will need to relate the (remaining) facts of Marseille in the following book.56 Caesar’s purpose in structuring his narrative as described also serves his propaganda, for it obscures Caesar’s blatant neglect of established legality in leading his legions to Spain, where as proconsul of Gaul he lacked the necessary legal authority to hold military command (imperium) over the Roman legions. L., in fact, has the Pompeians refer to Caesar as a priuatus, a private citizen, at 4.188, because his command for 49 BCE was as proconsul of Gaul and Illyricum, so his presence as a legion commander in Spain was illegal, a detail understandably unmentioned by Caesar in his BC. L. only minimally exploits Caesar’s breach of legality in this case, and the reason for this could be that in civil war the respect for legality expectedly becomes a moot point in most cases, but especially when it comes to armies. What L. does that is conspicuously different from Caesar’s narrative is to alter its structure visibly enough to contain the whole narrative of the siege at Marseille within the bounds of Book III and begin Book IV afresh with the Ilerda campaign. The effect of L.’s choice to begin with Ilerda is analogous to Caesar’s because both L.’s Book III and Caesar’s Book I gain narrative closure by ending with a Caesarian victory. L.’s Book IV, however, ends with Caesarian defeat, that is, with Curio’s disastrous campaign in North Africa, and Curio’s campaign similarly occupies the final chapters of Caesar’s Book II (23-43). Curio’s defeat closes the narrative of an important phase of the war, but an obvious difference lies in the absence of the entire episode of Vulteius in Caesar. It has been proposed that the gap in Caesar is accidental, and that originally Caesar included the Vulteius episode in Book II (Caesar’s shortest), but it subsequently dropped out as an accident of the _____________ 56
Batstone/Damon 2006, 33-88, especially 75-6.
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manuscript tradition.57 Whether or not this was the case, structurally speaking Caesar’s and L.’s narratives are comparably similar in choosing to end a book, and an important phase of the war, with the end of a battle.58 In the case of L., furthermore, the end of Book IV as a major narrative turn is marked by an extended apostrophe to dead Curio. L.’s second tetrad ends with the death of Pompey, followed by the poet’s apostrophe, and we might imagine that a similar apostrophe might have been reserved to Cato at the end of Book XII had L. lived long enough to complete his poem.
_____________ 57 58
Avery 1993. The point of L.’s calculated anti-Caesarian narrative has been exploited with a deconstructionist approach by Henderson 1987 (= Henderson 1998, 165-211); see also Henderson 1996, 262 n. 4 (= Henderson 1998, 38 n. 4). For a healthy (and at times unfair) critique of deconstructionist approaches to L., see Narducci 1999a; Narducci 1999b; Narducci 2002.
III. Language and Style On L.’s style, one must begin with Quintilian’s famous judgment in Inst. 10.1.90: Lucanus ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus et, ut dicam quod sentio, magis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus. Quintilian’s imitandus naturally means that L. is a model for the orator. The most striking feature of L.’s style is indeed his command of rhetoric. Scholars have repeatedly observed that L. was composing for the declamation house, and that his style therefore presents all the features one would expect to find in a declamation piece, composed hurriedly and meant to be performed with theatrical emphasis: 20th and 21st century readers have little sympathy for such effects.59 As the present commentary shows, this poem is to be read slowly and carefully – just the way modern readers (ideally) read it – for L. must have written it with great care. One of the most striking features of L.’s rhetorical talent is his command of diction and his determination to roam freely across vocabulary registers to impress the audience with audacious sententiae and heightened pathos.60 For instance, two sententiae occurring at close proximity in Curio’s hortatory speech to his men before engaging in battle against the Pompeian Varus, aptly exemplify L.’s rhetorical expertise in raising the desired emotions in the audience. Audax Curio functions here as a narrative engine to spur his men to action and thus avert the mora caused by fear and deliberation: 4.702 audendo magnus tegitur timor; 704-5 uariam semper dant otia mentem. / eripe consilium pugna.61 As I hope to have shown in the commentary entries, L.’s language demands careful study. The continued revival of interest in L. has produced a vast bibliography of thought-provoking approaches to the the-
_____________ 59 Informative summary on L.’s style in Mayer 1981, 10-11. 60 See Quintilian’s judgment quoted at the beginning of the present section. The following is chiefly indebted to: Mayer 1981, 10-25; Bramble 1982, 541-2 (in Easterling/Kenney 1982, 533-57); Fantham 1992, 34-46; Gagliardi 1999. 61 Cf. ad loc. and 583n. audax.
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matic study of the poem, 62 but the language itself, which is the means whereby the theme of civil war is brought forth, has not received as much attention as it deserves. Our Virgilian taste, however, often causes us to perceive in L. certain inadequacies that perhaps were intended effects, which would have been appreciated as such by contemporary audiences. The present commentary makes the gesture of appreciating L.’s linguistic originality by pointing out how often an individual word, a turn of phrase, or even the most controversially elusive syntactical innovations are first found in L.’s poem.63 While it is always possible that L.’s choices in matters of vocabulary and repetition may be considered faulty by any accredited standards, it is quite impossible, in my view, to name a standard other than what Virgil has chosen for the Aeneid. My approach to L.’s style in Book IV, therefore, has been inevitably informed by the Virgilian bias that runs like a crimson thread through the greatest part of Lucanian scholarship, but I will attempt to describe L.’s style (as well as other features of his language in Book IV) as they stand in context.
Diction L.’s war narrative necessitates the use of military vocabulary, but the prosaic registers also include medical and scientific terminology. Why does L. uses such technical vocabulary? The answer is simply that in his poetic descriptions L. desires to achieve the highest level of clinicaland scientific-sounding precision, which he then successfully balances _____________ 62
The judgment of taste when it comes to L. starts from the silently implied certitude that Virgil is the standard whereby we must measure any post-Virgilian hexameter poetry. Philip Hardie’s path-breaking study on The Epic Successors of Virgil illustrates why critics more or less (un-)consciously have read post-classical epic with a pro-Virgilian bias. The acknowledgment that Virgil’s Aeneid spurs what Hardie terms ‘the dynamics of a tradition’ should not prevent readers from appreciating the worth of Ovid, Lucan, Silius, Statius, and Valerius, and not only because they are ‘all extremely sharp and informative readers of the Aeneid’ (Hardie 1993, xii), but especially because of their own contributions to the epic genre. 63 Given the copious instances of innovation concerning L.’s language, it is impossible and of dubious usefulness to attempt a complete list of loci. A few examples shall suffice to justify why the commentary silently offers statistics on the occurrence of, e.g., the adverbial ex facili at 46; the phrase uariis motibus at 49; the metrical pattern exemplified by sidera caelo at 54; the use of aresco at 55; the pedigree of the squeezed-sky idea at 76; or the local dative bello, found only at 44 (see n. ad loc.) and Sil. Pun. 13.698-701. See the Index s.v. neologism.
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Introduction
with the fire and brimstone of his rhetoric.64 In spite of the obvious necessity of employing technical vocabulary in his poetry, modern critics of L. have consistently looked at the technical flavor of L.’s vocabulary as a stylistic flaw. Having posed the problem of non-poetic vocabulary (however arbitrarily posed, and mostly without defining what poetic vocabulary should consist in), scholars usually point to the nonpoetic nature of such registers,65 often without offering any criteria at all for their sweeping condemnations. The consensus of Lucanian criticism to explain the abundance of technical vocabulary is haste.66 The speed at which L. composed is represented also in the tradition about his extempore performance of the Orpheus at the Neronia of 60. In evaluating the BC, L.’s haste has often been named for many of the features that are considered sub-standard. Yet in most cases it is not clear at all what standards scholars rely on in evaluating L.’s language. For example, in illustrating vocabulary repetition in 2.209-20, Roland Mayer’s complaint is that while the poet tries to avoid repetition by using all the available synonyms for blood, body, and water, ‘such words as recur are so colourless that they remain unobtrusive.’ Ultimately, Meyer states, L. tries to say ‘too much with excessive detail, and his luxuriant imagination is drawing upon an already diminished stock of words.’67 Yet the vividness L. achieves with redundancy is definitely intended (see below on periphrasis). That Latin has fewer words than Greek and is less flexible in adjusting its rhythms to the hexameter is a well-known fact. The abundance of long over short syllables is often cited when discussing the characteristics of the Latin hexameter in comparison to its Greek models. The vocabulary, however, is the very stuff of poetry and what poets do with the words they have at their disposal should be taken, first and foremost, as a reflection of the contemporary taste and linguistic sensibilities. Seen from this perspective, L.’s language looks to me much more effective esthetically than usually seen by scholars precisely be_____________ 64 65
I owe the phrasing to Michael McOsker. E.g., Bramble 1982, 541: ‘Of [L.’s] verbal nouns in –tor, which are many, seven of them new, several are unnecessarily [!] prosaic.’ 66 Whether fast or slow, L.’s pace of composition has but limited value to our understanding of his poetry, and if any judgment should result from knowing that L. composed very quickly, it should be a positive one. 67 Mayer 1981, 13.
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cause of the superabundance of synonyms and the studiously avoided repetitions of single words. The poet’s goal in insisting on certain concepts is to exploit in crisp language every single characteristic of what needs to be represented in the hexameter narrative. This inevitably encompasses sound effects and well as sense. When closely examined, L.’s diction is in fact aimed at precision in expressing feelings and pathos and in directing the audience toward specific emotional responses. An instance in which L. dwells on details to heighten the pathos of a scene occurs at 4.37-43, where the soldiers climbing a hillock are perilously leaning on to the steep slope as well as each other’s weaponry. L. varies the subject from 37 miles to 38 acies, and proceeds to depict the soldiers staring upwards in their frustrated longing for the hill top (aduersoque acies in monte supina), while their feet precariously rest on the shields of the soldiers who follow behind. By insisting on conveying with an acceptable degree of precision the actual position of the soldiers, L. exploits all the sense of peril and frustration experienced by these Caesarians in their attempt to take the hillock and in doing so the poet adds a ‘zoom out’ effect, as it were, by shifting the audience’s attention from the individual soldier’s struggle to stay put while climbing to the bird-eye perspective that catches the entire army (acies). Insistence on details is a form of repetition, but sometimes L. does repeat words, as for instance he does with the pronoun tu in anaphora at 112-13. L. does not use anaphora often, but this is a prayer context, in which L. prays for a deluge that would put an end to the civil war. The striking particularity is that the repeated tu first addresses one person, then another. The issues are discussed more fully in the commentary lemmata, but it is worthwhile to mention here one more example of repetition to convey a sense of pathos at 630-1, where with reasonably precise medical terminology L. describes Giant Antaeus being reinvigorated by contact with Earth Mother.68 Sometimes L.’s search for an impressive effect will result in the usage of previously unattested vocabulary, which we should see as a welcome feature for L.’s contemporary audience: 66 fuscator (hapax); 406 bellax (elsewhere only in Silius, see n. below); 1.48 and 415 flammiger (also in St. Theb. 8.675; Silvae 1.2.119, 3.1.181, 4.3.136; Val. Fl. 5.581), 463 criniger (Sil. 14.585); 3.299 supereuolare (editors prefer _____________ 68
On pathos and repetition, see Syndikus 1958, 44-57.
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the spelling super euolare, which occurs first in Manil. 1.45); 6.126 confragus (restored in Naev. Trag. 55, but also in St. Theb. 4.494 and Val. Fl. 3.582); 223 and 394 impetere (Sil. 5.273; St. Theb. 8.694), 479 dimadescere (hapax), 484 circumlabi (hapax, but editors prefer the spelling circum labentis), 729 illatrare (Sil. 13.845); 7.799 humator (hapax); 9.408 irredux (hapax), 591 haustor (hapax), 941 hareniuagus (hapax); 10.286 celator (Exod. 28.36).69 Impressive effects are achieved by L.’s familiarity with an array of linguistic registers that prima facie would seem out of place in an epic poem. In fact, specialized vocabulary is but another aspect not only of declamatory technique but also of erudite poetry, in observance to the scientific interests of the time. For instance in his descriptions of combat L. displays knowledge of medical terminology: e.g., see below ad 4.631 induruit (cf. 630-1 and 751). To say ‘corpse’ he opts for the allegedly prosaic cadauer (787), which occurs frequently in L. (see below ad loc.).70 He also uses professional military language: 4.780 globus;71 and nautical terms (see Asso 2002 ad 9.319-47). Far from being ‘inadvertent prosy turns,’72 L.’s special registers and technical vocabulary are unmistakably deliberate and often play the important function of heightening the pathos by achieving contrast with variation.73 A few examples from distinctive vocabulary will show how L. does this.74 Compounds such as the rare semirutus are particularly evocative, and it is significant that out of three attestations in poetry, two are found in L. (see ad 4.585). The prosaic agent nouns and adjectives in – tor, such as sulcator, are too frequent (forty-eight times; see below ad 4.588, 722 and 9.496) to be casual incidences; similarly for cadauer, occurring thirty-six times. In achieving variety and such deliberate effects, L. also seeks distinction in emulating his predecessors and _____________ 69
Fick 1890 lists twenty-seven neologisms but 133 superenatare (see 133n. super emicat below) is not attested to by the most authoritative MSS (Malcovati 1940, 112-13 n. 2). On L.’s nominal compounds, see Gagliardi 1999 in Esposito/Nicastri 1999, 87-107. 70 Cf. Bramble 1982, 541 n. 3. 71 Fantham 1992, 35. 72 Mayer 1981, 14: “His diction betrays occasional and so perhaps inadvertent prosy turns.” 73 The model for diction is rather Virgil than Ovid: Fantham 1992, 36. 74 For a more comprehensive list, see below ad 4.583.
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thereby often creates strikingly original expressions, as seen from the many parallels offered in the commentary entries.75 Sometimes it is not word choice but rather a certain expression that reveals L.’s desire to impress, as in 4.617 conseruere… nexu (cf. 6269), in a context displaying a variety of wrestling terms (see below ad loc.). Further features of L.’s diction are more specifically poetic; e.g., the occasional use of nominal compounds: 4.728 letifer (also 9.384); 762 cornipes; 800 signifer; 9.455 imbrifer; 478 sacrificus.76 Also the use of a poetic word may reveal special effects in the context in which it occurs, as 4.750 sonipes ‘making a sound with its foot’, which is precisely what Curio’s horses are not doing (see below ad loc.). At 4.4 we encounter the perfectly inoffensive rector, but L. has many nouns in –tor that are seldom found in other writers. Four are hapax legomena in ancient Latin: 10.286 celator, 4.66 fuscator, 9.591 haustor, and 7.799 humator; six are not attested in poetry before L.: 4.214 adsertor (only three more times: St. Th. 11.218; Mart. 1.24.3 and 52.3), 9.496 finitor (only one more time: St. Th. 8.91), 1.27 and 6.341 habitator (six more times: St. Th. 3.604, 4.150, 9.846; S. 3.5.103; Iuv. 14.312), 8.854 and 10.212 mutator (two more times: Val. Fl. 6.161 and St. S. 5.2.135), 4.298 and 5.222 scrutator (four more times: St. Th. 6.880, 7.720; S. 3.1.84, 3.92), 4.588 sulcator; and finally the feminine nouns in –trix: 6.426 altrix, 9.720 natrix, 3.129 spectatrix, 6.689 strix, 7.782 ultrix, 1.3, 128, 339 and 5.238 uictrix. Cf. also 4.248 dissuasor; 7.402 fossor.77 L.’s use of prosaic vocabulary, however, is not unique in Latin poetry. As noted at 160 (see below ad loc.) on anfractus, also Virgil uses anfractus in describing an ambush. Where L. is perhaps even more Virgilian than Virgil is in his use of unusual phrases and in the deployment of enclosing word order and other features of hyperbaton.
_____________ 75 The commentary entries will offer parallels along with statistics about word usage in previous as well as later authors. The scope of such statistics is to account for L.’s balance in innovative usage and linguistic experimentation. 76 Gagliardi 1999, 106-7. 77 On prosaic diction, see the references collected below at 582n. exarsit.
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Introduction
Syntax and Word Order L. practices ‘callida iunctura,’ not always as flashy and noticeable as the oxymoron at 88 naufraga campo, or the celebrated 1.98 concordia discors. Sometimes an oxymoron speaks to us very directly as 52 urebant montana niues, which is made more precious by the rare substantival use of the neuter plural montana (see below ad loc.). With his love for driving home a point over and over, L. cannot avoid repetition when a good opportunity presents itself. This is how the notion of a ‘burning cold’ is repeated at 55 aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno (see below ad loc.); see also 305 siccos… uapores, where the scientific interests of L. and his audience become relevant. Other times the unusual character of the phrasing is subtle, as in 592 docuit rudis (see ad loc.), and yet jarring in spite of the difficulty of spotting the oxymoron feature because of a calculated hyperbaton, as in 607 auxilio… cadendi, where the enclosing word order wraps the entire line. In Book IV the instances of enclosing word order, as a particular effect resulting from the skilful use of hyperbaton, encompass the whole line, or leave out the first word(s), or even extend to more than one line. Here it will suffice to offer a few examples and refer the reader to the index. The earliest occurrence of enclosing word order embraces two consecutive half lines at 5-6 in aequas | commune uices, where the accusative phrase surrounds the already prominent imperium commune that begins line 6 and thus adds greater emphasis on the harmony of intent between Afranius and Pompey. This emphasis is all the more significant when we know from Caesar’s narrative that Afranius and Petreius were not always in agreement, as indeed it will be clear inevitably also to L.’s audience when the leaders will differ so clamorously about the option of surrendering to Caesar. At 62 suo in nubes quascumque inuenit axe we find an instance of enclosing word order where the first word of the line has been left out, as also at 140 medios pontem distendit in agros, with the bridge in the middle mimetically spanning across the river to join the fields on either bank (see ad loc.). Similarly, at 150 sed duris fluuium superare lacertis, Caesar’s soldiers swim the river and ‘embrace’ the current with their arms. The rare instance of the last word of a line left out of the enclosing word order is found at 285 (see ad loc.), but the effect intended is nonetheless mimetic.
Introduction
25
Rhetorical devices L. employs an array of tropes and figures to achieve all sorts of effects. Since he is interested in exploiting as many aspects as possible of a concept, it is best to begin with devices that let the poet repeat words and sounds. Alliteration is strictly speaking a poetic rather than a rhetorical feature, but its use naturally produces rhetorical effects because the repeated initial sounds keep the words together and function as an aural sign-posting device for the audience who listens to the poetic performance. The most conspicuous is the alliteration in the voiceless velar c- (sometimes varied with the labiovelar qu-), which counts at least twenty-four occurrences in Book IV, including a fivefold sequence at 434-5 and three threefold sequences at 158-9, 197, and 8223.78 What alliteration sometimes also achieves is perhaps shown at 8223 Cinna cruentus | Caesareaque domus series, where Cinnas’ bloodiness, denoted by the epithet cruentus that syntactically agrees with Cinna, carries over to the entire bloodline of the Caesars. Anaphora is used to maintain pace and mark syntactical units, as at 41-2 and 202-3 dum, 64 quas, 65-6 quidquid, 98 iam, 112-13 tu (in a prayer; cf. 185-6 in apostrophe), 117-16 hos, 110 (in a prayer) and 1345 sic, 119-20 huc, 182-3 quid (three times in apostrophe), 255-7 nec (varied by non in ‘negative enumeration’; cf. 223-5, 299-302 and 37880), 300 and 302 aut (also to vary a ‘negative enumeration’). Anaphora seems particularly appropriate in speeches, where it heightens the pathos and serves demagogic purposes; e.g., Petreius’ speech forcing his men to fight and break the fraternizing of the camps at 223-5 non (varied with nulli); cf. Cato’s hortatory speech in Book IX before marching into the desert: 9.387-8 quibus; 394-5 primus.79 _____________ 78
79
Given L.’s frequent use of enjambment, with syntactical units that extend over two consecutive lines, my tally includes sequences than continue in the next line: five in a(38, 87, 189, 290, 327, 800-1); twenty-four in c- and/or q- (17, 20, 32, 148, 148-9, 1589, 197, 287, 434-5, 437, 459, 487, 462-3, 490, 492-3, 550, 571, 630, 695, 689, 700, 709, 747, 822-3); five in d- (28, 129, 154, 217, 813); nine in f- (41, 77, 138, 308, 319, 532, 683, 729, 730); one in g- (278; perhaps to be counted with the other velar stops); four in i- (555, 628, 636-7, 762-3); one in l- (45); three in m- (312, 773, 778-9); six in p- (14, 30, 102, 624, 780, 783); three in r- (151, 240, 600); four in s- 42, 569, 588, 758); seven in t- 273, 432, 631, 702, 767, 768, 818); two in u- (80, 590). Similarly, Fantham 1992, 36, draws attention to the use of anaphora and anadiplosis in Cato’s self-dedication at 2.309-17.
26
Introduction
Analogous to anaphora, anadiplosis is used in the same syntactical unit to add emotional emphasis: 34 –que; 118 huc; 465 qua; 636-7 ille; 739-40 super; 749 non; 9.492 qui nullas uidere domos, uidere ruinas. Among artifices of word order, hyperbaton is very frequent and achieves a variety of effects. For instance, the separation of noun and adjective highlights the latter when the poet intends to draw attention to a certain quality, e.g., on the size of Giant Antaeus: 4.598-9 hoc quoque tam uastas cumulauit munere uires / terra sui fetus… This type of hyperbaton can occur repetitively not just in the same sentence, e.g., 598-600 (see ad loc.), but even in the same line, e.g., to emphasize both Antaeus’ fearsome appearance and his being born from the womb of Libya: 594 TERRIBILEM Libycis PARTVM concepit in antris.80 Often noun and adjective either enclose the whole line or leave out the first word alone:81 600 iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra; cf. 9.302 hanc audax sperat sibi cedere uirtus. In certain cases, extensive use of hyperbaton generates intentional syntactical confusion, or synchysis,82 sometimes reproducing in the syntax the disorder pointed to by an allusion or the context, as in the case of Terra evoking in Giant Antaeus the forces (tam uastas uires) of Chaos (see ad 598-600). Conceptual substitutions, such as metonymy, synecdoche, hypallage and antonomasia, are likewise commonly used to appeal to the audience’s emotions and thereby produce the desired pathos. Tropes used as pathos intensifiers must have been the main form of ornament in the description of battles since Ennius: see e.g., Enn. Ann. 310 Vahlen (= Cic. De or. 3.167) Africa terribili tremit horrida terra tumultu. An established stylistic feature of ancient epic (since rosy-fingered Dawn), metonymy appeals to the contemporary taste for mythological erudition, e.g., when the name of a god is used for a wind: 61 Borean, and the wind name itself becomes a metonym for cardinal point (e.g., 61 ad loc.); a people’s name can be a metonym (or synecdoche pars pro
_____________ 80 On the etymological play of terribilem with terra, see below ad loc. 81 An ornament of which Catullus is fond; e.g., Catull. 64.89-90 quales Eurotae progignunt flumina myrtus / auraue distinctos educit uerna colores. 82 “Confused word order in a sentence” (Lanham 1968, 147 s.v.); cf. Donat. Ars Maior 3.6 hyperbaton ex omni parte confusum.
Introduction
27
toto, e.g., 612 Cleonei)83 for the region they inhabit; a goddess can be the Ocean as at 73 Tethyn; a god can mean war as 582 Marte, 770 Martis (or wine, cf. 9.433 Bacchum). Some metonymies are so established in usage that noticing them is perhaps supererogatory, as 82 aequor, ‘leveled expanse’ for ‘sea,’ or 282 lumina for stars. Antonomasia’s84 immediate effect is variation: 96 Caererem (for wheat and/or bread); 550 Dircaea (for Theban); 553 terrigenae; 614 hospes (for Hercules); 724 sollertior hostis (ichneumon). Synecdoche produces significant effects because it evokes not just mythic characters but alludes to stories of myth, e.g., Hercules’ slaying of the Nemean lion is alluded to at 612 Cleonei, an adjective that refers pars pro toto to an Argolic city near Nemea; 767 Bistonio…. turbine, for Thracian wind (see above on antonomasia) may obscurely refer to a whole cluster of mythical tales.85 Similarly, historical events can also be evoked with a synecdoche, this time the whole for the part: 736 ut Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper / Punica bella dolis. At times, the focus on a part rather than the whole intensifies dramatic effects, as when the soldiers, denied their chance to epic action, appear compressed onto each other and they are mere 782 stipata… membra. There are times when L. seems to think in terms of association by synecdoche, as when Curio’s death functions as Juba’s offer of last rites to the ghost of Hannibal (see below ad 789-90). Affecting in various guises the normal line of thought, hypallage (‘interchange, exchange’)86 obtains highly dramatic effects especially when its use animates the inanimate by posing it as the syntactical subject, or the vocative in an apostrophe with an outcome that resembles personification: 96 pallida tabes (cf. 9.410 inuasit Libye securi fata _____________ 83 By metonymy (or synecdoche?) the quality of a character is mentioned for the person, as when at 9.301 Cato is audax… uirtus. Similarly, a seashell can represent a whole seascape (9.349 uentosa… concha), a country its people (9.427), and smaller parts of the body larger parts or even the whole person (see ad 4.626 and 626-9). 84 The similarity among metonymy, synecdoche and (perhaps) antonomasia, is noted by Quint. Inst. 8.6.28. For a definition of antonomasia, see Lanham 1968, 17 s.v.: “Use of an epithet or patronymic instead of a proper name, or the reverse.” 85 See below ad loc. 86 Cf. the definition in Lanham 1968, s.v.: “awkward or humorous changing of agreement or application of words,” showing how problematic and sometimes subjective is the detection of hypallage. The examples offered above focus on cases in which the “psychological focus of a sentence [becomes] its syntactical subject” (Fantham 1992, 37).
28
Introduction
Catonis).87 Sometimes the dramatic effect is obtained when the hypallage focuses on a part of a whole by making the part the syntactical subject and thereby conveying a sense of immediacy, as in the series of antithetic negatives to describe what horses would normally be expected to do in battle (but are not doing; see below ad 4.750-8): e.g., 4.750 fessa iacet ceruix… / oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua; 758 siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis.88 Paradox and hyperbole are by and large the princes of tropes in this poem. Hyperbole figures prominently in the episode of Hercules and Antaeus, which is set from the start against the background of the Gigantomachy (see below ad 593-660; 775-6; 787). Sometimes L. piles up paradox and hyperbole (cf. 9.490-2). More often the search for paradox discloses jarring effects, as the erudite/‘rude’ peasant that lectures Curio on Greek myth (see ad 592); or Antaeus who has to stand in order to fall (see ad 646-9) and loses the wrestling match without touching the ground (647).89 Metaphorical substitution becomes a full simile at 236-42, when Petreius’ soldiers newly goaded to kill are compared to captive beasts; at 283-91, where the gladiatorial simile adds a gory background to the medical description of a mortally wounded body; or at 437-47, where a hunting scene in the Vulteius’ episode conveys the state of mind on both fronts; or at 549-56, where the mythical combat of the earth-born Spartoi in ancestral Thebes adds grandeur and fratricidal pathos in closing the Vulteius narrative; or finally when when Juba is likened to an ichneumon,90 thus highlighting the king’s familiarity with Africa in contrast to Curio (see ad 4.724-9),91 but the features of the African landscape and the vocabulary of the arena often produce the impression _____________ 87
A feature familiar since Homer; cf. Schwyzer/Brugmann/Georgacas 1939, II.64-5. On hypallage in L., see Hübner 1972, 577-600; cf. TLL II.596.60-1.597.2ff.; Fantham 1992, 37. 88 Hübner 1972, 583-4; and below ad 764 spatium… donat. 89 On paradox, see also ad 781-2, 791, 793, 805-6, 809-10; cf. Asso 2002a ad 9.307, 371, 373, 381, 385, 388-9, 436, 446-8, 458, 485-6, 498-10. 90 The ichneumon is the North-African local variety of a snake-eating animal similar to the mongoose. 91 Heitland 1887, lxxxvi, considers the soldiers likened to gladiators as a simile rather than a metaphor or part of an extended allegory (but see above); his list of similes for the portion of Book IX treated here includes 460-2 (column of dust = column of smoke) and 494 (stars to travelers in the desert = stars to sailors in the sea).
Introduction
29
that L. is intentionally relying on a gladiatorial allegory throughout the poem (see ad 613-14, 620, 622, 708-10, 725, 784-7; cf. 9.488).92 Another of L.’s rhetorical features a commentator must notice is the use of periphrasis or circumlocutions to enrich descriptions: e.g., 666 omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis means Roman Africa, i.e., the province; the description of the horses in distress at 750-64 (see ad loc.) is a remarkable passage rich in various rhetorical artifices. The resulting redundancy and repetition are among the features of L.’s style that attract the fiercest antipathies of modern audiences, but in fact the repetition is often only apparent as each variation increases detail and creates a sense of vividness: e.g., 4.631 intumuere tori totosque induruit artus. The draw back is the loss of immediacy and clarity, as in the description of the storm before the march through the desert (see ad 9.319-47), which, however, beautifully leads into the aition of Lake Tritonis and the Hesperides.93 Apostrophe too is often classified among L.’s faults. To say that modern scholars since the early revival of learning in the Renaissance have shown increasingly lower tolerance for rhetorical theatricality is perhaps a platitude. The frequency of apostrophe in L. has been unfairly labeled as “the outcome of an unhealthy self-consciousness.”94 Whether or not there are any scholars who still share Heitland’s opinion, apostrophe has received little attention in recent scholarship: it is a figure that simply does not appeal to modern audiences.95 Not so, however, for the ancients. Apostrophe occurs in epic poetry starting with Homer, and Virgil (among others) makes ample use of it.96 _____________ 92 Cf. Leigh 1997, ch. 7 “A View to a Kill;” Ahl 1976, ch. 3 “Sangre y Arena.” 93 A study of the periphrases for ‘common expressions’, such as 1.76 extendere nolet for non extendet, is available in Pérez 1993, who, claiming to cover all such expressions in the poem, divides them into ‘insistent’ (e.g., 1.581 Sullani… manes; 2.246 Caesaris arma) and ‘euphemistic’ (e.g., 1.67 fert animus; 3.233 Tethyos aequora), both types always placing the keyword in a prominent position in the line. 94 Heitland 1887, lxxi. 95 Martindale 1993, 67-8. See now Asso 2008. 96 E.g., Verg. A. 7.1ff. to Caieta is memorable for its intentional resemblance to the epitaph’s address to the passerby; or A. 9.446 to Euryalus and Nisus, on which see De Nadaï 2000, 14. On apostrophe in Latin poetry, Curcio 1903 and Hampel 1908 are still useful, if only as repertoires of loci esp. from Virgil and Ovid, and for a (quite bare) list of places where apostrophes occur in Lucan, Silius, Statius and Valerius Flaccus (e.g., Hampel 1908, 48-53).
30
Introduction
Relying on Jonathan Culler’s discussion of this trope, Martindale shows how apostrophe contributes to L.’s staging of the “self-lacerating voice of the individual at odds with his world, which he turns into a theatre for himself and his interlocutors, animate and [68] inanimate.” Martindale goes on to contrast L.’s “ostentatious textuality… with Caesar’s cool, ‘classical’ prose, or Virgil’s poetic ‘control’ and economy,” and warns us against “ton[ing] down the subversive energies of Lucan’s text.”97 L. employs apostrophe to exaggerate the dramatic effect in moments of high pathos, e.g., 4.692 Roma, to emphasize the contrast between Curio’s policy of sparing Libya a tyrant while supporting one in Rome; and most effectively at the end of Book IV (see ad 799-824) where the poet’s address to Curio functions as a funerary eulogy.98
Meter In matters of versification the judgment on L. has been especially biased. Housman thought it ‘commonplace’, but as Mayer observed, L.’s apparently regular rhythm became common only in the Neronian age.99 Scholars have also observed how declamation might have contributed a certain ponderosity to L.’s verse,100 but the majestic force was probably intended, as the frequent placing of a spondee in the first foot shows.101 The regularity of L.’s rhythm is chiefly due to the frequency of a break in the middle of the third foot and after the end of the fourth foot, but his use of elision is not particularly striking.102 Yet as a crafter of verse L. is gifted, and one should disagree with those who claim that his efficiently structured hexameters show signs
_____________ 97
98
99 100 101 102
Martindale 1993, 67-8. Recently a doctoral dissertation was devoted to the study of L.’s use of apostrophe (D'Alessandro Behr 2000), which the author deploys in support of a thoroughly Stoic reading of the poem; now in D'Alessandro Behr 2007. The effect of this final apostrophe to Curio generates such a degree of pathos and participation in the audience that – without L.’s grand tone – it would not be too farfetched to compare it to Catullus’ frater in 101.2. Mayer 1981, 10. Barker 1914. Müller 1894, 241. See the ‘Index Metricus Hosianus’ available in Hosius’ edition and reprinted by Shacketon Bailey.
Introduction
31
of haste.103 That L. was fast at composing, as exemplified by his extempore Orpheus, does not necessarily mean that he was hasty, or that he would produce inadvertently the effects that sometimes scholars happen to find distasteful. The most apparent fault would be lack of metrical variation, but only in comparison to Virgil and Ovid, who do not insist on certain schemes as often as L. does.104 In other words, L.’s hexameters deliberately are what they are: part of the disillusioned and unromantic atmosphere of his poem. What the poet gains by using frequently the same metrical patterns is probably the kind of grand pace tuned to the contemporary taste for declamation and more easily adapted to L.’s parataxis. An example will be clearer than any statistics.105
790
excitet \\ inuisás | diráe | Carthaginis \\ umbras inferiís | fortuna | nouís, || ferat | ista | cruentus Hannibal \\ et | Poení || tam | dira | piacula \\ manes. Romanám, | superí, || Libycá | tellure | ruinam Pompeió | prodesse nefás || uotisque | senatus. Africa \\ nos | potiús | uincát | sibi. \\ ¯ ˇˇ ¯ ¯ (4.788-93)
The symbols: | || \\ ´
weaker caesura stronger caesura diaeresis ‘ictus’ is used only to indicate where the stress falls in case of lack of coincidence between metrical ictus and natural accent
The pace is scanned by artfully placed breaks and the strategic simplicity of the parataxis contributes the sustained rhythm. Important key_____________ 103 E.g., Mayer 1981, 11, citing more detractors. Earlier scholarship offers at least one instance of praise for L.’s verses: “quo diutius Pharsaliam tractarem, eo minus neglegens poeta mihi videbatur: immo tantum aberat ut rationes artis metricae minus diligenter tractatae repperim, ut e contrario Lucanum esse ex diligentissimis versificatoribus intellexerim” (Trampe 1884, 5-6; emphasis added). 104 In the first four feet, the most frequent patterns are DSSS, DDSS, DSDS and SDSS (Fantham 1992, 44-5; See Duckworth 1967, 88-91). 105 All the possible caesurae and diaereses have been unnaturally marked with ugly signs, but possibly only the stronger ones would be observed in performance, and maybe also a few weaker ones, largely depending on the performer’s interpretation in the performance context and in meeting with the audience’s taste.
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Introduction
words stand out in the beginning of the line: inferiis, Hannibal, Romanam, Pompeio, Africa. In three out of five cases (inferiís, Romanám, Pompeió), the word is stretched by a final ictus that prolongs its sound so as to spill over, as it were, towards the next syntactical unit and let the rhythm flow rapidly. The sequence of breaks begins with a strong ‘central’ caesura in 488 (cf. Verg. A. 1.1. arma uirumque cano|), marked by word-end after the long syllable in the third foot. But the sense runs on to the next syntactical unit in the sentence because the central caesura emphasizes inuisa but syntactically qualifies umbras in the end of the line. The next line has a weak caesura in the second foot and a strong one in the fourth. The strong caesura in the fourth foot occurs also in the following two lines 790-1, varied in 791 with second-foot caesura as in 789. Naturally, each word-end occurring in mid-foot must have produced a rhythmic effect. The rhythm is varied also by diaeresis, which occurs in 788 after excitet, in 790 after Hannibal, followed by strong central caesura in the third foot, and twice in 793 after Africa and sibi (= bucolic diaeresis). Dissyllabic words end the line at 788 and 790, probably to restore the natural accent after violating it in the strong caesurae of both lines. As for prosody, the following sketch singles out selected features.106 The scarcity of short syllables in Latin makes poets adapt the prosody when it suits their purpose, but the correptio is quite rare in L. The naturally long e of the ending –erunt is shortened only once at 4.771 steterunt (v.l. steterant, see Housman ad loc.); the first i of liquidus is usually long in e.g., Lucretius, but it is often short in L., as in 4.661;107 final i of tibi is long at 4.799 and 804; a of patres is long before muta cum liquida at 4.592. Synaloepha between quando and the following word (usually a monosyllable) is avoided at 4.811 (but is otherwise quite common in Virgil).
_____________ 106 See the “Index Metricus Hosianus” in Hosius 1913 and Shackleton Bailey 1988. 107 As far as I could observe, L. never shortens the long i of illius, istius and unius (Trampe 1884, 7).
IV. Note on the Latin Text The text printed in the present edition is eclectic. Its sole purpose is to provide the basis for the commentary and the translation. In constituting the text, I have chiefly used Housman’s second edition.108 For the apparatus criticus, I used the edition prepared by Renato Badalì,109 which contains the BC, the three Vitae, along with all the extant fragments of L.’s work, and whose apparatus is by far the most complete to date, for it corrects many of the inadequacies found in Housman, Hosius, and Shackleton Bailey. I have regularly consulted also Hosius’ and Shackleton Bailey’s Teubner editions,110 as well as Georg Luck’s text with German translation.111 Finally Oudendorp’s old text has been useful in verifying some of the earliest philological interventions in the text, such as those by Richard Bentley.112 The tradition of the text of Lucan’s BC is so rich and varied as to make it impossible for a single editor to peruse and study all of the textual witnesses. More than four hundred copies are known, including partial copies, fragmentary ancient books, two sets of scholia,113 and a Medieval commentary by Arnulf of Orléans.114 Medieval scholiasts and ancient commentators are often crucial to the establishment of the text because their lemmata may contain readings not attested in any surviving manuscript.115 In spite of the extensive richness of the tradition, editors of L. have continued to resort to philological acumen instead of examining the manuscript tradition. With the sole exception of Badalì, who alone has contributed more than any other editor to our knowledge of the manu_____________ 108 109 110 111 112 113
Housman 1927 (repr. 1950). Badalì 1992. Hosius 1913; Shackleton Bailey 1988. Luck 1985. Oudendorp 1728. The Commenta Bernensia were admirably edited by Hermann Usener (Comm. Bern.). The second set of scholia is available in a Teubner edition (Adn.). L’s early commentators have been extensively studied by Paolo Esposito (Esposito 2000b; Esposito 1999; Esposito 2004b). 114 Arnulf 1958, edited by Berthe Marti. 115 Tarrant 1983 in Reynolds/Marshall 1983, 215-18.
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Introduction
scripts, the text of L.’s BC continues to be read on the basis of Housman’s text. Housman is perhaps partly responsible for the lack of interest in L.’s manuscripts in the 20th century, for in his preface to his text of L. (prepared editorum in usum), he begins: When I edited Juvenal for the behoof of editors twenty years ago, their chief need, or rather the chief need which another could supply for them, was more knowledge of the manuscripts. With Lucan it is not so, and the manuscripts collated by Mr. Hosius for his second and third editions are amply sufficient. It may be that Par. Lat. 7900 and Vat. 3284 and other known books would repay more scrutiny, and it may be that somebody roaming through a library will one day stumble upon a hidden treasure; but those are not the quarters from which Lucan most needs help nor from which most help is to be had.116
Luckily for us, and future readers and editors of L., Badalì refrained from listening to Housman’s bias and it is to him that we owe any increased knowledge of L.’s extant manuscripts.117 As expected in a vast and heavily contaminated tradition, any attempt at constructing a stemma by establishing firm relationships among the manuscripts is frustrated by the fact that any one or two in a group of ostensibly related manuscripts sometimes offer information not found in its closely related peers, as Gotoff for example saw in the case of M Z A B R.118 For L.’s stemma, however, Badalì’s represents a definite step forward on Housman and Hosius, because in addition to M V U P Z Q, he uses G very thoroughly and does not refrain from using rather sparingly but judiciously A B E F H (among others), along with various fragmentary textual witnesses whenever available. The text of Book IV presents no particular difficulties, and only a few times it has become necessary to depart from Housman’s text. Whenever advisable, the commentary notes will alert the reader to any textual problems, otherwise the notes in the apparatus criticus shall suffice in solely indicating the source for the printed text and silently direct the reader to consult the editors of the complete text. _____________ 116 Housman 1927, v (emphasis added). 117 Badalì’s apparatus provides ample information on the manuscripts he studied, but more data are available in the contributions that appeared while he was preparing his edition: e.g., Badalì 1973; Badalì 1974b; Badalì 1974a; Badalì 1975; full bibliography in Badalì 1992, xxxiii-xxxiv. 118 Gotoff 1971, 9; cf. Badalì 1992, xii n. 6.
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35
Following Badalì, some of the variants cited in the apparatus criticus will sometimes be attributed to the entire manuscript tradition as well as to individual witnesses; e.g., 423 patenti Ω : latenti M Z. Analogously, some witnesses may be cited more than once; e.g., 186 det Z M P V : dat M P U : dant V : dent G | bello Ω V : bellum V G. The reason for indulging in this apparently capricious inconsistency is in the nature of the manuscript tradition itself. The manuscripts are, in fact, so contaminated that it is completely impossible to design a stemma codicum. Badalì’s complex system of sigla assigns as far as possible an unambiguous label to each of the many variants cited in his apparatus, relying on both superscript and subscript figures along with the sigla to account for corrections, erasures, and first readings, not to mention the variants reported in the scholiastic tradition. The system used by Badalì seemed far too prolix to reproduce for the present edition and ultimately bound to confusion without direct access to the manuscripts and/or Badalì’s collations. My solution will appear to many as imperfect and certainly not ideal, but its idiosyncrasy helps in answering the most immediate question the reader may have in perusing the text: What is the manuscript authority for the printed text? My apparatus answers the question without erasing the nuances embedded in the tradition (as regrettably happens in Hosius, Housman, and Shackelton Bailey). The information I excerpted from Badalì and reproduced in my apparatus has helped me establish the text in observance to the strictest philological rigor while also reporting as much information as the textually inclined critic might want to obtain. In a hopefully not too remote future, I hope to profit from and continue Badalì’s work in producing a new complete text of L.’s BC that will account for as many extant manuscripts as possible, including the recentiores.
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Introduction
Conspectus Siglorum M V P Z U G Ω ς A B E F H c a
= Montepessulanus bibl. med. H 113, medio saec. IX = Leidensis Vossianus Lat. XIXQ 51, saec. X = Parisinus bibl. publ. Lat. 7502, saec. X usque ad 10.107 continens = Parisinus bibl publ. Lat. 10314, medio saec. IX = Leidensis Vossianus Lat. XIXF. 63, saec. X = Bruxellensis bibl. Burgund. 5330-32, olim Gemblacensis, saec. X = consensus codicum MVPZUG uel eorum plures, praeter tamen eos qui separatim laudantur = alii codices, praesertim recentiores = = = = =
Parisinus lat. Nou.u. acq. 1626, Ashburnhamensis, saec. IX Bernensis 45, saec. IX Erlangensis 389 (olim 304), saec. X Vaticanus lat. 3284, saec. XI Palatinus lat. 869 (una cum Ottob. lat 1210; ud. Badalì 1992, xvii adn. 2) saec. XI/XII
= lectiones in Commentis Bernensibus, quae dicuntur ab Usenero edita ex cod. Bernensi litt. 370, siue in ipsis lemmatibus siue in interpretationibus effectae, saec. IX/X = adnotationes super Lucanum in GU multisque aliis codicibus seruatae, editae ab I. Endtio an. 1909
Text and Translation
Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus
5
10
15
20
At procul extremis terrarum Caesar in oris Martem saeuus agit non multa caede nocentem maxima sed fati ducibus momenta daturum. iure pari rector castris Afranius illis ac Petreius erat; concordia duxit in aequas imperium commune uices, tutelaque ualli peruigil alterno paret custodia signo. his praeter Latias acies erat inpiger Astur Vettonesque leues profugique a gente uetusta Gallorum Celtae miscentes nomen Hiberis. colle tumet modico lenique excreuit in altum pingue solum tumulo; super hunc fundata uetusta surgit Ilerda manu; placidis praelabitur undis Hesperios inter Sicoris non ultimus amnis, saxeus ingenti quem pons amplectitur arcu hibernas passurus aquas. at proxima rupes signa tenet Magni, nec Caesar colle minore castra leuat; medius dirimit tentoria gurges. explicat hinc tellus campos effusa patentis uix oculo prendente modum, camposque coerces, Cinga rapax, uetitus fluctus et litora cursu Oceani pepulisse tuo; nam gurgite mixto qui praestat terris aufert tibi nomen Hiberus.
13 blandis V 14 amnis Z M G Seru. Aen. 8.328 : amnes P U V 19 patentes P U 20 coerces B ς : coercens Ω : co(h)ercent U : coercet M U G Hosius 22 tuo U a ς : suo Ω c a Hosius
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Civil war, Book IV Far away, on the furthest shores of earth, cruel Caesar wages war that does not cause much slaughter, but which will be the greatest turning point for the leaders involved. With equal right, Afranius and Petreius were commanders in that camp; their unity led to an equal allotment of command, and the vigilant guard of the palisade obeyed each one’s password in turn. Besides Roman soldiers, they had mobile Asturians, light-armed Vettones, and Celts, exiles from an ancient race of Gaul, who mix their name with the Hiberians. The fertile soil rises into a moderate hill and ascends with a gentle slope. Ilerda rises on this hill, a city constructed by ancient hands. The Sicoris, not the least among western rivers, slips by with calm waters. A stone bridge vaults the river with an immense arch, capable of enduring the winter waters. The nearest cliff holds the standards of mighty Pompey, and Caesar raises his camp on a similar hill; a middling stream separates the encampments. Vast land stretches in open plains and the eye can hardly grasp its measure, while you, rapacious Cinga, forbidden to strike the tides and shores of the Ocean with your onrush, confine the fields; for the Hiberus, who dominates the lands, takes away your name when the waters mix.
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prima dies belli cessauit Marte cruento spectandasque ducum uires numerosaque signa exposuit. piguit sceleris; pudor arma furentum continuit, patriaeque et ruptis legibus unum donauere diem; prono cum Caesar Olympo in noctem subita circumdedit agmina fossa, dum primae perstant acies, hostemque fefellit et prope consertis obduxit castra maniplis. luce noua collem subito conscendere cursu, qui medius tutam castris dirimebat Ilerdam, imperat. huc hostem pariter terrorque pudorque inpulit, et rapto tumulum prior agmine cepit. his uirtus ferrumque locum promittit, at illis ipse locus. miles rupes oneratus in altas nititur, aduersoque acies in monte supina haeret et in tergum casura umbone sequentis erigitur. nulli telum uibrare uacauit, dum labat et fixo firmat uestigia pilo, dum scopulos stirpesque tenent atque hoste relicto caedunt ense uiam. uidit lapsura ruina agmina dux equitemque iubet succedere bello munitumque latus laeuo praeducere gyro. sic pedes ex facili nulloque urguente receptus, inritus et uictor subducto Marte pependit.
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uibrare Ω A a ad 43 : librare A B Z ς (cf. 3.433) | uacauit P U : uacabit M Z : uacabat V G M c a ad 43 45 laeuo Ω G c : lato G | praeducere M V U, fort. C (‘deest lemma. commentator fort. non producere sed praecingere legebat’ Usener) : producere P Z G M 46 ex Ω a G : et M
Civil war, Book IV
The first day of war was free of bloody battle and it exposed the men and the numerous standards of the leaders to scrutiny. They were disconcerted by their crimes; shame repressed the arms of raging men, and they conceded one single day to their fatherland and its broken laws. When the heavens sank into night, Caesar surrounded his army with a trench. While the first battle line stood firmly in formation, he deceived the enemy by screening the camp with densely packed maniples nearby. At daybreak, Caesar commanded them to climb in a sudden rush the hill that safely separates Ilerda from the camp. The enemy was drawn to this place by equal measures of fear and shame, and Caesar captured the hill with a swift offensive. Virtue and the sword hold forth the promise of the ground to Caesar’s men, yet the ground itself does the same for the enemy. The overburdened soldiers struggle against the tall cliffs, and the battle line, face upwards, clings to the rising mountain. When about to fall each man steadies himself on the shield of the one following. No one has room to hurl a spear, as they slip and support their steps with a fixed javelin; they grab rocks and saplings and they hack a path with their swords, unmindful of the enemy. The commander sees that his soldiers are about to fall and orders the cavalry to advance into battle and extend the flank, securing it with a leftward twist. Thus the infantry were easily rescued and no one beset them while the victor hung baffled by an unfinished battle.
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hactenus armorum discrimina: cetera bello fata dedit uariis incertus motibus aer. pigro bruma gelu siccisque Aquilonibus haerens aethere constricto pluuias in nube tenebat. urebant montana niues camposque iacentis non duraturae conspecto sole pruinae, atque omnis propior mergenti sidera caelo aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno. sed postquam uernus calidum Titana recepit sidera respiciens delapsae portitor Helles, atque iterum aequatis ad iustae pondera Librae temporibus uicere dies, tum sole relicto Cynthia, quo primum cornu dubitanda refulsit, exclusit Borean flammasque accepit in Euro. ille suo nubes quascumque inuenit in axe torsit in occiduum Nabataeis flatibus orbem, et quas sentit Arabs et quas Gangetica tellus exhalat nebulas, quidquid concrescere primus sol patitur, quidquid caeli fuscator Eoi inpulerat Corus, quidquid defenderat Indos. incendere diem nubes oriente remotae nec medio potuere graues incumbere mundo sed nimbos rapuere fuga. uacat imbribus Arctos et Notos, in solam Calpen fluit umidus aer.
48 armorum Ω : aruorum V G 49 incertis U : inceptis c 50 siccis G c 52 iacentis G : iacentes Ω Hosius 57 delapsae U a : dilapsae M V P Z G | portitor Ω : proditor Scriuerius (cf. Housman ad loc.) 59 tum G Housman : tunc Ω 60 quo Ω : cum M 61 in Ω : ab V U G ς | eurum M 67 inpulerat U B M : intulerat Ω 68 nubesque M Z 70 nimbos Ω : nimbi M ut uidetur, Hosius 71 notos Z c (nothos G) : notus M P a Hosius (nothus V U Z G)
Civil war, Book IV
So far, arms alone had determined the outcome. Uncertain weather with its shifting motions now sealed the fate of the rest of the battle. Winter lingered with its harsh frost and dry northerly winds, and held the rains in the clouds. The snow was burning the mountains and a frost that would melt in the coming sun was burning the low-lying plains. Near to the sky as it drowned the stars, all the earth dried up in a peaceful winter. But afterwards the vernal bearer of fallen Helle, gazed on the stars and took in the hot sun. When the day and night were equal according to the balance of just Libra, day again grew longer. Then, when the sun set, the moon, who first shone with a dim crescent, shut out the North wind and was lit ablaze in the East wind. The Eastern wind discovered whatever clouds it could in its own region and hurled them into the westerly world with turbulent Nabataean winds, both those clouds Arabs feel and those the land of the Ganges exhales; it carried with it any mists the early sun had allowed to condense, anything the darkening Corus had driven from the morning heavens, and everything which had protected the Indians. The clouds, withdrawn from the East, warmed the day and were not able to drop rain, although pregnant with it; instead, the wind swept up storm clouds in their flight. The storms left the North and South and the saturated air flows to Calpe alone.
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hic, ubi iam Zephyri fines, et summus Olympi cardo tenet Tethyn, uetitae transcurrere densos inuoluere globos, congestumque aeris atri uix recipit spatium quod separat aethere terram. iamque polo pressae largos densantur in imbres spissataeque fluunt; nec seruant fulmina flammas quamuis crebra micent: extinguunt fulgura nimbi. hinc inperfecto conplectitur aera gyro arcus uix ulla uariatus luce colorem Oceanumque bibit raptosque ad nubila fluctus pertulit et caelo defusum reddidit aequor. iamque Pyrenaeae, quas numquam soluere Titan eualuit, fluxere niues, fractoque madescunt saxa gelu. tum quae solitis e fontibus exit non habet unda uias, tam largas alueus omnis a ripis accepit aquas. iam naufraga campo Caesaris arma natant, inpulsaque gurgite multo castra labant; alto restagnant flumina uallo. non pecorum raptus faciles, non pabula mersi ulla ferunt sulci; tectarum errore uiarum fallitur occultis sparsus populator in agris.
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distinxit Grotius | hic V U G : hinc M Z P densos Ω : densor Z : tensos P (cf. Badalì ad 1.531 coll. Prisc. GLK 2.520.13, 3.473.34) fluunt Ω : runt V G | fulmina M Z G : flumina V P U | flammas Ω : cursum U ς Cortius habet G atque in pagina, qua contineri solent 32 uersus, tricesimum tertium U : om. Ω c a | extinguunt… nimbi G M : extinguit… nimbus U V G : moriuntur nimbis F D L ς caelo defusum P c : caelo diffusum V U G P : de caelo fusum a : fusum de caelo M Z : diffusum de caelo M tum quae M P U (tumque Z) : tunc quae V G omnis V U a : amnis Ω U a campo Ω : campis V U nec pecorum M Z ς
Civil war, Book IV
Here, where now the western winds end, the horizon restrains the sea and the clouds coil into heaped masses, forbidden to go further. The space that separates earth and sky, congested with dark mist, can hardly take in more. Now, full to the edges, it bursts into great showers and the condensed rain flows; lightning cannot keep back its flames and the clouds extinguish the bolts, although they constantly flash. Next, a rainbow arched the sky in a broken circle, fluctuating in color with hardly any light. It drank the ocean and bore stolen waves to the clouds and restored to the sky the water that had poured down. Next, the Pyrenean snows, which Titan never before had sufficient strength to thaw, melted, and the rocks were flooded by the broken ice. Leaving from its usual source, no stream can hold its paths since every riverbed let in so much water from its banks. Now the shipwrecked force of Caesar swims on the field and the camp is struck by much flooding and collapses; the rivers form pools of floodwater in the deep valley. It is not easy to steal the herd, the submerged furrows do not bear any food; the plunderer, scattered over the covered lane, is deceived by straying over submerged paths.
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iamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum saeua fames aderat, nulloque obsessus ab hoste miles eget: toto censu non prodigus emit exiguam Cererem. pro lucri pallida tabes! non dest prolato ieiunus uenditor auro. iam tumuli collesque latent, iam flumina cuncta condidit una palus uastaque uoragine mersit, absorpsit penitus rupes ac tecta ferarum detulit atque ipsas hausit, subitisque frementis uerticibus contorsit aquas et reppulit aestus fortior Oceani. nec Phoebum surgere sentit nox subtexta polo: rerum discrimina miscet deformis caeli facies iunctaeque tenebrae. sic mundi pars ima iacet, quam zona niualis perpetuaeque premunt hiemes: non sidera caelo ulla uidet, sterili non quicquam frigore gignit sed glacie medios signorum temperat ignes. sic, o summe parens mundi, sic, sorte secunda aequorei rector, facias, Neptune tridentis, et tu perpetuis inpendas aera nimbis, tu remeare uetes quoscumque emiseris aestus. non habeant amnes decliuem ad litora cursum sed pelagi referantur aquis, concussaque tellus laxet iter fluuiis: hos campos Rhenus inundet, hos Rhodanus; uastos obliquent flumina fontes. Riphaeas huc solue niues, huc stagna lacusque et pigras, ubicumque iacent, effunde paludes et miseras bellis ciuilibus eripe terras.
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ac P U C : at M Z : et V G ς uorticibus G M V : gurgitibus V U G sensit G ς amiseris P : immiseris V ς fontis M Z : fontes Ω M : montes V huc… huc V U G : hic … hic M Z a : hoc … hic P : huc… hic M 119 effunde Ω G : dissolue G ς
Civil war, Book IV
Now cruel hunger arrives, ever the first companion of great disaster, and all the soldiery is deprived, although besieged by no enemy. Even the frugal man buys a bit of grain with the whole of his wealth. How appalling to waste away on account of gain! Fasting vendors are not lacking when gold is produced. Now mounds and hills lie hidden, now a single body of water conceals all the rivers and plunged them into its vast chasm. It devoured the rocks deep down and carried off the lairs of beasts by swallowing the wildlife itself, and roaring with sudden whirlpools it churns its waters and, being stronger than the ocean, it rebuffs its swells. Woven under the sky, night does not know that the sun is rising. Unending darkness and the sky’s misshapen face blur the world’s distinctions. In this way lies the lowest part of the world, oppressed by the snowy zone and a never-ending winter. It sees no stars in the heavens, it produces nothing in the fruitless cold, but with its ice it eases the heat of the torrid constellations. Let it this way, great father of the universe; let it this way, Neptune, wielder of the watery trident by the second lot. May you devote the sky to unending rain, may you not allow the swells to ebb, however many you may have hurled. May the rivers hold no course descending to the shores but let them be driven back by the waters of the main, and let the earth quake and open the way for the rivers. May the Rhine and the Rhone inundate these fields, may the rivers drive immense springs sideways. Melt here the Riphaean snow; pour here the standing lake and slow-moving swamps, wherever they lie, and rescue our miserable earth from civil war.
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sed paruo Fortuna uiri contenta pauore plena redit, solitoque magis fauere secundi et ueniam meruere dei. iam rarior aer, et par Phoebus aquis densas in uellera nubes sparserat, et noctes uentura luce rubebant, seruatoque loco rerum discessit ab astris umor, et ima petit quidquid pendebat aquarum. tollere silua comas, stagnis emergere colles incipiunt uisoque die durescere ualles. utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque reliquit primum cana salix madefacto uimine paruam texitur in puppem caesoque inducta iuuenco uectoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem. sic Venetus stagnante Pado fusoque Britannus nauigat Oceano; sic, cum tenet omnia Nilus, conseritur bibula Memphitis cumba papyro. his ratibus traiecta manus festinat utrimque succisum curuare nemus, fluuiique ferocis incrementa timens non primis robora ripis inposuit, medios pontem distendit in agros. ac, nequid Sicoris repetitis audeat undis, spargitur in sulcos et scisso gurgite riuis dat poenas maioris aquae. postquam omnia fatis Caesaris ire uidet, celsam Petreius Ilerdam deserit et noti diffisus uiribus orbis indomitos quaerit populos et semper in arma mortis amore feros et tendit in ultima mundi.
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rarior Ω G : clarior G uisaque a | ualles Ω G a : calles G uimine Ω V : robore V G superenatat V A a martis G Oudendorp
Civil war, Book IV
But Fortune, satisfied with a little fear from Caesar, came back full, and the gods favor him more than usual, thereby deserving pardon. Now the sky was clearer and the Sun, able to face the waters, had scattered the dense clouds into a fleece, and the nights were being crimsoned with coming light. After each element found its place again, moisture retreated from the stars, and whatever waters were still poised in suspension sought the depths. The trees began to lift their leaves, the hills to rise from the sluggish waters, and the valleys hardened, after seeing the daylight, no longer covered in water. As soon as the Sicoris held its banks and left behind the fields, a grey willow tree, its shoots soaked, was plaited into tiny boats and covered with the cut hide of a steer; it darted over the swollen river bearing passengers. This is the way the Veneti sail the pooled Po and the Britons the flowing Ocean. This is how, when the Nile holds everything, the porous skiff of Memphis is fastened with papyrus. In these boats, the soldiers crossed and hastened to bend the cut wood on both banks. Fearing the growing river, Caesar set the timber not on the edge of the nearest banks, but stretched the bridge into the middle of the fields. Furthermore, lest it dare another flood, the Sicoris was scattered in furrows and, split into streamlets, it paid the price for its over-swelling waters. After he sees that everything goes according to Caesar’s will, Petreius abandons high Ilerda and lacking confidence in the power of the known world, goes to the end of the earth, in search of unconquerable peoples who in their lust for death always bear arms.
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nudatos Caesar colles desertaque castra conspiciens capere arma iubet nec quaerere pontem nec uada, sed duris fluuium superare lacertis. paretur, rapuitque ruens in proelia miles quod fugiens timuisset iter. mox uda receptis membra fouent armis gelidosque a gurgite cursu restituunt artus, donec decresceret umbra in medium surgente die; iamque agmina summa carpit eques, dubiique fugae pugnaeque tenentur. attollunt campo geminae iuga saxea rupes ualle caua media; tellus hinc ardua celsos continuat colles, tutae quos inter opaco anfractu latuere uiae; quibus hoste potito faucibus emitti terrarum in deuia Martem inque feras gentes Caesar uidet. ‘ite sine ullo ordine’ ait ‘raptumque fuga conuertite bellum et faciem pugnae uoltusque inferte minaces; nec liceat pauidis ignaua occumbere morte: excipiant recto fugientes pectore ferrum.’ dixit et ad montis tendentem praeuenit hostem. illic exiguo paulum distantia uallo castra locant. postquam spatio languentia nullo mutua conspicuos habuerunt lumina uoltus, [hic fratres natosque suos uidere patresque] deprensum est ciuile nefas. tenuere parumper ora metu, tantum nutu motoque salutant ense suos. mox, ut stimulis maioribus ardens rupit amor leges, audet transcendere uallum miles, in amplexus effusas tendere palmas. hospitis ille ciet nomen, uocat ille propinquum, admonet hunc studiis consors puerilibus aetas; nec Romanus erat, qui non agnouerat hostem.
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medio U ς minacis G montis M P Z : montes V U G M P Z om. M Z, non interpretantur c a : deleuit Oudendorp
Civil war, Book IV
Caesar, seeing the hills exposed and the camps deserted, orders his soldiers to take up arms and to seek neither the bridge nor the shallows, but to overcome the river with brute strength. He is obeyed, and the soldiers charged into battle and seized the route that they would have feared in flight. Soon, after the equipment is recovered, they warm their soaked limbs and by running they revitalize their bodies, chilled by the river, until the shadows shorten when the day ascends to its midway point. Now the cavalry harry the rear of the column, and the enemy are held in doubt whether to flee or fight. Twin cliffs elevate rocky ridges up from the plain with a hollow valley in the middle; the ascending land turns into high mountains here, among which safe routes lie hidden in shady bends; Caesar sees that if the enemy should take hold of these narrow passes, they would force the war into remote lands and wild peoples. “Proceed without any formation,” he says, “and rekindle the war stolen by flight. Show them the face of war with your menacing eyes. Do not let the fearful die cowardly deaths: even though they flee, let them take our swords in their chests.” He said this and prevented the enemy from reaching the mountains. Both sides set up camps with small enclosures a short distance apart. When their eyes, no longer incapacitated by distance, were able to make out clearly each other’s faces, they fully grasp the atrocity of civil war. For a short while, they held their mouths shut in fear, and they greeted their own only by a nod and a wave of the sword. Then, overcome by greater urges, love broke the rules and the soldiers dared to cross the rampart to stretch their arms in wide embraces. One man calls out the name of a friend, another calls a relative; time shared in youth pursuits reawakens this man’s memory. There was no Roman who did recognize an enemy.
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arma rigant lacrimis, singultibus oscula rumpunt, et quamuis nullo maculatus sanguine miles quae potuit fecisse timet. quid pectora pulsas? quid, uaesane, gemis? fletus quid fundis inanis nec te sponte tua sceleri parere fateris? usque adeone times quem tu facis ipse timendum? classica det bello, saeuos tu neclege cantus; signa ferat, cessa: iam iam ciuilis Erinys concidet et Caesar generum priuatus amabit. nunc ades, aeterno conplectens omnia nexu, o rerum mixtique salus Concordia mundi et sacer orbis amor: magnum nunc saecula nostra uenturi discrimen habent. periere latebrae tot scelerum, populo uenia est erepta nocenti: agnouere suos. pro numine fata sinistro exigua requie tantas augentia clades! pax erat, et castris miles permixtus utrisque errabat; duro concordes caespite mensas instituunt et permixto libamina Baccho; graminei luxere foci, iunctoque cubili
183 inanis G : inanes Ω 186 det Z M P V : dat M P U : dant V : dent G | bello Ω V bellum V G 196 miles castris M Z : castris miles V P U G 199 graminei luxere foci V P U C (graminei foci luxere M Z) gramineis luxere focis V G : graminei luxere tori a graminei duxere foci G : graminei duxere chori a graminei duxere thori uel chori (sic) U
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Civil war, Book IV
Weapons are splattered with tears, they choke kisses with sobbing, and although no soldier is stained by any blood, each fears what he might have done. Why do you beat your chests? Why do you groan like a madman? Why do you let tears fall in vain and not admit that you willingly committed your crimes obeying Caesar’s command? So much do you fear the man whom you yourself make fearsome? Let him sound the call to arms; disregard the cruel clang; when he takes up the standards, hold back: no longer now will civil vengeance bring ruin, and Caesar as a private citizen will love his son-in-law. Come now and welcome all with endless embrace, o Concord, sacred love of the world, salvation of the elements and the jumbled universe; our times now hold great weight upon the future. The hiding places of so many evils are destroyed; if people are guilty, their chance for forgiveness is taken away because they recognized their kin. Alas, with hostile power the fates make the oncoming slaughter even greater by short respite! There was peace, and the soldiers, mingling, wandered through both camps in harmony; they shared tables on the firm turf and drink-offerings with mixed wine. Grassy hearths blazed and in the shared bivouac
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extrahit insomnis bellorum fabula noctes, quo primum steterint campo, qua lancea dextra exierit. dum quae gesserunt fortia iactant et dum multa negant, quod solum fata petebant, est miseris renouata fides, atque omne futurum creuit amore nefas. nam postquam foedera pacis cognita Petreio, seque et sua tradita uenum castra uidet, famulas scelerata ad proelia dextras excitat atque hostis turba stipatus inermis praecipitat castris iunctosque amplexibus ense separat et multo disturbat sanguine pacem. addidit ira ferox moturas proelia uoces. ‘inmemor o patriae, signorum oblite tuorum, non potes hoc causae, miles, praestare, senatus adsertor uicto redeas ut Caesare? certe, ut uincare, potes. dum ferrum, incertaque fata, quique fluat multo non derit uolnere sanguis, ibitis ad dominum damnataque signa feretis, utque habeat famulos nullo discrimine Caesar exorandus erit? ducibus quoque uita petita est? numquam nostra salus pretium mercesque nefandae proditionis erit: non hoc ciuilia bella, ut uiuamus, agunt. trahimur sub nomine pacis. non chalybem gentes penitus fugiente metallo eruerent, nulli uallarent oppida muri, non sonipes in bella ferox, non iret in aequor turrigeras classis pelago sparsura carinas, si bene libertas umquam pro pace daretur. hostes nempe meos sceleri iurata nefando sacramenta tenent; at uobis uilior hoc est 200 201 204 208
insomnis Ω G, ni in ras. U : insomnes G c steterint Z G : steterant M V P U reuocata F L ς hostis M Z : hostes Ω M | inermis Z G a : inermes V U M G : inermi P : in armis ut uid. M 219 erit V U G : erat M P Z | petenda est V Z U G (etenda est in ras. M) 228 nempe Ω U : namque U
Civil war, Book IV
war tales prolonged the sleepless night: on which battlefield they first fought and whose hand hurled the spear. While they boast about brave deeds, poor men, downplaying many of them as they were only following their own allotted fate, they renew their trust and all wickedness to come was multiplied by their love. For after the peace treaties are made known to Petreius, and he saw that he and his camp were handed over for sale, he arms his slaves for odious war. Surrounded by the throng, he casts the unarmed enemies from the camp, by the sword he separates men clasped in embrace and upsets the peace with much blood. His furious anger inspired words that provoke battle: “O soldiers, are you heedless of the fatherland and forgetful of your standards? Are you unable to keep the promise that you will return as champions of the Senate, having taken victory away from Caesar? No doubt, you can ensure that you will be conquered. While the sword is in your hand, fate is uncertain, and you do not lack blood that flows from many a wound; will you go to your master and carry his criminal standards? Must Caesar be begged to consider you his slaves with no distinction? Is safety also sought for your leaders? Our safety will never be the price of reward for treason. They are not waging civil war to let us live. Peace pretexts attract us. Nations would not dig up iron from the deep-hiding deposit, nor walls would fortify a town, nor fierce steed would go into battle, nor would the armada sail out to sea to spread out its turreted ships, if ever it would be proper to give up freedom on account of peace. Surely sworn oaths hold my enemies to unspeakable crime; but to you, your loyalty is cheaper than this,
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uestra fides, quod pro causa pugnantibus aequa et ueniam sperare licet. pro dira pudoris funera! nunc toto fatorum ignarus in orbe, Magne, paras acies mundique extrema tenentis sollicitas reges, cum forsan foedere nostro iam tibi sit promissa salus.’ sic fatur et omnis concussit mentes scelerumque reduxit amorem. sic, ubi desuetae siluis in carcere clauso mansueuere ferae et uoltus posuere minaces atque hominem didicere pati, si torrida paruus uenit in ora cruor, redeunt rabiesque furorque admonitaeque tument gustato sanguine fauces; feruet et a trepido uix abstinet ira magistro. itur in omne nefas, et, quae fortuna deorum inuidia caeca bellorum in nocte tulisset, fecit monstra fides. inter mensasque torosque quae modo conplexu fouerunt pectora caedunt; et quamuis primo ferrum strinxere gementes, ut dextrae iusti gladius dissuasor adhaesit, dum feriunt, odere suos, animosque labantis confirmant ictu. feruent iam castra tumultu, [et scelerum turba, rapiuntur colla parentum] ac, uelut occultum pereat scelus, omnia monstra
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pugnabitis A ς funera Ω, in ras. P : foedera G ς tenentis M Z G P : tenentes V P U M, ut uid. Z omnes M P, ut uid. Z et carcere V ς minacis G paruos P Housman, fortasse recte : paruus V U G : paruis MZ 244 in nocte V M Z U a, ut uid. C : in om. Ω 251 in corr. habent G V, om. Ω, non interpretantur a c
Civil war, Book IV
because when fighting for a just cause it is lawful to hope for a pardon. What a dire death of decency! Right now, o Magnus, ignorant of your fate, you prepare armies across the whole world and rouse kings holding the limits of the earth, although in virtue of our pact perhaps your life is already lost. Thus he spoke, and he shook every heart bringing back the love of crime. Just as when wild beasts have forgotten the forests and are tamed in a closed cage casting their threatening demeanor aside, having grown accustomed to men, if a little blood comes into their dry mouth, rage and fury return and the rewetted throat swells with the tasted blood; anger boils and hardly refrains from the trembling tamer. In battle during that dark night, the soldiers proceed into every sin, and it was their loyalty that committed the outrages that Fortune might have occasioned with the envy of the gods. Among tables and couches, they slash the bodies that they cherished to embrace not long ago. Though at first groaning reluctantly, they drew their weapons. When they feel the swords in their hands, the enemies of justice, they are striking, they hate their own and they reassure their doubting spirits in the fight. Now the camp bustles in confusion and as if a hidden crime would go to waste, they set all the crimes before the face of the leaders; it feels good to be killers.
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in facie posuere ducum: iuuat esse nocentis. tu, Caesar, quamuis spoliatus milite multo, agnoscis superos; neque enim tibi maior in aruis Emathiis fortuna fuit nec Phocidos undis Massiliae, Phario nec tantum est aequore gestum, hoc siquidem solo ciuilis crimine belli dux causae melioris eris. polluta nefanda agmina caede duces iunctis committere castris non audent, altaeque ad moenia rursus Ilerdae intendere fugam. campos eques obuius omnis abstulit et siccis inclusit collibus hostem. tunc inopes undae praerupta cingere fossa Caesar auet nec castra pati contingere ripas aut circum largos curuari bracchia fontes. ut leti uidere uiam, conuersus in iram praecipitem timor est. miles non utile clausis auxilium mactauit equos, tandemque coactus spe posita damnare fugam casurus in hostes fertur. ut effuso Caesar decurrere passu uidit et ad certam deuotos tendere mortem, ‘tela tene iam, miles’, ait ‘ferrumque ruenti subtrahe: non ullo constet mihi sanguine bellum. uincitur haut gratis iugulo qui prouocat hostem. en, sibi uilis adest inuisa luce iuuentus iam damno peritura meo; non sentiet ictus, incumbet gladiis, gaudebit sanguine fuso. deserat hic feruor mentes, cadat impetus amens, perdant uelle mori.’ sic deflagrare minaces
253 facie ς Housman : faciem Ω | nocentis M G Z : nocentes Ω Mc 260 om. U 262 omnis M P : omnes Ω 275 uincitur haut gratis Ω (haud U P G aut c) : non gratis moritur Prisc. GLK II, 501 278 incumbit M Z : incumbens ς 280 minacis G
Civil war, Book IV
You, Caesar, although having wasted many soldiers, you claim the god’s favor; for fortune was not better for you on the Emathian fields nor on the waters of Phocian Massilia, nor was war waged as grandly on the Egyptian sea; if civil war were your only crime, you would be the leader of the better cause. The leaders do not dare to return their armies, polluted by unspeakable slaughter, to adjoining camps, but they turned in flight back to the tall walls of Ilerda. The cavalry came toward them and seized the entire field, trapping the enemy in the dry hills. Then, Caesar wants to surround the enemy, weakened by thirst, with a deep trench and he does not allow the enemy camp to touch the river nor their arms to bend around vast springs. When they saw that they would die, fear changed into heedless anger. The soldiers killed their horses, a useless aid to trapped men; compelled to give up hope and to discredit flight, they bear themselves against the enemy, intending to die. When Caesar saw them rush forward with disorderly motion, dedicated to certain death, he spoke: “Soldiers, hold your weapons now, and keep the sword away from the attacker: let war cost me no blood. Whoever challenges the enemy with his own neck is never conquered without cost. Behold, worthless men are here, loathing life, and now they would perish at my expense. They will not feel wounds, they will fall upon the swords, and they will enjoy spilling their own blood. Let this madness leave their hearts, let their senseless urge subside; let them lose their will to die.”
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in cassum et uetito passus languescere bello, substituit merso dum nox sua lumina Phoebo. inde, ubi nulla data est miscendae copia mortis, paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt, saucia maiores animos ut pectora gestant, dum dolor est ictusque recens et mobile neruis conamen calidus praebet cruor ossaque nondum adduxere cutem: si conscius ensis adacti stat uictor tenuitque manus, tum frigidus artus alligat atque animum subducto robore torpor, postquam sicca rigens astrinxit uolnera sanguis. iamque inopes undae primum tellure refossa occultos latices abstrusaque flumina quaerunt; nec solum rastris durisque ligonibus arua sed gladiis fodere suis, puteusque cauati montis ad inrigui premitur fastigia campi. non se tam penitus, tam longe luce relicta merserit Astyrici scrutator pallidus auri. non tamen aut tectis sonuerunt cursibus amnes aut micuere noui percusso pumice fontes, antra nec exiguo stillant sudantia rore aut inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena. tunc exhausta super multo sudore iuuentus extrahitur duris silicum lassata metallis; quoque minus possent siccos tolerare uapores 283 misendae… mortis M Z V U G a : miscendi… martis Ω M a 284 cadit V Z G, in ras. M : fugit P U 288 cutim M Z 290 animum M Z G c : animam V P U 294 rutris Heinsius, fort. recte : rastris Ω 297 tam V G : iam M P Z U 298 astyrici uel asturici Housman : assyrii V G (assiriy U : assirii a : asirii Z) : assyrici P : asturii ς 299 tectis Z ς a, in ras. M : tecti Ω : lectis M Z 301 nec P U G : neque M V Z Badalì 303 tunc Ω : sic ς, probat SB 304 medullis V
Civil war, Book IV
So, without allowing battle, he let their threatening hopelessly lose its fervor and die down, while with the plunging of Phoebus, night replaced his light. And then, when no chance of engaging in massive killing was given, their furious rage grows weaker and weaker and their hearts grow cool. As wounded breasts carry greater spirit while there is pain and the blow is fresh and hot blood provides active impulse to the sinews, and the bones have not yet knitted the skin; if the winner, knowing that his sword has hit the mark, stops and holds back his hand, then a frigid numbness freezes body and soul, all force gone, once the hardening blood has tightened the dry wounds. Now, destitute of water, they first seek hidden springs and concealed streams by digging up the earth; not only did they dig up the land with hoes and mattocks, but also with their swords, and a pit, excavated through the mountain, is made to reach down to the level of the soaked fields. Not even a pale miner of Asturian gold immersed himself so far underground, after leaving the light so far behind. Nevertheless, no rivers resounded in subterranean courses, nor did new springs shimmer from struck rocks, and the caves did not drip moisture in tiny drops, nor did a spring spurt, churning the light gravel. Then dried out by heavy sweating, the young men are dragged out from above and lie exhausted on the hard heaps of mined rock; and you, hard sought waters, caused them to be even less able to endure the dry heat.
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quaesitae fecistis aquae. nec languida fessi corpora sustentant epulis, mensasque perosi auxilium fecere famem. si mollius aruum prodidit umorem, pinguis manus utraque glaebas exprimit ora super; nigro si turbida limo conluuies inmota iacet, cadit omnis in haustus certatim obscaenos miles moriensque recepit quas nollet uicturus aquas; rituque ferarum distentas siccant pecudes, et lacte negato sordidus exhausto sorbetur ab ubere sanguis. tunc herbas frondesque terunt, et rore madentis destringunt ramos et siquos palmite crudo arboris aut tenera sucos pressere medulla. o fortunati, fugiens quos barbarus hostis fontibus inmixto strauit per rura ueneno. hos licet in fluuios saniem tabemque ferarum, pallida Dictaeis, Caesar, nascentia saxis infundas aconita palam, Romana iuuentus non decepta bibet. torrentur uiscera flamma oraque sicca rigent squamosis aspera linguis; iam marcent uenae, nulloque umore rigatus aeris alternos angustat pulmo meatus, rescissoque nocent suspiria dura palato; pandunt ora tamen nociturumque aera captant. expectant imbres, quorum modo cuncta natabant
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pingues V M P haustis Z distensas Z G sordibus U tunc Ω : nunc G destringunt P G V : distringunt M Z U aut tenera U P G (autenera Z : autera P) : aut tenerae V G Z | medullae V M G 328 recisoque ς : recisosque uel precisoque P 329 tamen Ω : siti M Z U | nociturum D’Orville apud Oudendorp atque Bentley : nocturnum Ω
Civil war, Book IV
Tired, they could not sustain their listless bodies with food; despising the tables, they found aid in fasting. If the softer ground produced any moisture, a man squeezed the fat clods with both hands above his mouth. If a murky cesspool lies stagnant with black filth, each soldier falls in contest to drink the polluted draught and dying accepted the water that he would not have wanted if he were to survive; like beasts they drain the swollen udders of their animals, and when denied milk the soldiers suck dirty blood from the exhausted teat. Then they grind grass and leaves and they squeeze branches dripping with dew and press sap from the green shoots and soft marrow of any plant. O you fortunate, whom a barbarian enemy in flight scattered throughout the field having thrown poison into the drinking water. Caesar, you may openly pour bloody matter and the decaying bodies of wild beasts into these rivers, as well as the whitish wolfbane that grows on the Dictaean rocks, and the Roman youth will drink it undeceived. Organs are scorched by flame and dry mouths, harsh with scaly tongues, are stiffening. Now the blood vessels rot and the lungs, dried out without moisture, choke the alternating passage of air, and rough breathing harms a lacerated palate. Nevertheless, with their mouths open wide, they keep gasping for the air that will hurt them. They hope for rain by whose recent strikes everything was swimming and they keep staring at the
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inpulsu, et siccis uoltus in nubibus haerent. quoque magis miseros undae ieiunia soluant non super arentem Meroen Cancrique sub axe, qua nudi Garamantes arant, sedere, sed inter stagnantem Sicorim et rapidum deprensus Hiberum spectat uicinos sitiens exercitus amnes. iam domiti cessere duces, pacisque petendae auctor damnatis supplex Afranius armis semianimes in castra trahens hostilia turmas uictoris stetit ante pedes. seruata precanti maiestas non fracta malis, interque priorem fortunam casusque nouos gerit omnia uicti, sed ducis, et ueniam securo pectore poscit. ‘si me degeneri strauissent fata sub hoste, non derat fortis rapiendo dextera leto; at nunc causa mihi est orandae sola salutis dignum donanda, Caesar, te credere uita. non partis studiis agimur nec sumpsimus arma consiliis inimica tuis. nos denique bellum inuenit ciuile duces, causaeque priori, dum potuit, seruata fides. nil fata moramur: tradimus Hesperias gentes, aperimus Eoas, securumque orbis patimur post terga relicti. nec cruor effusus campis tibi bella peregit nec ferrum lassaeque manus: hoc hostibus unum, quod uincas, ignosce tuis. nec magna petuntur: otia des fessis, uitam patiaris inermis degere quam tribuis. campis prostrata iacere agmina nostra putes; nec enim felicibus armis misceri damnata decet, partemque triumphi captos ferre tui: turba haec sua fata peregit. hoc petimus, uictos ne tecum uincere cogas.’ 336 amnes G 345 capiendo P U 357 des fessis G ς : defessis Z : da fessis in ras. M : des uictis P U, uict in ras. V | inermis M Z : inermes Ω : inermem M Z G 362 ne tecum M Z G : tecum ne V P U
Civil war, Book IV
dry clouds. Furthermore, the lack of water weakens the miserable ones even more because they do not sit above parched Meroe and the sky of Cancer, where naked Garamantes plow, but being caught between the stagnant Sicoris and the quick Hiberum, the thirsty army continually has the nearby rivers in sight. Now, conquered, the leaders yielded. Afranius, who initiated the request for peace, puts down his arms and drags his half-dead troops into the enemy camp, stopping as a suppliant at his victor’s feet. Even as a suppliant, Afranius kept his dignity, unbroken by disgrace. Between his previous fortunes and his new fall from power, he carries himself as a conquered man in all things, but also as a leader, and he asks for leniency with a firm heart: “If Fate had made me lay prostrate before an unworthy enemy, my strong right hand would not have failed to seize death. But now, my only reason for begging for safety is that I believe you are worthy of granting life, Caesar. We are not led by zeal for a faction nor did we take up arms against your plans. At last, civil war found us as its leaders, and as long as we were able, our loyalty was kept to our initial cause. We no longer delay fate. We are handing over the Western peoples to you and we are showing you the way to the Eastern peoples, and we allow you to feel safe in the region that you are leaving behind. The blood split on the fields did not end the war for you, nor the weapons and the exhausted hands. Grant your foes for this one thing: that you are the victor. They do not seek much: Give rest to the weak and allow those to whom you give life to spend it unharmed. You should think that our army is lying prostate in the fields; for it is not right to mix defeated arms with victorious ones or that captured soldiers take part in your triumph; this mob has met its fate. We ask this: that you not force the conquered to conquer with you.
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dixerat; at Caesar facilis uoltuque serenus flectitur atque usus belli poenamque remittit. ut primum iustae placuerunt foedera pacis, incustoditos decurrit miles ad amnes, incumbit ripis permissaque flumina turbat. continuus multis subitarum tractus aquarum aera non passus uacuis discurrere uenis artauit clausitque animam; nec feruida pestis cedit adhuc, sed morbus egens iam gurgite plenis uisceribus sibi poscit aquas. mox robora neruis et uires rediere uiris. o prodiga rerum luxuries numquam paruo contenta paratis et quaesitorum terra pelagoque ciborum ambitiosa fames et lautae gloria mensae, discite quam paruo liceat producere uitam et quantum natura petat. non erigit aegros nobilis ignoto diffusus consule Bacchus, non auro murraque bibunt, sed gurgite puro uita redit. satis est populis fluuiusque Ceresque. heu miseri qui bella gerunt! tunc arma relinquens uictori miles spoliato pectore tutus innocuusque suas curarum liber in urbes spargitur. o quantum donata pace potitos excussis umquam ferrum uibrasse lacertis paenituit, tolerasse sitim frustraque rogasse prospera bella deos! nempe usis Marte secundo tot dubiae restant acies, tot in orbe labores; ut numquam fortuna labet successibus anceps, uincendum totiens; terras fundendus in omnis est cruor et Caesar per tot sua fata sequendus. felix qui potuit mundi nutante ruina quo iaceat iam scire loco. non proelia fessos 364 usum G M Z c a ς 372 poscit V Z M G a, in ras. U : cepit M P Z c a (coeoit V : caepit G) : querit M 380 murraue G a : muroque P : gemmaque U a 383 om. U 391 omnes M P
Civil war, Book IV
Thus he spoke; but Caesar easily and with calm expression softened and excused them from war and punishment. As soon as pacts of just peace were settled, the soldiers rush on to the unprotected rivers, descend upon their banks, and disturb the no longer forbidden streams. For many, the continual gulps of unexpected water limited the air from passing through the empty blood vessels and shut out breathing. The torrid plague didn’t cease at this point, but the desiring sickness now demands water although their innards are already full of it. Soon power returns to the muscles and strength to the men. O Luxury, lavish of resources, never content with what little is provided! O hunger, unsatisfied by food sought by land and sea, O glory of a sumptuous table! Learn how little is necessary to stay alive and how little nature requires. Noble Bacchus’ wine, bottled in the time of an unknown consul, cannot rouse a man from sickness; they drink neither out of gold nor murrhine, but life returns with fresh water. Riverwater and grain are sufficient for the nations of the world. Alas, O miserable ones, who fight wars! Then, the soldiers, feeling safe stripped of their armor, abandon their weapons to the victor; unharmed and free of cares, they scatter to their own cities. Once peace has been given to them, how sorry they felt to have ever thrown missiles with the strength of their arms, for enduring thirst, and for vainly asking the gods for a successful war! Surely, many uncertain battles remain for the ones enjoying successful warfare, so many labors throughout the world. In order that two-faced fortune may never waver in its ups and downs, one must win so many times. Blood must be shed in all lands and Caesar must be followed throughout all of his adventures. Happy is he who, when the whole world is falling into ruin, already knows where to stand. No battles call for the weary; the military trumpet does not break tranquil sleep.
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ulla uocant, certos non rumpunt classica somnos. iam coniunx natique rudes et sordida tecta et non deductos recipit sua terra colonos. hoc quoque securis oneris fortuna remisit, sollicitus menti quod abest fauor: ille salutis est auctor, dux ille fuit. sic proelia soli felices nullo spectant ciuilia uoto. non eadem belli totum fortuna per orbem constitit, in partes aliquid sed Caesaris ausa est. qua maris Hadriaci longas ferit unda Salonas et tepidum in molles Zephyros excurrit Iader, illic bellaci confisus gente Curictum, quos alit Hadriaco tellus circumflua ponto, clauditur extrema residens Antonius ora cautus ab incursu belli, si sola recedat, expugnat quae tuta, fames. non pabula tellus pascendis summittit equis, non proserit ullam flaua Ceres segetem; spoliarat gramine campum miles et attonso miseris iam dentibus aruo castrorum siccas de caespite uolserat herbas. ut primum aduersae socios in litore terrae et Basilum uidere ducem, noua furta per aequor exquisita fugae. neque enim de more carinas extendunt puppesque leuant, sed firma gerendis molibus insolito contexunt robora ductu. namque ratem uacuae sustentant undique cupae quarum porrectis series constricta catenis ordinibus geminis obliquas excipit alnos; nec gerit expositum telis in fronte patenti remigium, sed, quod trabibus circumdedit aequor, hoc ferit et taciti praebet miracula cursus, 399 405 412 420 423 425
fauor Ω : pauor V, ut uid. C mollis G spoliarat Guietus : spoliabat Ω : spoliauit G cupae P U c a : cuppae V G : puppis Z patenti Ω : latenti M Z ferit et Ω : feriet aut ferit hac Z : ferit, ac A ς
Civil war, Book IV
Now, their wives and innocent sons, their modest homes welcome them back, and their native land welcomes men not imposed on colonists. In their safety, fortune also spared them one more burden, because the anxious desire of winning is no longer their concern: they owe their safety to Caesar, but Pompey was their leader. Thus, they alone are happy who look upon civil war with no dog in the race. The fate of war was not the same throughout the globe, but fortune dared something even against Caesar’s faction. Where the waters of the Adriatic strike straggling Salonae, and warm Iader runs towards the soft western breezes, there Antony was trusting in the Curictes, a warlike people, who inhabit that land surrounded by the Adriatic. Having encamped there, Antony is confined on the edge of the shore, safe from assault, provided only that he may escape hunger, which can take even the well-defended places by storm. The earth did not put forth sustenance for the horses to feed on, nor did flaxen Ceres produce any crops. The soldiers robbed the field of its plants and, after having shorn the field, the unhappy men are now uprooting desiccated grass from the earth with their miserable teeth. As soon as they saw allies and the leader Basilus on the beach of the opposite shoreline, they thought up a new trick for flight across the ocean. They neither stretched out a keel nor raised a poop deck but joined strong timbers for carrying weight in an odd fashion. They are holding the raft afloat with empty barrels on all sides, which, while bound in rows by protracted chains, have been covered by timber placed sideways on them in double rows. The raft did not carry oarage exposed to missiles on an open prow, and they struck the water surrounded by timber and secretly provided the miracle of imperceptible transport, because the raft neither bore a sail nor did it openly strike the waves.
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quod nec uela ferat nec apertas uerberet undas. tum freta seruantur, dum se declinibus undis aestus agat refluoque mari nudentur harenae. iamque relabenti crescebant litora ponto: missa ratis prono defertur lapsa profundo et geminae comites. cunctas super ardua turris eminet et tremulis tabulata minantia pinnis. noluit Illyricae custos Octauius undae confestim temptare ratem, celeresque carinas continuit, cursu crescat dum praeda secundo, et temere ingressos repetendum inuitat ad aequor pace maris. sic, dum pauidos formidine ceruos claudat odoratae metuentis aera pinnae aut dum dispositis attollat retia uaris, uenator tenet ora leuis clamosa Molossi, Spartanos Cretasque ligat, nec creditur ulli silua cani, nisi qui presso uestigia rostro colligit et praeda nescit latrare reperta contentus tremulo monstrasse cubilia loro. nec mora, conplentur moles, auideque petitis insula deseritur ratibus, quo tempore primas inpedit ad noctem iam lux extrema tenebras. at Pompeianus fraudes innectere ponto antiqua parat arte Cilix, passusque uacare summa freti medio suspendit uincula ponto et laxe fluitare sinit, religatque catenas rupis ab Illyricae scopulis. nec prima nec illam quae sequitur tardata ratis, sed tertia moles haesit et ad cautes adducto fune secuta est. inpendent caua saxa mari, ruituraque semper stat, mirum, moles et siluis aequor inumbrat. huc fractas Aquilone rates summersaque pontus corpora saepe tulit caecisque abscondit in antris; 427 decliuibus V M P Z G a 451 laxe U V Z, probant Housman, SB : laxa P : laxas M G c Badalì 452 illam M P Z c : illa V U G M P a Hosius
Civil war, Book IV
Next, they watched over the waves, until the tide makes the waves ebb and the sands are left bare by the receding sea. Then, while the sea withdraws, the shores were reappearing. One vessel, along with two more identical ones, glides swiftly, launched onto the high seas. On top of all three of them stand towering turrets, and the battlements on the ramparts oscillate threateningly. Octavius, the guard of Illyrian waters, did not want to attack the raft at once, and he restrained his swift ships, until his prey could be greater as a result of a favorable sailing of the first raft. After they had rashly left the shore, Octavius lulls them into sailing upon the high waters by keeping the sea clear. In the same way, the hunter holds the barking mouths of the quick Molossian shut, until he can block the stags paralyzed by terror because they fear the fragrance of feathers in the air, or until he can set up the nets on their supports. So, he does not release the Spartan and Cretan hounds, and no dogs are let loose into the forest except the one who follows tracks with his snout pressed to the ground and knows not to bark after discovering his prey, content to point out the den by shaking the leash. Without delay, they are abandoning the island on the rafts they have anxiously built, having filled their massive bulks with troops in a hurry, right when the last ray of light still prevents the first shadows from starting the night. But a Cilician from Pompey’s army prepares to devise a trap by his consummate experience, and letting the surface of the water lie clear, he hung chains in the middle of the sea and allows them to float loosely midwater after hooking them to rocks of the Illyrian cliff. Neither the first raft nor the one that followed was hindered, but the bulk of the third stuck and was driven into the rocks when the cable was tightened. Hollow cliffs hang over the sea and their mass miraculously always stands without crashing down and shadows the water with trees. To this place the sea brought broken ships wrecked by the North wind, and drowned bodies, and hid them in dark caverns.
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restituit raptus tectum mare, cumque cauernae euomuere fretum contorti uerticis undae Tauromenitanam uincunt feruore Charybdim. hic Opiterginis moles onerata colonis constitit; hanc omni puppes statione solutae circumeunt, alii rupes ac litora conplent. Vulteius tacitas sensit sub gurgite fraudes (dux erat ille ratis); frustra qui uincula ferro rumpere conatus poscit spe proelia nulla incertus qua terga daret, qua pectora bello. hoc tamen in casu quantum deprensa ualebat effecit uirtus: inter tot milia captae circumfusa rati et plenam uix inde cohortem pugna fuit, non longa quidem; nam condidit umbra nox lucem dubiam pacemque habuere tenebrae. tum sic attonitam uenturaque fata pauentem rexit magnanima Vulteius uoce cohortem: ‘libera non ultra parua quam nocte iuuentus, consulite extremis angusto in tempore rebus. uita breuis nulli superest qui tempus in illa quaerendae sibi mortis habet; nec gloria leti inferior, iuuenes, admoto occurrere fato. omnibus incerto uenturae tempore uitae par animi laus est et, quos speraueris, annos perdere et extremae momentum abrumpere lucis, accersas dum fata manu: non cogitur ullus uelle mori. fuga nulla patet, stant undique nostris intenti ciues iugulis: decernite letum, et metus omnis abest. cupias quodcumque necesse est. non tamen in caeca bellorum nube cadendum est aut cum permixtas acies sua tela tenebris 465 480 483 486 487 489
sensit V P G U, sit in ras. M : sentit U Hosius : sentis Z fato in ras. M V G (‘nempe scriptum fuerat uitae’ Housman) perdere Ω c, per in ras. M : prodere Z : spernere coni. SB ciuis Z M abest Ω, est in ras. M : abit Z M G permixtas M Z G U : permixtis V P U M
Civil war, Book IV
The hidden sea returns its prey and when the caverns regurgitate the water, the curling vortex of waves surpasses the Tauromenian Charybdis in its swelling. Here the massive raft laden with colonists from Opitergium was blocked. The ships left their stations and surrounded it, while other soldiers crowded the cliffs and shoreline. Vulteius, the captain of the raft, realized that there was a secret trap under the water. He attempts to break the chains with a sword in vain and was engaged in a hopeless battle, uncertain of whether he should face forwards or backwards. Nevertheless, virtue, although trapped, did all that it could in this catastrophe. Thousands of soldiers poured around the intercepted ship and then there was a battle, however short, against a hardly complete cohort. For night hid the faint light with its shadows and darkness imposed peace. Then, with a high-spirited voice, Vulteius steadied his cohort, dazed and terrified at their coming fate: “Young men, destined to be free only for one short night: Make your final resolutions as quickly as possible. Life is never too short for anyone who has the chance in it to choose his own death. And, young men, to confront oncoming fate does not diminish the glory of death. Since everyone has an uncertain length of time to live, it is equally noble for the soul to lose the years that one hoped for and to cut short the end of one’s life, provided that you accelerate destiny with your own hand. No man is forced to wish to die. No escape lies open to us. Our fellow Roman citizens stand on all sides, eyeing our necks: Resolve to die, and all fear is left behind. You should desire what you cannot avoid. Nevertheless, we must not die in the thick dust of battle, nor when the missiles will envelop the clashing lines in darkness.
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inuoluent. conferta iacent cum corpora campo, in medium mors omnis abit, perit obruta uirtus: nos in conspicua sociis hostique carina constituere dei; praebebunt aequora testes, praebebunt terrae, summis dabit insula saxis, spectabunt geminae diuerso litore partes. nescio quod nostris magnum et memorabile fatis exemplum, Fortuna, paras. quaecumque per aeuum exhibuit monimenta fides seruataque ferro militiae pietas, transisset nostra iuuentus. namque suis pro te gladiis incumbere, Caesar, esse parum scimus; sed non maiora supersunt obsessis tanti quae pignora demus amoris. abscidit nostrae multum fors inuida laudi, quod non cum senibus capti natisque tenemur. indomitos sciat esse uiros timeatque furentis et morti faciles animos et gaudeat hostis non plures haesisse rates. temptare parabunt foederibus turpique uolent corrumpere uita. o utinam, quo plus habeat mors unica famae, promittant ueniam, iubeant sperare salutem, ne nos, cum calido fodiemus uiscera ferro, desperasse putent. magna uirtute merendum est, Caesar ut amissis inter tot milia paucis hoc damnum clademque uocet. dent fata recessum emittantque licet, uitare instantia nolim. proieci uitam, comites, totusque futurae mortis agor stimulis: furor est. agnoscere solis permissum, quos iam tangit uicinia fati, uicturosque dei celant, ut uiuere durent, felix esse mori.’ sic cunctas sustulit ardor 490 inuoluent M Z : inuoluunt Ω M, fort. a : conuoluent c | conserta V ς 503 sors V M Z U | laudi V P M G a : laudis M Z U G a 505 furentes U V 518 permissum est V U Z | fati V Z M G a : leti a, in ras. M (loeti U G V : laeti P : mortis Z ς 519 uicturosque Ω U c a uictoresque P U
Civil war, Book IV
When the bodies are lying one on top of another in the field, all death is lost in the heap, and valor, covered up, goes wasted. Yet, the gods placed us in a ship within sight of both friend and foe. The sea, the land and the island’s high cliffs will be witnesses: both armies will watch from opposing shores. O Fortune, you are preparing some great and memorable example by means of our death. Our young surpassed whatever testimonies the sense of duty has produced throughout time or their piety preserved towards military duty by the sword. For we know that it is not enough for any Caesarians to fall on their own swords for you, Caesar; but for us, besieged as we are, no greater pledge of our great love is left to be given. Jealous Fortune cut much from our glory, for we are not held captive with old men and children. Let the enemy know that we are indomitable men, let him fear our raging souls, ready to die, and let him rejoice that no more boats were caught to hinder him. They will be ready to entice us with treaties and they will want to corrupt us with the offer of a shameful life. Oh, if only they would promise mercy and they would command us to hope for safety, by which our unparalleled death would increase in fame, so that they would not regard us as having lost hope when we will stab our innards with a murderous blade. By our great valor we must earn that Caesar will call this a damning defeat, having lost so few from his many thousands. Even though destiny should allow us to withdraw and should release us, I still would not desire to avoid the approaching moment. I have rejected life, my friends, and I am completely driven by the passion for the coming death: It is rage. Only those who are already approaching death may recognize that to be dead is to be happy; but the gods conceal this from those destined to live so that they may endure to live their lives. ”
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mobilium mentes iuuenum. cum sidera caeli ante ducis uoces oculis umentibus omnes aspicerent flexoque Vrsae temone pauerent, idem, cum fortes animos praecepta subissent, optauere diem. nec segnis uergere ponto tunc erat astra polus; nam sol Ledaea tenebat sidera, uicino cum lux altissima Cancro est; nox tum Thessalicas urguebat parua sagittas. detegit orta dies stantis in rupibus Histros pugnacesque mari Graia cum classe Liburnos. temptauere prius suspenso uincere bello foederibus, fieret captis si dulcior ipsa mortis uita mora. stabat deuota iuuentus damnata iam luce ferox securaque pugnae promisso sibi fine manu, nullique tumultus excussere uiris mentes ad summa paratas; innumerasque simul pauci terraque marique sustinuere manus: tanta est fiducia mortis. utque satis bello uisum est fluxisse cruoris uersus ab hoste furor. primus dux ipse carinae Vulteius iugulo poscens iam fata retecto ‘ecquis’ ait ‘iuuenum est cuius sit dextra cruore digna meo certaque fide per uolnera nostra testetur se uelle mori?’ nec plura locuto uiscera non unus iam dudum transigit ensis. conlaudat cunctos, sed eum cui uolnera prima debebat grato moriens interficit ictu. concurrunt alii totumque in partibus unis bellorum fecere nefas. sic semine Cadmi emicuit Dircaea cohors ceciditque suorum 521 524 525 528 535 542 549
mobilium coni. Bentley, probat Housman : nobilium Ω fortis G uergere Ω : mergere M Z U G a ς tum U : cum Ω c a manu V U G a : manus M P Z U et quis P U G M sic Ω : ut Bentley
Civil war, Book IV
Enthusiasm incited all the hearts of the excitable youths. Before Vulteius’ speech, all looked upon the constellations in the sky with tears in their eyes, for they feared that the Bear would bend its rudder; now, when Vulteius’ orders had sunk into their strong hearts, they instead wished for the daybreak. At that time, the sky was not sluggish in dropping the stars into the sea; for the sun was in the constellation of the Gemini, at the moment when the light is most intense because Cancer is near; a short night was inciting the Thessalian arrows then. The risen day unveiled the Histrians standing on the cliffs and belligerent Liburnian ships on the sea with the Greek fleet. After suspending battle, they attempted to conquer with treaties, in case life itself could become sweeter for trapped men by delaying death. After condemning themselves to death, the fierce young men, untroubled by the prospect of combat, persisted in their vow of taking their own lives. No disturbance could shake the men’s minds, prepared for the end; the men, although few, held off endless enemies simultaneously by land and sea; so great is their trust in death. When it seemed that enough blood had flown in battle, they turn their rage away from the enemy. First, Vulteius himself, the leader, exposes his throat and now demanding death says, “Is there any young man whose hand is worthy of my blood and whose loyalty is certain, who proves by striking me that he desires to die through my wound?” He said no more and immediately many swords pierced through his innards. He commends them all, but as he dies, he strikes with a grateful blow the one to whom he owed the first wound. The others rush in and they created the entire crime of war within their own side alone. Thus, the Dircaean cohort leapt out from the seed of Cadmus and died by their own wounds, a dire omen
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uolneribus, dirum Thebanis fratribus omen; Phasidos et campis insomni dente creati terrigenae missa magicis e cantibus ira cognato tantos inplerunt sanguine sulcos, ipsaque inexpertis quod primum fecerat herbis expauit Medea nefas. sic mutua pacti fata cadunt iuuenes, minimumque in morte uirorum mors uirtutis habet. pariter sternuntque caduntque uolnere letali, nec quemquam dextra fefellit cum feriat moriente manu. nec uolnus adactis debetur gladiis: percussum est pectore ferrum et iuguli pressere manum. cum sorte cruenta fratribus incurrunt fratres natusque parenti, haud trepidante tamen toto cum pondere dextra exegere enses. pietas ferientibus una non repetisse fuit. iam latis uiscera lapsa semianimes traxere foris multumque cruorem infudere mari. despectam cernere lucem uictoresque suos uoltu spectare superbo et mortem sentire iuuat. iam strage cruenta conspicitur cumulata ratis, bustisque remittunt corpora uictores, ducibus mirantibus ulli esse ducem tanti. nullam maiore locuta est ore ratem totum discurrens Fama per orbem. non tamen ignauae post haec exempla uirorum percipient gentes quam sit non ardua uirtus seruitium fugisse manu, sed regna timentur ob ferrum et saeuis libertas uritur armis, ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses. mors, utinam pauidos uitae subducere nolles, sed uirtus te sola daret. 553 emissa G : mixta U : inmissa ς 562 iuguli M P Z : iugulis V U M P Z G a : iugulos G | manum M Z U : manus V G : manu P 563 incurrant M Z Bourgery 567 cruorem M P Z : cruore U : cruoris V G Z 578 et om. P Z | uritur Ω : quaeritur G a : uertitur Heinsius : uincitur uel utitur Bentley : subditur Axelson 579 ignorantque V ς : ignoratque Ω a Hosius
Civil war, Book IV
for Theban brothers; just as in the fields of Phasis, the earthborn ones, who were engendered from the teeth of the sleepless dragon, when wrath was cast into them by magic incantations, and filled such great furrows with fraternal blood. Even Medea herself was frightened at the crime that she perpetrated for the first time with unknown herbs. So, those men, having agreed to mutual death, are dying; and death has the least part of their valor: they kill and die at the same time with lethal wounds, and no hand fails to strike anyone, even though it strikes as it dies. The wounds are not due to the driven sword: the sword was struck by the chest and necks urge on the hand. When by bloody fate brother attacked brother and son attacked father, nevertheless they drove their swords with all their weight and without a trembling hand. The strikers had only one concession to familial duty: to avoid to strike again. Half-alive, they dragged their spilling entrails across the wide gangways, and poured much of their blood into the sea. It pleases them to see the despised light and to observe their conquerors with a haughty face while they feel death. Now, the raft is seen heaped up with bloody slaughter, and the victors send the bodies to pyres while the leaders are marveling that any men would hold their leader so highly. Rumor, running through the whole world, never spoke with greater praise about any other ship. Nevertheless, even after such examples of heroism, worthless nations will not learn how easy a task it is to escape servitude by dying. Tyranny is feared on account of violence, and freedom submits to reckless war, and they do not know that swords were given so that no one would be a slave. O Death, if only you would refuse to take cowards’ lives and give yourself only to the valorous!
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non segnior illo Marte fuit, qui tum Libycis exarsit in aruis. namque rates audax Lilybaeo litore soluit Curio, nec forti uelis Aquilone recepto inter semirutas magnae Carthaginis arces et Clipeam tenuit stationis litora notae, primaque castra locat cano procul aequore, qua se Bagrada lentus agit siccae sulcator harenae. inde petit tumulos exesasque undique rupes, Antaei quas regna uocat non uana uetustas. nominis antiqui cupientem noscere causas cognita per multos docuit rudis incola patres. ‘nondum post genitos Tellus ecfeta gigantas terribilem Libycis partum concepit in antris. nec tam iusta fuit terrarum gloria Typhon aut Tityos Briareusque ferox; caeloque pepercit quod non Phlegraeis Antaeum sustulit aruis. hoc quoque tam uastas cumulauit munere uires Terra sui fetus, quod, cum tetigere parentem, iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra. haec illi spelunca domus; latuisse sub alta rupe ferunt, epulas raptos habuisse leones; ad somnos non terga ferae praebere cubile adsuerunt, non silua torum, uiresque resumit in nuda tellure iacens. periere coloni
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ratis Z clupeam V Hosius : clepeam M : clipea M Z : clepetim G quas M Z Housman : quae Ω SB ecfeta Housman : effeta V P G : effecta U : et fata Z, ut uid. M : est c | gigantes V P U M 595 terrarum Ω : genetricis anon. ap. Burman, prob. Luck, SB | python V a 603 cubili U G V
Civil war, Book IV
No lesser was that warfare which then burned in Libyan fields. For rash Curio set forth with his ships from the Lilybaean shore and having received a gentle North Wind in the sails, he anchored between Cape Clipea, the well-known shore outpost, and the half-ruined stronghold of great Carthage. He placed the first camp apart from the foamy sea, where Bagrada slowly drags on, plowing dry sand. From there, he heads for hills and cliffs eroded on all sides, which antiquity unmistakably calls the kingdom of Antaeus. When Curio desired to know the reason for the ancient name, an uncouth inhabitant taught him the tale handed down through many generations: “Mother Earth had not yet been worn out after giving birth to the giants, when she conceived a terrible offspring in her Libyan caves. The earth’s glory was not as deserved for Typhon, Tityos, and ferocious Briareus, for she spared the heavens by not bearing Antaeus in the Phlegraean fields. Earth increased even more her offspring’s utterly great strength with this gift: when her child’s finally exhausted limbs would touch the mother, they would revive with renewed energy. Antaeus used these caves as a home. They say that he would lie hidden under the tallest outcropping and would banquet on lions he caught. He was not accustomed to have wild beasts’ skins as a bed to sleep on, nor foliage as cushioning, but he recovered his strength by lying on the open ground. Yet the dwellers of the Libyan fields kept dying,
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aruorum Libyae, pereunt quos appulit aequor; auxilioque diu uirtus non usa cadendi terrae spernit opes: inuictus robore cunctis, quamuis staret, erat. tandem uolgata cruenti fama mali terras monstris aequorque leuantem magnanimum Alciden Libycas exciuit in oras. ille Cleonaei proiecit terga leonis, Antaeus Libyci; perfudit membra liquore hospes Olympiacae seruato more palaestrae, ille parum fidens pedibus contingere matrem auxilium membris calidas infudit harenas. conseruere manus et multo bracchia nexu; colla diu grauibus frustra temptata lacertis, inmotumque caput fixa cum fronte tenetur, miranturque habuisse parem. nec uiribus uti Alcides primo uoluit certamine totis, exhausitque uirum, quod creber anhelitus illi prodidit et gelidus fesso de corpore sudor. tum ceruix lassata quati, tum pectore pectus urgueri, tunc obliqua percussa labare crura manu. iam terga uiri cedentia uictor alligat et medium conpressis ilibus artat inguinaque insertis pedibus distendit et omnem explicuit per membra uirum. rapit arida tellus sudorem; calido conplentur sanguine uenae, intumuere tori, totosque induruit artus Herculeosque nouo laxauit corpore nodos. constitit Alcides stupefactus robore tanto, nec sic Inachiis, quamuis rudis esset, in undis 610 terram Z G 613 libyco a (lybico V) : lybiae U | perfudit V P U M : perfundit M Z G a Hosius 616 infundit U G 618 frustra grauibus P U 620 miranturque V P G a : miraturque Z U V G 623 fesso gelidus V : gelide fesso c 624 tum ceruix U M P Housman | tum pectore Ω Housman : tunc pectore V Z Badalì 634 undis Ω : aruis Z : argis Luck
Civil war, Book IV
as did those whom the sea washed ashore, and for a long time he spurned the power of the earth, by not using the strength of falling to his advantage: although he kept standing, he was unconquered in strength by all. In the end, rumor circulated about this bloody evil and summoned to the Libyan shores greathearted Alcides who frees the lands and sea from monsters. He took off the skin of the Cleonaean lion and Antaeus that of a Libyan one. The visitor smeared his body with oil, preserving the customs of Olympic wrestling. Antaeus, not trusting to keep enough contact with his mother enough through his feet, poured hot sands on his body for aid. They grappled hands and arms in a powerful hold. For a while, they vainly attacked at each other’s necks with heavy arms, while their heads were locked at the brow, and each marveled that he had an equal. Alcides decided that he would not use all of his strength at the beginning of the contest but would wear down his opponent; repeated gasps came out of Antaeus, as well as cold sweat from his exhausted body. At that point, the wearied neck shook, and then they were squeezed chest to chest, and finally the legs wavered under a lateral sweep of the fist. Now the conqueror pins down the body of the man while he gives way and tightens the lock around the waist after crushing his groin; then separates the inner thighs by working in his feet and finally has the opponent down, all spread out, limb by limb. The dry earth absorbs the sweat: veins filled with hot blood, muscles swelled, the whole frame hardened, and Antaeus loosened the Herculean grips with renewed strength. Alcides stood agape, stupefied by such strength. Even in the Inachan waves, although he was inexperienced, he was not afraid when the hydra regenerated her snakes after being cut.
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desectam timuit reparatis anguibus hydram. conflixere pares, Telluris uiribus ille, ille suis. numquam saeuae sperare nouercae plus licuit: uidet exhaustos sudoribus artus ceruicemque uiri, siccam cum ferret Olympum. utque iterum fessis iniecit bracchia membris non expectatis Antaeus uiribus hostis sponte cadit maiorque accepto robore surgit. quisquis inest terris in fessos spiritus artus egeritur, Tellusque uiro luctante laborat. ut tandem auxilium tactae prodesse parentis Alcides sensit, ‘standum est tibi,’ dixit ‘et ultra non credere solo, sternique uetabere terra. haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris: huc, Antaee, cades.’ sic fatus sustulit alte nitentem in terras iuuenem. morientis in artus non potuit nati Tellus permittere uires: Alcides medio tenuit iam pectora pigro stricta gelu terrisque diu non credidit hostem. hinc, aeui ueteris custos, famosa uetustas, miratrixque sui, signauit nomine terras. sed maiora dedit cognomina collibus istis Poenum qui Latiis reuocauit ab arcibus hostem Scipio; nam sedes Libyca tellure potito haec fuit. en, ueteris cernis uestigia ualli. Romana hos primum tenuit uictoria campos.’ Curio laetatus, tamquam fortuna locorum bella gerat seruetque ducum sibi fata priorum, felici non fausta loco tentoria ponens indulsit castris et collibus abstulit omen sollicitatque feros non aequis uiribus hostis. 643 645 647 651 652
in fessos V G U : infossos M Z : infessus P M tactae V P U G : tacitae G : factae Z terrae M permittere Ω : summittere P U M medio M Z G Badalì : medium V P U M G, c ad 50 : medius Bentley (sed ‘praeter necessitatem,’ ut iudicat Housman), SB 662 gerat M V Z : regat P U G Hosius
Civil war, Book IV
They struggled equally, one with the strength of Mother Earth, the other with his own. Hercules’ cruel stepmother had never been given more hope: she sees the frame and the neck of Hercules exhausted with sweat, which were dry when he bore the sky. Hercules again throws his arms upon tired limbs, and Antaeus willingly falls without waiting for the strength of his opponent and rises greater with renewed strength. Whatever power is in the earth is discharged into the tired limbs, and Mother Earth toils along with the opponent as he fights. When Alcides realized that such great help was received by the touch of the mother, he said, “You will have to stand; you will not entrust yourself again to the ground and you will be forbidden to lie on Mother Earth. You will be here, with your body locked tight, against my chest: Here, Antaeus, you will die.” He spoke thus and lifted up his opponent who was striving to touch the ground. Mother Earth was not able to infuse strength into the frame of her dying son: Alcides now held him in mid-air by squeezing his chest in a dull chill and for a long time did not entrust his opponent to the ground. Thereafter, antiquity, full of legend, the protector of ancient time, designated the lands with his name, in its own self-glory. But Scipio gave a better name to these hills, when he recalled the Carthaginian enemy from the Roman strongholds. This was the encampment when they attained Libyan land. Behold, you are seeing the vestiges of an ancient rampart. Roman victory first held this plain.” As if the fortune of the place could conduct the war and have in store for him the fate of the leaders of old, Curio rejoiced and set up the unlucky bivouac on propitious ground. He enclosed the land with a camp, taking the good omen away from the hills, and challenged fierce enemies with insufficient forces.
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omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis tum Vari sub iure fuit; qui robore quamquam confisus Latio regis tamen undique uires exciuit, Libycas gentis, extremaque mundi signa suum comitata Iubam. non fusior ulli terra fuit domino: qua sunt longissima, regna cardine ab occiduo uicinus Gadibus Atlans terminat, a medio confinis Syrtibus Hammon; at, qua lata iacet, uasti plaga feruida regni distinet Oceanum zonaeque exusta calentis. sufficiunt spatio populi: tot castra secuntur, Autololes Numidaeque uagi semperque paratus inculto Gaetulus equo, tum concolor Indo Maurus, inops Nasamon, mixti Garamante perusto Marmaridae uolucres, aequaturusque sagittas Medorum, tremulum cum torsit missile, Mazax, et gens quae nudo residens Massylia dorso ora leui flectit frenorum nescia uirga, et solitus uacuis errare mapalibus Arzux uenator ferrique simul fiducia non est uestibus iratos laxis operire leones. nec solum studiis ciuilibus arma parabat priuatae sed bella dabat Iuba concitus irae. hunc quoque quo superos humanaque polluit anno lege tribunicia solio depellere auorum Curio temptarat, Libyamque auferre tyranno
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libycas dett. quidam, Bentley, Housman : libycae uel lybicae Ω : libyae ς Hosius 671 quae V Z a : quas P | regni P Z U G, post regni distinxit Badalì 673 a V Z c : e G : et P U 677-8 semperque… equo om. P U 678 om. M Z, non interpretantur c a 684 arzux J.D. Morgan, quod probat SB : afer Ω 686 laxos M P
Civil war, Book IV
All of Africa that had yielded to Roman standards was then under the command of Varus, who, although trusting in Roman strength, enrolled from everywhere the King’s forces, Libyan clans, the strangest standards in the world going with their Juba. No king ever ruled vaster land. Where its stretch is the greatest, his kingdom ends to the west at Mt. Atlas near Cadiz and to the east at Hammon’s shrine, bordering on the Syrtes. In breadth, however, the hot region of his vast kingdom divides the Ocean from the sweltering tropical zone. The peoples, so many for their realm, follow Juba’s army. There are the Autololes, and the itinerant Numidians, and the Gaetulians, always alert on their unbroken horses. Then come the Mauri of the same hue as the Indians, and the impoverished Nasamones, and the swift Marmaridae, commingled with the sun-burned Garamantes, and the Mazaces, whose arrows are a match for the Medes when they hurl their quivering missiles, and the Massylian people who use a light stick to ride bareback on their horses, whose mouths have never known the bit, and the Arzuges, hunters who are used to wandering through deserted villages and, once they no longer trust in their weapons, they smother the angry lions in the ample folds of their clothes. Not for political zeal alone was Juba preparing arms, but spurred on by personal anger he gave way to war. For in the year when men dishonored the gods, Curio, with his tribunician law, had attempted to deprive Juba of the throne of his ancestors and take Libya away from tyranny, while he made
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dum regnum te, Roma, facit. memor ille doloris hoc bellum sceptri fructum putat esse retenti. hac igitur regis trepidat iam Curio fama et quod Caesareis numquam deuota iuuentus illa nimis castris nec Rheni miles in undis exploratus erat, Corfini captus in arce, infidusque nouis ducibus dubiusque priori fas utrumque putat. sed, postquam languida segni cernit cuncta metu nocturnaque munera ualli desolata fuga, trepida sic mente profatur: ‘audendo magnus tegitur timor; arma capessam ipse prior. campum miles descendat in aequum dum meus est; uariam semper dant otia mentem. eripe consilium pugna: cum dira uoluptas ense subit presso, galeae texere pudorem, quis conferre duces meminit, quis pendere causas? qua stetit inde fauet; ueluti fatalis harenae muneribus non ira uetus concurrere cogit productos, odere pares.’ sic fatus apertis instruxit campis acies; quem blanda futuris deceptura malis belli fortuna recepit. nam pepulit Varum campo nudataque foeda terga fuga, donec uetuerunt castra, cecidit. tristia sed postquam superati proelia Vari sunt audita Iubae, laetus quod gloria belli sit rebus seruata suis, rapit agmina furtim, obscuratque suam per iussa silentia famam hoc solum incauto metuentis ab hoste, timeri. mittitur, exigua qui proelia prima lacessat 696 om. U 700 munera P Z G a Housman : munia U G a (in ras. M V) SB Badalì 705 pugnae Z M | cum Ω : dum G | uoluptas V Z G : uoluntas M U V (uolumtas P) 711 instruxit Ω : induxit G ς 719 incauto metuentis Housman : metuens incauto Ω (incausto U : incaustum P) c SB | ex Z G : ab Ω c a Housman | post hoste distinxit SB | timeri Ω c a : uidere Z Hosius
Civil war, Book IV
you, Rome, a tyranny. Mindful of the grievance, Juba reckons that this war has been the consequence of the fact that he has kept his kingdom. Therefore, Curio now trembles at the news of the king, also because his soldiers never showed complete loyalty to Caesar’s camp. Those men were captured in the fortress of Corfinium and were never tested on the waters of the Rhine. Distrusted by the new leaders and uncertain about their former leader, they are thinking that either side is lawful. But after he saw that everything was torpid with sluggish fear and the wall’s night watch had been forsaken by desertion, Curio thus spoke with a trembling heart: “Daring covers great fear; I myself will grasp arms first. Let my soldiers go into the battlefield, as long as I can control them. Idleness always produces a wavering mind. Eliminate reflection by fighting. When dreadful desire takes up the drawn sword and the helmet hides shame, who would think to compare leaders and weigh their reasons? One favors whatever side one stands on. Just as in the games of the deathly arena, it is not an ancient rage that compels those brought forth to fight, but they still hate their opponent.” Thus he spoke, and he drew forth the battle line into the open field; fortune, which was about to deceive him with future defeat in war, welcomed him benevolently. For Curio routed Varus in open battle and mangled his defenseless rearguard in dishonorable flight until prevented by their reaching their camp. After Juba was informed about Varus’ unfortunate battle, he delighted that the glory of war was reserved for his actions. He furtively approached with his army and concealed any news of his coming by imposing silence, with the only fear of being feared by his incautious enemy. Sabbura, who was second to the king for the Numidians, was sent with a small force so as to arouse and entice with the first skirmish, pretending
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eliciatque manu, Numidis a rege secundus, ut sibi commissi simulator Sabbura belli; ipse caua regni uires in ualle retentat: aspidas ut Pharias cauda sollertior hostis ludit et iratas incerta prouocat umbra obliquusque caput uanas serpentis in auras effusae tuto conprendit guttura morsu letiferam citra saniem; tunc inrita pestis exprimitur faucesque fluunt pereunte ueneno. fraudibus euentum dederat fortuna, feroxque non exploratis occulti uiribus hostis Curio nocturnum castris erumpere cogit ignotisque equitem late decurrere campis. ipse sub aurorae primos excedere motus signa iubet castris, multum frustraque rogatus ut Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper Punica bella dolis. leti fortuna propinqui tradiderat fatis iuuenem, bellumque trahebat auctorem ciuile suum. super ardua ducit saxa, super cautes, abrupto limite signa; cum procul e summis conspecti collibus hostes fraude sua cessere parum, dum colle relicto effusam patulis aciem committeret aruis. ille fugam credens simulatae nescius artis, ut uictor, mersos aciem deiecit in agros. ut primum patuere doli, Numidaeque fugaces undique conpletis clauserunt montibus agmen, obstipuit dux ipse simul perituraque turba. non timidi petiere fugam, non proelia fortes,
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om. P (interpretatur c) obliquumque Z : obliquatque P U decurrere Z M V : discurrere P U G limite Ω : milite E ς c conspecti U M Z G a : conspectis G a : conspexit V G mersos Ω : medios U Z | A B Z ς ut Ω : tunc Z G Badalì : tum M : cum G
Civil war, Book IV
that the war was his own initiative. Juba gathers the royal forces in the bottom of a valley, just like the shrewd predator of the Pharian snakes who teases and provokes them with his restless shadow. While the snake attacks the empty air, he, with a slanting head, seizes the neck with a safe bite short of the death-bringing venom. Then his jaws dribble as the poison goes to waste. Fortune had been favorable to the treachery, and fierce Curio, without evaluating the strength of the hidden enemy, compels the cavalry to sally forth from the camp at night and to race widely through the unknown plain. Curio orders the standards to leave camp at the first motions of dawn after being implored many times in vain to fear Libyan ploys and Punic warfare always polluted by perfidy. Yet Fortune handed him over to the fate of approaching death, and civil war was dragging along its architect. Curio leads the standards up a steep path, up hard rocks and loose stone, and when the enemy is seen far off from the summits of the hills, they fake retreat while Curio committed the scattered battle line to the wide-open fields. Believing that they were fleeing and not recognizing their feint, Curio thrusts the battle line down to the low-lying plains like a winner. As soon as the deceit is exposed, swift Numidians enclosed Curio’s army on all sides by occupying the mountaintops. At the same time, Curio himself and his doomed rank and file are stupefied.
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Belli Ciuilis Liber Quartus 750
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quippe ubi non sonipes motus clangore tubarum saxa quatit pulsu rigidos uexantia frenos ora terens spargitque iubas et subrigit auris incertoque pedum pugnat non stare tumultu: fessa iacet ceruix, fumant sudoribus artus oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua, pectora rauca gemunt, quae creber anhelitus urguet, et defecta grauis longe trahit ilia pulsus siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis. iamque gradum neque uerberibus stimulisque coacti nec quamuis crebris iussi calcaribus addunt: uolneribus coguntur equi; nec profuit ulli cornipedis rupisse moras, neque enim impetus ille incursusque fuit: tantum perfertur ad hostis et spatium iaculis oblato uolnere donat. at, uagus Afer equos ut primum emisit in agmen, tum campi tremuere sono, terraque soluta, quantus Bistonio torquetur turbine, puluis aera nube sua texit traxitque tenebras. ut uero in pedites fatum miserabile belli incubuit, nullo dubii discrimine Martis ancipites steterunt casus, set tempora pugnae mors tenuit; neque enim licuit procurrere contra et miscere manus. sic undique saepta iuuentus comminus obliquis et rectis eminus hastis obruitur, non uolneribus nec sanguine solum, telorum nimbo peritura et pondere ferri. ergo acies tantae paruum spissantur in orbem, ac, siquis metuens medium correpsit in agmen, uix inpune suos inter conuertitur enses; 749 petiere V U G a : periere M P Z 752 terens M Z G : tenens V P U | auris Ω : artus Prisc. GLK III, 341 762 cornipedes M V | ille M P U : illi Z G : illis V M : ulli ς 763 hostis Z : hostem P U G : hostes V G 766 tum G Housman : tunc Ω SB Badalì 771 steterunt P Z : steterant V G : stetere M P 776 pereunt a ς 779 ensis M Z Badalì
Civil war, Book IV
The cowardly did not seek flight, nor did the brave seek fight. The steeds did not move at the blow of the trumpet, nor did they shake stones by stamping, nor jolt at the rigid bit rubbing on their mouths, nor shake their manes, nor lift their ears nor even resist standing firm with their restless commotion of hooves. Their necks droop wearily, their limbs steam with sweat, their parched mouths are scaly with projected tongues; their chests are groaning hoarsely, oppressed by relentless panting, and their exhausted flanks are continuously shaken by painful contractions. Dried foam hardens on the bloodied bit. They step no further now, forced by neither whippings nor goads, although incited by relentless spurring. The horses are being driven with bloody wounding, nor did any man gain by breaking his horse’s resistance. Since there was no room to charge or run, he was merely carried towards the enemy, saving them space by presenting the chance to inflict a wound. Conversely, when the African nomad hurled his horses against the army, then the fields shook in a roar, and the dirt was scattered, and as much dust as is twisted by a Bistonian windstorm, covered the air in its cloud and drew out the shadows. But when wretched fate came down upon the foot soldiers, there was no doubt about the outcome in the crisis of fickle Mars, but death held the length of the fight. For it was not possible to counterattack and engage the enemy. Thus the men, hedged in on all sides, are spear-struck from near and far. They will die not only by wounds and bloodshed, but laden by a cloud of spears and their iron weight. Therefore, the great army condenses into a tight circle. And if anyone out of fear creeps into the middle of the troops, he is barely able to move unwounded among his own comrade’s
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densaturque globus, quantum pede prima relato constrinxit gyros acies. non arma mouendi iam locus est pressis, stipataque membra teruntur; frangitur armatum conliso pectore pectus. non tam laeta tulit uictor spectacula Maurus quam Fortuna dabat; fluuios non ille cruoris membrorumque uidet lapsum et ferientia terram corpora: conpressum turba stetit omne cadauer. excitet inuisas dirae Carthaginis umbras inferiis fortuna nouis, ferat ista cruentus Hannibal et Poeni tam dira piacula manes. Romanam, superi, Libyca tellure ruinam Pompeio prodesse nefas uotisque senatus. Africa nos potius uincat sibi. Curio, fusas ut uidit campis acies et cernere tantas permisit clades conpressus sanguine puluis, non tulit adflictis animam producere rebus aut sperare fugam, ceciditque in strage suorum inpiger ad letum et fortis uirtute coacta. quid nunc rostra tibi prosunt turbata forumque unde tribunicia plebeius signifer arce arma dabas populis? quid prodita iura senatus et gener atque socer bello concurrere iussi? ante iaces quam dira duces Pharsalia confert, spectandumque tibi bellum ciuile negatum est. has urbi miserae uestro de sanguine poenas ferre datis, luitis iugulo sic arma, potentes. felix Roma quidem ciuisque habitura beatos,
806 ferre Ω : nempe V ς 781 constrixt U : constringit Seru. Aen. 10, 432 : astringit et adstrinxit Prisc. GLK II, 444
Civil war, Book IV
swords. And the crowd was growing denser, as the first line tightened the circle by stepping back. Now the soldiers are pressed tightly together and have no room to move their weapons, while their limbs rub closely together, and the cuirassed bodies are broken by clashing breasts. The victorious Numidians could not believe what a welcome show Fortune was offering them. They did not see rivers of blood and limbs nor the wounded bodies fall to the ground, but all the corpses stood compacted in the crowd. Let Fortune stir up the shades of dire Carthage with renewed sacrifices to the dead. Let bloodied Hannibal and the Punic ghosts receive these dire expiatory sacrifices. O gods! It is a sacrilege that Rome’s ruin in Libyan land benefits Pompey and the senate’s will. Would it rather that it were Africa conquering us for her own sake! When Curio saw that his troops were scattered over the field and the dust settled in blood allowed him to see the magnitude of the slaughter, he could not bear to extend his lifebreath in such a desperate situation nor could it hope to flee. Strong in a virtue forced upon him, Curio met his end unfalteringly in the midst of the slaughter of his men. What good are now your turbulent speeches and the forum from where, as the people’s standard-bearer, you used to put arms in the populace’s hands through the power of your tribunate? How does it benefit you to have betrayed the laws of the senate and to have pushed a father- and son-in-law to come to war with one another? You are dead before dire Pharsalus has pitted the leaders against each other and you are denied the pleasure of watching the civil war. This is the penalty that you, mighty ones, must pay to our wretched city with your own blood, and thus you atone for your war with your life. Lucky would Rome have been, for sure, and blessed
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si libertatis superis tam cura placeret quam uindicta placet. Libycas, en, nobile corpus, pascit aues nullo contectus Curio busto. at tibi nos, quando non proderit ista silere a quibus omne aeui senium sua fama repellit, digna damus, iuuenis, meritae praeconia uitae. haut alium tanta ciuem tulit indole Roma aut cui plus leges deberent recta sequenti; perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula, postquam ambitus et luxus et opum metuenda facultas transuerso mentem dubiam torrente tulerunt, momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum Gallorum captus spoliis et Caesaris auro. ius licet in iugulos nostros sibi fecerit ensis Sulla potens Mariusque ferox et Cinna cruentus Caesareaeque domus series, cui tanta potestas concessa est? emere omnes, hic uendidit urbem.
816 tunc Ω : nunc P G ς SB 821 iugulos V P U c : iugulo G : iugulis M Z P | nostros V U c : nostro G : nostris P : nostri P Z SB | enses Z : ense V Hosius
Civil war, Book IV
the citizens who inhabit her, had the gods cared as much for freedom as for revenge. Look: Unprotected by a tomb, the noble body of Curio is feeding Libyan birds. But since it is not good to remain silent about events whose renown repels all the decay of old age, we shall give you, young man, deserved praise to your exemplary life. In no way could Rome have borne any citizen as great in personality or to whom the laws owed more while he followed the right path. What harmed the city were those corrupted times after intrigue, luxury, and the terrible power of wealth dragged weak souls into a turmoil of evil. The turning point was given by Curio’s change of heart, bribed by the spoils of Gaul and the gold of Caesar. Suppose that Sulla the Mighty, Marius the Fierce, Cinna the Bloody, and the whole dynasty of the House of the Caesars claimed the right of the sword upon our throats: Who was given such great power? They all bought Rome but Curio sold it.
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Commentary
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401 L.’s narrative of the Ilerda campaign falls into four units. After laying out the geo-morphology of the battle site (1-10), L. focuses on the storm endured by the Caesarians (11-147). The second section (148253) describes the vicinity of the opposing camps, which leads to the fraternizing, and ends with Petreius’ fit. The third section (254-336) reverses the balance of battle in portraying the suffering of the Pompeians in language reminiscent of the circus, as L. indulges in gladiatorial and wild beast hunt similes. The last section (337-401) offers closure with Caesar’s pardon. Our main source for the battle at Ilerda is Caesar himself in Book I of his Commentaria de bello ciuili: Caes. BC 1.38-55 and 61-84. Caesar’s and L.’s accounts differ slightly, but while L. seems to follow a straightforward chronology in Book IV, starting with Ilerda (JuneAugust 49 BCE) and ending with Curio’s defeat in North-Africa (August), Caesar groups the events in some sort of spatial/geographical progression, beginning with Rome, moving on to Massilia (Marseille) and finally to Spain.1
Summary of Caesar’s narrative of Ilerda Caesar’s chapters 41-55 and 61-74 cover the narrative up to the fraternization of the two armies camped at close quarters, roughly corresponding to lines 24-205 in L. Caesar begins with Afranius and Petreius, and informs us that they share command over five legions: Petreius has two legions, but he further enrolls some Lusitanians and sets out to join Afranius, while Afranius enrolls locals from Celtiberians and Cantabrians, including cavalry from the whole province. Afranius and Petreius meet and decide to conduct the campaign together (1.38). Caesar’s troops are given in 1.39, and 40 is devoted to Fabius’ _____________ 1
Batstone/Damon 2006, 71. For a chronological table of the Caesar’s moves and main events in 49 BCE, see Introduction, 14-15 above.
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401
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two bridges over the Sicoris, one of which breaks down during a storm. Fabius faces the Pompeians in an inconsequential battle that expectedly arises when Afranius takes advantage of the bridge collapse. L. leaves Fabius and the Caesarian drawback unmentioned, perhaps because it happened before Caesar’s arrival in Spain, for we know from Caesar himself that he reports reaching his camp in Spain two days after the bridge affair. The description of Caesar’s fortification works occurs in both L. and Caesar’s BC (1.41.3-6 = L. 4.28-31). The table below summarizes the divergences between Caesar and L. When L.’s narrative diverges from Caesar’s, the L. column shows underlined content. When the L. column shows no content, it means that L. offers no particular mention without significantly differing from Caesar:2 Date in 49 BC June 22 June 2223 June 23 June 2324 June 24 June 25
June 26
Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers) Arrival at Ilerda 41.1 Fabius’ Bridges (41.1)
No specific mention of arrival No battle (24)
C. prepares for battle (41.2) Afranius avoids combat (41.3) Fortifications (41.3-6)
(25-6) (26-8) pudor (28-31)
Afranius and Petreius try, unsuccessfully, to disrupt the fortification works (42.1-4) Fortification work ends (42.5) The hillock between Ilerda and Petreius’ camp (43.1-2) Assault at the hillock; Afranius (32-5) takes hold of it (43.3-5) Battle for the hillock; Pompeian (36-47) No mention of fighting technique; use of cavalry C.’s losses and retreat; C.’s losses (44-6)
_____________ 2
For this table I am indebted to Bachofen 1972, 18-22. When given, the date in the left column is merely approximate.
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Date in 49 BC
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401
Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers)
Assessment of defeat (47) (48-82) weather excursus June 28 Swimming and bridge destruction (83-92) flood (48.1-2) Hardship (48.3-7) (93-7) hunger; (98-120) flood Afranius prevents C. from repar- (121-9) the waters recede. Focus on flood ing the bridge and attacks C.’s supply columns; high prices and supply problems (49-53) Boats and river crossing (54.1-3) (130-6) July 11-12 C. builds a new bridge and sends (137-40) the cavalry over to defend the supplies (54.4-55) July 18 C. diverts the river into channels (141-3) and builds a ford (61.1) July 22 Afranius plans to retreat to the (143-9) Petreius leaves Ebro and crosses the Sicoris Ilerda and C. ascertains leaving two cohorts to garrison that Afranius has left (compressed) Ilerda (61.2-63.1) July 26 C.’s cavalry skirmishes the en- (149-56) C.’s soldiers emy rearguard and C.’s is forced swim across the Sicoris by his soldiers to cross the Sicoris (63.2-64) July 26-29 The two armies encamp; Afra- (162-9) C. orders his men nius and Petreius on the move; to attack (compressed) Pompeian council; various maneuvers until both armies pitch camp near one another (65-73) Fraternization (74) (169-205) Petreius’ intervention and speech (205-59) slaughter of Caesarians; poet’s reflec(75-6) tions on C. Afranius retreats towards Ilerda, (259-63) pursued by C.’s cavalry (77-9) Afranius without water and no (264-6) escape; C. fortifies camp (81-2)
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401
Date in 49 BC
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Caesar (chapters and sections) Lucan (line numbers) Hostilities continue without much accomplished, Afranius and his men are taken by thirst; they capitulate (83-7)
(267-401) no mention of actual fighting
As the table shows, L. compresses the events not only in observance to the demands of his genre, but also to play down the import of actual fighting. Much of L.’s lines are devoted to the weather and the flood (48-129), to moralizing in Petreius’ speech and in his subsequent slaughter of the Caesarians (205-59). When the opportunity for describing actual fighting arrives, the poet is completely silent about combat. Instead he indulges in the soldiers’ psychological state in deprivation, and describes at length the symptoms and processes caused by lack of food and water in their bodies. The long final section of the Ilerda narrative (205-401) features much medical vocabulary before closing with the poet’s moralizing reflections on Caesar’s clemency. The most conspicuous feature of L.’s narrative of the Ilerda battle is a negative one, because L. offers almost no details about the battle itself. Instead of depicting armies clashing into combat, L.’s narrative emphasizes the soldiers’ physical suffering. While L.’s interest in the medical aspects of human suffering may respond to his audience’s taste for scientific poetry, the moralizing on clemency invites reflection on the consequences of fighting in a war like this, in which the moral upper hand is achieved by granting clemency to an enemy who has shown no clemency. L. uses all the opportunities he can find to express his condemnation of civil war, and thereby he intentionally engenders his distinctive paradoxical poetics not only by condemning his own theme but also by enriching his military narrative with the exploration of dilemmas that provoke the audience to question the value of war and the price of empire.3
_____________ 3
To satisfy his ethical purpose of moralizing against his theme of civil war, L. uses not only scientific discourse but also mythological digressions, as pointed out, e.g., by Fantham 1992b apropos of the Medusa episode from Book IX.
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Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401
1–23 Caesar’s arrival at Ilerda After leaving Massilia, Caesar arrives in Spain to fight against the Pompeian forces commanded by Afranius and Petreius (1-10). The poet describes the topography and hydrography of Ilerda (11-23). 1-10 Afranius and Petreius lead the Pompeian forces in Spain. The battle at Ilerda was fought by Afranius and Petreius with three and two legions respectively, plus a number of auxiliary forces enrolled from among the local Lusitanians, Celtiberians, and Cantabri. L. does not mention the two legions of the third Pompeian leader in Spain, M. Terentius Varro (the famous scholar), because he was in charge of Further Spain and played no part at Ilerda (Caes. BC 1.38.1 with Carter 1991 ad loc.; Plut. Caes. 36). 1 at procul Only here in L., the phrase conveys antithesis resulting from a change of scene. It occurs three times in Virgil: A. 5.35, 613; 12.869, but never at the beginning of a book. As the initial dactyl of the hexameter it is also found in Flavian epic: Sil. 12.733; St. Th. 10.49; 12.464, 665; Ach. 1.560 (cf. S. 1.2.219 and 2.6.6); Val. Fl. 1.158; 4.199. Thompson/Bruère 1970, 152, exclude that at procul is a deliberate Virgilian allusion but recognize that L.’s echo of G. 1.170-2 (see next lemma) contrasts Caesar’s internecine savagery with Octavian’s victories over foreign enemies. In suggesting that the broken fraternization motif in BC IV has a parallel in Aeneid IV, Casali 1999, 236 and n. 22, observes that BC IV, just like Aeneid IV, is the only book in the poem that begins with at, like Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV. In Verg. A. 4.1, however, at links Aeneid IV ‘more closely with the preceding than is usual in the Aeneid […] and […] gives it a fresh start’ (Pease 1935b ad A. 4.1). This is what L. is doing here, i.e., he closely links the Ilerda narrative to the preceding book and takes a fresh start after the delay that began with the battle of Massilia at 3.454. extremis... in oris With analogous emphasis on Caesar’s worldwide conquests, the phrase occurs in the same metrical position in Verg. G. 2.171 qui nunc extremis Asiae iam uictor in oris, where the uictor Caesar is Octavian, last mentioned among the prominent Italians listed before the end of Virgil’s laus Italiae. The superlative extremus may also carry the nuance ‘exotic,’ as in 669-70 extrema... signa, a synecdo-
Part I: The Battle of Ilerda 1–401
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che that describes Juba’s troops (see 669-70n.). L. uses the phrase also at 3.454, 4.23, 669, and 10.276. The Spanish war was announced at 3.454 extremaque mundi (see Hunink 1992b ad loc.) but as in Book III also here the mention of the farthest limits of the known world gives the civil war a worldwide dimension. L. begins his narrative of the minor episode at Massilia as a digression in Book III, a narrative delay in which Caesar leaves his legate Decimus Brutus to finish off the Massiliotes, and without lingering makes his way to Hispania Tarraconensis (3.455-762). The beginning of Book IV, therefore, picks up not from the end of Book III (i.e., of the naval battle at Massilia), but links itself directly to 3.455, as suggested by the intratextual echo 3.353-5 dux tamen impatiens haesuri moenia Marsi | uersus ad Hispanas acies extremaque mundi | iussit bella geri. We are to imagine that, while we hear of Massilia, Caesar is making his way to Spain. The extrema mundi motif casts Caesar as an imitator of Hercules and Alexander the Great; on the theme of Heracles’ successors, see Anderson 1928, 39-42. Caesar C. Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE; Klotz in RE [n. 131] X.186275; Will in Brill’s New Pauly, 2.908) at this point had not yet been elected dictator and was outside his jurisdiction as pro-consul. As Proconsul and Imperator he was in charge of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul and Illyricum; Broughton II, 267; Cic. Att. 9.6A, 11A. Elsewhere Caesar is used of Nero at 1.41 and 59, and once in the plural for ‘emperors’ at 9.90 Caesaribus (Deferrari/Fanning/Sullivan 1965 s.v.; Wick 2004, 36, explains the plural at 9.90 as referring to Julius Caesar and Octavian). 2 Martem saeuus agit non multa caede nocentem L. uses nocentes again at 193 and 253 to frame the episode with the characteristic rhetoric of guilt when it comes to civil slaughter, as confirmed in L.’s own comment on Sulla’s slaughter of Roman civilians in Book II: 2.143-44 periere nocentes | sed cum iam soli possent superesse nocentes (with Fantham 1992a, 108 ad loc.); see 2.259 and 288 (moral debate of Brutus and Cato). saeuus Caesar is first called saeuus at 1.476, but in describing Caesar as saeuus in connection with the present events in Spain, L. effaces whatever benevolent effect Caesar might have reaped with the manipulative efforts of five months earlier after the fall of Corfinium (February
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21, 49 BCE). Caesar’s saeuitas is directly connected to his restless, warlike nature (see 1.144-5 nescia uirtus | stare loco solusque pudor non uincere bello), and to his rapaciousness (3.125 raptor). At 3.113-58 L. has reported Caesar’s ruthless confiscation of the Roman treasury to stress his greed and subsequent wealth. non multa caede The formulaic juxtaposition of caedes and nocens reoccurs at 9.269-70 and 10.388. It does not occur before Ovid (Fasti 1.350; Pont. 1.8.19 and 2.9.67), but its closest parallel is perhaps Seneca’s Creon reminiscing an oracle in his dialogue with the chorus: Oed. 233-5 mitia Cadmeis remeabunt sidera Thebis, | si profugus Dircen Ismenida liquerit hospes | regis caede nocens, Phoebo iam notus et infans; see Esposito 1987, 109. The statement that the caedes at Ilerda is non multa, however, has baffled some readers because the poet says later at 254 Caesar spoliatus milite multo. So multa has been seen relationally either with comparison to Massilia or in contrast with the slaughter to come (at Pharsalus), which will be indeed classifiable as multa: ‘While a hugely insignificant and pointlessly bloody war has been waged about Massilia, (…) L. promises us that the Ilerda campaign will have all of the importance with hardly any of the slaughter (4.1-3) – and therefore, incidentally, whatever slaughter does take place during the campaign (e.g. at 243ff) will automatically be classed as ‘non multa’, even if there is actually a lot of it (‘Caesar… spoliatus milite multo’ 254)’ (Masters 1992, 43). Yet the point is to stress the soldiers’ reluctance to fight each other in this new kind of civil war situation that pits kin against kin, and Caesar’s own clemency to Afranius prevents bloodshed (see 354n. below). Finally, and with a typically Lucanian turn of phrase, Caesar’s epithet saeuus is contrasted with this campaign at Ilerda now being described as relatively bloodless. The paradox of a bloodless saeuitas is deliberate; the annotator at Comm. Bern. fails to acknowledge this deliberately paradoxical characteristic of L.’s style and condemns the expression as inconsistent with the mention of the war god Mars as a metonymy for war: ‘incaute poeta hoc posuit.’ 3 maxima sed fati ducibus momenta daturum The war at Ilerda did not reap many victims but was decisive for the destinies of the two supreme leaders. ‘The Pompeians were conquered rather by thirst than
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by fighting’ (Haskins 1887, ad loc.). See at 210n. below the narrator’s words before Petreius’ harangue. maxima… fati… momenta In six out of its seven occurrences in L., momentum refers to the metaphor of the weight’s movement on the scale (momentum <*mouimentum < moueo, OLD s.v. 1b; TLL VIII.1392-3): 3.56 gnarus et irarum causas et summa fauoris | annona momenta trahi; 3.338-9 non pondera rerum | nec momenta sumus (with Hunink 1992b ad loc.; see also 4.483, 819; 5.339; 7.118; cf. Gregorius 1893, 11. ducibus While the plural ducibus echoes the leaders of the two factions facing one another in the Civil War, the following line shifts our attention from the wider context of the civil war to the specific double command of Afranius and Petreius, the Pompeian commanders opposing Caesar in Spain. The maxima fati... momenta, then, concern not just Caesar and Pompey but also all the other leaders involved in the military operations. Discussing the plural ducibus in blatant contrast with rector in the following line, Masters 1992, 44-5 bases on the plural ducibus his perceptive view that ‘Afranius and Petreius stand as a fracturing of the figure of Pompey.’ 4 iure pari For the phrase, a legal term, see e.g., Cic. Off. 1.124 pari cum ciuibus iure uiuere. As an adjective, par occurs in this book also at 124, 482, 620, 636, 710. Par, however, is an important key word in this poem. Its semantic value privileges duality as opposition rather than mere equality; e.g., 1.125-6 nec quemquam iam ferre potest Caesarue priorem | Pompeiusue parem; 7.694-5 sed par quod semper habemus, | libertas et Caesar erit; see Feeney 1991, 297 and the note on 620 below. For a semantic taxonomy of par in Virgil, see Poinsotte in EV III.965-6. Masters 1992, 44 rightly plucks ‘the potentially pejorative sense of pari’ as a gladiatorial term, echoed in PAR-et and somewhat neutralized by concordia in line 5 (see Henderson 1998, 191), which particularly characterizes the Afranius/Petreius pair, contrasting the pairs in conflict pitted against one another throughout the poem. To Masters’ perceptive comment, add that Book IV climaxes toward its ending with Curio’s death, grandly marked with the poet’s eulogy, by pitting Hercules against Antaeus as wrestling gladiators (see 589-660 below).
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rector In the sense of ‘moral guide’ and ‘ruler’, rector is classical since, e.g., Cic. Rep. 2.51. Here, however, the noun applies to a commanding officer in charge of a camp, which is unusual. If the moral connotations of rector apply, L. might be complimenting Afranius and Petreius (see 7n. below). On the political use of agent nouns in –tor in the late Republic, see Weische 1966, 105-11. L. has at least 49 of these ‘prosaic’ verbal adjective/nouns in –tor. See introduction, 21-22 above; Bramble 1982, 541. Afranius See von Rohden in RE [n. 6] I.710-12; K.L. Elvers in Brill's New Pauly [n. 1] 1.289. The homo nouus Lucius Afranius acquired political visibility as Pompey’s legate in the wars against Sertorius (761 BCE, Plut. Sert. 19; Schulten 1926, 113) and Mithridates VI (66-2 BCE; Plut. Pompey 44). He obtained the consulship for the year 60 (with Q. Metellus Celer; Cic. Att. 1.18.8 [January 20]; CIL I.601, 728). With Petreius, Afranius shared in the year 55 the government of the province of Spain as Pompey’s legate (Vell. 2.48; cf. Plut. Pompey 53; Appian BC 2.18; Dio 39.39). At the breakout of the Civil War, Afranius commanded three legions in Hispania Citerior, whereas Varro (the scholar) held Ulterior, and Petreius Lusitania. As Pompeian legate in Spain, Afranius opens Book IV, whereas Curio, the Caesarian legate in Africa, closes it. 5 Petreius See F. Münzer in RE [n. 3] XIX.1.1182-9; J. Fündling in Der neue Pauly [n. 1] 9.669-70. Of Volscan background, Marcus Petreius (ca. 110-46 BCE) was perhaps the son of Gnaeus, a primipilus, or ‘first spearman,’ the highest-ranking centurion. Sallust’s portrait of Petreius is that of a consummate soldier and high-ranking officer: Sall. Cat. 59.6 homo militaris, quod amplius annos triginta tribunus aut praefectus aut legatus aut praetor cum magna gloria in exercitu fuerat, plerosque ipsos factaque eorum fortia nouerat; ea conmemorando militum animos accendebat. Such had been Petreius’ distinguished military career up until January of 62 BCE when, as proconsul C. Antonius’ legate, he annihilated Catiline’s army near Pistoia. From the quoted chapter in Sallust’s Catiline we learn that the supreme command had been entrusted to Petreius because the proconsul Antonius was ill. In the period 55-49, Petreius was Pompey’s legate in Further Spain, where he joined forces with Afranius.
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concordia The term occurs five times in L. (1.98; 4.190; 6.458; 9.1097; see also concordes at 4.197 below; 5.542; 6.458). As Leigh 1997, 72 n. 69, rightly notes, ‘Concordia is an important leitmotiv in Book 4.’ As a political term, concordia recalls the Ciceronian ideal of the concordia ordinum as guarantor of the check-and-balance system characteristic of the Roman Republic. As the etymology from cor suggests, concordia denotes a commonality of interests among groups or individuals with an emphasis on the affective sphere and belongs to the semantics of amicitia in the sense the latter has in the Roman political vocabulary; see Hellegouarc'h 1963, 124-6, who traces the political sense of Latin concordia back to the Athenian homonoia. In Book I, L. has undermined the political purport of this ideal with the Horatian oxymoron of 1.98 concordia discors (Hor. Epist. 1.12.19; for the preSocratic/Empedoclean pedigree of the opposition, via Aratus and Virgil, see Nelis 2004, 7-8 and passim). 5-6 in aequas | imperium commune uices The context emphasizes the harmony of intent between the two Pompeian commanders (concordia, aequas… uices, imperium commune), as further suggested by the enclosing word order, which frames the object of duxit in enjambment and explains – almost in the guise of a gloss – the nature of the leaders’ concordia. 7 alterno paret custodia signo While L. emphasizes the joint command of Afranius and Petreius, Caesar BC 1.38.1 is adamant in ascribing two legions to Afranius and three to Petreius (Haskins). Petreius set out with his two legions from Lusitania to reach Afranius via the territory of the Vettones. We know from Caesar that the Roman commanders in Spain were each commanding their own legions rather than alternating at commanding all of the Roman legions en bloc. Afranius’ three legions and Petreius’ two were made up mostly of Italians (Caes. BC 1.85.6), with the addition of about thirty cohorts of heavy- and lightarmed native infantry and five thousand cavalry enrolled locally (Caes. BC 1.39.1). L. portrays Afranius and Petreius as a pair (see 4 pari above), perhaps invoking the republican ideal of two legitimate Roman consuls commanding a Roman army. Afranius and Petreius equally share the surveillance and, as should be expected, they abide by the Roman Republican legality – were it not that they fight for the Pompeian faction in a civil war. By introducing the element of the alternate
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command of the whole army, L. is in all likelihood also paying a tribute to Afranius and Petreius in particular rather than expressing his support to the Pompeian faction in general (see Carter 1991 ad Caes. BC 1.39.1). 8-10 This is a mini-catalog of the troops commanded by Afranius and Petreius. L. implies that the belligerent Spanish tribes among the Roman files are of no hindrance to their harmonious leadership. L. is not as keen in his interest in the ethnography of Spain as he is in the ethnography of Africa (see on 676-86 below). He mentions here only three ethnic groups. The first two, Asturians and Vettones, are each described with a single adjective, whereas the third group, the Celtiberians, is given a whole participial clause. 8 inpiger Astur The MSS prefer an alternative spelling at 297 Astyrici below; cf. Mela 3.13.2 Astyres (also 13.6); Sil. 3.334 Astyr (some MSS also Astur). The ethnonym Astures must have collectively denoted a variety of peoples who inhabited the Atlantic coast of northern Spain. There were twenty-two different ethnic groups, if the numeral is correct in Pliny NH 3.28: Asturum XXII populi diuisi in Augustanos et Transmontanos, Asturica urbe magnifica. in iis sunt Gigurri, Paesici, Lancienses, Zoelae. Along with the Cantabri, the Astures were subjugated by Augustus in the campaigns of 26 and 25 BCE; see P. Barceló in Brill’s New Pauly 1.211 s.v. ‘Asturia’; Jones 1976; Schulten 1943; Tranoy 1981; Santos Yanguas 1981, 1992, 2004, 2006; Lomas Salmonte 1975. inpiger The epithet is found four times in L. Here inpiger may suggest the heavy-armed Astures in contrast with the light-armed Vettones (9 leues). At 1.228-9 rapit agmina | inpiger, the adjective describes Caesar’s swiftness in taking Ariminum. At 3.174 it applies to the rapid waters of the river Cephisos and at 4.798 inpiger conveys Curio’s determinacy in his last hour. 9 Vettonesque leues See A. Schulten/R. Grosse in RE VIII A.2.1873-4. The Vettones, here denoted as leues perhaps for their light armor, were shepherds and livestock-breeders. Their renown in antiquity was due to their discovery of some herbal treatment against snakebite, betony, that is, stacys betonica officinalis (see Celsus 5.27.10), but known in Gaul as herba Vettonica (Plin. NH 25.84).
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9-10 profugique a gente uetusta | Gallorum Celtae miscentes nomen Hiberis This is an authorial gloss, which L. has inserted to alert the reader to the fact that the Celts migrated into Spain. This identical end of verse occurs at Sil. 3.340 Celtae sociati nomen Hiberis, where Silius must have had L. in mind. On Silius’ imitation of L., see Albrecht 1964, 23-4, 54-5, 65, 75, 146-7, 164-5; Häussler 1978, 16-2 (with further bibliography). A. Schulten (RE XXI.150-6 s.v. ‘Keltiberer’, esp. 150.66-151.6) reminds us that the name Celtiberians means not ‘Iberian Celts’ but ‘Celtic Iberians’, i.e., Celts who have commingled with the Iberians, for Celtic peoples descended into the peninsula between the 7th and 6th centuries to inhabit the highlands in Nearer Spain. 11-23 The topography of Ilerda (Barrington Atlas 25F4) has been reconstructed by Kromayer/Veith 1922, 19, after Appian, Caesar, and Dio. For a reassessment of their findings and a reading of Lucan’s topography of Ilerda as typical of ‘civil war’ topography, see Masters 1992, 46-9, who illustrates with two small but useful maps the geography of the site along with his reconstruction of the camps. According to Masters’ reading of the joint testimony of Appian, Caesar, and Dio, Ilerda (Lérida) is located on a hill west of the river Sicoris (Segre) not far from the Cinga (Cinca; see 21n. below), which flows farther west before merging somewhat south of Ilerda into the Sicoris. Further to the south the joint waters of the Sicoris and the Cinga flow into the Hiberus (Ebro). While L.’s description of the site is recognizably similar to Appian, Caesar, and Dio, one notable discrepancy concerns the location of Caesar’s camp, which L. and Appian (17-18n. below) place on a hill opposite the one on which Afranius and Petreius were stationed, whereas Caesar’s own account seems to imply beyond any reasonable doubt that he had pitched camp on level ground on the same side of the Sicoris as Afranius’ camp (see on 17-18 below). 11 colle tumet modico, lenique... tumulo Epexegetic –que illustrates the sense of colle modico, understood as instrumental or causal ablative in TLL III.1630; Francken 1896 compares Caes. BC 2.24 paulo leniore fastigio (of a ridge near Utica). The use of synonym collis and tumulus to describe Ilerda’s geographic features suggests that the terrain slopes rather smoothly and is not too steep or unfriendly, or else the site might have been described as a saxum or as arces; but see also the metonymical uses of collis to denote towns located on hills in TLL III.1632-3.
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12-13 super hunc fundata uetusta | surgit Ilerda manu Almost identical line ending in Verg. A. 8.478-9 haud procul hinc saxo incolitur fundata uetusto | urbis Agyllinae sedes, where Virgil describes the preTrojan Etruscan town of Agylla (another name for Caere = nowadays Cerveteri, see EV I.740; Thompson/Bruère 1970, 152; Masters 1992, 51). 12 uetusta In the same metrical position as 9 above, this Virgilian adjective depicts Ilerda as a primeval town, where immigrants (Celts) have commingled with previous settlers (Hiberi) just like Trojans commingle with the Italians in the Aeneid. 13 placidis praelabitur undis The alliteration in labial stop followed by a liquid, pl- pr-, might imitate the sound of flowing water. The synecdoche unda for ‘water’ is common, but given the adjective placidis, here undis might denote actual waves, small gentle ones (as opposed to, e.g., gurges), as also indicated by the verb praelabor, which seems to specialize in denoting a gentle flow; TLL X.2.683.1-11. L. uses praelabor of the Tiber at 6.76 and of marshes in North Africa at 9.355. 14-23 Three river names are mentioned in ten lines. The space delimited by their streams has a roughly upside-down triangular shape. One of the triangle’s vertices points southward and is formed by the confluence of the Cinga and the Sicoris. If Masters’ map is reasonably accurate (Masters 1992, 47 map 2), the Pompeian camp would have occupied this southern vertex, whereas Ilerda, located NE of the Pompeian camp, makes up the eastern vertex and Caesar’s camp the western vertex. L.’s topography of the Pompeian and Caesarian camps, however, is a symbolical landscape: L.’s purpose is to convey rather a poetic representation of a civil war battle than any degree of topographic exactitude. This is why L. makes Caesar’s camp sit on high ground to match the Pompeian’s camp, located on a hill SW of Ilerda, though in reality Caesar pitched camp on level ground. Furthermore, L. mentions a river that divides the two camps, but if we are to follow what Caesar himself says, Caesar’s camp was on the same bank of the Cinga as the Pompeian camp. See on 17-18 below. Attention to hydrography is instrumental in conveying topographical accuracy and, like much scientific knowledge that makes its way into Roman poetry, fluvial erudition is part of the Hellenistic heritage in
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Roman literature. On rivers in epic, see Hor. Ars 14-18 (with Brink 1971, 97 ad 17-18). On L.’s rivers, see Walde 2007; Mendell 1942; Sanford 1934. Hunink 1992b, 108 ad 3.174, notes that L. has one river every forty lines, whereas Virgil had one river every hundred lines, and while his suggestion that L. may have used some hydrography manual as a source on rivers is hard to prove, Hunink is probably right in stating that L.’s dependence on Ovid is documented by the appearance in the catalog of Pompey’s troops (3.169-297) of thirteen out of twentythree Ovidian rivers from M. 2.239-59 (Mendell 1942, 16); but see also Walde 2007, 29, on L.’s erudition and his independent use of his texts. Lake and river names trigger authorial excursions into natural history. A late attestation to such interests is the collection of river names assembled by Vibius Sequester after Silius Italicus (esp. from Book XIV of the Punica). The tradition goes back to Callimachus’ work on rivers (frg. 457-9 Pf.; Pfeiffer 1968, 135). 14 Sicoris Today’s Segre. Northern tributary of the Hiberus (Ebro) in Hispania Tarraconensis, the Sicoris originates in the territory ascribed to the Cerretani and divides the Ilergeti from the Lacetani. It flows by Ilerda (Barrington Atlas 25F4); see Schulten in RE II A.2.2203. 15 saxeus ingenti quem pons amplectitur arcu The stone bridge over the Sicoris is a picturesque detail. For Loupiac 1998, 84, the river description chiefly functions as an embellishment, but given the importance of the liquid element in this narrative, L.’s generosity in landscape details builds up our expectation of the coming flood. L.’s audience must have had memory of the facts of Ilerda. 16-17 proxima rupes | signa tenet Magni Cf. 3.379-80 proxima pars urbis celsam consurgit in arcem | par tumulo, where the hill on which the Caesarians have pitched their camp at Massilia is opposed to the hill town of Massilia itself just like here Afranius’ hill is opposed to Ilerda’s hill. By placing each army on high ground with a plain in between, L. achieves his scope of portraying the fighting parties in stark opposition to one another (cf. Hunink 1992b, 163 ad 3.379) and thus further amplifies the divisiveness of Civil War by insisting on showing as divided that which should be united (see on 18 dirimit below; Masters 1992, 50 n. 15).
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17-18 nec Caesar colle minore | castra leuat In placing Caesar’s camp on high ground to match its level with the Pompeian camp, L. disagrees with Caesar’s own account: from Caes. BC 1.41.3 ab infimis radicibus montis we are to infer that Caesar’s troops must have been on level ground because mons describes the hill on which Afranius’ camp was. L. seems to agree with the tradition represented by Appian BC 2.42, in which Caesar’s camp is indeed on high ground, ἐπὶ κρηµνῶν (Masters 1992, 47-8 n. 11). In portraying the two opposing factions as equal even in terms of camp altitude, the text suggests that neither faction is lesser or greater not only from a military perspective but especially on moral grounds. Neither one, in other words, could claim the upper hand. Later on, however, Caesar’s camp is swept away by the flood (which suggests it was actually located on plain ground); see below ad 87-9 (Leigh 1997, 46). 18 dirimit tentoria gurges Dirimere regularly applies to geographic descriptions and topographic features (OLD 1c): Liv. 22.15.4 urbs... flumine dirempta. L. is alone in having a river between the Caesarian and the Pompeian camps. The divisiveness of Civil War materializes thus in a topographic feature. On the use of dirimere as a civil-war motif, see Masters 1992, 50 and n. 15. 19 explicat hinc tellus campos effusa patentis The vastness of the fields unfolds from the beginning to the end of this line. For effusus applied to geographic extensions (OLD 2a), see 6.269-70 armaque late | spargit et effuso laxat tentoria campo; Sen. Con. 1.6.4 tam effusa moenia. 21 Cinga Today’s Cinca. Right-side tributary of the river Sicoris in Nearer Spain, it flows into the Sicoris before the latter’s waters join the Hiberus; see Hübner in RE III.2.2559-60. Cf. Caes. BC 1.48.3. The Barrington Atlas does not identify a few of the rivers visible in its 25F4 quadrant. It is plausible, however, that the Cinga could be the western affluent of the Sicoris in Barrington Atlas 25F4 to the N and slightly NE of Octobesa/Ectobesa (also known as Octogesa). 21-2 Cinga rapax, uetitus fluctus et litora cursu | Oceani pepulisse tuo Apostrophes to rivers are not uncommon, for rivers are divine manifestations (see Skutsch 1985 ad Enn. Ann. 1.26 = 28 in Flores 2000 = 54 in Vahlen 1903). An inscription from Spain (CIL II.4075) attests
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to the Hiberus’ divine status (see next n.). Roman apostrophes to the Tiber are found not only in prayer contexts as in Livy 2.10.11 Tiberine cum tuis undis, but also in geo-ethnographic contexts in poetry, as the apostrophe to the Tiber in Verg. A. 7.797. There are several more authorial apostrophes in Book IV: the invocation at 110-20 to the parens mundi; at 182-9 to a generic Roman soldier, who weeps at recognizing his kin in the enemy’s camp; at 189-91 to Concordia (and to the soldiers); at 233 to Pompey; at 254 and 500 to Caesar; at 319-20 to the dead who an abstract enemy has killed by poisoning the springs; at 322 to Caesar at 497 to Fortuna; at 580 to death; at 692 to Rome; and at 799 to Curio. As has been observed, L. employs apostrophe to a fault, in line with the declamatory taste of his time (Conte 1988, 108). Ovid, Statius, Silius and Valerius Flaccus use apostrophe twice as often as Virgil, while Lucan up to three times as often as Virgil (Hampel 1908, 41, 50-1). The Virgilian standard in our criticism of post-Virgilian poetry, however, should be seen as the basis of Conte’s assessment of apostrophe (as in Austin 1955 ad Verg. A. 4.27 and Duff 1928, vi-viii); see 110n. below. Far from being a ‘meaningless convention’ (Duff 1928, viii) or an adornment (Barratt 1979, 173 ad 5.527-31), apostrophe is a very effective figure in conveying the sentiment of the poet and in delineating the features of his characters, particularly when the poet expresses disapproval; e.g., Pease 1935b ad Verg. A. 4.27 comments on Dido’s apostrophe to pudor without even identifying the figure, for what matters most for the reader of Dido’s confession to her sister Anna is the recognition of ‘the tragic flaw in Dido’s character.’ On apostrophe in L., see D'Alessandro Behr 2000, D'Alessandro Behr 2007, and Asso 2008. 23 Hiberus The Hiberus (= modern Ebro) is a major river in Eastern Spain. Its delta has significantly expanded the shore; see Schulten in RE XVII.807. After listing three river names in ten lines (14-23), L. rounds off his geo-/hydrographic introduction with an implicit etymological aition, for by explaining that the Cinga loses its name by flowing into the Hiberus, the poet is silently alluding to the fact that the river dominates this land (praestat terris) by giving it its own name, Hiberia from Hiberus.
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24–147 Skirmish at the Hillock and Caesarians in the Storm Caesar charges the hillock with the infantry, but when his soldiers risk falling down the steep slope, he sends the cavalry around to protect the flanks, which allows the infantry to retire undisturbed while the Pompeians keep their station without being able to counter-attack (24-47). Caesar’s fortune seems to deny him favor when the Caesarians begin suffering deprivation because of the flood and inclement weather (48119). In an authorial apostrophe, the poet prays to the gods that the rains and the flood may end the war (110-20). After the rains subside, groups of soldiers build rafts to reach the opposite riverbank and build a bridge solid enough to allow the army to cross it. As added precaution, Caesar orders his men to break the Sicoris’ course into tiny channels. At this point Petreius realizes that fortune is again with Caesar and decides to abandon Ilerda in search of reinforcements from among the local tribes (121-47). 24-8 The poet begins the narrative of the Ilerda battle somewhat reluctantly, for the first thing he mentions is that there was no fighting on the first day of battle (see on 24 below). For this typically Lucanian theme of ‘the rush to slaughter halted by a moment of recognition’, Matthew Leigh has pointed to the battle at Pharsalus (7.460-9) as well as to Massilia (on which see Hunink 1992b ad 3.326-9: ‘relatives surely cannot […] fight each other’) and 5.468-75 (Leigh 1997, 47 and n. 8). 24 prima dies belli cessauit Marte cruento We are seeing the activities that take place at the beginning (prima dies) of a campaign along with the necessary—as well as bloodless—ritual moves of pitching camp and setting up fortifications while also trying to form temporary strongholds from which subsequently to conduct the fight. This is precisely what unfolds the next day with Caesar’s attempt to take possession of the hillock south of Ilerda, ostensibly in order to cut off the Pompeians from the provisions they had previously stored within the town walls. 26-7 piguit sceleris, pudor arma furentum | continuit After sceleris, Housman punctuates with a semi-colon (followed by ShackletonBailey) and Badalì prefers a colon. The comma is sufficient, however, because the asyndeton vividly renders the state of mind of the armies abstaining from fight while also fearing it.
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26 pudor In L.’s epic pudor ‘covers the whole code of honour’ (Fantham 1992a, 177 ad 2.518). In Book IV, pudor refers to restraining oneself from killing one’s fellow citizens (26, 34, 231, 706). Here it is often translated with ‘shame’ (so Braund and Duff ), but elsewhere it can be just ‘honor’ (see 231n. below), because the pudor one feels causes one to receive honor or shame, repute or disrepute, i.e., creditable or discreditable attention (on this distinction, see Kaster 2005, 29). 27-8 patriaeque et ruptis legibus unum | donauere diem In asyndeton to the preceding clause, the double conjunction -que et establishes the parallelism between patriae and ruptis legibus. This kind of polysyndeton following an asyndeton is rare but attested in poetry since Accius frg. 111 Ribbeck saxo sento paedore alguque et fame; see Hofman/Szantyr 1965, 515. Less common than et… et and et… que, -que… et lends an archaic flavor to the quasi-formulaic phrasing patriaeque et… legibus, which reoccurs in reverse order at 9.385 durum iter ad leges patriaeque ruentis amorem; cf. Verg. A. 2.159 (Sinon’s words) teneor patriae nec legibus ullis; Sen. Epist. 85.16; [Sen.] Oct. 678; [Quint.] Decl. min. 271.13.2; Hist. Aug. 2.6.8; Non. 383 Morel. For L.’s tendency to equate the Republican faction with the defense of the laws, see Brutus’ words at 2.281-2 pro legibus arma | ferre iuuat patriis libertatemque tueri (with Fantham’s notes); cf. finally 2.316; 3.113, 13740, 151-2; 5.7-9, 12-14, 31, 44-7. 28-9 prono... Olympo | in noctem ‘At nightfall’, when the diurnal sky goes down to make place for the night sky: Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 1756 ad Sen. HF 125 rara micant sidera prono languida mundo (Fitch 1987, ad loc., cites Verg. A. 8.280 deuexo… Olympo). The daring image of the sky ‘hanging as if suspended’ and almost ‘bending toward the night’, or perhaps even ‘bowing’ or ‘kneeling’, may owe to Seneca’s equally difficult Ag. 461 in astra iam lux prona, iam praeceps dies, where in astra should be understood as equivalent to L.’s in noctem (pace Tarrant 1976, who, though aware of L.’s parallel, accepts Damsté’s conjecture alta). Used of the setting sky or stars, pronus depicts the evening sky as if bending toward the horizon; Hor. C. 3.27.18 pronus Orion, with Porphyrion’s gloss: ‘in occasum... pronus’. The styleme, which Nisbet/Rudd 2004 ad Hor. C. 3.27.18 trace back to Theocr. 7.53 χὠρίων ὅκ’ ἐπ’ ὠκεανῷ πόδας ἴσχε, reoccurs in Neronian
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(OLD 4b) and Flavian poetry; cf. Val. Fl. 2.35 euecta prono laxantur habenae [sc. Solis currus] aethere; 3.33 sidera prona. 29 fossa Caesar’s intent is to prevent Afranius from seeing his camp being fortified. Instead of ramparts, which could be seen from a distance, Caesar orders to dig a fifteen-foot ditch on the side facing the enemy. The work was being carried out by the third ranks, whereas the first and second ranks were standing in arms to screen the fortification works from Afranius’ view (Caes. BC 1.41.3-6). 34-5 huc hostem pariter terrorque pudorque | inpulit Fear and shame are given emphasis by functioning as the grammatical subject of inpulit. The homoeoteleuton rounds off line 34 in a rapid succession of swift dactyls, momentarily paused if not actually enhanced by the assonant liquids in the preceding spondee of pariter terror. The dactylic rhythm extends in enjambment to the following line and suggests the rapid sequencing of the two emotions in the Pompeians. 35 prior This predicate agrees with the (omitted) subject of cepit, to be inferred from the preceding hostem. The change of subject is barely noticeable because the subject of inpulit describes the emotional state of Afranius’ men. 36 his uirtus ferrumque locum promittit, at illis | ipse locus It is hard to construe promittit with illis as indirect object and ipse locus as subject. Perhaps illis is to be understood as a dative of the possessor: at illis ipse locus [est, quem praeoccupauerunt] see TLL X.2.1873.67-8. With the hendyadys uirtus ferrumque, L. seems to praise the Caesarians for the warlike manliness that would grant them to gain the hill were it not already in the possession of Afranius’ men (illis). 37-40 miles... erigitur Hyperbaton and variatio (miles ~ acies) add pathos to the sorry sight of Caesar’s soldiers clinging onto the steep slope and supporting each other by leaning on one another’s shields. 37-8 miles rupes oneratus in altas | nititur Burdened with defensive and offensive weaponry (see 39 umbone, 40 telum, 41 pilo), each soldier leans on the high rocky slope, rupes… in altas. The phrase in altas suggests a considerable high point with the resulting danger of falling under the weight of the weapons. The adjectival participle oneratus
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conveys both the soldier’s fatigue as well as their slowness or quasi immobility. 38-9 aduersoque acies in monte supina | haeret As if zooming out, the focus shifts from the individual soldier to the whole line of Caesar’s infantry, acies, as they struggle looking upward to the slope, supina, and are almost forced to come to a halt, in monte … haeret, or so the poet’s description suggests by emphasizing their immobility and/or slow motion. 39-40 et in tergum casura umbone sequentis | erigitur The soldiers’ stillness is caught here in the instant before the fall. They would certainly fall without the support of each other’s shields. 39 umbone Lit. denotes the ‘boss of a shield’; here as a synecdoche pars pro toto for ‘shield’, as in all of its occurrences in L.; cf. 3.476 (with Hunink 1992b ad loc.), 6.192, 7.493. OLD s.v. ‘umbo’ should not have listed the present synecdoche along with the primary denotation of ‘boss of the shield’. 40-1 nulli telum uibrare uacauit | dum labat et fixo firmat uestigia pilo The paradox of immobility in motion and while enduring effort is particularly frequent in Book IV to describe soldiers in uncomfortable situations; see e.g., 617 and especially on 781-2 below; see also 9.436 and 484 (on which Asso 2002a, 129, 237). For the recurrence of the immobility theme in the poem, see, e.g., Masters 1992, 57 n. 29; Bartsch 1997, 59-61. 41 labat The verb labare occurs in this sense in Virgil (e.g., 10.283 labant uestigia) and in this book also at 89 (where it applies by extension to castra), 249 (animos), 390 (fortuna), 625 (compages humana, see n. below). 42-3 atque hoste relicto | caedunt ense uiam The soldiers fight against the landscape instead of the enemy. 44 equitemque succedere bello Followed by a local dative (see 1434n. below) in the sense of ‘moving up into battle, into a post’ (OLD 4b) succedere occurs with pugnae (e.g. Verg. A. 10.690) and proelio (e.g., Liv. 6.4.10) but with the less specific bello is found only here and at Sil. 13.698-701.
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45 munitumque latus laeuo praeducere gyro The noun latus here refers to the equites themselves who are brought forward as defensive reinforcement (accusative) and aid to the infantry (dative) and not, as misunderstood in the Adn., the left side as the one protected (munitum) by the shield. The syntax of praeducere here requires the accusative of what is being lead forward (latus ~ equitem) and the dative of the person in whose interest the action of praeducere is performed, which is here implicit and should be understood as peditibus laborantibus, as seen by Rammiger in TLL X.2.590.68-71. If latus is correctly taken as referring to the cavalry, the ablative laeuo gyro poses none of the problems seen by Francken and Haskins, both misled by the Adn.. 46 ex facili This adverbial expression is found in poetry only here and a few times in Ovid (Am. 2.2.55; Ars 3.579; Rem. 522; Pont. 1.5.59). 47 inritus describes the following uictor and thereby creates the paradox of an ineffective victory. For this sense of inritus applied to humans, see Centlivres in TLL VII.2.434.74-5, citing Verg. A. 5.442, but see also 2.459 tela manu miseri iactabant inrita. uictor For L.’s verbal nouns in –tor, see ad 4 above. subducto Marte ‘Mars has been taken away,’ i.e., no need to fight (see Conte 1988, 109 ad 6.250). The intratextual echo with 6.250 may or may not be intentional; cf. 10.412 subducta acies. The lack of necessity for battle is a common paradox in this poem, which insists on the fighter’s reluctance to engage in a fratricide war. 48 hactenus armorum discrimina The phrase marks the transition to a new narrative segment (Leigh 1997, 42). Temporal hactenus switches the focus from the actual battle between the armies to the following phase of this battle narrative. From now on, each army will face inclement weather rather than each other. 48-109 In narrating the storm, L. indulges his interests in natural science with a description of the atmospheric phenomena and a competent display of geo-ethnographic terminology. The storm description begins with the gathering of the clouds herded by the winds (48-75), traditionally distributed among the four cardinal points: Aquilo (~Boreas), Eurus, Corus (= Caurus), and Notos (~ Auster) (north, east, west, and south respectively). L. opts for Homeric simplicity in mentioning only
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one wind per quadrant (Od. 5.295-6), even though Varro had scrupulously assigned two subordinate winds to each quadrant and thus there came to be twelve names for twelve different winds (Sen. NQ 5.2.3; Plin. NH 2.119 and 122). The poets, however, use Varro’s nomenclature rather freely and generally remain faithful to the Homeric model in mentioning one wind per quadrant. Hence the winds may function metonymically as the cardinal points, as they do for example in L. 9.411. The catalogue of the winds is enriched with geo-ethnographic hints, for L. mentions Nabataeans, Arabs, and Indians to point out that the rains come from the East. L.’s interest in the natural sciences does not prevent him from using the traditional mythological vocabulary in denoting the sky as Olympus, the ocean as Tethys and the sun as Titan. The traditional vocabulary of mythological poetry allows L. to speak of the storm in terms of universal deluge, in a passage that resonates with Ovidian language and reinterprets familiar cosmological themes from early Greek myth. For an analysis of this storm and a useful literary background on the epic storm in general, see Morford 1987, 20-58, whose focus, however, is on L.’s rhetorical expertise (but consider the cautionary remarks on Morford’s own rhetoric in Thompson 1990, 867). Lucretius is the poetic model for L.’s philosophical and scientific vocabulary, especially in matters of meteorology and astronomy. 48-61 The prelude to the rainstorm begins with the description of the dry Iberian winter with snowy peaks and frozen fields. 49 dedit This is the first in the series of historical tenses in the storm passage (48-109). L.’s narrative style, as is common in classical Latin, alternates the use of preterit and historical present. Both the preterit and the historical tenses have the same meaning in denoting the action described by the verb as past, as is customary in narrative. If any difference were to be found, this would be in the nuance of immediacy and generality conveyed by the use of the historical present; see 64n., 70n. uacat, 76n., 121-47n., 188n., 196n., 213-13n., below. uariis… motibus This is an ablative of manner describing in what way the aer is incertus. The air is ‘unreliable’ (Braund) because of its incessant movement. From its astronomic use, the phrase uarius motus comes to refer to human mutability especially within the emotional
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sphere (as in Verg. A. 12.217 uario misceri pectora motus, where the Rutulians are troubled by varied and contrasting feelings). The phrase is not common, for only twelve occurrences can be found in the extant corpus of Latin literature. Like much scientific vocabulary, however, it seems to have been first introduced in poetry by Lucretius, who technically applies it to the heavenly bodies: Lucr. 5.1210 uario motu quae candida sidera uerset [sc. deum... inmensa potestas]; cf. Cic. Arati Phaen. frg. 34.230-1 sic malunt errare uagae per nubila caeli | atque suos uario motu metirier orbes; Germ. Arati Phaen. 11-12 nunc uacat audacis ad caelum tollere uultus | sideraque et mundi uarios cognoscere motus. incertus… aer This is the only occurrence of incertus to describe aer in the extant corpus of Latin literature. The airy element is, of course, the weather, which plays a prominent part in Book IV (Loupiac 1998, 55). The storm that ensues has aer as agent, while both Caesarians and Pompeians may only contribute their own passive endurance. By emphasizing the uncertainty of the weather, the narrator reports the viewpoint of the troops on the field and thereby focuses on their suffering. The notion conveyed by incertus as applied to aer, however, resonates with the Stoic explanations for such phenomena as clouds and rain studied by L.’s uncle Seneca in the lost portions of the Naturales Quaestiones (see 64-5n. below). In asking whether there is a divine providence in the world in the face of so many misfortunes that befall humans, Seneca in De Providentia emphasizes the function of reason (logos) and ascribes the apparent uncertainty of the atmospheric phenomena to a human illusion, for even the rain and clouds (and other natural phenomena) have their causes, which can be analyzed and sometimes explained: Sen. De prov. 1.1.3 ne illa quidem quae uidentur confusa et incerta, pluuias dico nubesque…; TLL VII.1.882.51-2. 50 pigro bruma gelu siccis aquilonibus haerens In a distinctly Lucanian turn, the idea of movement is contrasted with lack of motion. The frozen stillness of winter echoes the deathly immobility of the underworld in Sen. HF 704 immotus aer haeret et pigro sedet nox atra mundo; (Oudendorp; Haskins), where Seneca’s aer immotus has become L.’s uariis incertus motibus aer, as seen above. On air (and water) immobility as death metaphors in L., see Loupiac 1998, 192-8.
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pigro… gelu The metaphor whereby the cold is said to be sluggish or inactive (piger) is derived from the semantics of death: TLL X.1, 2108.35-43; e.g., 4.652 pectora pigro stricta gelu, where the idea expressed by stricta is close to that conveyed by haerens. siccis… aquilonibus The north wind is here chiefly characterized as cold but rainless, like in Ov. F. 4.634 and Tr. 3.10.53. Pliny describes the northern and western winds as drier than their eastern and southern counterparts: Plin. NH 2.127 et in totum omnes a septentrione et occidente sicciores quam a meridie et oriente; 18.339 aquilonem praenuntiat terra siccescens repente, austrum umescens rore occulto; 27.144 omnes uero herbae uehementiores effectu uiribusque sunt in frigidis et in aquiloniis, item siccis. haerens L.’s vocabulary of deathly immobility, both literal and metaphorical, features haereo as well as stringo (51 constricto); compare 4.653 pectora pigro stricta gelu (see below) of Antaeus’ dying in Hercules’ tight arm hold; TLL VI.2.1732-3. 51 aethere constricto L. here uses aether to mean aër; the two are often confused (TLL I.2.1150-1). The air has been frozen up in winter’s total immobility. The participle of constringere normally applies to snow and ice: Curt. 7.3.11 niues… gelu… constrictae (OLD 6b). For the idea of water being prevented from flowing, see the phrasing in Sen. NQ 3.11.5 constricta tellus nec potuerit imbres inagitata transmittere. pluuias in nube tenebat The idea of immobility continues in further detail. Winter has kept the clouds so cold that the rain has been held. L.’s interest in meteorological phenomena is apparent in his explanations. This line is clearly a gloss to explain why the northern wind is cold but dry. 52 urebant montana nives As in modern languages, the oxymoron of burning ice is common in post-Virgilian Latin: Ov. F. 1.680 nec noua per gelidas herba sit usta niues; Tr. 3.4.48 adstricto terra perusta gelu; Germ. frg. 4.142-3 rura | spesque noua segetis quatientur grandinis ictu | urenturque (TLL VI.2.1734.5). The Comm. Bern. trace this quasiparadox back to Verg. G. 1.93 penetrabile frigus adurat; TLL I.898.59899.9. Physicians are to treat frostbite in the same way in which they would treat a burn: Serenus Lib. Medic. 25.477 illa quoque usta putes
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quae sunt niue laesa rigente; burn prescriptions in Celsus Med. 5.27.13; cf. also Marcell. Med. 34.91 frigore adustis pedibus (TLL I.898.71). montana Adn.: ‘quae sunt in montibus loca.’ For the substantival use of the neuter plural, see TLL VIII.1458. 53 non duraturae conspecto sole pruinae The word order follows the pattern abBA. With variations, the alternate patterning of noun and adjective continues in the following two lines. 54 atque omnis propior mergenti sidera caelo The daring hyperbaton and enclosing word order 54-5 omnis… | … tellus extend to the following hemistich. mergenti For this use of mergeo, see 282 below. sidera caelo The fifth foot is customary for sidera (by which the constellations are meant). This particular ‘sidereal’ end of verse, however, reoccurs at 107 and is also found in Virgil, G. 2.342 and A. 4.578; sidera caeli occurs at G. 4.58 and A. 1.259; sidera mundi at A. 9.93. 55 aruerat tellus hiberno dura sereno The oxymoron of a burning winter continues in L.’s depiction of the dry winter plains at the western edge of the known world. As for wounds (see 52n. above), ice and fire have a similar effect on the soil. aruerat Cf. 1.687 arentem… Libyen; 4.333 arentem Meroen. In hexameter poetry, aresco is not found before Lucretius 6.841. Of the earth, areo and aresco are in use since Cato the Elder, see TLL II.504, 508; cf. Plaut. Persa 42 and Rudens 575. dura The adjective qualifies the earth also at 2.30, 155, 4.197, and 5.278 (Sannicandro 2006, 153 n. 1). The quality here denoted by durus is ‘hardness’ in a material sense. It may also connote, however, a particular aspect of the natural world in a Stoic sense, perhaps also alluding to the moral rigor of the Stoic proficiens. On its occurrence in the poem to describe in Stoic terms the three major characters Caesar, Pompey, and especially Cato, see Sannicandro 2006. 56-9 These lines give us the time of the year when the Ilerda campaign begins: mid to late June (see the table comparing Caesar and L.’s Ilerda narrative above on 1-24 above). The mutual suicide of the Opitergians,
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narrated in the central part of this book (401-581), is roughly contemporaneous with the battle of Ilerda (see 525-8 along with n. below). 56 calidum Titana Cf. Sen. HF 1060 feruide Titan, with notes by Billerbeck 1999 and Billerbeck/Guex 2002. 57 portitor Helles Cf. Mart. 9.71.7 (TLL VIII.810.15-16 s.v. ‘mereo’). The rising of the constellation of Aries, the Ram, coincides with the spring equinox; cf. Q. Cic. Poet. 2 curriculumque Aries aequat noctisque dieique. Helles’ carrier is the Ram of the Golden Fleece that carried Frixus and his sister Helle over the Dardanelles, i.e., the stretch of water that divides the European Balkans from Anatolia (Asia Minor). Helle was the daughter of Nephele and Ino’s husband Atamas. Helle helped her mother save Frixus from being sacrificed to Zeus, but while flying along with her brother on the back of the ram, she fell into the waters of the Hellespont, hence the name. See Ov. M. 7.7 and 11.195; Apollod. Myth. 1.9.1 [80, 82 Scarpi ]. 58-9 atque iterum aequatis ad iustae pondera Librae | temporibus uicere dies As Housman notes, the periphrasis in ablative absolute aequatis… temporibus denotes the coming of the spring equinox, which in 49 BCE fell on May 14, for the next new moon would come on June 9. On the basis of Caes. BC 1.48, Housman assumes that the storm described in 48-120 must have occurred sometime around the end of May (Housman ad 4.58-61; see 60n. below). Yet taken literally, 56-9 should point to a time around mid-June. 60 Cynthia, quo primum cornu… refulsit The new moon begins to be visible. It is impossible, however, to determine the exact date of the storm on the sole basis of Caes. BC 1.48 (pace Housman ad 56-61: ‘aequinoctium uernum anni 49 in prid. id. Mai incidit, proxima autem luna noua VII id. Iun. conspici coepta est; tempestatem uero quam tum poeta extitisse uult reapse exeunte demum mense coortam esse colligitur ex Caes. b. c. I 48.’). dubitanda As an adjective, this future passive participle (or gerundive) does not merely express the idea of necessity or obligation, as one would expect in the passive periphrastic conjugation. Here the incipient new moon is barely visible and, with a nice touch, L. is conveying a sense of, as it were, precise indeterminacy, for when the new-moon
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crescent is so dim and hard to perceive to the human eye that one would doubt to see it, the new lunar month is at its very start. 61 exclusit Borean flammasque accepit in Euro The moon ‘shut out Boreas and took flames in Eurus’, i.e., ‘the moon grew red’ (Braund). The names of the winds are metonymies for the cardinal points. The sense is that the moon’s lit crescent faces to the east (Eurus) while the unlit portion points toward the north (Boreas ~ Aquilo). On the winds and the epic storm, see Mario Labate’s entry in EV V.1.494-8 s.v. ‘venti’. On the winds, their names, and their geographical significance, see R. Boerer, RE 8A.2288-325, s.v. ‘Windnamen’; C.R. Phillips, Der neue Pauly 12.2.515-21, s.v. ‘Winde’. Euro As in Virgil (Labate in EV V.1.498), eurus denotes the east wind. For the Latin poets eurus is the Homeric eûros (Il. 2.145; cf. LSJ s.v.), which Gellius connects with ēōs, the name of the goddess of sunrise in Greek (Gell. 2.22.7 Qui uentus igitur ab oriente uerno, id est aequinoctiali, uenit, nominatur ‘eurus’ ut isti ἐτυµολογικοί aiunt, ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς ἠοῦς ῥέων). The southern wind (auster or notus) is the usual bringer of clouds and rain, as L. himself glosses it a 9.319 densis… niger imbribus Auster, but for the Iberian campaign the eastern wind, as the equinoctial wind (as Gellius cited above reminds us), is more appropriate and verisimilarly reflects (or conjures reliance upon) meteorological accuracy, given that the storm in question occurred not long after the spring equinox (see on 58-9 above). Boreas As in Virgil (Labate in EV V.1.497), boreas (or aquilo) denotes the north wind, but the term seems to apply most properly to the wind that blows from north-northeast (OLD s.v.). 62 ille Eurus. suo in nubes quascumque inuenit axe The enclosing word order, with the hyperbaton suo in… axe, isolates the relative clause that functions as the object of torsit (63). 63 torsit in occiduum… orbem The enclosing word order follows a pattern similar to the previous line. Nabataeis flatibus In mentioning the Nabataeans only here to denote the east, L. probably has in mind a passage from Ov. M. 1.61, quoted in full by his uncle at Sen. NQ 5.16.4-9 to illustrate the main four winds.
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L. gives Eurus’ gusts the epithet Nabataean to refer to the first of the three stages of his poetic retracing of the east wind’s path back to its far-eastern origin. The exotic ethnonym evokes eastern luxury and not only adorns L.’s geography of the winds but also illustrates an aspect of Roman imperialism by mentioning a region that became known to Romans at the time of Caesar and Pompey: B. Alex. 1.1; Strabo 14.4.21 (Barchiesi 2005, 160 on Ov. M. 1.61). It was Pompey who submitted the wealthy Nabataean Arabs to Roman rule (Plut. Pompey 41; Fantham 1992, 194 on 2.590-4). 64-5 et quas sentit Arabs et quas Gangetica tellus | exhalat nebulas The object of sentit is nebulas, ‘mist, fog’, as the source of moisture that, exhaling (exhalat) from the seas and the rivers, condenses into the clouds. L.’s phrasing reflects his awareness of the origin of the rain, a topic Seneca must have treated in the lost sections of the fragmentary fourth book of his Naturales Quaestiones. 64 quas sentit Arabs From 65 exhalat, one infers that sentit is in the present tense. The force of the present tense in this relative clause introduced by quas expresses a general truth, i.e., it describes a phenomenon that occurs repeatedly: The Arabs always feel (sentit) the clouds gathered by the eastern wind. Arabs For the collective singular, compare 3.245 Armenius (and contrast 3.247 Arabes; the earliest use of collective singular in Roman poetry could be Hor. Epo. 16.6 infidelis Allobrox; on its dating between 42 and 31 BCE, see Mankin 1995, 244.) The Arabs are identified as Pompey’s conquest in 2.590 me domitus cognouit Arabs (collective singular, Fantham 1992a, 194 ad 2.590-4). They are listed as Pompeian in the catalog at 3.247 and later fight at Pharsalus (7.442 and 514). Here the ethnonym functions as a metonymy for the orient (as e.g. at 7.442), zooming out, as it were, from the specific Nabataean to the generic Arab. Gangetica This adjective occurs only here in the poem and a total of only eight times in the extant corpus of classical Latin (especially in connection with tigers). L. mentions the Ganges several times: 2.496, 3.230, 8.227, 10.33, 252. The Ganges and India indicate the eastern ends of the world: Ov. M. 4.21 extremo qua tinguitur India Gange; cf. F. 3.729; Sen. Oed. 427. ‘At 3.320f. and 8.227 L. associates the Ganges
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and Pompey’s Asian conquests with the far east’ (Fantham 1992a, 174 ad 2.496) 65 concrescere Technically, of the condensation that forms the clouds (OLD 1b): Lucr. 6.250 per totum concrescunt aera nubes. The term seems to apply technically to the condensation of water into clouds; see Bailey 1947 ad Lucr. 6.250 and 451-94. 66 quidquid defenderat Indos i.e., from the heat of the sun (Comm. Bern.). fuscator This agent noun is a neologism and an hapax in Latin; it functions like an adjectival clause, such as qui fuscat; cf. 10.135 fuscante. The verb fuscare (from adjective fuscus) is uncommon; TLL VI.1.16523. Its first occurrence is Manil. 4.532 multa caligine fuscat sidus (sc. Cancer); cf. Ov. Tr. 1.11.5 fuscabatque diem custos Atlantidos Vrsae; cf. Plin. NH 37.84.9. On verbal nouns in –tor see on 4.4 above. L. enjoys making new words; see Introduction, 22-3 above. 67 Corus [~ Caurus] North wind of the western quadrant, properly, north-northwest. L. makes this wind the source of cloudiness in the eastern skies. Verg. G. 3.456 semper spirantes frigora cauri; Labate, EV V.1.497a. 68 incendere diem The eastern clouds set the day on fire (Braund), describing perhaps the flame like the light of a reddish sky. The only close parallel for the expression is in L. himself at 9.499 incensus… dies, where the sense pertains to temperature rather than light: ‘as the day has grown hotter;’ TLL VII.867.39-56. For the idea, see Sen. HF 236 adusta medius regna quae torret dies. 69 nec medio potuere graues incumbere mundo The clouds failed to settle on the middle part of the world. Comm. Bern.: ‘stare non potuerunt in meridianam plagam sed in occasum.’ Similarly, Arnulf glosses medio…mundo as ‘antequam in Occidente nam quidquid est inter duo extrema medium potest dici,’ that is before they reach the west, but it is not obvious how the west can be the center of the mundus. Probably mundus medius here is the equatorial zone and therefore this use of mundus is analogous 106 below, where mundi pars ima means Antarctica. If so, this medius mundus might then be one of the five climatic zones in which Eratosthenes (Hermes frg. 16 Powell) di-
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vided the earth (cf. Verg. G. 1.233 quinque tenent caelum zonae, with Thomas ad 2.231-56). L. explicitly refers to the climatic zones at 9.313 zonae… perustae (Asso 2002a ad loc.); cf. 9.432-3 perusti | aetheris; 10.274-5 perusti zona poli (with Berti’s notes). graues The clouds are ‘heavy’ or grauidae (Haskins), pregnant with water; Comm. Bern. ‘plenae pluuiis’. 70 sed nimbos rapuere fuga. uacat imbribus Arctos The narrative tense switches in one line from the perfect rapuere to the present uacat. In addition to the sense of immediacy conveyed by the historical present, there is perhaps also the value of general truth, meaning that the north wind is generally rainless. Arctos i.e., the north (Hor. C. 1.26.3), it always follows the Greek inflection in L. (1.458, 2.586, 3.251, 6.342, 9.539, 10.48, 220). L. here uses the singular as a metonymy for the northern quadrant, as at 2.586 (see Fantham’s note), 9.539 and 10.220. Properly, it denotes either or both constellations of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper; for the plural see Housman ad Manil. 1.283; cf. Probus ad Verg. G. 1.233. 71 Notos By metonymy, the south wind denotes the south. Perhaps to exploit the assonance with Arctos, L. has preferred here the Greek inflection, as with acc. Noton at 5.542, 7.364, 9.539, 695, 10.243. Otherwise the MSS have Notum at 2.460 and 5.609; Notus at 5.571 and 714. Calpen As at 1.555, Calpe (Gibraltar) is a metonymy for the west. 72 ubi iam Zephyri fines Grotius’ punctuation is necessary to isolate this clause because L. here not only describes the western horizon in general, but the suggests that ‘right were (ubi iam) the west ends (Zephyri fines [sunt])’ one has the illusion that the line of the horizon, here seen as the western edge of the earth, ‘contains’ (73 tenet) the sea. As at 4.61 Borean… Euro, 67 Corus, and 71 Notos, the wind name metonymically indicates the corresponding cardinal point. 72-3 summus Olympi | cardo tenet Tethyn The idea is that the edge of the western sky, visible as the line constituted by the horizon, ‘restrains’ (Braund) the ocean. cardo The western cardinal point, or the western sky; see below on 672.
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Tethyn The primordial deity Tethys, wife of Ocean, is here a metonymy for sea, as often in poetry she denotes the wet element: Catull. 64.28-9; only once in Virgil, G. 1.31 (Cerutti in EV V.151b-152a). 73-5 ‘The clouds coil (inuoluere) into dense masses, forbidden (uetitae sc. nubes, from 68 above:) to go further. The space that separates earth and sky, congested with dark mist, can hardly take in more.’ The underlying theory here seems to be that weather phenomena are believed to occupy the layer of aer between the earth and the aether above the moon (75); Sen. NQ Book II. 73-4 densos | inuoluere globos Rain clouds have formed by ‘coiling up’ into masses (globos). The perfect inuoluere reminds us that this is a narrative of a particular storm and not a generic description of a meteorological phenomenon in scientific terms. 74-5 congestumque aeris atri | spatium quod separat aethere terram The air is said to be dark as a result, perhaps, of the accumulation of rain clouds but congestum and densos… globos also convey the idea of weight and density, and therefore deathly immobility (Loupiac 1998, 55) in L’s description of the reduced light before a storm. At 9.5 niger… aer, however, the dark aer indicates the sub-lunar sky, the space between earth and moon; Adn. 9.5 ‘usque ad lunarem circulum turbidus est aer.’ The space that divides the earth from ether beyond the moon is imagined to be full of ‘dark air’ in contrast with the inflamed ether that is always bright and lit; Comm. Bern. ad 9.5 niger… aer: ‘potest uel secundum consuetudinem ‘nigrum’ dixisse, quoniam remoto sole in umbra id est niger relinquitur, uel etiam ex comparatione eius aeris qui semper inflammatur atque igneus est. quem uocamus aethera, ultimum mundi supraque aera positum, semper lucentem, quod huic aeri non accidit’ (see Housman ad 9.5). 76 iamque polo pressae This is the first instance of L.’s repeated use of iam in the following lines (83, 87, 93, and 98) to build up to the storm; see Leigh 1997, 43-4 ad 98-9: ‘While none of these developing narrative stages can be said finally to merge he temporalities, while iam does not exactly equate to nunc, it is significant that Lucan observes the different stages in the escalation as they happened.’ What the adverb iam accomplishes in this sequential use is to mark the verbs’ narrative
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tenses and thus render the description vividly rich in each of the phases of the approaching storm. pressae The clouds (68 nubes) are now (iam) squeezed by the sky (polo; but we need to think here of air or wind: see 77-8n. below). The use of premere for clouds to explain the phenomenology of rain has a distinct Lucretian tinge; Lucr. 6.518 sed uemens imber fit, ubi uementer utraque | nubila ui premuntur et impete uenti; cf. Ov. M. 1.268 manu… nubila pressit [sc. Notus]; TLL X.2.1173.29-36. The idea of squeezing the rain out of the clouds is found in Epicurus’ Letter to Pythocles (Epicur. ad Pyth. 99-100) and ultimately goes back to Anaximenes and Xenophanes (Bailey 1947, 1627 ad Lucr. 6.495). 77-8 nec seruant fulmina flammas | quamuis crebra micent: extinguunt fulgura nimbi The sound and sense of L.’s wording reflect the theories about the origins of lightening as expounded in Book II of Seneca’s Naturales Questiones. The thunderbolts are believed to be produced by the clouds under wind pressure (76 pressae). 77 fulmina flammas This alliterative juxtaposition is attested first in Accius frg. 34-5 Ribbeck and in a fragment of Cicero’s poem De consulatu suo (De Divin. 1.20.4); cf. Manil. 3.6 fulminis et flammis and 3.15 fulmine flammis. The juxtaposition of the sounds ful- fla- followed my the labio-nasal m, may hint at the belief of the origin of the fulmen from flame(flamma): Sen. NQ 2.21.1 quid in confesso est? fulmen ignem esse, et aeque fulgurationem, quae nihil aliud est quam flamma, futura fulmen, si plus uirium habuisset. 79-82 On the rainbow, see the extended section in Sen. NQ 1.3-8. L.’s admiration for the rainbow as a physical phenomenon is noted by Häussler 1978, 51, who connects such interest in meteorology with L.’s Stoic teacher Cornutus and, mentioning the rainbow goddess Iris (conspicuously unnamed in L.’s poem, one might add), suggests that L.’s notion of the divine lies rather in Nature than in the supernatural. 80 arcus uix ulla uariatus luce colore The rainbow’s colors are hardly visible in the scarcity of light. 81 Oceanumque bibit For the notion that the rainbow absorbs water, see Verg. G. 1.380-1 et bibit ingens | arcus (with Thomas’ n.); already in Plaut. Curc. 131 bibit arcus.
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82 aequor Lit. ‘leveled expanse’, a common metonymy for sea or water. 83-4 iamque Pyrenaeae… | …niues On iamque, see 76 above. This is the only occurrence of the adjective Pyrenaeus in L., who is the only writer that mentions snow in reference to the Iberian side of the Pyrenees. The only other mention of the Pyrenees’ snows refers to the Garonna river and its source of flooding for the eastern side in Gaul: Mela 3.21.1 Garunna ex Pyrenaeo monte delapsus, nisi cum hiberno imbre aut solutis niuibus intumuit diu uadosus et uix nauigabilis fertur. Presumably, the Iberian extrema mundi are less talked about than Gaul. 83 Pyrenaeae The first occurrence of Pyrenaeus as an adjective is in Caes. BG 1.1.7 Pyrenaeos montes. As a noun, it is first attested in Cato ORF 30.1 Malcovati. Usually, when mentioning the Pyrenees, authors speak of iuga, or saltum (Caes. BG 1.37.1; BC 3.19.2; Livy 21.30.5), or montes (e.g., Caes. BG 1.1.7; Livy 21.23.4), whereas the mention of snow is quite common with the Alps (e.g., L. 1.553-4; Livy 21.54.7; Plin. NH 3.134). In Silius, for instance, the peaks of the Pyrenees are given the epithet ‘leafy’, suggesting, perhaps, either a perpetual evergreen condition, Sil. 3.415 Pyrenaei frondosa cacumina montis, or more probably the season of Hannibal’s crossing (late spring of 218 BCE). 84 fluxere niues Snow regresses toward water in the progressive of landscape obliteration at the mercy of the elements (Loupiac 1998, 190). 84-5 fractoque madescunt | saxa gelu The phrase fracto… gelu frames the clause. For frango of ice, see Sen. Epist. 78.23 fracta… glacie NQ 4.5.4 disturbata niue et glacie frangente se. The wording describes the rocks as ‘sweating’, verisimilarly becoming wet as all does in the spring thaw, but there is the suggestion that the rocks themselves are melting, perhaps decomposing, for water is one of the elemental stages of matter, in which objects begin to loosen their distinctiveness and regress to chaos. Not unlike water, fire can ‘melt’ the rock: 3.506 saxa ingentia soluit. On water and decomposition in L., see Loupiac 1998, 100, 104-8. 85-7 Instead of rivers overflowing their banks, L. paradoxically describes the water from the banks flowing into the river bed.
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87-8 iam naufraga campo | Caesaris arma natant On iam, see 76n. above. Caesar’s soldiers are depicted as shipwrecked and swimming on land. The paradox conveys a sense of pathos for the soldiers’ endurance and further suggests that the end of civil war might require the defeat of Caesar, as intimated by Leigh 1997, 46. See ad 16-17 above. naufraga campo The oxymoron attests to L.’s love of paradox and hyperbole. The image of shipwrecking (on) land seems to be unique to L., and is hyperbolically reminiscent of the deluge. Predictably, the image has a Lucretian pedigree, though the model is not as imaginative: Lucr. 5.488 camposque natantis, cf. 6.267, 405, 1142; imitated in Manil. 5.542 naufraga tellus (cf. 4.726 and 752 of Nile’s flood); Sil. 8.70 naufraga terra. The locus classicus for deluge imagery remains Ov. Met. 1.290-2. 89 castra labant On labare, see 41n. above. For this sense, cf. 7.521; TLL VII.2.778. The phrase sounds unique but otherwise unremarkable; see TLL III.556. 93-4 iamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum | saeua fames On iamque, see 76n. above. The metaphorical use of comes for the inanimate (here fames) reoccurs at 431 below (for ships); Gregorius 1893, 13. 96 exiguam Cererem By antonomasia, the goddess of crops denotes food (either bread or the wheat grain to make it). For the epithet, see Verg. A. 7.113 exiguam in Cererem (with Horsfall’s n.). pro lucri pallida tabes This is a forceful interjection; on pro, see also 194 and 231; 2.98; TLL X.2.1438-40. Here pallida tabes is in the vocative case and governs the objective genitive lucri. The adjective pallidus is transferred from the affected subject to the cause of the affection (TLL X.1.130.63, 131.13). In a typically Lucanian image, the hungry soldiers’ greed is depicted as ‘pallid wasting away’. For parallels in contexts of hunger, compare Verg. A. 3.217-18 pallida semper | ora fame, and especially 8.197 ora [sc. mortuorum] uirum tristi pendebant pallida tabo; Ov. M. 15.627 pallida… exsangui squalebant corpora tabo (TLL X.1.130.17-18). The noun tabes is a technical term that describes the result of food scarcity on the human body: Plin. NH 2.156 ne… fames… lenta nos consumeret tabe. L. is fond of hypallage
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(Hübner 1972); see below 725n., 764n.; Asso 2002a, 19, 179 ad 9.355, 188 ad 9.370-1, 203 ad 9.410; Fantham 1992a, 37. 97 non dest prolato ieiunus uenditor auro Love of profit is so great that a hungry man will sell his only food. L. reproduces the pathos of a Virgilian apostrophe: Verg. A. 3.56-7 quid non mortalia pectora cogis | auri sacra fames (Curcio 1903, vi). On the rising cost of annona, see Caes. BC 1.52. On –tor nouns, see 4n. above. 98-105 The description of the flood resonates with the Ovidian language of chaos in the beginning of creation. The hyperbole of the tide stronger than Ocean amplifies into the image of night woven against the sky even though it is daytime. On L.’s deluge imagery and his treatment of Erathostenes’ five-zone theory, see Raschle 2007, 59-69. 99 una palus uastaque uoragine mersit The phrase una palus evokes immobility, the calm after the storm, but everything is covered by water and the landscape has been completely obliterated by the flood (Loupiac 1998, 100-1 and n. 93; also 101-5, 190). 102-3 reppulit aestus | fortior Oceani The force of the flood is so great that it drives back the sea currents. 104 nox subtexta polo Cf. 7.519 ferro subtexitur aether | noxque super campos telis conserta pependit; Sen. Phoen. 422 atra nube subtexens diem; Phaedra 955-6 nunc atra uentis nubila impellentibus | subtexe noctem; NQ 1.4.2 ingens uariumque corpus… subtexitur caelo (the rainbow). L.’s formulation is closely echoed in St. Theb. 1.346 subtexit nox atra polo; cf. also 2.527 and 9.27; Silvae 3.1.127; Val. Fl. 5.412. The image of night ‘woven underneath the sky’ (Braund) may owe to Verg. A. 3.582 caelum subtexere fumo (see Horsfall 2006, ad loc.), but is ultimately Lucretian: Lucr. 5.466 subtexunt nubila caelum; 6.482 subtexit caerula. In our passage, the expression might suggest the ‘fluffy’ feeling conveyed by the sky serving as a coverlet of the dark fogginess in the air heavy with moisture. 104-5 rerum discrimina miscet | deformis caeli facies iunctaeque tenebrae Back to the lack of distinction of primordial chaos and no light. For the idea of ruin and regression to the earliest moments of creation, see Salemme 2002, Loupiac 1998, 104.
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106-7 sic mundi pars ima iacet, quam zona niualis | perpetuaeque premunt hiemes For Erathosthenes’ zones, see Verg. G. 1.240-3; Raschle 2007, 61-5. The mundi pars ima must be Antarctica, perpetually oppressed by winter snows (Housman citing Burmann 1740 ad loc.), but it is not clear why in speaking of the icy zone L. prefers the south to the north pole here (Housman). The stiffness of ice and the frigidness of perpetual winter evoke the paralysis of death (Loupiac 1998, 191-8). 107-9 non… | …non… | sed This is what Esposito 2004a calls ‘negazione per antitesi’, or negation reinforced by an expressed (or implied) antithesis, here introduced by the adversative conjunction sed. The instances studied by Esposito occur in Book IV at 378-81 (uselessness of luxury); 415-26 (unusual boats); 558-66 (mass suicide); 749-64 (paralysis in combat), and elsewhere in the poem at 2.354-80 (a renown passage on Cato’s ‘non-marriage’, an example of L.’s fondness for ‘negative enumeration’, on which see Fantham ad loc.; 220-7n. below; Bramble 1982); 3.399-425 (an ‘uninhabited’ grove; see Fantham 2003), 3.726-51 (a father’s tragic decision to kill himself not to survive his moribund son), 5.148-57 (fake oracle), 5.430-5 and 442-6 (terrifying immobility of the elements), 6.369-70 (an ‘unnatural’ river), 6.423-34 and 507-25 (new rituals), 7.834-44 (an incomplete slaughter), 8.368-88 (Parthians’ lack of expertise in military strategy), 10.111-19 (uncommon opulence), 10.515-19 (Pothinus’ punishment), 10.537-41 (no escape). 109 glacie medios signorum temperat ignes For medii ignes, understand ‘the tropical constellations’: The ice of the polar zone cools the fire of the tropical constellations. Housman compares 9.532 medium signorum… orbem, which is appositely named signifer. Braund’s ‘fires of the southern constellations’ is not precise because ignes means ‘stars’ (by metonymy synonymous with signa), as it often does in Manilius; cf. Bourgery’s ‘constellations temperées;’ cf. Loupiac 1998, 114, quoting Beaujeu’s still inadequate ‘refraîchit les feux méridionaux [sc. tropicales?] des signes.’ Different uses of the phrase medii ignes at e.g., 1.231-2 ignes | solis; 6.337 medios ignes caeli; 8.159 iam pelago medios Titan demissus ad ignes. 110-20 L. invokes the gods of the upper world, Jupiter and Neptune, as the deities that oversee sky, water, and land stability, and asks them to
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end the civil war (Leigh 1997, 42-5). Syndikus 1958, 42-3, reads the prayer as uttered by someone who could still turn away the calamity of civil war, and along the same lines, Marti 1975, 86, considers it an ‘interruption of the narrative by an anonymous persona whose voice expresses sentiments identical with those of the author but who, unlike him, is totally ignorant of the future.’ For an analysis of the paradoxes in the prayer, see Hutchinson 1993, 250-5. Apostrophe is the apposite figure in a prayer but, among the figures, apostrophe is the one that appeals the least to modern esthetical perceptions. The figure, however, is frequently attested throughout Roman poetry. The Virgilian use of apostrophe for variation and dramatic effect has come to constitute the standard of modern criticism. From Ovid onward, apostrophe becomes more frequent than modern readers would like; cf. Conte 1988, 108-9 on 6.248 on the poet’s apostrophe to Scaeva. On the (modern) critics’ aversion against (and failure to discuss) apostrophe, see Culler 1981, 135-54 (= Culler 1977). For an appreciation of apostrophe in L., see Martindale 1993, 67-8; cf. Berlin 1994, 166-73 and Asso 2008. 110 o summe parens mundi The ‘greatest father of the universe’ is Jupiter, who is invoked first. 110-11 sorte secunda | aequorei rector… Neptune tridentis In the apportionment of power with Jupiter/Zeus and Hades/Pluto, Neptune/Poseidon obtained the rule of the seas; Il. 15.185-93; Pl. Gorg. 423a. 110 sorte secunda In Ovid, Neptune plays an auxiliary role as flood commander (Ov. Met. 1.275-82). 112-13 et tu… | tu The anaphora emphasizes L.’s hyperbolic request for eternal deluge, and supposedly the end of everything, in order to end the civil war. The first tu is Jupiter, the second Neptune. Jupiter strains/swells the sky with constant storm clouds, while Neptune forbids the currents or tides to turn back. L. uses the anaphora of tu, understandably common in prayers and apostrophe, rather sparingly, and chiefly in climactic moments of intense pathos such as 6.260-1, where L. evaluates Scaeva’s aristeia as a paradigm of negative heroism (see Conte 1988, 111 ad loc.), or 8.833-4
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in an apostrophe to Egypt within his extended lament over Pompey’s death. The imagery of deluge and world ruin is frequent in L. and is usually expressed in Stoic terms (e.g. 1.652 nigros Saturni ignis with Gagliardi 1989 ad loc.; Loupiac 1998, 28). L.’s resort to the imagery of cosmic dissolution has been ascribed to the poet’s almost morbid interest in natural disasters, which he obsessively interprets as cosmic catastrophes (Lapidge 1979 that lead to no cycle of regeneration. 112 tu perpetuis inpendas aera nimbis The noun nimbus technically denotes a rain cloud and, by extension, a sudden downpour, as in B. Afr. 47.1 nimbus cum saxea grandine subito est exortus (OLD 2; cf. 4.776n. below). The sense of perpetuus here is OLD 4 ‘permanent, in perpetuity’ rather than unbroken in space. By calling for perpetual rain clouds, the jussive of L.’s prayer invokes virtually a disastrous deluge and therefore a return to the primordial broth, for the end of everything would end the civil war. 115-16 concussaque tellus | laxet iter fluuiis In Ovid, Neptune changes the course of rivers (Met. 1.276-92), and strikes the earth with his trident (ibid. 283). For this use of laxare and its frequency in ‘infernal’ contexts, see 3.17 in multas laxantur Tartara poenas; Sen. HF 80 laxa specum; 673 ampla uacuis spatia laxantur locis; Oed. 582-3 dehiscit terra et immenso sinu | laxata patuit. Cf. χαυνῶ and TLL VII.2, 107, 45-67. 116-18 hos campos Rhenus inundet | hos Rhodanus… | Riphaeas huc solue niues, huc stagna lacusque The anaphoric sequence of deictics (hos… hos… huc… huc; for the text see Housman ad 118) conveys a sense of immediacy, as if the narrator were present on the site of the events narrated, but the rivers he addresses are the distant Rhine and Rhône (cf. the alliterative rivers in Ov. Met. 2.258 Rhenum Rhodanumque). The effect of distancing is a result of the ‘geographic inconcinnity’, a ‘calculated violation of dramatic naturalism’ (Leigh 1997, 44 and n. 5). 118-19 stagna lacusque | et pigras, ubicumque iacent, effunde paludes A palus does not flow anywhere, but the vocabulary resonates with underworld associations. Sen. HF 686 iacet describes the motionless expanse of the infernal marches formed by the river Cocytus.
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L. is thus describing this calmness after the rains in words that elsewhere apply to the deathly stillness of the underworld. See e.g., Sil. 13.562-3 iacet in spatium sine corpore pigra uorago | limosique lacus. 118 Riphaeas… niues The epithet Riphaeus in poetry denotes the extreme north (OLD s.v.). The montes Rip(h)aei are fabulous mountains believed to be in northern Europe and later identified with actual mountains in Scythia; cf. Enn. Sat. 68; Verg. G. 1.240 and 3.382. 120 et miseras bellis ciuilibus eripe terras The poet wishes that the civil war would end, and adds emphasis on his wish by using unusual syntax: ‘snatch the wretched lands from civil war,’ instead of the reverse, ‘take war away from the wretched lands,’ a thought which would sound more natural. The authorial wish reoccurs at 5.297-9 sic eat, o superi: quando pietasque fidesque | destituunt moresque malos sperare relictum est, | finem ciuili faciat discordia bello; and at 5.315-16 saeue, quid insequeris? quid iam nolentibus instas | bellum te ciuile fugit (Leigh 1997, 74-5). 121-47 With the end of the storm, Petreius sees that Caesar has again found his luck. He decides to abandon Ilerda and look for reinforcements from among the local tribes. With the new iam (121), the narrator fades, as signaled by the switch from the prayer’s present jussive subjunctives (111 facias; 112 impendas; 113 uetes; 114 habeant; 115 referantur; 116 laxet and inundet; 117 obliquent) and imperatives (118 solue; 119 effunde; 120 eripe) to the narrative tenses: the pluperfect sparserat, the imperfects rubebant (125) and pendebat (127), and the perfect discessit (126). 121 fortuna This is the first of thirteen occurrences of F-/fortuna in Book IV: 4.243, 256, 342, 390, 398, 402, 497, 661 (see below ad loc.), 712, 730, 737, 785, 789. Housman’s distinction between Fortuna and fortuna relies, as one infers form his preface (xxxv), on Hosius’ readings of the MSS. On F-/fortuna in L., see Friedrich 1970; Brisset 1964, 70-4 and passim; Ahl 1976, 280-305; but on the difficulty of distinguishing among the concepts of ‘gods’, ‘fate’, and ‘fortune’ and their functions in L.’s narrative, see Long 2007, 185 n. 12; Narducci 2002, 84 and n. 38; Fantham 1992a, 9; Feeney 1991, 280. 122 solitoque magis This rare use magis to form the comparative with solito (nine occurrences in classical Latin) is first attested in Livy
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5.44.7 and occurs in poetry only here , at Sen. Tro. 1139 magisque solito splendet extremus decor (cf. NQ 6.6.2), and Val. Fl. 7.65. On this aspect of the Latin comparative with the ablatives aequo, iusto, solito, and dicto, see Kühner/Stegmann II.470 § 225 n. 14. 123 et ueniam meruere dei As L. repeatedly indicates (3.449-50; 5.593-677), ‘The divine gives way to Caesar with disheartening regularity’ (Phillips 1968, 300). Caesar now pardons the gods as he will Afranius and Petreius at 363-81 below, and as he formerly pardoned the heroically reluctant Domitius at Corfinium (2.512-25, with Lebek 1976, 154-5, and Fantham 1992a, 176-8). So Fortune and the gods seem to refer their decision to Caesar; hence the paradoxical notion that the gods deserve pardon. Analogously, fortune is said to have dared against Caesar at 4.402-3; cf. Malcovati 1940, 73 (but L.’s concept of luck in relation to morals is difficult; see the clever argument on ‘moral luck’ in Long 2007). Contrast 243-4 deorum | inuidia below, where the gods are held responsible. rarior aer The air in the storm was described as thick, dense with moisture and darkness. The storm aftermath is marked by lighter air (Loupiac 1998, 55). 124 par Phoebus aquis The noun par here is unmarked, i.e., it does not carry the symbolical meaning it has elsewhere in the poem (on par is a gladiatorial term and a keyword in Book IV as well as in the whole poem, see below 620n.). Applied to Phoebus, here in his hypostatsis as the Sun God, par denotes here the sun’s unequal forces to forestall the waters’ destructive energy. densas in uellera nubes On uellus as a poetic metaphor for clouds, see Varro Atacinus frg. 21 Morel nubes sicut uellera lane constabunt; Mynors 1990 ad Verg. G. 1.397 lanae per caelum uellera. Elsewhere uellus is said of feathers (Grattius 77 niuei… uellera cygni), or snow (Manil. 2.445 niuei… uellera signi). On the development of the metaphor in the Greek and Latin authors, see Moreno Soldevila 2006, 109 ad Mart. 4.3.1 densum tacitarum uellus aquarum. 125 noctes uentura luce rubebant For the plural, see Housman: ‘noctium continuarum seriei succedebat diluculum.’
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126 seruatoque loco rerum The elements have returned to their proper places. 126-7 discessit ab astris | umor Hyperbole is one of L.’s favorite figures: The storm was so violent that the moisture had reached the stars. 128 tollere silua comas, stagnis emergere colles | incipiunt On the flood subsiding, see Ov. M. 1.346-7 postque diem longam nudata cacumina siluae | ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum (Haskins). 129 uisoque die durescere ualles Lit. ‘The valleys grow hard at the sight of day.’ The use of durescere in poetry is rare. For the sound of the inchoative verbal form, L. has perhaps in mind Ov. M. 1.345 crescunt iuga decrescentibus undis, but chooses to focus on the hardening of the soil. To express the same idea, Virgil prefers making durare an intransitive in Ecl. 6.35 tum durare solum et discludere Nerea ponto (Clausen). 130 utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque reliquit Ov. M. 1.343-4 plenos capit alueus amnes, | flumina subsidunt. 131 cana salix The color of the willow falls in the range of the silvergrey tones: Verg. G. 2.13 glauca canentia fronde salicta; Ov. M. 5.590 cana salicta (cf. 6.527-8 cani |…lupi, ‘grey wolf’); see André 1949, 65; TLL III.296.63. On the willow, see Plin. NH 16.77; André 1985, 224. madefacto uimine The participle describes the flexible branches of the willow, which naturally grows on water banks. The drenched willow branches are apt for wickerwork. The forms of madefacio are not common in poetry (only one occurrence in Virgil), but the passive is found as early as Catull. 64.368 alta Polyxenia madefient caede sepulcra, referring to Polyxena slain as a sacrificial animal on Achilles’ tomb (cf. Verg. A. 5.330 on the sacrificial blood of a bull). Ovid uses madefacio of blood several times in the Metamorphoses (cf. 1.149-50 caede madentes | … terras, of the earth soaking up the blood of the Giants): Pyramus’ blood drenches the soil at 4.126; Tisiphone’s blood-soaked torch is part of her attire at 4.481; one of Perseus’ victims warms the earth by soaking it in his blood at 5.78; a dove’s plumage is drenched in blood in a simile at 6.529; Ancaeus, Meleager’s companion in the hunt of the Calidonian boar, soaks
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the earth with his blood at 8.402; the centaur Rhoetus is drenched in blood at 12.301; and finally Venus hears of her descendant’s future revenge at Philippi, where the Emathian fields will be drenched in blood for the second time: 15.823-4 Pharsalia sentiet illum (sc. Venus’ descendant Caesar), | Emathiique iterum madefient caede Philippi (Octavian’s revenge for his adoptive father’s death). The remaining occurrences of madefacio in poetry refer to ladies’ facials (Ov. Medic. Faciei 55 and 99), drunken bodies drenched in wine (Ov. Ars 3.765), fragrance ([Tibull.] 3.6.63 and 3.8.16; Ov. M. 4.253;), and tears (Tibull. 2.6.32; Ov. M. 6.396). 131-2 paruam | texitur in puppem caesoque inducta iuuenco Rudimentary rafts are made out of wickerwork and ox hides; Caes. BC 1.54 carinae ac prima statumina ex leui materia fiebant; reliquum corpus nauium uiminibus contextum coriis integebatur. This is the Welsh coracle, of which see Isid. Orig. 19.1.26 carabus, parua scapha, ex uimine facta, quae contexta crudo corio genus nauigii praebet. 133 uectoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem The rafts are light but able to support the weight of a passenger and dash swiftly on the swelling waters of the river. The molossus that opens the line (uectoris) is followed by the rapid dactylic rhythm that well renders the idea of the rafts effectively carrying the soldiers. super emicat Badalí prints superemicat and in apparatus reports the Adn. reading superenatat, which would be a neologism (see 66n. fuscator above), but with no MS authority except late corrections in A and V, probably based on Adn. 134 sic Venetus stagnante Pado The Veneti, a people of north-east Italy, similarly navigate the waters of the Padus (= Po river in Northern Italy), presumably close to the Adriatic estuary, where the river breaks into multiple streams and wide pools intersperses with stretches of wetlands. 134-5 fusoque Britannus nauigat Oceano The participle fuso here describes the waters of the Ocean that ‘have poured into the land.’ In support of this interpretation, Haskins quotes the description of the British coast in Tac. Agr. 10. Just like the Veneti, then, so the Britanni use similar rafts, also made of soaked willow branches: Caes. BC 1.54
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imperat militibus Caesar ut naues faciant, cuius generis eum superioribus annis usus Britanniae docuerat (see 131-2n. above). 135-6 sic, cum tenet omnia Nilus, | conseritur bibula Memphitis cumba papyro The Egyptians use similar rafts to cross the Nile, but they build theirs out of weaving papyrus stems; cf. the ‘painted skiffs’ (faselis pictis) mentioned at Verg. G. 4.289 and the Nile mosaic of Palestrina. The adjective Memphites here means ‘Egyptian’ (as in Ov. Ars. 3.393), whereas in a technical sense denotes one of the nomoi, or territorial districts of Egypt, e.g., Pliny NH 5.50. While L. may have used Memphitis here as an erudite ornament, the word is singled out for its pleasant sound by the grammarian who preserves for us a verse of Petronius, frg. xviii Müller [= Terentiaus Maurus De metris = GL IV p. 399 Keil/Hagen ] Memphitides puellae | sacris deum paratae. bibula… papyro On the adjective bibulus ‘thirsty’ to denote the waterrich habitat of the papyrus, see Plin. NH 13.81 taenea fungo papyri bibula. cumba Frequently also cymba and sometimes cimba, see TLL IV.1587.51-4, it is borrowed from Greek κύµβη; Paul. Fest. p. 44 Lindsay. The word denotes a small floating device, such as a skiff, a light wherry, a dinghy, or a small fishing boat (Afran. Togatae, frg. 138 Ribbeck cumbam piscatoriam), used for short transport especially across rivers; see Charon’s boat in Verg. G. 4.506 Stygia… cumba and A. 6.303 ferruginea… cumba. Pliny attributes the invention of the cymba to the Phoenicians (NH 7.208). The word is not uncommon in poetry (at least 34 four occurrences). 137 his ratibus traiecta manus festinat The soldiers traverse the river on several of these rafts, each supposedly carrying only one person. 137-8 utrimque | succisum curuare nemus They bend the edges of their hand-made vessels to oppose resistance to the rough waters. 140 medios pontem distendit in agros This clause has no coordinating conjunction and the resulting asyndeton emphasizes Caesar’s cautionary measures in designing the bridge. With ponte distendit in the center, the enclosing word order is mimetic of the bridge span stretching across
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the river but relatively far from the banks and thus reaching on either side into the middle of the fields. 141-3 nequid… audeat… | spargitur in sulcos et scisso gurgite riuis | dat poenas maioris aquae Caesar breaks the force of the Sicoris’ current; cf. Caes. BC 1.61-2; Caesar’s precaution is presented as punishment, and suggests the leader’s sacrilegious hubris against Nature. L. might have Herodotus’ Cyrus in mind, who divided the river Gyndes in 360 channels: Hdt. 1.189 (on which see Flower 2006, 282). The reader might recall Caesar’s constricting the sea with a floating bridge in his failed attempt to catch Pompey at Brundisium, which the poet compares with Xerxes’ infamously analogous feat (2.669-81, with Fantham ad loc.; cf. Loupiac 1998, 97-8). 143-4 postquam omnia fatis | Caesaris ire uidet On the local dative fatis with ire, see Verg. A. 11.192 it caelo, which Horsfall ad loc. calls a ‘regular dative of goal’; cf. Görler EV II.266; Gildersleeve 228, § 358 n. 2; Kühner/Stegmann I.344 § 77 4b. 144-5 celsam Petreius Ilerdam | deserit et noti diffisus uiribus orbis The known world is not to be trusted, at least not by Petreius. Perhaps the suggestion here is that when it comes to orbis Caesarian equals notus, and Petreius’ only hope is to go beyond what is known with the awareness that in his search for allies he is roaming the ultima mundi (see 147n. below and 1n. above). 145-7 L. cross-references the inhabited world, 145 noti… orbis, with 146 ultima mundi. 146-7 indomitos quaerit populos et semper in arma | mortis amore feros The inhabitants of Further Spain are praised for their savagery, conveyed here by pointing to their lack of tameness (indomitos), and their readiness for battle due to their inbred feritas, which manifests itself with their propensity to die. 146 indomitos... populos Cf. 162 inque feras gentes; indomitus describes a people also at 8.364. 147 mortis amore Cf. 8.364 mortis amator (with Mayer 1981, 130). Committing oneself to death is an idea that reoccurs at 280, 485, and 544 (see below); cf. 6.246. While amor mortis characterizes in L. the exotic peoples whom the Romans had a tendency to praise for their
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ferocity in war to compensate their relative lack of urban ciuilitas, the lust for death acquires the insisting resonance of a recurrent theme throughout the poem (cf. 1.458-62; 8.363-4; see Esposito 2001, 45-6; Hunink 1992b, 90-1 ad 3.134, 125-6 ad 3.240, 250 ad 3. 695; Rutz 1960, 462-75). Fear of death leads them to be eager for death, as in Lucr. 3.79-82 (I thank Michael McOsker for this reference). ultima mundi The clausula reoccurs at 5.181 and 7.580; see also Ov. Tr. 4.4.83; Sen. Ad Marc. 26.5.2; Sil. 7.108.
148–253 Fraternizing Caesar orders his men to go after the fleeing Pompeians (148-56). Caesar addresses his soldiers and pitches his camp not far from the enemy on a plain between two highlands. The men from the opposing armies recognize one another as friend and kin and begin fraternizing (157-88). After the poet’s apostrophe to Concordia (189-195), Petreius interrupts the fraternizing bivouac and first expels the Caesarians from his camp, then addresses his soldiers with a speech that renews their thirst for blood (195-253). 148-66 Upon realizing that Petreius had abandoned his camp, Caesar orders his men to neglect the bridge and swim across the river to catch him. Paradox: 1) The soldiers are swimming the stream instead of using the bridge they had just built; 2) They seize a path into battle that they would have shunned if fleeing; then Caesar’s cavalry begin to harass the enemy hesitant between flight and battle. The syntax is hard to follow because L. refrains from identifying either group. Finally, Caesar reinforces his recklessness by ordering his men to force the Pompeians to fight. 148 nudatos The caesura after this molossus is not as strong as after 151 paretur because, as the direct object qualifier, nudatos is closely linked syntactically to the clause governed by 149 conspiciens. colles desertaque castra The notion of the abandoned camp does not merely reduplicate colles but more precisely describes what Caesar has in full view: the bare landscape of the empty hills and the clear traces of Petreius’ abandoned camp site. The two participial clauses joined by –que convey the rapid succession of thoughts in Caesar’s mind.
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149 conspiciens L.’s use of this verb is conspicuous, as it were, for it embraces here the whole semantic spectrum of conspicere from ‘seeing’ to ‘witnessing’ and even ‘discerning with the mind’s eye’ (OLD 16). Caesar is not only catching sight of the empty camp vacated by Petreius but he is also taking in the news, digesting it, and reasoning what to do next, that is, issuing the order to pursue him. 150 sed duris fluuium superare lacertis The word order has the river current (fluuium) enclosed between the strong arms of Caesar’s soldiers. Swimming with weapons across a river is a laborious and dangerous feat (e.g., Horatius Cocles in Liv. 2.10 and Cloelia in Livy 2.13). 151 paretur This one-word clause, rhythmically and syntactically isolated as a molossus followed by caesura, requires a pause (see 148 nudatos above). Francken, Hosius, and Housman, followed by Shackleton Bailey, punctuate with a comma. Haskins opts for a colon, which followed by rapuitque sounds odd. 152 quod… timuisset The subjunctive is used because this relative clause expresses the view of a person other than the narrator (Gildersleeve/Lodge 1894, 402, § 628), Caesar’s soldiers in our case. The meaning of the subjunctive in relative clauses, however, is a notorious matter of dispute; Kühner/Stegmann 1955, II.191 § 194.2. 155 in medium The substantivized adjective medius denotes midday, as further indicated by the context, with 154 donec decresceret umbra and the following ablative absolute 155 surgente die. Analogously, in Sen. HF 884 sol medium tenens, the noun medium is equivalent to medium diem or meridiem; cf. Sen. Med. 768 Phoebus in medio stetit (Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 393). 156 eques, dubiique The collective nature of singular eques becomes explicit in the appositive dubii, with which it agrees in gender and case. 157-205 The details about the terrain announce a new phase. Petreius and his men aim for safety in a gorge but Caesar prevents them and both armies camp at a short distance from one another. A full range of emotions seizes the soldiers who first dare not speak, then give in to their sentiments and the armies mix. L.’s obsession is to clarify what civil war is for those who have not been in it – or perhaps L.’s insistence on blurring the lines between friend and foe applies more largely to his own Neronian times, when the ruler’s tantrums may have raised
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preoccupation not only about the reality of monarchy but also about the impending perils of civil discord. 157-62 L.’s descriptions of the rocky landscape is meant to evoke a real place, but the resulting description locates the reader in a rather literary than a specific landscape. L. is probably thinking of the ambush in Verg. A. 11.522-9 (with Horsfall 2003 ad loc.; see 159-60n. below). On reality and illusion in ancient Roman topography, see Horsfall 1982, 1985. 157 attollunt campo geminae iuga saxea rupes The first feature of this mountainous landscape are the steep twin crags (rupes), further qualified by the appositive iuga saxea, denoting the rocky nature of the cliffs. The dual geminus lacks the force usually given to the ‘oppositional dual’ par in this poem (see 4n. above), yet the two crags raising their ominous rocky ridges may be symbolically associated with the opposing leaders. The insidious landscape is described simultaneously as a hideout and a trap. 158-9 tellus hinc ardua celsos | continuat colles The terrain is steep (ardua,) and evidently difficult: jagged rocks and crags, developing into high mountains (celsos continuat colles). For arduus qualifying tellus, see TLL II.493. It is tempting to interpret this literary landscape as a mixture of ‘real’ and imagined geographic features of the Iberian terrain, which we know was the historical site of the battle. The comparison with Caesar, however, suggests that in matters of topography the ancients were less literal, and comparatively more imaginative, than the modern historian would avow. Caesar, like the poets, often sacrifices details and generously amplifies his topography by dwelling on features that foster the apposite (or desired) audience response. L. here succeeds in conveying the duplicity of the landscape, inviting a bivouac, but at the same subject to the threatening mountains. This is the landscape of civil war. 159-60 tutae quos inter opaco | anfractu latuere uiae The noun anfractus is a prosaic touch, balanced by the anastrophe of the relative with its preposition (quos inter), which requires the syntax to pause after inter and thereby the rhythm affords a noticeable and quite unusual caesura between the short syllables of the fifth foot (īntĕr||ŏpācō). The adjective opaco is thus isolated at end of line but, in virtue of the
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enjambment with ānfrāctū, it remains closely linked to the following line. This particular feature of the insidious landscape is found in L.’s poetic model, though the verbal echo is limited to one word only: Verg. A. 11.522-5 est curuo anfractu ualles, accomoda fraudi | armorumque dolis, quam densis frondibus atrum | urget utrimque latus, tenuis pro semita ducit | angustaeque ferunt fauces | aditusque maligni (Turnus’ ambush site). 164 et faciem pugnae uultumque inferte minaces Caesar’s angry command to scare the enemy unveils the soldiers’ unwillingness to fight in this civil conflict. Both armis are reluctant. 165-6 nec liceat pauidis ignaua occumbere morte | excipiant… ferrum The imperatives 163 conuertite and inferte have now turned into jussives. 167-82 The armies pitch camp in tight quarters and the enemy’s features can be discerned with precision. The highly emotional moment is described by L. with detail. The mixture of terror for the enormity of Civil War with the self-satisfactory opportunity for the poet to express it finally in such an explicit manner is distinctly perceivable. 167 dixit et ad montis tendentem praeuenit hostem Caesar’s swift maneuver is successful. The enemy’s access to the gorge has been prevented. 168-9 illic exiguo paulum distantia uallo | castra locant Order: exiguo uallo castra locant, paulum [inter se] distantia (Housman). L.’s enclosing word order renders the distance between the two camps short enough to be contained within the tiny ramparts (illic exiguo… uallo) of a single hexameter. 169-79 The moment of recognition breaks the fighting but adds a hopeful perspective, unlike the parallel passage at 7.460-9, where the recognition carries no hope of resolution (Leigh 1997, 46-7). 169-70 postquam spatio languentia nullo | mutua conspicuos habuerunt lumina uoltus Lumina is a common metonymy for ‘eyes’. The poet’s attention is fixed on the faces of the soldiers. On either side enemy is close enough to discern the familiar features of relative and friends. The tiny rampart and the close distance are obliterated in a
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spatio… nullo. The hyperbaton spaces languentia... mutua… lumina, and forces us to take in the moment of crisis step by step. The sense of habuerunt is close to ‘kept staring’, while taking in the paradox of reality. [171 hic fratres natosque suos uidere patresque] This line is not present in all the MSS. Oudendorp damned it as a gloss but the interpolator perfectly grasped the concept. 172 deprensum est ciuile nefas A recurring word in L., nefas is almost a leitmotif, a keyword for civil war, starting with 1.6 in commune nefas. In Book IV nefas reoccurs at 205n., 243n., 549n., 556n, 792n. (see below). 174-5 ardens | rupit amor leges The soldiers’ love is violating military commands, here called leges, but lex applies stricto sensu to written law. The Latin for ‘military orders’ is iussa. 180-95 L. passes through two levels of apostrophe, to the soldiers at 182-8 and then to Concordia at 189-95. The apostrophes signal the moment of crisis, when the two armies are close and the soldiers can see and recognize one another from the opposing camps. With a mixture of apostrophe and rhetorical questions, the narrator emerges once again in his own narrative. On the apostrophes, see Asso 2008. The unparalleled strength of the present authorial intervention yields a startling sense of actuality, as if the civil war were happening in the here and now (Leigh 1997, 48). 182 quid pectora pulsas With a dramatic quasi-threefold alliteration (the voiceless labiovelar is followed by two voiceless labials: qu- p- p-), the narrator’s abrupt apostrophe to the soldiers is delivered as an angry rhetorical question that conveys reproach. L. seems fond of the alliteration in the voiceless labial: 343n. pectore poscit; 624n. and 783n. pectore pectus; 652n. pectore pigro; 2.234 percussit pectora; 3.543 pectora pulsant (cf. 6.161 pectoris inpulsu, 253 perfosso in pectore); 7.608 pectora pulsans; cf. Sen. Tro. 114 pulsu pectus tundite uasto; Ag. 134 inuidia pulsat pectus; HF 1100-1 percussa sonent | pectora palmis. In two passages the author of [Sen.] Oct. 735-6 tremor | pulsatque pectus, 745 pulsata palmis pectora probably imitates this sound effect.
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183 quid, uaesane, gemis The narrator’s persists in his reproach and at the same time describes lament in addition to the chest-beating mentioned above. Grief is appropriate, for L. here is staging the soldiers’ prefiguring of the sentiment of loss they are eventually going to face in their senseless fight. The vocative uaesane (cf. 6.196 uaesani; 7.496) evokes an image of hopeless despair, the materialization in human terms of the metaphorical expression below at 187 ciuilis Erinys. uaesane Rare. This is a collective singular (like gemis and fundis, 184 fateris, and 185 facis) because L. is clearly addressing the ciuis in general, the only entity that can unleash civil war. fletus quid fundis inanis Their tears are vane because, as we are soon to find out, the narrator believes that there still is a choice. 184 nec te sponte tua sceleri parere fateris This final rhetorical question contains the harshest reproach. Civil War is the fault of the ciuis. It is the soldiers’ own fault if the war keeps going because they persist in denial. The narrator at this point sounds convinced that, if the soldiers were to admit that they are committing a crime out of their own will, the war would end. 185 quem The syntax indicates that the collective singular is used throughout the address in this extended apostrophe cum rhetorical questions. The relative pronoun, therefore, is the Roman ciuis. It is not implausible, however, to think of Caesar himself first; cf. 188 priuatus. 186 classica The war trumpets recall Caesar’s words on men’s desire to fight (esp. at 3.92, which I have quoted above). 186-8 The sequence of jussive 186 det, 187 ferat, and imperatives 186 neclege and cessa creates immediacy. 187 iam iam The geminatio of the deictic conveys a sense of urgency (Leigh 1997, 49). Compare Verg. A. 2.701 (with Austin’s n.), 12.676, 875, 940 (with Traina ad loc.). ciuilis Erinys Clearly Erinys is here allegorical for Discord (Eris), i.e., civil war. In appropriating the phrase in the same metrical position (only other occurrence in the Latin corpus), Statius glosses it: St. S. 5.3.195-6 subitam ciuilis Erinys | Tarpeio de monte facem Phlegraeque mouit | proelia. The fury is Eumenis among the portents at 1.575.
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188 concidet… amabit Historical hindsight allows L.’s ex eventu prophecy that the ‘Fury of civil strife will fall and Caesar, a private citizen, will love Pompey’ (so Leigh 1997, 49). Leigh’s argument is based on an unparalleled use of the future tense (concidet) (Leigh 1997, 325-9). If the soldiers refuse to fight their kin, then Caesar, too, will see in Pompey the son-in-law instead of the enemy (Gall 2005, 107), but alas, Caesar will express his ‘love’ of Pompey too late when Pompey’s mutilated head will be shown to him and only too late will he react – not as a private citizen, but as a commander – by seeking revenge against the barbarians who mutilated a Roman. 188 priuatus What L. implies here is that Caesar will have been abandoned by his soldiers and will therefore be a priuatus. His command in Spain was, in fact, illegal, and therefore he would be just a regular private citizen without his legions. 189-95 This apostrophe to Concordia contains all of L.’s anger against Civil War. The passage looks back to the supposed initial Concordia of Afranius and Petreius at 5 above, but which will collapse at 337 below. Peterius, in fact, has faded out of the picture at 144 and will not return until 206. L.’s silence about Petreius allows him to play up Concordia. Caesar is much clearer about their rift in his BC. 190-1 o rerum mixtique salus Concordia mundi | et sacer orbis amor Commenting on this apostrophe to Concordia divinize/personified, Leigh 1997, 71-2 points out that the poet’s wish at this point is to end the war ideally ‘by means of mutual love.’ As the poem progresses, even discord is welcome as an end to civil war: 5.299 finem ciuili faciat discordia bello; on ‘Ending the ‘Bellum Ciuile’,’ see Leigh 1997, 73-5. 190 mixti mundi The diversity of the empire puts a new dimension on the need for Concordia. The phrase is unique to L. 190 o rerum Sen. HF 1072 pax o rerum, portus uitae (pax errorum Wilamowitz; pax o rerum Traina; pater o rerum MSS). 191 sacer orbis amor Concordia spells as universal love in a cosmic sense (φιλία). The concept is best understood in relation to L.’s celebrated oxymoron of 1.98-9 temporis angusti mansit Concordia discors | paxque fuit non sponte ducum (Leigh 1997, 72 n. 69), to be traced as far
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back as the early Stoics (cf. Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, SVF I, 537, 1415) and finally to Empedocles’ opposite forces of philia and neikos. L. could find this concept in previous Roman poetry: Hor. Ep. 1.12.19 and Ov. M. 1.433; see Lapidge 1979, 365-7. Jal 1961, 225, 229, analyzes the reception of the Stoic idea of Concordia at Rome in light of the ideological and political tendencies of the late Republic and early Empire, and documents the shift in terminology from pax to concordia. 191-2 magnum nunc saecula nostra | uenturi discrimen habent Compare 823 perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula (and n. below); cf. also the authorial outcry at Pharsalus, 7.426-59. With a reverse perspective that closely links moral degeneration with civil war evil, L.’s future (habent) is Horace’s past in one of his most famous stanzas at C. 3.6.17-20 fecunda culpae saecula nuptias | primum inquinauere et genus et domos; | hoc fonte deriuata labes | in patriam populumque fluxit. The reference to saecula nostra is intentionally ambiguous. Since these words are spoken by the authorial persona, L. may be warning his audience also about his own Neronian present. We know that Books IIII were published before L. was banned from public performances. After the disillusion caused him by the emperor’s veto to engage in poetic endeavors, L. may no longer feel he should show support for the emperor. On Vacca’s information on the delayed publication of Books IV-X, see Heitland xxxv, xxxix-xlii. 192-3 periere latebrae | tot scelerum See OLD s.v. ‘latebra’ 3. 193 populo uenia est erepta nocenti There is no escape for a guilty people. The entire universe of the Roman ciuitas has been forsaken. There is no pardon. 194 agnouere suos After the strong syntactical break at the end of the previous line, the rhythm slows down to pause on the recognition of kin by kin. 194-5 pro numine fata sinistro | exigua requie tantas augentia clades ‘O the evil force of fates that exacerbate such great calamities with a tiny respite!’ (Leigh 1997, 50). The exclamatory accusative (fata… augentia), preceded by the strong interjection pro, is arranged in a chiastic alternation of nouns and epithets: ABa cC dbD, adding emphasis to fate being blamed for bringing about a short reconciliation
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only to exacerbate the ensuing crimes of civil war (on this, see 202-5n below and Long 2007, 187 n. 22). 196 pax erat Cf. Caes. 1.74. At 5.295 pax erit is the mutineers’ threat to Caesar, but here the imperfect tense makes it an actual possibility which will inevitably turn into a missed opportunity; see below 205 foedera pacis. On the links between Books IV and V on the issue of ‘Ending the Bellum Ciuile’, see Leigh 1997, 71-2. On the phrase, see Ov. F. 1.285 pax erat, et uestri, Germanice, causa triumphi | tradiderat famulas iam tibi Rhenus aquas. castris miles permixtus utrisque The boundary between the two camps has been transgressed and the fraternization is presented as commingling in both camps. L. differs sharply from Caesar, who reports that the Pompeians went over to the Caesarian side (Caes. BC 1.74-5; Leigh 1997, 51). 197-8 duro concordes caespite mensas | instituunt This is a common meal (concordes… mensas): the shared commensality is given ritual standing and becomes foedera. It is ambiguous whether concordes is accusative, and therefore agreeing with mensas (as interpreted in TLL IV.91; for concors of things, see 5.542 and 635), or nominative, and thus agreeing with the subject of instituunt. If accusative, the phrase concordes mensae occurs only here in the extant corpus of Latin literature. Furthermore, concors as a qualifier of mensa is unusual, if not unique, which all the more emphasizes the associations conveyed by Concordia. (The selection of notable epithets for mensa in TLL VIII.743 oddly lacks concors but includes the only two passages with communis: [Quint.] Decl. 301 p. 187 and Plin. Paneg. 49.5) The adjective durus also sounds unusual as the qualifier of caespes (TLL III.113.55; cf. 5.278). The scene evokes the shared commensality and convivial atmosphere at Evander’s hut: e.g., Verg. A. 8.176 gramineo… uiros locat ipse sedili, on which see Claud. Don. sedili… gramineo, quoniam in nemore conuiuium fuit. Evander’s banquet is part of a ritual in Hercules’ honor. The sharing of the sacrificial meal between Evander with his Arcadians and Aeneas with his Trojans not only follows to Evander’s recognition of Aeneas as a distant relative (via a complex heroic genealogy) but also recalls the rituals that accompany a foedus, a ceremony of peace making (cf. A. 12.113-33, especially 117-9 parabant | in medioque
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focos et dis communibus aras | gramineas, with Housman ad 199; probably imitated by Sil. 4.701 and 15.434). L.’s word choice activates the Virgilian context of ritual peace. 198 et permixto libamina Baccho Wine mixing parallels the mixing of Roman soldiers (196 miles permixtus). Once mixed, neither wine nor people can be separated (Masters 1992, 72; Saylor 1986, 150-1). 199 graminei… foci These ‘turf-built hearths’ (Duff ) foster the conviviality of peace (see Loupiac 1998, 122, who peculiarly abstains from offering parallels), and in addition to their practical usefulness as a source of light and warmth, the turf fires function here symbolically to foster the feeling of a ‘home away from home’, a much-needed illusion for these soldiers who can refrain from mutual kin killing—at least temporarily. These temporary altars are customary in country sacrifices (see Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor. C. 1.19.13 and Nisbet/Rudd 2004 ad Hor. C. 3.8.3-4), but here the context merely alludes to sacrificial ritual. luxere Cf. Tibull. 1.1.6 luceat igne focus (Housman). 199-200 iunctoque cubili | extrahit insomnis bellorum fabula noctes The convivial atmosphere of the extemporaneous bivouac is complete with physical proximity and war stories that drag out late into the night. For this sense of extraho (OLD 4), see Val. Fl. 1.277-8 Thracius hic noctem dulci testudine uates | extrahit. 200 insomnis… fabula noctes The hypallage of insomnis (see 5.805-6 quae nox tibi proxima uenit, | insomnis) is familiar to the modern ear (e.g., the enclosing word order in Esther 6.1 noctem illam rex duxit insomnem) but rare in Latin and not found before Verg. A. 9.166-7 (imitated by St. Theb. 2.74). The remaining occurrences are Hor. C. 3.7.6-8; [Quint.] Decl. 258.8; Sil. 15.110; Stat. Theb. 2.74; Tac. Hist. 2.49. The adjective insomnis, however, may also agree with fabula, which makes the hypallage much more interesting if we accept insomnis nox as the norm. 201 quae gesserunt fortia is an authorial gloss for 200 fabula. 201-2 quo primum steterint campo, qua lancea dextra | exierit The war stories sound quite ordinary. The narrator’s point is to make these soldiers appear as ordinary men caught in the wheels of fate.
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202-5 On fate being blamed for bringing about reconciliation merely to exacerbate the crimes of civil war, see 194n. above and Long 2007, 187 n. 22. 203 multa negant, quod solum fata petebant There is a trace of repentance in the soldiers’ denial of multa ‘quae erant in scelere’ (Comm. Bern.; Housman). They fought out of necessity, for (lit.) ‘they were only seeking their fate;’ for the sense of necessity conveyed with petere (= poscere), see 378n. below and TLL X.1.1973.44-5. For the expression, see 9.545 noua fata petebant. 204 miseris renouata fides On the fides of the wretches, cf. 8.535. Housman explains fides as loyalty of amicitia and caritas. The concept of fides is studied in Fraenkel 1916; cf. also Heinze 1928, and Lombardi Vallauri 1961 (reviewed by Nisbet 1963). 205-6 nam postquam foedera pacis | cognita Petreio The phrase foedera pacis indicates some sort of agreement between Caesarians and Pompeians. L. seems to imply that the existence of a foedus pacis is Petreius’ interpretation of the inter-camp fraternizing. L.’s account here differs conspicuously from Caesar’s, whose version emphasizes the fraternization and the resulting armistice as a spontaneous outcome of the soldiers’ own initiative, and adds that the Pompeians themselves asked him to spare their lives, provided he would grant his pardon also to their commanders; Caes. BC 1.74 primum agunt [sc. the Pompeians] gratias omnibus [sc. the Caesarians], quod sibi perterritis pridie pepercissent: eorum se beneficio uiuere. deinde de imperatoris [sc. Caesar’s] fide quaerunt, rectene se illi sint commissuri […] fidem ab imperatore de Petreii atque Afranii uita petunt, ne quod in se scelus concepisse neu suos prodidisse uideantur; cf. Appian BC 2.42.170 λόγοι περὶ συµβάσεων κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος. Caesar wants us to believe that the Petreians are taking matters into their own hands by committing themselves to his clemency, whereas L. focalizes on Petreius’ own view of the events. As Ahl 1976, 194 rightly points out, L. has so far ‘given no inkling of any treachery behind the fraternization,’ but his explanation that L.’s poetic skill here somehow fails in the face of this blatant inconsistency is unconvincing. For a thorough critique of Ahl’s interpretation, and two complementary new readings, see Masters 1992, 78-87 and Leigh 1997, 53-63. See 207n, 235-6n. and 348-51n. below.
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205 creuit amore nefas In this poem nefas is a catchword for the crime of civil war; see 172n. above, and especially 549n. below. foedera pacis These are just colloquia in Caes. 1.74 libera colloquiorum facultas, but L. exaggerates the consequences of the fraternization to highlight the atrocities ordered by Petreius at 208 below. Contrast Petreius’ ironic foedere nostro at 234 below. 206 Petreio Petreius has remained unmentioned since 144. Although perfectly understandable strategically in a strictly military sense, his hostile behavior here is problematic to L.’s narrative strategy hinged on Concordia; see 5 and 189-95. uenum ‘For sale’ (OLD s.v. ‘uenus2’ 1a). Rare in poetry, in which it occurs only twice more: Pacuv. Trag. 121; Prop. 3.19.21. It is an accusative of destination, analogous to a supine, as seen in prose uses of uenum ire and uenum dare. 207-8 famulas scelerata ad proelia dextras | excitat This is still the vocabulary of civil war. For scelerata proelia, see the Virgilian passage at 235-6n. below. L. presents Petreius arming his slaves against Roman soldiers, surely a sacrilegious feat for a Roman. L. clearly resents Petreius’ failure in profiting from the opportunity offered him to spare Rome more senseless bloodshed. Much more ‘professionally,’ Caesar clearly distinguishes here between Afranius’ resigned attitude of accepting whatever may befall and Petreius’ determination to continue the hostilities all costs: Caes. BC 1.75 Petreius non deserit sese. armat familiam. 208-9 hostis turba stipatus inermis | praecipitat castris The hyperbaton here creates the juxtaposition stipatus inermis, where inermis agrees with hostis as dir. obj. of praecipitat. The juxtaposition is paradoxical, for stipare in L. is elsewhere used exclusively of troops deployed on the field ‘in arms’ and ready for battle: see 782n. below; 7.492 Pompei densis acies stipata cateruis; 10.534 molis in exiguae spatio stipantibus armis. The effect of stipatus in describing Petreius as surrounded by this throng of armed sklaves (turba), is to convey the absurdity of the situation and Petreius’ lack of vision, yet even Caesar (BC 1.75) convenes that Petreius’ refusal to give in to promises of clemency is understand-
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able at least from a military standpoint, for the price of clemency is defeat (Ahl 1976, 194). 209-10 iunctosque amplexibus ense | separat Also here the juxtaposition amplexibus ense produces the same effect as in 208. Here the paradox conveys Petreius’ cruelty 210 multo disturbat sanguine pacem Caesar’s Spanish campaign was styled at 4.2 (see above) by non multa caede. The responsibility of spilt blood, as it now turns out, is Pompeian. 211 addidit ira ferox moturas proelia uoces No blood can be spilt without the apposite fury, hence Petreius’ provides some flaming rhetoric to motivate it. 212-35 Petreius exhorts his crowd ‘to the most blatant and murderous hysteria’ (Due 1962, 84), but the gist of his words is a ‘strategically correct’ enactment of Pompeian ideology as seen at 2.531-95, for both Pompey and Petreius support the better cause of the senate. Pompey inevitably fails to rouse his men to battle because he admits his preference for suffering the first defeat in order to keep the moral upper hand in civil war. On Pompey’s speech in Book II, see Fantham 1992a, 17898. On he moral dilemma facing the Pompeian faction, see now Long 2007.) The difference here is that, while Pompey’s speech is weak and fails (2.596-600), here Petrius succeeds in rousing his men to murderous actions. The speech begins with three rhetorical questions (212-19) that build up to his harangue, articulated in a twofold negative enumeration (220-22a), a quick strong pause (222b), and a fourfold series of more negations that turn out to be the proleptic apodoses (223-6) of the delayed protasis (227). Caesar’s report of Petreius’ harangue is characteristically tendentious; BC 1.76.1 flens Petreius manipulos circumit militesque appellat, neu se neu Pompeium absentem imperatorem suum aduersariis ad supplicium tradant, obsecrat (after this, Caesar then describes the renewal of the oath of allegiance). 212-13 inmemor o patriae, signorum oblite tuorum |…miles Another apostrophe, this time to the soldier(s), explicitly indicated by the vocative miles. The emphasis on the soldier’s forgetfulness is twofold. First the soldier is inmemor, simply forgetful, of his fatherland, as if forgetfulness of the homeland would eventually overcome a soldier
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who has been fighting a long war away from home. Then the action of forgetting is rendered with the perfect participle oblite – (lit.) ‘[o you,] who have forgotten’. The effect of the soldier’s forgetfulness lasts in the narrator’s present and in the poet’s Neronian present, too. On L.’s tenses as indicators of narrative time, see 49n. above. signorum The mention of the standards as a synecdoche for army recalls the powerful figure that opens the poem, the dramatic image of Roman standards facing Roman standards: 1.7-8 obuia | signis signa, pares aquilas. Here, however, the standards seem to stand for the ‘cause’ (213 causae), which in civil war is one’s blind loyalty to one’s faction. 213-14 non potes hoc causae, miles, praestare senatus | adsertor The proleptic hoc builds anticipation before the correlated ut-clause spells out what the soldiers will be able to provide for the senate’s cause. Order: non potes hoc, miles, praestare adsertor causae senatus; or: non potes hoc causae, miles, praestare adsertor senatus. The syntax of causae seems intentionally ambiguous, for both interpretations are possible. Housman seems to support the dative, for he prints a comma (perhaps unnecessarily) between praestare and senatus, with the genitive senatus depending on adsertor: ‘…can you not do this for our cause (causae dative), to return (to be) the Senate’s champion after defeating Caesar?’ (Braund, adapted). If causae is genitive, the general sense does not change much, but the genitive senatus would depend on causae: ‘…can you not do this, (i.e.) to return as champion of the Senate’s cause (causae genitive) after defeating Caesar?’ 214 adsertor The phrase in libertatem or liberali causa or manu adserere ‘to claim as free’ is a legal term used formally in manumission (OLD s.v. ‘adsero’ 2b). In legal terminology, the sole adsero functions (perhaps by ellipsis) as having the same meaning as the whole phrase. 215 certe, ut uincare, potes The least the Pompeians can do is to be defeated. The concise syntax, with the new ut-clause dependent on hoc, achieves Petreius’ intended effect of shaming his soldiers into combat. 215-19 dum ferrum… petita est In his rhetorical-question mode, Petreius lists weapons (ferrum), uncertain fate (incerta fata, sc. of battle), and blood gushing out of many wounds as what his soldiers should prefer to servitude to Caesar.
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216 quique… sanguis Order: et non derit sanguis qui fluat multo uulnere. 217 damnata… signa Petreius’ legionaries had previously abhorred Caesar’s standards and joined the Pompeian cause. For this use of damno, Housman quotes Ov. Tr. 2.3 cur modo damnatas repeto, mea crimina, musas? 218 utque habeat famulos nullo discrimine Caesar The purpose clause than ends Petreius’ rhetorical question clearly depicts Caesar as a tyrant, for capitulating to him means to acquiesce to a servile fate. The only hope is that the new master will treat all his servant with equal clemency. 219 uita petita The unattractive homoeoteleuton has reliable manuscript authority but it has caused some editors (Oudendorp, Francken, Haskins) to prefer to it V’s variant petenda, see Housman’s note. 220-7 numquam… | …non… | … | non… | …nulli… | non… non On negative enumeration see 107-9n. above and 299-302n. below. 220-1 numquam nostra salus pretium mercesque nefandae | proditionis erit The emphatic numquam aptly completes the rhetorical device whereby Petreius is answering his own question (hypophora), and the awkward hendiadys pretium mercesque is hard to solve in translation but greatly contributes to the emphasis. 221-2 non hoc ciuilia bella, | ut uiuamus, agunt Instead of saying that the reason they fight is not survival, Petreius personifies the war and says the war does not go on (agunt) for their survival. 222 trahimur sub nomine pacis ‘We are being dragged off (sc. into slavery) in the name of peace.’ If Caesar wins, freedom loses. Petreius’ speech assumes the (next) move of surrendering to Caesar, which L. does not narrate directly, whereas Caesar does (Caes. BC. 1.84-8 = end of Book I). 223-7 Petreius recaps (some of) the technical innovations narrated by Lucretius in Book V: metallurgy (Lucr. 5.1241-96), city walls (Lucr. 5.1108-19), cavalry (Lucr. 5.1296-339), fleet (Lucr. 5.1442).
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223-4 non… | eruerent The protasis of this unreal conditional sentence comes last after three apodoses, of which this is the first. On the unreal conditional sentence, see Gildersleeve/Lodge § 597. 223 chalybem Iron is so called from the people who inhabited the south shore of the Black Sea, in whose territory iron was mined (Callimachus frg. 110.48-50 Pfeiffer; RE III.2099). Verg. A. 10.174 insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis (with Harrison’s note); Serv. ad Verg. G. 1.58 Chalybes populi sunt, apud quos nascitur ferrum, unde abusiue dicitur chalybs ipsa materies (with Mynors and Thomas ad loc.). The name of the people is often used metonymically for the metal: Aesch. Prom. 133; Soph. Trach. 1260; Verg. A. 8.446. penitus fugiente metallo This unique phrase poetically describes iron as elusive (OLD s.v. ‘fugio’ 12b), with reference to the difficulty in mining it; cf. Manil. 4.396 at nisi perfossis fugiet te montibus aurum. See 297n. below. Petreius’ point is that one would not endure the toil of extracting metal from the earth unless one would need it. Given L.’s moralizing tendency and his disapproval of war and luxury, it is hard not to think about the ancients’ moral attitude toward mining, chiefly related to wealth; e.g., Ov. M. 1.138 itum est in uiscera terrae. 225 sonipes Solemnly epic, the noun occurs eleven times in L., just as many as equus. Possibly, it stands here (but surely at 1.220) as a synecdoche pars pro toto for ‘cavalry’. As an adjective, sonipes is attested since Accius Trag. 602 Ribbeck , as a noun since Catull. 63.41 (Getty ad L. 1.220; cf. also Gagliardi ad L. 1.220, and Pease ad Verg. A. 4.135). The epic variations on equus are conveniently listed in Axelson 1945: 50-1. As documented by the eleven occurrences of this noun (Deferrari/Fanning/Sullivan 1965 s.v.), L.’s fondness for solemn diction is less an ornamental display of rhetorical dexterity and more an expression of artistic intent aimed at establishing his often anti-traditional poem into the ancient Roman epic tradition: Naevius, for instance, is credited with creating the compound quadrupes; cf. Gagliardi 1999: 913. 226 turrigeras From the Hellenistic period onwards, towers were mounted on ships verisimilarly to reproduce on water the advantages of siege warfare on land; Polyb. 16.3.12. L. uses it again of ships at 3.514 (see Hunink 1992b ad loc.; cf. Sil. 14.500). The only other occurrence
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in L. is 1.188 (with Getty 1940, Gagliardi 1989, and Wuilleumier/Le Bonniec 1962 ad loc.), where it is memorably applied to the personification of Rome as Patria, the Homeland, appearing to Caesar and warning him not to cross the Rubicon (cf. Sil. 4.408). This adjective occurs only sixteen times in the entire corpus of Latin literature (three times of which in L.). Other than ships, Rome or other fortified cities (as in Verg. A. 7.631 and 10.253), turriger is said of either Cybele (Ov. F. 4.224 and 6.321; Tr. 2.24; Prop. 3.17.35; St. Ach. 2.61) or elephants (Plin. NH 11.4; Sil. 9.560). 227 si bene libertas umquam pro pace daretur Petreius’ point, finally, is that (their) freedom is won by (civil) war. 228-9 hostes nempe meos sceleri iurata nefando | sacramenta tenent Petreius’ sarcastic nempe adumbrates his men’s will to excuse their opponents (with whom they share bonds of kinship) as a result of the opponents’ sworn loyalty (iurata… sacramenta) to Caesar: 1.2 iusque datum sceleri. The term sacramentum technically denotes a military oath of allegiance (OLD 2a): Caes. BC 1.86.4 neu quis inuitus sacramentum dicere cogatur; Aug. Anc. 16 milia civivm roma<no>rvm <svb> sacramento meo fvervnt circiter ta. 229 sceleri… nefando Cf. 1.667-8 scelerique nefando | nomen erit uirtus, where L. spells out the paradox here implied in Petreius’ reference to the oath of allegiance. The iurata sacramenta that lead to nefandum scelus are equated in civil war with fides to one’s commander; see 230 and 245 below, but contrast 204 above. 229-30 at uobis uilior hoc est | uestra fides Petreius manipulates his own soldiers’ shame by insultingly calling their fides (i.e., their loyalty to the Pompeian cause) cheaper than their enemy’s allegiance. The antecedent of 229 hoc is 228-9 iurata… sacramenta. 230 fides Here fides has the same value of loyalty to one’s commander as at 245 below, but contrast 204n. above. The fides to one’s commander in war against foreign enemies is identical to the fides toward one’s homeland, but in civil war fides breaks down into two conflicting values. 230-1 quod pro causa pugnantibus aequa | et ueniam sperare licet Petreius’ soldiers’ loyalty is unworthy because they dare hope for Cae-
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sar’s pardon even though they are fighting for the right cause (pro causa… aequa). Petreius appears convinced that the Pompeians have the moral upper hand in the war. 231-2 pro dira pudoris | funera On the interjection pro, cf. 96 and 194 above. The exclamation constitutes the climax of Petreius’ speech, where pudor means not to kill fellow citizens (see Fantham 1992a, 177 ad 2.518). The death of pudor (roughly rendered with ‘honor’ by Duff and Braund) is what the Petreians should regret. With Petreius’ words, the author offers the Petreians a desperate opportunity to earn the selfrespect they would have surrendered to Caesar’s clementia. pudoris See 26n. above. Of the twenty-four occurrences of pudor in this epic (or twenty-five, if Håkanson’s conjecture pudorem is to be accepted; Fantham 1992a, 133 ad loc.), seven are in exclamations: 2.517-18 heu… |… pudori, 708 heu pudor; 8.597 pro superum pudor, 678 pro summi fata pudoris; 10.47 and 77 pro pudor; cf. also 5.59 fortunae, Ptolemaee, pudor crimenque deorum. 232-5 Petreius’ speech ends with a sarcastic apostrophe to absent Pompey, whose effort to recruit allies from the opposite end of the world is seen as supererogatory: the Petreians have already negotiated with Caesar for his safety. 232 toto… in orbe The hyperbole, a frequent one (cf. 1.166, 538; 2.280, 643; 3.230; 5.266; 6.819; 7.362, 400 etc.) among L.’s many hyperboles, prepares the soldiers for the biting sarcasm to follow. TLL s.v. ‘orbis.’ 235-6 omnis concussit | mentes scelerumque reduxit amorem Petreius’ paradox shakes his men to rekindle their lust for crime, scelerum amor. Similarly L. describes Cato’s words to Brutus, 2.325 excitat in nimios bello ciuilis amores (see Fantham 1992a, 138-9 ad 2.3235). That L. condemns civil war is apparent in in nimios, whereas here L.’s disapproval of Petreius’ instigation to resume the hostilities is conveyed by scelerum. For the vocabulary to express the conflict of values between the necessity of war to avert more evil and the intrinsic evil of internecine strife, our passage is perhaps even closer than 2.323-5 to the Virgilian model: Verg. A. 7.461 saeuit amore ferri et scelerata insania belli | ira super. On L.’s programmatic insistence on the peculiar reversals of civil war, introduced at the outset of the poem in 1.2 iusque da-
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tum sceleri, see Masters 1992, 83 (musing on what ‘right’ means – or not – in civil war) and Esposito 2001, 51-2. 236-42 This simile maks the first of three phases of anger (see 267n, and 284-91n. below). After Petreius’ hortatory speech to his men, the author compares Petreius’ Pompeians to captive beasts. Petreius’ words have the effect of a taste of gore in the beasts’ parched mouths. 239 paruos Housman silently adopts the reading of P before correction as the archaizing nominative in place of paruus. Almost all the other editors silently print paruus, followed by Badalì, whose apparatus reports the MS authority for Housman’s paruos. 240 uenit in ora cruor, redeunt rabiesque furorque Preceded by the strongly assonant cruor, the roaring alliteration r- r- continues with the equally strong assonant furor. As the grammatical subject of redeunt, the abstracts rabies and furor are given agency and the polysyndeton aptly evokes the reaction of a no longer captive predator that anticipates the taste of fresh blood. The effect of Petreius’ words on his men exacerbates the dire consequences of civil strife. What should have been saluted as a successful exhortation to fight is instead presented as instigation to pointless cruelty and lust for blood. 241 admonitaeque… fauces The line is enclosed between the beast’s fauces and their epithet. The gore ‘reminds’ the domesticated beast of its gory nature. It is hard not to think of the fratricidal myth of Rome. 242 feruet… ira On ira in epic, see Braund/Most 2003. 243 itur in omne nefas On nefas, see 172n. above. This is not the last time the soldiers face the crime of kin slaughter, for the horrifying crimes will be repeated, as these words are echoed again in the poem: 5.272 imus in omne nefas; 6.147 pronus ad omne nefas; 6.527 omne nefas superis; and especially 7.123 omne nefas uictoris erit. In emphasizing the horror of kinsmen’s killing in civil war, L. has subverted (or at least exaggerated the negative nuance of) a famous alcaic stanza: Hor. C. 3.4.65-8 uis consili expers mole ruit sua: | uim temperatam di quoque prouehunt | in maius, idem odere uiris | omne nefas animo mouentis, where by describing the crimes of Jupiter’s enemies as omnia nefas, Horace clearly alludes to the civil wars that ended with Octavian’s victory.
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243-5 quae fortuna deorum | inuidia… | …fides ‘Loyalty committed the outrages which Fortune might have occasioned...’ 243-4 deorum | inuidia The objective genitive is governed by the ablative inuidia. Cf. 2.36-7 (with Fantham 1992, 86 ad loc.). Cf. also 7.446, where the phrase caeco… casu (following the famous 7.445-6 sunt nobis nulla profecto | numina) represents the judgment that Fortuna is blind to justice. deorum Only with the following line does one realize that 243 deorum actually goes with 244 inuidia. The word order, however, encourages the syntactical ambiguity of deorum at first, perhaps to reflect on the nature of this fortuna (which Haskins, Francken, and Shackleton Bailey personify/capitalize). On the association of fortuna (especially in war) with inuidia, see e.g., Cic. Pro Milone 91 in hac Milonis siue inuidia siue fortuna; Brutus 153 Q. etiam Caepio, uir acer et fortis, cui fortuna belli crimini, inuidia populi calamitati fuit; Q. Fr. 9.16.6 ita fit ut et consiliorum superiorum conscientia et praesentis temporis moderatione me consoler et illam Acci similitudinem non modo iam ad invidiam sed ad fortunam transferam, quam existimo leuem et imbecillam ab animo firmo et gravi tamquam fluctum a saxo frangi oportere. Discussing inuidia deorum, Jal 1962, 170-200, reads 243-5 in conjunction with 807-9 si libertatis superis tam cura placeret | quam uindicta placet (see n. below). As Fantham 2003, 241-2 remarks, however, this sentiment about angered gods returns in Tacitus Hist. 1.3 non esse dis curam securitatem nostram, esse ultionem, and what neither Tacitus nor L. indicate is the misdeed for which the Romans are being punished with civil strife. Fantham 2003 goes on to explore the literary (Virgilian) background of the gods’ anger in (2.1 iamque irae patuere deum), which is manifest in L.’s Book II because ‘it is designed to echo Virgil’s [Aeneid Book II] account of the fall of Troy in the fall of the free Roman Republic.’ 244 caeca bellorum in nocte The din of battle is rendered metaphorically as the ‘night of war’, which seems unique in Latin. Cf. 2.262 caeca telorum in nube; 4.488 in caeca bellorum nube; Verg. A. 2.397 multaque per caecam congressi proelia noctem, where the Trojan proelia are, in fact, nocturnal. The hypallage caeca nox occurs frequently in Latin: see 10.506 caeca nocte; Acc. Trag. 32; Catull. 68.44; Cic. Pro Milone 50; Verg. A. 2.397 (see 244n. below); Ov. M. 10.476
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tenebrisque et caecae munere noctis; 11.521 caecaque nox premitur tenebris hiemisque suisque; Manil. 1.716 per caecam mirantur lumina noctem; Sen. Oed. 1049 caecam… noctem; Thy. 668 nocte caeca; etc. Comm. Bern. ignores the ambiguity and paraphrases: ‘et fecit fides monstra quae caeca nocte bellorum potuit celare fortuna.’ L.’s word order, however, emphasizes the juxtaposition inuidia caeca, which would be unique in Roman poetry, if one interprets caeca as referring (with a daring hypallage) either to inuidia only or ambiguously to both inuidia and nocte. On ‘blind inuidia,’ rhetorically savvy L. may have recalled Cn. Manlius Vulso’s speech in Livy’s account of his campaign in Asia Minor (the only occurrence of the phrase in Latin): Livy 38.49.5 caeca inuidia est, patres conscripti, nec quicquam aliud scit quam detractare uirtutes, corrumpere honores ac praemia earum (on Manlius’ campaign, see Grainger 1995). The only two times that inuidia is accompanied by an adjective in Virgil, the adjective is either G. 3.37 infelix or A. 11.337 obliqua. 245 fecit monstra fides The paradox is that obedience and loyalty to a commander generates monstrous crimes (cf. 230 above; but contrast 204). See Leigh 1997, 191. 245-6 inter mensasque torosque | quae modo complexu fouerunt pectora caedunt The antecedent of pectora has been delayed and juxtaposed to caedunt. The effect is that what both audience and poet most dread is happening now, in the present caedunt. Kinsmen are being slaughtered by kinsmen. 247 primo ferrum strinxere gementes Cf. 183 gemis above. Reluctant to taking up arms, the soldiers are groaning, as in both dying and lament; Verg. A. 1.464-5 pictura pascit inani | multa gemens (Aeneas contemplating the images of fallen Troy in Juno’s temple at Carthage); 11.633 gemitus morientum. 248 iusti gladius dissuasor With a daring, the sword is given life as a ‘discourager’ (Braund; OLD s.v. ‘dissuasor’ 1a), or better a ‘speaker against justice’ (OLD 1b), with the objective genitive iusti. On nouns in –(t)or, see 4n. rector above. 249-50 dum feriunt, odere suos, animosque labantis | confirmat ictu Hatred of one’s own kin is necessary to fight in this war and it appears to be reinforced with each strike. On labare, see 41n. above. Caesar’s
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report of this betrayal sounds (perhaps tendentiously) more realistic; Caes. BC 1.76.4-5 edicunt [sc. the Pompeian commanders], penes quem quisque sit Caesaris miles, ut producatur: productos palam in praetorio interficiunt. sed plerosque ei, qui receperant, celant noctuque per uallum emittunt. sic terror oblatus a ducibus, crudelitas in supplicio, noua religio iurisiurandi spem praesentis deditionis sustulit mentesque militum conuertit et rem ad pristinam belli rationem redegit. [251] The spurious line et scelerum turba, rapiuntur colla parentum is absent in the main manuscripts. 252-3 ac, uelut occultum pereat scelus, omnia monstra | in facie posuere ducum In marking the moment in which the civil conflict unveils its very nature, L. builds up the expectation for the big battle to come in Book VII, with the vocabulary of spectacle and spectatorship (monstra, facie ducum); cf. Scaeva wishing that Caesar were there to watch him at 6.159-60 and Vulteius at 569 below, prompting his men to kill one another in plane view. The (so far) hidden crime (of civil war) has now ‘perished’ and then that omnia monstra (cf. 245 fecit monstra fides) are before the eyes of Caesar and the Pompeian leaders. L. may also be playing with the manifold semantic value of monstrum. The first time it is used in the poem at 1.589 monstra means both ‘freaks of nature’ and ‘prodigies’, for the monstrous births mentioned in Book I ominously announce the crimes to come. More monstra manifest themselves before the battle at Pharsalus, where the omens are said to be of comfort to the army (gaudet monstris), for the soldiers are in fact aware of what they are praying for and actually hope to slash their fathers’ throats and their brothers’ breasts: 7.181-3 hoc solamen erat quod uoti turba nefandi | conscia, quae partum iugulos, quae pectora fratrum sperabat, gaudet monstris; cf. also 7.462-4 quo noscere possent | facturi quae monstra forent, uidere parentum | frontibus aduersis fraternaque comminus arma. 253 iuuat esse nocentis ‘It’s good to be nasty;’ cf. Caesar’s last words to the imago patriae appeared to stop him and his army at the Rubicon: 1.203 ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerit hostem. The Pompeians have no choice but to obey Petreius’ orders and find within themselves the capability to be nocentes, to do harm to their friends and kinsmen. This sacrilegious behavior will eventually turn out to prove advanta-
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geous for the Petreian and Afranian survivors, who will earn Caesar’s pardon and will get to go home. Lucky men!
254–336 Pompeians in Trouble Another authorial apostrophe, this time to Caesar, again interrupts the narration (254-9). The two armies head back toward Ilerda, with the Pompeians now enduring thirst (259-66). Overcome by despair, the Pompeians kill their own horses for food and then lash out in a warlike frenzy, but Caesar refuses to engage in battle and causes their furor to subside by letting their thirst do his work (267-91). The thirsty Pompeians vainly look for water on the hillock (292-336). 254-9 The mention of Pharsalus and Egypt shows that the narrator’s apostrophe to Caesar is voiced with historical hindsight. 254 tu, Caesar The address with the second person pronoun tu is particularly strong, almost startling for the reader, who feels summoned into the text, as it were, and named ‘Caesar’. spoliatus milite multo This directly contradicts 2 non multa caede (see n. above), but L. perhaps is issuing a note of sympathy to Caesar on account of the Caesarians slaughtered in the Pompeian camp. Caesar’s account of this slaughter is contrasted with Caesar’s own clemency (perhaps tendentious) for he reports that those Pompeians who were found in his camp were sent back unharmed: Caes. BC 1.77 Caesar, qui milites aduersariorum in castra per tempus colloquii uenerant, summa diligentia conquiri et remitti iubet. sed ex tribunorum militum centurionumque numero nonnulli sua uoluntate apud eum remanserunt. quos ille postea magno in honore habuit; centurions in priores ordines, equites Romanos in tribunicium restituit honorem. 255 agnoscis superos Haskins plucks two nuances in agnoscis, which conveys Caesar’s acknowledgement of not only the gods’ favor but also their power because agnosco can also mean ‘to show respect’. The expression recalls Verg. A. 12.260 accipio agnoscoque deos, where the seer Tolumnius acknowledges the gods’ intervention, but misreads the omen of the eagle that catches the swan and then drops it into the river (see Traina ad loc.). He assumes it to mean that the Trojans will flee Italy and (like Pandarus in the Iliad) opens the hostilities by launching a spear that kills one of Aeneas’ Arcadian allies. Like Tolumnius, Caesar
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here acknowledges the gods but, unlike Tolumnius, he will be proven right because the present slaughter to come will bring him closer to his victorious fate. 255-6 neque enim tibi maior… | … fortuna fuit With tragic irony, the poet calls this slaughter the greatest fortune for Caesar. Cf. Pompey’s words at 2.537 di melius belli tulimus quod damna priores, with Fantham’s n.: ‘[I]nverting normal military values, L. treats casualties as a moral advantage, inflicting guilt over the victor.’ 258-9 hoc siquidem solo ciuilis crimine belli | dux causae melioris eris The apostrophe ends midline with the striking paradox that even a criminal may produce a beneficial victory at least for one faction. Here the causa melioris is transferred to Caesar because he will spare citizen soldiers (cf. 213n. above). 259-60 polluta nefanda | agmina caede The attributes precede their nouns creating the familiar alternate order abAB. 260 duces Duff understands ‘Afranius and Petreius’, whereas Braund (259-61) preserves the ambiguity in duces and iunctis: ‘The generals | do not care to entrust their troops stained with wicked slaughter | to a nearby camp.’ iunctis castris Once the slaughter has taken place, it is no longer possible for the commanders to camp near one another. The use of iunctis (lit. ‘joined’) reinforces the sense of missed opportunity that this event constitutes. 261 altaeque moenia… Ilerdae Cf. 11-13 above. Proper walls are supposed to be high but so is the city protected by them. Like Rome (Verg. 1.7 altae moenia Romae, memorably praised for its rhythm and sound by Quint. Inst. 11.3.38), also Ilerda rises on hilly ground, and with the mention of the city walls in the same phrase as the city’s name the Virgilian hypallage is a most apposite literary conceit. 262 intendere fugam Curt. 3.11.19 fugam intenderunt; 5.12.17; 10.7.19; cf. Livy 36.45.1 fugere intendit; OLD s.v. ‘intendo’ 8. 264 inopes undae… cingere The attribute inopes is here acting as a masculine plural noun, object of cingere. The attributive inops unda is more common (e.g., Sen. Ag. 572 and Oed. 43). The adjective inops normally takes the genitive of its object (OLD 6a; sometimes with the
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abl., as in OLD 6b), but the unique feature here is the use of unda as the object of inops, which occurs nowhere else; 333 undae ieiunia below might be yet one more variant. praerupta fossa With the exception of Ov. M. 12. 370 and 14.547, in poetry praerumpo only occurs as the adjectival form of the perfect participle. Caesar’s trench is designed to prevent the Pompeians’ access to water; Caes. BC 1.81.6 conatur tamen eos uallo fossaque circummunire, ut quam maxime repentinas eorum eruptions demoretur. 265 pati depends on auet (Oudendorp; Housman). 267 ut leti uidere uiam L. leaves the subject unidentified (see 148-66n. above), but it is the same Pompeians who will be dying of thirst. The nuance of leti… uiam here is not so much that they see what their ‘path’ of/to death is (as e.g. in Hor. C. 1.28.16 calcanda semel uia leti), but rather that the way they will die (of thirst and starvation) is now apparent to them, as in Grat. 357 mortis enim patuere uiae; cf. Tibull. 1.3.50 leti mille repente uiae; Sen. HF 1245 mortis inueniam uiam. For sound and rhythm, and the closest parallel, see Lucr. 2.917 et leti uidere uias. 268-9 miles… | … mactauit equos This gesture of despair is pronounced non utile clausis | auxilium. Caes. BC 1.81.7 omnia sarcinaria iumenta interfici iubent. 271 effuso passu ‘With hasty steps’ (Haskins). Seeing their commitment to dying (cf. 272 deuotos below), Caesar reverses his intentions and calls his men off. He had originally spurred them to challenge the fleeing Pompeians at 162-3 above. 272 ad certam deuotos tendere mortem The use of deuotos points to the Roman ritual of the deuotio, with which one devotes/sacrifices one’s enemies or oneself to the gods of the Underworld; cf. 2.307 with Fantham 1992a, 136 ad loc. The ritual of deuotio, however, is here perverted because it is futile and self-destructive (Hardie 1993, 53). The perversion of deuotio reoccurs in the scene of Vulteius’ scene of selfsacrifice at 540-1, on which see below. On the deuotio in general, see Versnel in OCD 460b s.v. 273-80 Narrowly confined to less than eight lines, Caesar’s words to his soldiers are opposed to Petreius’ not only because they are dissua-
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sive rather than hortatory but also because they are concise and sound rather lapidary in comparison with Petreius’ elaborate speech at 212-35. 273 tela tene ‘Hold your weapons.’ The alliteration intensifies Caesar’s dramatic address and looks forward to 7.474 cum Caesar tela teneret but there teneret actually describes Caesar’s wielding of his weapons just a few instants before the armies clash at Pharsalus. Cf. Verg. A. 5.514 tela tenens; 8.700; 11.559; Ov. M. 8.342. 275 uincitur haut gratis iugulo qui prouocat hostem L. emphasizes Caesar’s will to spare his own men. From Caesar’s own account of the campaign, L. therefore plucks the gist of Caesar’s strategy at Ilerda along with his determination to save face by seeming (as well as being) ready for battle even though he deemed it unnecessary: Caes. BC 1.82.2-3. iugulo On sacrificial language, see the index in Leigh 1997. 276 uilis… iuuentus The insulting epithet uilis is a deliberate attempt on L.’s part to make Caesar’s words sound disrespectfully outrageous. inuisa luce Cf. Verg. A. 6.435 lucem… perosi (with Norden 1926, ad loc.); for the phrase, cf. Sen. Tro. 939 lucis inuisae; [Quint.] Decl. Mai. 16.17 lucis inuisae. 277-8 non sentiet ictus, | incumbet gladiis, gaudebit sanguine fuso Two interpretations are possible. Haskins, Duff, and Braund, prefer not to carry the negative on to incumbet and gaudebit; e.g., ‘…insensible to wounds, they will fling themselves on our swords…’ (Duff). If we carry on the negative, however, like Petreius at 220-7 (see above; also 107-9n.), Caesar, too, would be resorting to negative enumeration but dispensing with the anaphora of the negative particle and opting for a double asyndeton. In either case, the resulting tricolon paradigmatically expresses three physical and emphatically ‘corporal’ aspects of combat in defeat: (not) feeling the enemy’s strikes, falling under their weapons, and glorifying oneself in one’s own spilt blood. Caesar seeks to quench in discourse, as it were, his men’s burning urge to fight. Contrast above with Petreius’ instigation to slaughter, 216 quique fluat multo non derit uolnere sanguis. 279-280 deserat hic feruor mentes, cadat impetus amens | perdant uelle mori L. invites us to contrast Caesar’s forbidding jussive with
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Petreius’ exhortations to die: 221-2 non hoc ciuilia bella, | ut uiuamus agunt. Naturally, the Pompeians and Caesarians disagree on the meaning of Petreius’ uiuamus. For Petreius a life of service to Caesar is not worth living. Senatorial libertas cannot be preserved without fighting; see 223-7n. above. 280 uelle For the infinitive as direct object, see Gildersleeve § 423 n. 2, cf. Kühner/Stegman I (1955) 665-6 § 124 d. deflagrare minaces Definitely prosaic (e.g., Cic. Pro Sestio 99), deflagrare occurs elsewhere in poetry only in the strongly alliterative/assonant Enn. scen. 90 fana flamma deflagrata (= Cic. TD 2.44.20). L.’s metaphorical use of the verb, with the substativized adjective minaces acting as its direct object, presupposes such expressions as Livy 40.8.9 deflagrare iras. 281 passus Elliptical of est, governs languescere and 280 deflagrare minaces. 282 substituit merso dum nox sua lumina Phoebo The metonymy lumina for stars is a common, but the subsistit… sua lumina of night seems unparalleled; but cf. Enn. Ann. 33 Skutsch (= 35 Flores) quom superum lumen nox intempesta teneret. 283-91 Adn. ad 285: ‘haec metaphora a gladiatoribus translata est, a quibus dicitur longe a saucio.’ The word order encloses the greater courage within the wounded breast. The medical/gladiatorial simile begins with the moment the gladiator’s body has received a mortal wound. Housman: The Romans’ fondness for gladiator shows inevitably gives rise to idioms and encourages the use of gladiatorial metaphors. The gladiatorial language is enriched with a simile (286-8), in which the precision of the medical language shows L.’s awareness of human blood physiology. On L.’s medical terminology, see Migliorini 1997, 95-125. 283 nulla data est… copia L. echoes but innovates on the rhythm of Ov. M. 11.786 optatae non est data copia mortis (echoed by L. at 7.251 adest totiens optatae copia pugnae). The expression recalls such formulas as Verg. 9.720 quoniam data copia pugnae (see also 1.520 and 11.248 et coram data copia fandi; TLL IV.910.40-8). Cf. also L. 3.693 rara datur si copia ferri, utuntur pelago (with Hunink 1992b ad loc.).
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miscendae… mortis This phrase with the simple miscere is unique. Bentley, followed by Haskins, prefers the variant miscendi… Martis, but Housman is right in following Grotius, who reads miscendae… mortis on the basis of 7.100-1 gladiis mortemque suorum | permiscere meis; cf. Sil. 4.589-90 hic hostem orbatus telo complectitur ulnis | permixta morte coercet. 284 paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt The lack of opportunity for fighting triggers in the Pompeians the type of physiological processes that occur in a mortally wounded body, beginning with the emotion, ira, and the psychological state, mentes tepescunt. In other words, the soldiers’ combat aggressiveness begins to cool down (Migliorini 1997, 97). cadit ira is the reading adopted by Housman; see Prop. 2.16.52; Ov. Am. 2.13.4; Sen. Thy. 742; cf. St. Th. 3.318. Badalì prints the variant fugit ira, possibly invoking the criterion of the lectio difficilior, for this would be the only place in the Latin corpus in which fugere has ira as its grammatical subject. Both readings have good manuscript authority. 286 dum dolor… recens L.’s description of what happens immediately after a human body has been mortally wounded continues with precision and focuses here on the lapse of time in which the pain is very recent and the wounded person still has control. 286-7 mobile neruis | conamen calidus praebet cruor The calidus cruor allows the body to keep moving. The language here clearly suggests L.’s awareness of the ancient physiological theories on blood and spirit. For the blood that receives its warmth from the heart, see Gal. de temper. 1.9 (= 1.568-9 Kühn). 287 conamen Only here in L., it is not common in poetry before Ovid; cf. Lucr. 6.326, 835, 1041. 287-8 ossaque nondum | adduxere cutem The compound adduco is used here with the sense of contraho, asin Verg. G. 3.483 sitis miseros adduxerat artus, but a closer parallel is perhaps the description of enamored Echo’s body wasting away for Narcissus indifference in Ov. M. 3.397-8 adducitque cutem macies et in aëra sucus | corporis omnis abit; cf. also Sen. Benef. 1.1.5 and 6.4.6; Epist. 77.4; [Inc. Auct.] Laus Pis. 140; Quint. Inst. 10.3.13. Perhaps the term specializes in a medical
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sense, as suggested by Cels. 7.9 ea, quae sic resoluimus, in unum adducere (TLL I.599.72-80). The sensibility remains as long as the bones have not caused the skin to shrink around them. L.’s precision in describing the physiology of a mortal wound prepares us for the dramatic depiction of the Pompeians succumbing to thirst. 288-9 si conscius… | … manus L. now wants us to focus on the moment when the blow has been inflicted and the conqueror stops and waits to see what comes next. The reader, therefore, is implicitly invited to step into the conqueror’s shoes and watch the victim expire. The observation, however, must be cool-blooded, as it were, in an effort to keep a scientific rather than a combat interest in the victims last moments. 289-90 tum frigidus artus | alligat atque animum subducto robore torpor By hypallage the torpor (instead of the limbs) is described as cold, but the feeling of torpor is in fact due to the cooling of the limbs (artus) as a result of blood loss. The word order here lets the frigidus torpor (the grammatical subject) envelop the limbs and spirit in its cold clasp, expelling all the strength from the body of the dying fighter. Compare with the description of Erichtho’s magic in bringing a corpse back to life by infusing the body with vital blood, appositely qualified as warm (6.667 feruenti), through newly opened wounds: 6.667-9 pectora tunc primum feruenti sanguine supplet | uolneribus laxata nouis taboque medullas | abluit et uirus large lunare ministrat; cf. also the description of the corpse’s cold body being newly infused with blood: 6.752 percussae gelido trepidant sub pectore fibrae | et noua desuetis subrepens uita medullis | miscetur morti. 291 postquam sicca rigens astrinxit uolnera sanguis The physiological processes described above occur after the blood has flowed toward the wound and dried it up, perhaps in the sense that it has begun coagulating. In this sense, rigens sanguis should describe the rough texture of coagulated blood on a wound, and possibly rigere belongs to the semantics of dying (e.g. 2.25 membra… fugiente rigentia uita). The opposite process, i.e., the undoing of rigidity from death to (temporary) life, is induced by Erichtho in a corpse: 6.750-1 protinus astrictus caluit cruor atraque fouit | uolnera et in uenas extremaque membra cucurrit. 292-6 The thirsty Pompeians desperately search for water underground, removing the soil not only with rakes but also with their own swords –
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a sorry sight, for swords are not meant to serve as digging implements and the soldiers’ despair is emphatically conveyed by L.’s insistence on the uselessness of heroic behavior. A soldier is supposed to fight not to dig with his sword. 292 inopes undae See 264n. above. 293 occultos latices abstrusaque flumina One of L.’s many reduplications: ‘hiding waters and invisible streams,’ or perhaps a hendiadys solvable as ‘the hiding waters of invisible streams.’ 294-5 nec solum rastris durisque ligonibus arua | sed gladiis fodere suis Drag hoes and mattocks are (still today) common garden implements. While it sounds odd that an army on campaign would carry such tools, they must have been easily available ubiquitously. Their mention here, however, depicts the despair for water and the hopeless search, which some were conducting by using their swords. Cf. Stat. Theb 3.589 rastraque et incurui saeuum rubuere ligones. 295-6 puteus… | … campi Thirst causes them to dig a well on the hill deep down to the level of the plain below. 297-8 The well is deeper than a gold mine. 298 Astyrici scrutator pallidus auri On the gold of the Astures, see Mart. 14.199.2 uenit ab auriferis gentibus Astur equus. Spain is renown for its metals; Plin NH 3.30 metallis… tota ferme Hispania scatet (cf. 33.96 [argentum] in Hispania pulcherrimum); Strabo 3.2.8 (from Posidonius). From Spain the Romans acquired not only most of their gold but also their silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron (Feeney 1982, 138-9 ad Sil. 1.228 hic omne metallum; Healy 1978, 48, 56, 59-61, 63). Water is as precious as gold, as seen from the laborious search of the Asturians who look for it in the deepest recesses of the earth. On water in Lucan, see Loupiac 1998, 79-112. scrutator For L.’s verbal nouns in –tor, see 4n. above. 299-302 Another example of negative enumeration: see 107-9n. above; Bramble 1982; Fantham ad 2.354-80. The list of water characteristics opens with 299 non tamen aut, followed by a second aut (300), then renewed with a neque, and rounded off with a final aut (302). Each member of the sequence mentions the characteristics of natural waters. By means of highly descriptive verbs, we hear the sound of fluvial
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streams (299 sonuerunt), we see the bright reflections of a newly found spring gushing out of volcanic rock (300 micuere), we feel the freshly moist drops exuding from the rocky sides and roof of a grotto (301 stillant), or the delicate squirt of a fountain spring from among the gravel under our feet (302 inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena). These images, however, are somewhat cruel (if not sadistic, as observed by Loupiac 1998, 80) because what is being described with the abundance of vividly tantalizing particulars is sorely needed and very much missed by the soldiers. 300 micuere noui… fontes Spring water that shimmers when it gushes out of newly found springs. 301 antra nec exiguo stillant sudantia rore Yet one more natural source of water, exuding from the walls of a cave. 302 aut inpulsa leui turbatur glarea uena Lastly, L. mentions a fourth kind of water source, a spring that forming a thin water layer of a bed of gravel. The gravel here is described as inpulsa while the water is leui, which could be a hypallage, in the sense that the gravel would be light and the water pushed through it. 303-4 super… iuuentus | extrahitur duris silicum lassata metallis For the adverb super, ‘on top’ (OLD 2a), Housman compares Verg. A. 5.679 inplentur… super puppes and explains ‘superiore loco stant qui extrahunt.’ The exact nuance, however, is hard to catch in translation: ‘[T]he young men are hauled | to the surface’ (Braund); ‘… up to the surface’ (Duff); ‘… furono tirati fuori dall’alto [= from above] i giovani (Badalí). The use of extraho is transferred from the mining context and would normally be applied to that which would be extracted from the soil, i.e., water, for which the Pompeians are desperately searching, or any kind of ore (see OLD s.v. ‘metallum’ 1), including flinty rocks. 303-4 exhausta… iuuentus | … lassat L. seems to overstate the men’s exhaustion, but at a closer look exhausta denotes the physical expenditure of fluids (multo sudore) that produces a feeling of exhaustion, while lassata more directly describes the actual expenditure of muscle energy. L. seems acquainted with the subtleties of medical terminology. On lassitudo, see. e.g., Cels. Med. 1.2.7 and 3.9; on exhaurio, 5.26.3b and 23a, although Celsus uses exhaurio also to describe exhaustion in general, e.g., 2.10.10.
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303 multo sudore On sudor, see 623n. below. 305-6 quoque minus possent siccos tolerare uapores | quaesitae fecistis aquae Apostrophe to the much sought water, which made the soldiers even less enduring of the heat. 305 siccos… uapores The apparent oxymoron is rare and only occurs in the context of the ancient explanation for the human physiology of sweat in dry heat, as in Sen. Epist. 51.6 quid cum sudatoriis, in quae siccus uapor corpora exhausurus includitur? omnis sudor per laborem exeat; see also NQ 2.1.2 sed siccus ille terrarum uapor, unde uentis origo est; Cels. 2.17.1 sudor etiam duobus modis elicitur, aut sicco calore aut balneo. siccus calor est et harenae calidae et Laconici et clibani et quarundam naturalium sudationum, ubi terra profusus calidus uapor aedificio includitur, sicut super Baias in murtetis habemus. 306-7 nec languida fessi | corpora sustentant epulis Along with other adjectives, languidus is used by Celsus in describing the body’s condition resulting from exposure to the south wind: 2.1.11 Auster aures hebetat, sensum tardat, capitis dolores mouet, aluum soluit, totum corpus efficit hebes, umidum, languidum. 307-8 mensasque perosi The prose-like perodi occurs only at end of verse (6.699, 8.336, 9.860), as in Virgil: A. 6.435 lucem… perosi (with Norden’s n.); 9.141 genus omne perosos; Val. Fl. 6.289. Out of eleven occurrences in Ovid, only three are not at end of verse: M. 7.145, 11.146, 12.582 vs. 2.379, 4.414, 8.183, 14.693; F. 3.577; Tr. 1.7.21, 4.4.81; Pont. 4.14.24. 308 auxilium fecere famem The paradox that staying hungry is helpful sounds typically Lucanian and is seemingly unique in Latin poetry. 310 ora super Anastrophe. 311 conluuies ‘Muck, decayed matter’ (OLD 1). Of the eight occurrences of this prosaic word in Latin, two are in poetry; Val. Fl. 4.497. In the poetics of civil war, reversal is the norm. The picture of the soldier fighting his mates for a sip of muck is intentionally repulsive but L. tastelessly insists on dehumanizing the soldiers.
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313 rituque ferarum The incipient dehumanization of the Pompeians, who have just debased themselves in trying to quench their thirst with conluuies, is now accomplished. They are behaving like brutes. On the amply documented comparison of humans to brutes, variously phrased as ferae (or ferarum, pecudum, bestiarum, brutorum, etc.) more (or modo, ritu, instar, etc.), see Pease ad Verg. A. 4.551. 314 distentas siccant pecudes The hypallage transfers the swelling of the udders to the entire animal, as in Verg. Ecl. 4.21, 8.3 distentas lacte capellas. lacte negato The udders turn out to be dry. 315 sordidus exhausto sorbetur ab ubere sanguis The parallels for drinking blood are rare, as one would hope, and include Plaut. Bacch. 372 apage istas a me sorores, quae hominum sorbent sanguinem, and some metaphorical expressions in Cic. Vat. 6 sanguinem principum ciuitatis exsorbere; Phil. 2.71 gustaras ciuilem sanguinem uel potius exsorbueras; cf. ibid. 11.10; De Orat. 1.225; frg. 34.6 Blänsdorf iam decolorem sanguinem omnem exsorbuit. 316-18 Housman: ‘destringunt rore madentis ramos et destringunt sucos, siquos palmite aut medulla pressere.’ 317 destringunt ‘They squeeze the wet branches of the dew and then squeeze out the sap from the twigs.’ Housman saw that this verb has a double construction and has slightly different senses in the two cola, for with ramos it means ‘squeeze’ (Gratt. 119 destrictas cortice uirgas) and with 318 sucos means ‘yield (by squeezing)’ (Sen. Epist. 122.6 sudorem… destringunt). Housman also offers two parallels for other verbs with the double construction: Pliny NH 7.121 matris salus donata filiae pietati est ambaeque perpetuis alimentis; [Sen.] Oct. 714 dies | sideribus atris cessit et nocti polus (see also Ferri 2003 ad loc.). 319 o fortunati A generic apostrophe to those lucky enough to have died by poisoned waters, whose fate is deemed better than the thirsty Pompeians’. fugiens… barbarus hostis Dying in a war against the barbarian would be preferable to fighting one’s own fellow citizens. This is an underlying motif that resurfaces in many guises; see 7.282-3 emptum minimo uolt sanguine quisquam | barbarus Hesperiis Magnum praeponere
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rebus? (Caesar’s hortatory speech to his soldiers at Pharsalus): no barbarian would willingly give his life to insure Pompey’s dominion over Italy (Gagliardi 1975 ad 7.282 quisquam); 7.535-7 utinam, Pharsalia, campis | sufficiat cruor iste tuis, quem barbara fundunt | pectora. 319-20 quos… | fontibus inmixto strauit per rura ueneno Manius Aquilius Asiaticus (consul 129 BCE) is condemned by Florus for poisoning the wells of several Asian cities during his pursuit of Aristonicus’ army in the war that ensued to Attalus’ bequest of his kingdom to Rome; Florus Epitom. 1.35. The Adn. and Comm. Bern. mention King Juba, whose Aethiopian enemies are said to have poisoned springs in their flight and add that Jugurtha’s Numidians killed many Romans in this way (but no other sources of this event have been found) and that Clisthenes of Sicyon (595-85 BCE) poisoned the Chrisaeans’ water duct with hellebore, as reported in Frontin. Strat. 3.7.6 and Polyaen. Strat. 6.13. 321 Caesar The apostrophe mode begins in 319 but now L. addresses Caesar in particular. 322 pallida Hypallage? TLL X.1.130.59-60, 131.13; cf. 96n. above. 322-3 Dictaeis, Caesar, nascentia saxis | … aconita The figura etymologica saxis… aconita suggests that for the etymological aition of aconite from aconae (= ‘rocks’, but lit. ‘dust-free’, cf. Greek ἀκονιτί; TLL I.419.84-420.24), L. is aware of Ovid (and/or his source), who tells the myth of the origin of the poison from the saliva dripping from Cerberus’ mouths as he was being dragged by Hercules: Ov. M. 7.415-19 sparsit uirides spumis albentibus agros; | has concresse putant nactasque alimenta feracis | fecundique soli uires cepisse nocendi, | quae quia nascuntur dura uiuacia caute, | agrestes aconita uocant. L.’s aconite grows in Crete, on the Dictaean rocks (Housman quotes Teophr. Hist. Plant. 9.16.4 τὸ δ’ ἀκόνιτον γίνεται µὲν καὶ ἐν Κρήτῃ καὶ ἐν Ζακύνθῳ, πλεῖστον δὲ καὶ ἄριστον ἐν Ἡρακλείᾳ τῇ ἐν Πόντῳ). The interest of the ancients in this potentially poisonous medical herb, along with the etymology of its name, is documented by Pliny who mentions it several times: NH 27.4; 27.9; 27.10. 323 infundas The verb infundere is prominent in the diction of poison. The verb may activate an intratextual echo back to Figulus’ dire visions, but unlike 1.648 omnis an infusis miscebitur unda uenenis, here
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the poisoning agent is named. Caesar infects drinking water like a treacherous barbarian (319n. above). The verb infundere is also applied to the stingers of a poisonous serpent or a scorpion: Plin. NH 11.163. 323-4 Romana iuuentus non decepta bibet The Pompeians willingly drink the poisoned water. The remark non decepta adds an extra touch of pathos. 324-9 The effect of thirst is described with medical detail. Thirst and aconite poisoning are probably associated in the poet’s mind because of the situation he has described at 321-4. L.’s closest precedent is a passage from the Metamorphoses, where Aeacus describes with medical precision the effect of the plague on his compatriots from the inland of Aigina; Ov. M. 7.554-7. 324 torrentur uiscera flamma The first symptom is the visualization of the burning entrails, following Ov. M. 7.554 uiscera torrentur primo. For the terminology of internal burning, cf. Catullus 100.7 cum uesana meas torreret flamma medullas; Sen. Epist. 14.6 febrem uiscera ipsa torrentem. 325 oraque sicca rigent squamosis aspera linguis The next symptom is a dry mouth with a sense of roughness on the tongue, as in Ov. M. 7.556 aspera lingua tumet, tepidisque arentia uentis | ora patent, but in L. the tongue does not swell. rigent For this sense of rigere as a result of dryness, see Manil. 1.135 liquor… sine quo arida riget rerum materies. The stiffness is a sign of death, as at 2.25 membra… rigentia (see 291n. above) and 8.59-61 omnia neruis | membra relicta labant, riguerunt corda, diuque | spe mortis decepta iacet, where, after learning of her husband’s death, Cornelia mistakes her heart’s stiffness in grief for the much hoped-for sign of her own incipient death. squamosis… linguis The phrase is unique to L. The adjective squamosus (‘scaly’, twenty-one occurrences in classical Latin; and nine occurrences, mostly in poetry, of the similar squameus) chiefly applies to fish (Cic. Arati Phaen. frg. 34.143 squamoso corpore Pisces [= ND 2.114]; Manil. 4.582 squamosis Piscibus ignes; Plin. NH 9.56.4; and reptiles (Ov. M. 3.41 uolubilibus squamosos nexibus orbes [of a snake], cf. Verg. G. 4.408 squamosus… draco; Culex 167 squamosos… orbes
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[snake]; Sen. Med. 1023 squamosa… colla [snakes]). Here it is used in the same sense as at Cels. 5.28.17b, describing the appearance of a certain skin condition (OLD s.v. ‘impetigo’) characterized by a scaly eruption. 326-7 iam marcent uenae nulloque umore rigatus | aeris alternos angustat pulmo meatus ‘The blood vessels weaken and the lung, deprived of liquid, restricts the alternate passage of air.’ L. here is referring to the current medical knowledge according to which the blood vessels carry not just blood but also air. The most complete explanation in Latin survives in Gell. NA 18.10.9 uena est conceptaculum sanguinis… mixti confusique cum spiritu naturali, in quo plus sanguinis est, quam spiritus; arteria est conceptaculum spiritus naturalis mixti confusique cum sanguine, in quos plus spiritus est, minus sanguinis. In other words, ancient medicine believed that our blood vessels carry not just blood but also air, and that the arteries carry more air than blood while the veins more blood than air. L. refers to the weakening of the veins, which mostly carry blood, because of the lack of liquid in the thirsty bodies of the Pompeians. The veins’ enfeeblement also compromises respiration because the lung is not irrigated by any moisture. L.’ description of the veins as carriers of both air and blood is therefore significantly more precise and sophisticated than his most likely sources (e.g., Cic. ND 2.138 et uenae sunt et arteriae, illae sanguinis hae spiritus receptacula; Sen. NQ 3.15.1 arteriae, id est spiritus semitae; cf. Comm. Bern. ‘quoniam duas arterias habemus, unam qua spiritum accipimus, alteram qua reddimus,’ who seems to intend that aeris meatus are the arteries), which neatly distinguish between veins as exclusive blood carriers and arteries as air carriers. We might assume L. somehow knew (e.g., via Celsus, Largus, Seneca, etc.) the theories of the famous Alexandrian physician Erasistratus (a contemporary of Herophilus), who believed that the veins (for the most part) distributed blood around the body while the arteries (for the most part) distributed the vital pneuma, which had its origin in inspired air (J.T. Vallance in OCD s.v. ‘medicine’ 948b). 328 rescissoque nocent suspiria dura palato Even breathing is painful because the thirsty palate is scorched by dryness. 329 pandunt ora tamen nociturumque aera captant Yet breathing is necessary to stay alive, even though it will hurt.
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nociturum is D’Orville’s conjecture for nociturum. Housman mentions Hosius’ objection to this emendation on the basis of Corippus Iohanneis 6.371, hence it would appear that in the 6th century Corippus had read nocturnum. Housman infers that the nocturnum of the consensus codicum is a corruption that predates Corippus and probably originated in 5th century or earlier. Badalì keeps the reading of the MSS. 330-1 expectant imbres quorum modo cuncta natabant | inpulsu Paradoxically, they are asking for water after a deluge. 331 siccis… in nubibus The paradox of desiring more water after a flood is surreptitiously heightened by the oxymoron of ‘dry clouds’. The phrase can also be the result of hypallage (or a merely transferred epithet), if uoltus would sound as more likely than nubibus to be described by siccis. 333 non super arentem Meroen As its epithet arens suggests, Meroe here is a geographical syncedoche pars pro toto for the hottest climate zone. The existence of Meroe, a kingdom of the upper Nile, must have been widely known throughout the empire because Augustus boasted that the Romans had reached its borders in Res Gestae 5.22 in Aetiopiam usque ad oppidum Nabata peruentum est, cui proxima est Meroe. Cancrique sub axe The conjunction –que is epexegetic, i.e., the Sky of Cancer explains in what way we should take Meroe. The astronomical referent is customary to indicate vast regions in poetry. See Housman’s astronomical appendix. 334 qua nudi Garamantes arant, sedere Like Meroe in the previous line, Garamantes functions here as a metonymy (or synecdoche) for the hottest zone. We are now back to detail with the focus on a specific people, after the comprehensive expression Cancrique sub axe, which in turn follows the Meroe synecdoche. arant Rather than ‘simply equivalent to habitant’ (Haskins), L.’s arant depicts the Garamantes in their unlikely occupation, for they inhabit a quasi barren land. See 679n. Garamante perusto below. 334-5 sed inter | stagnantem Sicorim et rapidum deprensus Hiberum The paradox culminates in acknowledging that the thirsty soldiers are trapped (deprensus) between two rivers.
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337-401 Pardon Afranius surrenders and addresses a dignified speech to Caesar (33762). Caesar offers Afranius and his men full pardon with no penalty and exonerates them from the fight. As the soldiers indulge in bread and water, the poet breaks into the narrative yet one more time with a reproachful apostrophe to luxury (363-81). The pardoned soldiers are graced with the gift of returning to their families and are relieved from fighting (382-401). 337 iam domiti cessere duces The alliterative phrase domiti duces is unique. pacisque petendae This alliterative purpose close with the gerundive is a prosaic touch (e.g., Caes. BG 4.27.4; Livy 9.45.18), as in Verg. A. 11.230. Quite rare in Virgil (see EV II.716b-718a s.v. ‘gerundio e gerundivo’), the gerundive is very frequent in L. 338 auctor damnatis supplex Afranius armis It is Afranius’ idea (auctor) to ask for peace, L. explicitly invokes Afranius’ auctoritas as a military commander by calling him auctor, and placing the spondaic word in the prominent first foot. The concept of auctoritas encompasses the civil, religious, and military spheres. L.’s phrasing, with a triple nominative that qualifies Afranius as auctor and supplex, is keen on Roman legal practice but it is striking for its paradoxical adherence to legal praxis in a civil war. The historical reality, however, suggests that Afranius has kept his faith until now as the Republic’s appointee of Pompey in Spain. In other words, he had not been appointed by the senate under the emergency decree of 49, and therefore he never aimed to fight Caesar. Instead, by subduing assorted Spanish tribes during the years 55-49 BCE, he has made Caesar’s victory (and conquest) easier. On the significance of auctor in Virgil and epic poetry in reference to the political and religious contexts, see Hellegouarc’h in EV I.392b394a s.v. ‘auctoritas’. supplex Afranius’ decision to ‘supplicate’ the enemy in order to obtain peace must be understood in relation to his auctoritas. In supplication the human is subordinated to the divine. In war, the supplex addresses himself to the winner as if to a god. On supplex in Virgil, see EV IV.1086-7 s.v. ‘supplex/supplicium’.
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339 semianimes in castra trahens hostilia turmas On the compound adjective, cf. Verg. A. 4.686 semianimem… germanam, and 11.635 semianimesque micant digiti, where in both cases it occupies the prominent first place in the line with its hexameter-friendly choriamb. 340 uictoris stetit ante pedes Afranius stands as a suppliant in front of Caesar, perhaps signifying that he is his peer. The position of the supplex in Roman ritual varies. Cf. Sil. 7.455 stat supplex; Val. Fl. 4.61 ante Iouem stetit et supplex sic fatur Apollo; but the supplex is prostrate at Val. Fl. 7.143 supplex hinc sternitur hospes. 340-1 seruata precanti | maiestas non fracta malis Afranius’ powerful role is unbroken by misfortune. His maiestas is a direct emanation of his auctoritas. L. portrays him as vanquished but dignified and noble in demeanor. 343 sed ducis Typically, L. expands on the appearance of Afranius and reminds us that he looks exactly the part. He is a dux. 344-62 In requesting Caesar’s clemency, Afranius accepts that Caesar’s victory was ordained by fate. Narrative wise, this certainty not only results from L.’s historical hindsight, but is also close to Afranius’ feelings as from Caes. BC 1.75, when after the bivouac (which Caesar in BC 1.74 has presented as a spontaneous armistice) Afranius gives all up for lost before Petreius breaks up the parley. Finally, Afranius reminds Caesar that the Pompeians under his own and Petreius’ command have already fulfilled their destiny, and they should therefore be spared any further fighting. 347 dignum donanda, Caesar, te credere uita However effective in its adulatory tone, Afranius’ is not just empty rhetoric. Caesar’s military performance in the war is given recognition and, in spite of the factious divisiveness, Caesar is still a Roman and as such he is believed worthy to grant life to Romans. 348-51 In connection with L.’s disapproval of civil war as an intrinsic evil, Afranius’ denial of ever being Pompey’s supporter is paramount. This passage disproves Ahl’s contention that L. is a pro-Pompeian Catonian; see Masters 1992, 83. 348 non partis studiis agimur As the objective genitive of studiis, the singular partis denotes one party faction. Afranius explicitly reject fac-
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tious party politics among his motivations to partake in the war. On this use of studium, see OLD 5a. 348-9 nec sumpsimus arma | consiliis inimica tuis This is a very delicate moment in Afranius’ address to Caesar. He has just denied his loyalty to any faction, but how he has found himself fighting Caesar on the battlefield remains to be explained. He cannot deny to have taken up arms but he claims that he is not acting against Caesar’s plans. 349-50 nos denique bellum | inuenit ciuile duces The emphasis on fate allows L. to make Afranius speak not so much as a victim of his own destiny but rather as a military leader who has performed his role qua leader in the conflict; cf. 351 nil fata moramur. 350-1 causaeque priori, | dum potuit, seruata fides This appeal to fides sounds slightly contradictory to Afranius’ earlier claim that it was not because of party politics that he took part in the war. The nature of civil war, however, makes it possible for Afranius to ask that his army’s loyalty to Pompey be not held against them now that they are asking for clemency after admitting defeat. See Caes. BC 1.84 audiente utroque exercitu loquitur Afranius: non esse aut ipsis aut militibus suscensendum, quod fidem erga imperatorem suum Cn. Pompeium conseruare uoluerint. 352 tradimus Hesperias gentes aperimus Eoas Sc. tibi. The western nations are, of course, the Spanish tribes, but the polar figure encompasses west and east (on the polar figure, see Kemmer 1903). Hyperbolically, perhaps, Afranius suggests that now nothing stands on Caesar’s way and he can begin winning Pompey’s east for himself. 353 orbis post terga relicti Caesar now can leave Spain’s extreme west and return back east to fight the Pompeians in Epirus. 354 nec cruor effusus In line 2 L. has described the Ilerda campaign non multa caede nocentem, perhaps in reference to this final important victory, which spares the armies a final battle when Caesar accepts Afranius’ request for clemency and the Pompeians are not only spared but excused from battle and go home. 355-6 hoc hostibus unum | quod uincas ignosce tuis This paradox is quite daring, for Afranius is asking victorious Caesar to forgive his enemies for his own victory. There is no subtle irony here, but rather an
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implied sarcasm, which points to the fact that, in Afranius’ view as L. presents it, Caesar’s victory is no good. 358-9 campis prostrata iacere | agmina nostra putes Now Afranius asks Caesar to consider the vanquished army as dead on the battlefield. The self-humiliation inherent in the request somewhat belittles Caesar’s victory, for Afranius is also asking to disband the army and not to force any of the vanquished Pompeians to join the Caesarian cause: 362 hoc petimus, uictos ne tecum uincere cogas. 363 uoltuque serenus The phrase occurs in the same metrical position in Lucr. 3.293 uoltuque sereno (cf. also Hor. C. 1.37.26). 364 usus belli poenamque remittit Caesar fully grants Afranius’ request, sparing him and his soldiers any penalty as well as further military service. The phrase usus belli function as a technical term for levy, and is used by Caesar, for instance, in reference to an army size: Caes. BG 4.20.4 quem usum belli haberent; cf. Nep. Eum. 3.4 uiri cum claritate tum usu belli praestantes. 365 foedera pacis L. has used this very expression earlier in line 205 (cf. also 210 disturbat sanguine pacem) to describe the situation of the spontaneous fraternizing in the way in which it appeared to Petreius, who in L. reads it as betrayal, 206-7 et sua tradita uenum | castra uidet. 367 incustoditos amnes L. might be recalling a notorious scene in Thucydides Book VII, when Nicias’ Athenians swarm in and drain the Assinarus’ waters in Sicily. 368-70 L. indulges in detailing the physical processes that affect the thirsty body when it is finally allowed to drink. 368 continuus multis subitarum tractus aquarum With the scheme aCbAb, the hyperbaton gives first-place prominence to the choriambic continuus joined with the pronominal multis and after a strong caesura we almost picture the drinking scene, so well rendered with the continuus tractus, the uninterrupted drawing of hastily swallowed water (Haskins). 369-70 aera non passus uacuis discurrere uenis | artauit clausitque animam The soldiers are drinking water so avidly that their bodies cannot bear to let the air pass through their empty veins (on blood vessels as air carriers, see 326-7n. above). As a result, their breath is shut
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off. On the physiology of swallowing, cf. Cels. 4.1.3 quibus cum diuersae uiae sint, qua coeunt exigua in arteria sub ipsis faucibus lingua est; quae, cum spiramus, attollitur, cum cibum potionemque adsumimus, arteriam claudit. 373-4 o prodiga rerum | luxuries L’s tirade against luxury is phrased as an apostrophe (on which see Introduction, 29, above). Cf. Sen. Contr. 2.1.13 paupertas, quam ignotum bonum es!. Barratt 1979, 172 ad 5.527-31. In his moralizing tirade against luxury, L. displays Stoic as well as Cynic commonplaces when he expresses his contempt for what one fears most, poverty and death (Malcovati 1940, 57). On the topos, cf. Sen Epist. 18.10; 21.10; 45.10, etc. 375 quaesitorum… ciborum | ambitiosa fames The search for special food items from distant places to satisfy the exotic taste of the rich few is a common target of denunciation and satire. 377 discite The grammatical subject of this imperative is constituted by the ‘impersonal’ 376 fames and mensae, but the second person address is naturally an apostrophe to those members of the upper class. quam paruo liceat producere uitam The humble necessities for life are easily taken for granted when available. L. tiresomely insists on a trite point. 378-81 non … | … | non … sed The brief tirade against luxury is introduced by negative enumeration (non… non) followed by an antithesis (sed; on this feature see Esposito 2004; Esposito 2004a, 45). For L.’s fondness for negative enumeration, see 107-9n., 220-7n., 299-302n. above, and cf. Fantham 1992 ad 2.354-80; Bramble 1982. 378 quantum natura petat As at 203 above, petere equals poscere and conveys necessity: cf. Lucr. 1.1080 sua quod natura petit; Sen. Epist. 17.9 natura minimum petit (TLL X.1.1973.44-5). 379-80 non erigit aegros | nobilis ignoto diffusus consule Bacchus Rare wine (denoted by metonymy with the god’s name) bottled in a nameless antiquity is another favorite of authorial tirades against luxury. 380 non auro murraque bibunt A murra is a ‘fluorite cup’, (Moreno Soldevila 2006, 523 ad Mart. 4.85.1), the kind of precious vessel elaborately described in Plin. NH 37.18-22 and (see Healy 1978, 37) and
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sometimes mistaken for porcelain (e.g., by Haskins). Believed to improve the taste of wine, these cups are variegated in color and slightly resemble stained glass. Details and photographs are available in Loewental/Harden/Bromehead 1949 (cf. Whittick 1952 and Harden 1954). On the common confusion with glass, see Smith 1949. 382 heu miseri qui bella gerunt This exclamatory statement resumes the apostrophe mode. The statement has a universal resonance because it encompasses not just this war, but any war. While ‘pacifism’ would be inappropriate and unrealistic, the claim that war in general is just misery rather than an opportunity for unending glory sounds quite revolutionary. 383-4 miles… tutus | innocuusque… liber Once they have been disarmed, the soldiers find safety and freedom. 383 spoliato pectore tutus Oxymoron: they have surrendered their arms instead of being plundered after death. 385-401 With a further exclamation (388), L. not only conveys the sense of loss experienced by the soldiers who now are regretting their endurance of the war but also gives voice to his own frustration with his own narrative. These discharged men are very lucky. They can go home to their own lands (sua terra) without waiting to be given a lot in a veteran colony. L. rounds off the narrative of Ilerda with an authorial lament over the miserable destiny of those who fight in war. A warrior’s destiny is even worse when the fight is a civil war. The lament incorporates the motif of active life vs. contemplative life, familiar from Senecan tragedy, and enriched with Lucretian and Virgilian verbal echoes originally refunctionalized in a typically Lucanian view. L. will return to the ‘active vs. contemplative life’ motif at 5.527-31 (lines appositely styled as ‘Laus Paupertatis’ in Comm. Bern.), an authorial apostrophe during Caesar’s night crossing of the stormy Adriatic on fisherman Amyclas’ small boat from Epirus back to Brundisium in order to fetch Antony and the remaining troops. On the motif, see Barratt 1979, 172-7 ad 5.527-31; Narducci 1983, 192-3; Rutz 1950, 146 n. 153; Degl'Innocenti Pierini 1996, 51 and n. 63; Salemme 2002, 17. 389 tot in orbe labores Intend: ‘so many trials one after the other.’ The phrase in orbe refers to time rather than space, i.e., ‘in sequence’, see
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Mynors 1990 ad Verg. G. 2.401 redit agricolis labor actus in orbem; cf. also Manil. 2.251 emerito… orbe laborum. Perhaps misled by Housman’s uncertainty on the matter (see ad loc.), translators may be wrong in interpreting in orbe as ‘on earth’; e.g., ‘in every land’ (Duff); ‘beneath all suns’ (Little); ‘through the world’ (Braund). 391-2 terras fundendus in omnis | est cruor See 354n. above. 393-4 felix qui potuit mundi nutante ruina | quo iaceat iam scire loco An echo of the forcefully Lucretian line in Verg. G. 2.490 felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas (pace Thomas ad loc.), a context in which Virgil reflects on the civil wars (G. 2.498 res Romanae) and appeals to the knowledge of the rerum causae of the Epicurean teachings as a panacea against death resulting from the evils of internecine strife. L.’s statement is far less ambitious – or more ambitiously traditional in its evocation of the importance of ‘heroic’ burial (in the Homeric sense) – and customarily dark, for what grants a person to be felix (in one’s ability to know) is not the knowledge of Epicurean physics but of one’s place of burial. See Lucr. 3.1-2 e tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen | qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda uitae; Salemme 2002, 17. 395 certos non rumpunt classica somnos On sleeping through battle bugles, see Tibull. 1.1. 396-7 iam coniunx natique rudes et sordida tecta | et non deductos recipit sua terra colonos On wife and children, see 3.894-5. While civil war pits kin against kin, peace in BC is marked by the reconstitution of family ties; see Armisen-Marchetti 2003, 247, in Gualandri/Mazzoli 2003. On the miserable condition of wife and children of civil warriors, see Hor. C. 2.18.26-8 (with Badalì 1998 in Enciclopedia Oraziana 1996-1998 III, 42a). 400-1 sic proelia soli | felices nullo spectant ciuilia uoto The solemnity of line 401 that closes the Ilerda narrative is rendered by the heavily spondaic rhythm. Closure is achieved by emphasizing once again the reversal of military and warlike values as enacted in civil war (see on 235-6 above). Valor directly leads to self-annihilation whereas serenity and peace are procured through abstention from fighting.
Part II: Mutual suicide: Volteius and the Opitergians 402–581 Seeing general Basilus and their comrades on the opposite shore, Antonius’ troops make a plan to escape. They build three rafts, whose flanks are enclosed by large beams to protect the oarsmen. The rafts are launched at low tide (415-32). Octavius, who is in charge of a large Pompeian fleet in the Adriatic, sees the rafts and does not attack right away, but waits for the rafts to get to open waters to follow with his ships (432-7). A hunting simile conveys the state of mind on both sides, while Antonius’ soldiers try to escape to shore (437-47). Pompey’s men set traps in the sea using chains in hopes of capturing the small rafts. The third raft is caught and run aground in a craggy gulf (448-64). Volteius, captain of the raft, realizes he has been trapped and tries in vain to break the chains. A short battle ensues and lasts until nightfall (465-73). In a hortatory address to his frightened men, Volteius convinces them to kill one other to avoid the shame of captivity, pardon, and/or disloyalty to Caesar (474-520). Though the men’s hearts are somewhat lifted by his speech, they watch the stars all night, as Sagittarius rises in the night sky (521-8). Daylight finds them surrounded by the enemy, who is trying to offer peace. The soldiers have already renounced their lives, and are resolved to die by their own hands. Volteius demands to be the first to die, and is pierced by many of his men’s blades. He deals a deathblow at last to the man who struck him first. The other men on the ship begin to fight each other, dying one by another’s wound (529-49). Mention of the Theban saga emphasizes that the men of the raft are kin by blood, brothers, fathers, and sons, and their only pietas is never having to strike twice (549-566). Finally they drag themselves to the gangplanks and bleed into the sea. The raft was now piled with bodies. The enemy who had surrounded them gave the order to burn the bodies, and were amazed at the worth their leader had to them. The doomed crafts’ ordeal became famous. Yet cowardly races will not understand that suicide is an act of valor (566-81).
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While the war unfolded in Spain, two of Pompey’s men, Marcus Octavius and Lucius Scribonius Libo, manage to expel from Illyricum Caesar’s man Publius Cornelius Dolabella, stationed in the Adriatic with a Caesarian fleet. Dolabella had been sent by Caesar to guard the coast off the Adriatic, protect the eastern shores of Italy, and keep Caesar’s province of Illyricum as Caesarian as possible (Adcock 1932, 653). Caesar’s legate Gaius Antonius (the triumvir’s brother) unwisely establishes his forces on the island of Curicta, thus effectively isolating himself from the mainland (Wilkes 1969, 40). Overcome by hunger, Gaius Antonius tries to escape but falls in the Pompeians’ hands along with all of his troops except for a few who make away with themselves. The Pompeian fleet was strong of Histrians, Liburnians, and Cilicians (among others) and quite greater than Dolabella’s few ships, which were easily brushed aside. L. makes much of this minor episode of mass suicide, evidently to glorify the peculiar claim to uirtus of these few doomed Caesarians lead by Volteius. Volteius’ small Caesarian contingent is composed of a thousand men previously enlisted on Caesar’s side at Opitergium (Barrington Atlas 40D1), between Patavium and Aquileia, in Cisalpine Gaul (4.462). Unlike Curio’s infantry, who will be slaughtered to the last man by Juba’s Numidians (see 4.715-884n. below), the Opitergians kill each other to avoid falling into enemy hands. As a reward for their loyal heroism, as well as out of compassion, Caesar granted their hometown of Opitergium freedom from military service for thirty years and added three hundred centuries to its territories, if the scholion in Comm. Bern. 4.462, our only source for this, is to be believed (see Avery 1993, 463 and n. 35). In the extant text of Caesar’s BC there is no mention of the Opitergians. A strong argument has been presented in support of the thesis that Caesar originally included the Opitergian narrative in his BC, but that the episode was lost as a result of an accident in the manuscript tradition of Caesar’s Commentaria (Avery 1993). It is, in fact, very likely that L. derives what he knows about the Opitergians from a lost part in Caesar’s BC, but we know that the episode was treated by Livy. See Liv. Per. 110.10-15: C. Antonius, legatus Caesaris, male adversus Pompeianos in Illyrico rebus gestis captus est. in quo bello Opitergini transpadani, Caesaris auxiliares, rate sua ab hostibus navibus clusa, potius quam in potestatem hostium venirent, inter se concurrentes oc-
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cubuerunt; Florus Epit. 4.2 = 2.13.33. The Opitergians are not mentioned in Caesar’s BC, but they probably became known as a declamatory theme, cf. Quint. Inst. 3.8.24 and 30; on Republican exempla in the rhetorical schools, see Bonner 1966 and Fantham 1992, 15 n. 39. 402-73 This extended ‘twilight sequence’ (as Saylor 1990, 297, has memorably called it) introduces the episode by establishing light, its partial presence, and its absence as key elements in deciphering the Opitergians’ state of mind. They will eventually embrace suicide as the glorious option that will illumine them with posthumous renown, but even admitting (with Saylor 1990, 296) the contrived nature of their suicidal choice, and that Volteius’ rhetorical exhortations that follow at 474-520 have ‘redefined’ light itself, one must read this prelude to Volteius’ suasoria not merely as an ‘introduction’ to Volteius’ perverted notion of light, because even though light is associated with goodness in Sen. Epist. 31.5 and 79.11-12, light inevitably brings to view violence and turmoil as well (as admittedly recognized by Saylor 1990, 296 n. 12, citing Park 1965, 325-8). 402-3 L. is fond of litotes in narrative transitions; see below 581n. non segnior. After the ‘happy ending’ of Caesar’s pardoning of Afranius and Petreius in Spain, the litotes here functions as a contrast by foreshadowing the forthcoming death of the Caesarians in Illyria. 402 non eadem… Fortuna suggests that the Illyrian events L. is about to tell are contemporary to the Spanish events. In translating it is advisable to render the notion of simultaneity with ‘meanwhile’. 403 in partes aliquid sed Caesaris ausa est With the hyperbaton Fortuna / ... ausa, complicated by the postponed adversative sed, the text alludes to the difficulty of conceiving of Caesar’s Fortuna as taking a turn unfavorable to him. As Haskins notes, L.’s wording resurfaces in Florus 2.13.30 aliquid tamen aduersis absentem ducem ausa Fortuna est circa Illyricam et Africam oram. 404-10 This long sentence situates the Illyrian war theater in the same way as 4.11-23 above presented the geographic description of Ilerda, but here a single sentence suffices to convey the nature of the islet in whose waters the events unfold.
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404 longas… Salonas ‘Straggling Salona’ (Haskins, followed by Braund). The city that stretched along the Dalmatian shore, which was captured by Asinius Pollio (Serv. ad Verg. E. 4.1); RE IA2.2003-6. 405 Iader For L., Iader is a river (Francken), whereas for other authors it is a Dalmatian city (Mela 2.57.1), probably a coastal colony on the Liburnian shore (Plin. NH 3.140, 142, 152), identical with Zadar in nowadays Croatia; Barr. Atlas 20C5; RE XVII.556-7. 406 bellax ‘Warlike’, a neologism, reoccurs only in Silius 16.475 and 17.428. Curictum The Curictes are the inhabitants of Curicta (Barr. Atlas 20B4; RE IV.2.1834-6), an island (as the poet’s gloss in the next line informs) off the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia, identical with Krk Island in nowadays Croatia. The island is flanked to the west by the Apsyrtides archipelago, with which it creates a maze of inlets, gulfs, and waterways along the Dalmatian shore. 407 quos alit Hadriaco tellus circumflua ponto Imitated by Sil. 1.289 insula quos genuit Graio circumflua ponto (as noted by Feeney ad loc.). circumflua Cf. 10.476 gelido circumfluus orbis Hibero. Haskins takes it as the Latin translation of περίρρυτος (see LSJ) ‘sea-girt, surrounded with water’, a common epithet for islands in Greek poetry: e.g., Hom. Od. 19.173; Aesch. Eum. 77; (Karamanou 2006, 172 ad Eur. Dictys fr. 1 = TrGF **330b Snell). First found in Ov. M. 1.30, 15.624, 739, the adjective reoccurs in the same metrical position in Sil. 1.289 (above), 15.221 excelsos tollit pelago circumflua muros, and Val. Fl. 5.442 gemino circumflua ponto. 408 clauditur extrema residens Antonius ora C. Antonius is prevented from leaving the island. Caesar does not talk about Octavius’ defeat of Gaius Antony in his BC. Appian briefly mentions the defeat at 2.191, before moving on to the mutiny of Placentia, whereas Dio devotes a whole paragraph to the event (Dio 41.40). Antonius C. Antonius (RE I.2.2582-4, Nr. 20; OCD s.v. ‘Antonius, Gaius’), brother of the triumvir, second of M. Antonius Creticus’ three sons, was Caesar’s legate in 49. Forced to surrender to the Pompeian fleet’s blockade, he later held the praetorship for the year 44. He was captured by Brutus in Apollonia, Epirus, in March 43, and after inciting
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Brutus’ troops to mutiny, he was executed in 42 after Brutus heard of the proscriptions. 410 fames See above 93-4n. 410-14 This series of statements in parataxis glosses fames, which ends the previous sentence. The soldiers are experiencing deprivation as a result of the blockade. 411 summittit The compound summitto seems here equivalent to the simple mitto, but Comm. Bern. interprets it as ‘sursum mitto’. 412 flaua Ceres The phrase occurs in the same metrical position in Tibull. 1.1.15, Verg. G. 1.96, Ov. Am. 3.10.3. See also [Sen.] Octavia 50-1. 413 miseris dentibus The desiccated grasses on which the soldiers are desperately feeding require teeth rather than hands to tear them (Comm. Bern.). The ostensible effect of the paradox is to debase these famesridden humans into grazing sheep. 415-19 After seeing their companions on the shore opposite, the trapped Caesarians think of a new escape stratagem. 416 Basilum L. Minucius Basilus (Broughton 1951, II. 264-5 and esp. 268) was one of Caesar’s commanders in charge of two legions, probably as a legate, who tried to come to C. Antonius’ rescue (Comm. Bern. ad 416 and 433; Flor. 2.13.32; Oros. 6.15.8). 416-17 furta… |…fugae The ‘secrecy of flight’; fugae is an objective genitive; Haskins compares Cic. Fam. 16.26.2 furtum cessationis quaesiuisse. For the sense, see 2.688 furtiuae placuere fugae; Sen. Ag. 123. 418-19 gerendis | molibus The types of rafts that the soldiers are building are meant to keep a heavy cargo afloat. They must have looked quite massive; see 445n. below. 420-6 In these lines the rowers and their peculiar boats are presented as seen by an onlooker. L.’s narrative strategy is to cast the raft as the stage on which the Opitergians’ drama unfolds. Hence the necessity of the detailed description of the rafts, though L. seems always interested in technological details, and in this case he exploits the unusual construction of these massive rafts, and the way they are propelled, to set a central stage, viewable from land and sea, and thereby captivate the
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attention of the audiences – the internal audience of the Opitergians’ drama, constituted by the Pompeians and the Caesarians, L.’s contemporary Neronian audience, with their pronounced taste for spectacle, as well as the posthumous audiences of the epic. 420 cupae Bound in double rows and used as floating devices, these empty vats or barrels sustain the planks on top of which the turrets stand (Comm. Bern.). 423-4 nec gerit expositum telis… | remigium The rowers maneuver the raft in such a way as to protect themselves from enemy fire. 423 in fronte patenti The side of the raft open to enemy fire probably is the prow or the deck. 424 remigium The term denotes oarsmen in Verg. A. 3.471 and Hor. Epist. 1.6.63, but L.’s word choice in describing how the raft is invisibly propelled is perhaps meant to sound scientifically ‘objective’; hence the abstract remigium ‘oarage’ instead of remiges ‘oarsmen’ to denote the rowers. 427-32 Relying on the ebb and flow, the crafts are launched to sea. Their appearance must have been even more threatening with their turrets and parapets oscillating with the roll. 431 geminae comites Metaphorical use of comites for ships, as at 93 above (Gregorius 1893, 13). 433-7 Waiting for a larger contingent to embark, Octavius astutely refrains from surprising Antonius’ raft in order to capture more enemy soldiers after the hull will have sailed. 433 Octauius M. Octavius was Pompey’s legate. His attack on Salonae is mentioned by Caesar (BC 3.9.1-8); cf. Dio 42.11.1; see Broughton 1951, II.249; Comm. Bern. ad loc. (134-6 Usener). 437-44 Although predictably introduced by sic, the hunting simile is somewhat unexpected, but given the prominence of (mythical and nonmythical) hunting scenes as paradigms of heroism reflecting the predominantly male pedagogic ideal in literature and art (see Anderson in OCD3 s.v. ‘hunting’; Anderson 1985), we can hardly be too surprised. L. has gone to some length, however, in his description of the raft and now midline we must turn from seascape to land and imagine these
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sailors as hunter’s prey. Only at line 444 we finally realize that the hunter’s simile illustrates how shrewdly M. Octavius entraps the Caesarians like deer in a hunter’s net. On the paradigmatic function of hunting in art 440-1 Molossi | Spartanos Cretasque Of the three breeds, the long extinct Molossian hounds were highly regarded in antiquity for their large size and their courage in attacking wild beasts: the locus classicus is Arist. Hist. An. 9.1 = 608a28; cf. Orth in RE VIII.2.2548.37-2551.63 s.v. ‘Hund’. In hunting contexts, Roman poets like to mention two Greek breeds, Molossian and Spartan hounds (Verg. G. 3.405, with Thomas’ n.; Hor. Serm. 2.6.114; Epod. 6.5), but in Sen. Phaedra 32 Molossian and Cretan hounds are mentioned, whereas L. is the only poet who mentions three Greek breeds in the same sentence. 441-4 Typically, L. has listed above the three famous Greek hound breeds but only one of the dogs, whose snout is pressed to the ground in pursuit, is allowed to stalk the prey, for the situation requires the work of a quieter dog who signals the prey’s lair (monstrasse cubilia) by wagging its tail (444 tremulo… loro) without barking (nescit latrare). 445-7 The crafts are launched at dusk and they are seen here moving quickly offshore under cover of darkness. The contrast between light and darkness becomes prominent from this point onwards and encompasses the entire episode; see Saylor 1990. 445 nec mora The formula here suggest C. Antonius’ soldiers haste in boarding the rafts, but at the same time it marks the transition from the hunting simile back to the narrative. It is found frequently in Roman poetry with an analogous function and in the same metrical position at Lucr. 4.227 = 6.931; Prop. 4.4.84, 8.51; Verg. G. 3.110, A. 5.368, 458, 12.553; etc. On delay and mora in L., see 581-8n. below. moles The noun metonymically denotes the rafts, which must have been quite massive in bulk and therefore very heavy and hard to maneuver. The metonym reoccurs at 453 and 462. 446-7 primas | inpedit ad noctem iam lux extrema tenebras Literally: ‘The last light of day is an obstacle to the first shadows in making night fall.’ Joyce 1993, 99: ‘The last light of day interferes with the first shadows of night.’ If we understand inpedit as ‘delay’ (as does Canali
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2004, 268) we miss a typical Lucanian inversion: ‘light obstructs darkness’ (rather than the opposite). The phrasing is imitated by Statius Th. 9.592 uiridem ferri nitor impedit umbram, on which see Dewar 1991, 171: ‘the verb [inpendere] is common of dark things obstructing light;’ as confirmed in OLD s.v. ‘impedio’ 3b. ad noctem Comparing Caes. BG 1.25.3 ad pugnam erat impedimento, Housman paraphrases: ‘lux iam extrema primis tenebris inpedimento est ad noctem efficiendam.’ 448-52 Former pirates (3.228 itque Cilix iusta iam non pirata carina), Pompey’s Cilicians are credited with the stratagem of stretching chains underwater to entrap the hulls. One scholar sees it as ‘most ironic’ that after driving the pirates away from the Mediterranean (in 67 BCE under the Lex Gabinia), Pompey ‘should be made to keep company with them here’ (Sklenář 2003, 26). 449 Cilix On piracy, see 1.336 Cilicas uagos with Getty’s n.: ‘The Cilicas uagos are the pirates who were finally routed by Pompey off the Cilician coast.’ See also Fantham on 2.594. Verisimilarly, the stratagem they use to stop Volteius’ raft must have been one of the ways they used to approach and prey upon sea cargoes. 452-6 Only one raft is caught in the chains, the third one (carrying Volteius and the Opitergians, 462-8 below), which is pushed toward a perilous stretch of water, infested with crags and darkened day and night by overhanging cliffs covered with thick vegetation. 455 inpendent caua saxa mari The sense of inpendere is here the same as pendere in Sen. HF 155 (cf. Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 185 ad loc.). The chains are slightly beneath the sea surface and thus ensnare the raft. 455-6 ruitura… moles ‘Seeming ever on the point to fall’ (Haskins), the rocky mass of the woody cliff protrudes from the coast and hangs over the water, creating a shaded area of dangerous crags and marine caves. 457-61 The dangerous feature of the seascape is a seafaring topos: Hom. Od. 12.80-4. In Hellenistic and Roman poetry the Homeric Charybdis and Scylla have morphed into identifiable places in the Sicilian straits (Scilla is the
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Italian name of the promontory on the continent side) and maintain their topic function as dangers for seafarers; Ap. Rh. 4.789-90; Lucr. 1.722. 461 Tauromenitanam… Charybdim The whirlpool functions as a symbol of inescapable fortune (König 1970, 450-1). L.’s phrasing is imitated by Sil. 14.256 Tauromenitana cernunt de sede Charybdim. 462-8 Volteius and the Opitergians are the main actors in this tragic episode. Both are named here for the first time. 462 Opiterginis Opitergium, a station along the Via Postumia, not far from Aquileia in the territory of the Veneti in Cisalpine Gaul, was their hometown; Barrington Atlas 40D1. This is the only place in Latin poetry where the Opitergians are mentioned. 465 Volteius C. Volteius (or Vulteius) Capito. This otherwise unknown character is the leader of the Opitergian contingent with the title of tribunus militum (Comm. Bern. 137, 154; Flor. 2.13.33; Broughton 1951, II.264-5), and this is his only claim to fame, for it is unclear whether L.’s character ought to be identified with the L. Volteius who served as praetor of Sicily in 69 BCE and was close to L. Metellus, as mentioned in Cic. Verr. 3.155-7. tacitas… fraudes The stratagem of the hidden chains suspended by the Pompeians: 455n. above. 467 proelia direct object to poscit, enclosed within the instrumental ablative spe… nulla, which syntactically foreshadows the outcome of Volteius’ desperate call to arms. 469-73 The valiant resistance that Volteius and his men try to oppose is hopeless in the face of the thousands that surround them. Nightfall intervenes only to delay their doom. 469-70 deprensa…|… uirtus ‘Virtue achieved all that it could when caught at a disadvantage;’ cf. 10.538-9 (Long 2007, 187). The phrase ‘captive’ uirtus (cf. 6.168-9) is unique to L., but perhaps it betrays a Ciceronian assonance: Verr. 2.3.7 uirtutem depressam, cf. Sen. Dial. 7.22.7 in hac unum genus uirtutis sit non inclinari nec deprimi. On the ambiguity of virtue, see Fantham 1995; Sklenár 2003.
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473 lucem dubiam By means of hypallage, the phrasing echoes Sen. Phaedra 41 dum lux dubia est; cf. Ov. M. 11.596 dubiaeque crepuscula lucis. Naturally it is the night that engenders incertitude: Ov. M. 4.401 sed cum luce tamen dubiae confinia noctis. The figure captures Volteius and his men’s ‘crepuscular’ relief for the postponed confrontation and doomed intuition of what is to come, for the ‘uncertain glow’ of twilight is prelude to the soldier’s fear of the imminent future; see 474-5n. below. 474-520 Volteius’ speech to his men is a declamatory piece in the suasoria style. As an example of deliberative speech, Volteius’ words can be analyzed following Morford 1967, 8-9, in three main sections: 1.) 476-7 is the Exordium, containing the thematic statement ‘You have only one night of freedom left: What will you do when day breaks?’ 2) 478-514 is the central and most extensive part (Tractatio), which falls into two subsections: 2a) 478-504 presents the viewpoint of Volteius’ soldiers, who first are invited to choose ‘the right thing’ (478-85), i.e., die, because it is necessary (485-7), glorious (488-97), and surpasses all other examples of military devotio; 2b) 505-14 presents the enemy viewpoint, who will know that Volteius’ men are indomitable (505-7) and determined to reject any offers of mercy as inherently dishonorable (707-14); 3) 514-20 is the conclusion, in which Volteius declares his own determination to die. The speech is presented as a rhetorical syllogism (enthymeme), i.e., a syllogism whose premises have not been proven to be true. The argument that death (or suicide) is best relies on two premises: 1) Volteius and his men are about to fall into enemy hands and there is no escape for them; 2) Death by one’s own hand, far from being a shameful act of escape, is actually a dignified and glorious exit. While it is certain that Volteius and his men have no escape because they find themselves surrounded by Pompeians, the point that suicide in this situation is as glorious as death in combat remains an unproven statement, whose effectiveness on Volteius’ men is the result of rhetorical artifice. The function of the language of light and darkness in Volteius’ speech as well as in the entire episode, has been studied as a useful interpretive key by Saylor 1990. Why, however, the men are persuaded to kill one another, remains open to interpretation. (For an interpretation that relies, perhaps, on an overly Stoic reading of L.’s poem, see D'Alessandro Behr 2007, 36-45.) The rationale of death in
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civil war is prominent in Petreius’ address at 221-2 non hoc ciuilia bella, | ut uiuamus, agunt, where Petreius maintains that killing one’s own kin is morally sounder than to keep peace in civil war. The argument is here taken to its extreme in Volteius’ exhortations to suicide. 474-5 attonitam uenturaque fata pauentem / rexit… Volteius… cohortem The hyperbaton casts Volteius as the support pillar (rexit) for his men – as the syntax and word order suggest. The paradox is that his leadership leads to annihilation. 475 magnanima… uoce With the epithet applied to his words rather than himself, Volteius’ character is qualified as magnanimus per hypallage. On the epithet’s epic pedigree, see 611n. below and Hellegouarc'h 1963, 290. 476-7 Volteius begins with the concept of libertas by addressing his men as libera iuuentus, but the noble epithet of freedom is immediately contrasted with the reminder that freedom is very limited at present in the extreme circumstance of being trapped and about to fall into enemy hands. 476 libera non ultra parua quam nocte iuuentus The enclosing word order encompasses the entire hexameter and gives prominence to the vocative epithet. The hyperbaton is particularly appropriate to Volteius’ opening apostrophe because Volteius’ deadline for freedom does not extend beyond the coming night: he is about to counsel suicide as the ultimate act of freedom. Volteius and his men seek to free themselves from the prospect of certain military defeat at the hands of the Pompeians, which invites the audience to ponder a moral paradox: Volteius and his men are on Caesar’s side and their sacrifice is, allegedly, protyranny. They defend their ‘freedom’ to be Caesar’s supporters. 478-504 In this extended section, Volteius examines the present situation as he wants his men to see it, i.e., that suicide is the only option to surpass all examples of military devotion. 478-9 uita breuis nulli superest qui tempus in illa | quaerendae sibi mortis habet Going to meet one’s fate of one’s own accord in no way diminishes the glory of the act. Volteius seeks to persuade his men to give up their lives by somewhat illogically (or merely paradoxically) claiming that no life is cut too short if one has time for suicide. Death
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grants Volteius and his men some share of that glory they lost by being robbed of their victory. The generalizing statement has a gnomic tone. Ad 478 Comm. Bern., the scholiast attributes to Quintilian the quote ‘faciamus de funere remedium, de necessitate uirtutem’, which should correspond to [Quint.] Decl. Mai. 4.10.19 faciamus potius de fine remedium, de necessitate solacium. quaerendae… mortis Seeking one’s death for the sake of glory is a Herculean endeavor (cf. Cic. TD 2.20.2-4). In this sense, Volteius and his men’s mutual suicide may be seen as an aristeia even though, paradoxically, there is no opponent, but the Herculean language, as it were, invites to recall the epic paradigm of heroism. And the only heroic act available to Volteius and his men is suicide. 479-80 nec gloria leti | inferior, iuuenes, admoto occurrere fato Death grants Volteius and his men some share of that glory they lost by being robbed of their victory. 479 gloria leti The phrase reoccurs at the end of the hexameter at 5.656; imitated by St. Theb. 9.717 and Sil. 6.26. 480 admoto… fato Lucan’s phrase is unique in Roman poetry. The sense of admoueo resonates with that of the expression admouere arma (2.466 admotae… alae; 6.2 admota… arma), which creates the image that Volteius and his men, as it were, are about to come to battle against fatum – and the latter is evidently also functioning as a metonymy for death. 481-5 As long as one shortens one’s life by one’s own hand, one will receive equal glory whether one loses years one was hoping for or whether one merely spares oneself one more moment. Suicide is a challenge of mankind against the fates (Malcovati 1940, 59). 482 par animi laus Volteius argues that dying and taking one’s own life are equivalent because in the present contingency they grant an equal share of glory. 483 extremae momentum abrumpere lucis The noun lux here is used as the common metonymy for ‘life’ (Arnulf), but the ideas of ‘light’ and ‘life’ coexist in the conveyed notion; cf. 534n., and Saylor 1990, 295.
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484 accersas dum fata manu Volteius switches to jussive subjunctive in the singular. In 477 consulite he had begun with a plural imperative. The change in mood and number signals his effort to persuade rather than command to die. 484-5 non cogitur ullus | uelle mori The will to die is a typically Lucanian notion; see also 280 above and 544 below, where the phrase uelle mori reoccurs in the same prominent position. The spontaneity of death, as it were, gains here a paradigmatic value on a purely logical basis. It is as if L. were implying that ‘one may be forced to die, but no one can be forced to want to die.’ More than anywhere else in this episode of mutual suicide, posterity can hardly refrain from perceiving in these words the irony of fate, in the hindsight of L.’s own Neroinflicted suicide. 485-7 With no chance of escaping, the best option is to desire the inevitable in order to eradicate fear. 485-6 stant undique nostris | intenti ciues iugulis: decernite letum There is no escape because ‘everywhere our own fellow citizens (ciues) are determined to slash our throats.’ The paradox of civil war is that the person who normally would be one’s friend is also one’s foe. By taking each other’s lives, Volteius and his men will enact the quintessential gesture of civil strife, and in this sense their choice to die is coherent with the irrationality of civil war. 486 intenti ciues iugulis The sacrificial nature of slaughter in L. is signaled by words like iugulum (see 275n. above), iugulo (only once 7.630), and macto (occurs only five times); see Hardie 1993, 53. 487 cupias quodcumque necesse est Taken in isolation, Volteius’ exhortation resonates with the Stoic principle of acting in accordance with fate, which is here over-determined as the ultimate necessity to be desired. The word choice (cupias), however, reflects a not-too-Stoic passionate commerce in ‘desiring’ death. 488-95 In these crucial lines, Volteius needs to convince his men that mutual suicide is far better than to die in ‘an obscure cloud of war’ (in caeca bellorum nube) because in the din of battle death lacks distinction as corpses are heaped up on corpses. Death in combat, therefore, is anonymous and unremarkable. Volteius and his men, however, are in a
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boat offshore, and so their mutual suicide will be visible to both friend and foe on land and sea and their fame will thus be insured. Suicide, even collective-mutual suicide, grants individuality and (allegedly) assigns the appropriate share of glory also to the defeated. 488 in caeca bellorum nube L. has used the metaphor of the cloud for an army at 2.481; cf. Gregorius 1893, 11. 490 conferta… corpora In war contexts, conferre normally describes the action of opposing armies engaging in battle (e.g., Liv. 27.14.9 conferta turba), but with the subject corpora (= ‘corpses’) the phrase sounds somewhat surprising. 491 perit obruta uirtus In Volteius’ notion that death in battle obscures one’s heroism, one scholar sees the expression of ‘Seneca’s idea of theatrum mundi’, a spectacle of morality performed for the gods’ enjoyment, supported by the double Senecan intertext of Medea 977 perdenda uirtus and Ag. 519 perdenda mors est? (Leigh 1997, 262-3, referencing also Seneca’s view of Cato’s suicide as a ‘morality’ performance for the gods in Prov. 2.7-9). The need for kleos requires human witnesses of one’s uirtus, and in this sense Volteius’ vocabulary of uirtus is quintessentially epic precisely because of the desired opportunity for making spectacle of the Opitergians’ (however misguided) uirtus (Sklenář 2003, 29). For variations on the theme of perdita or periens uirtus, see also 3.706-7 non pedere letum | maxima cura fuit; 5.292-3; Ov. F. 2.227 fraude perit uirtus; also Val. Fl. 6.200 mixta perit uirtus and Sil. 11.419 perit horrida uirtus. 493 constituere dei The will of the gods here is identical to fate (see 484n. above). summis dabit insula saxis This is one of the very few references in this episode to geographic features. The crags in question are those of the island of Salona, as explained by Comm. Bern. ad loc. 496-502 With an apostrophe to Fortuna, which soon turns into an apostrophe to Caesar himself, Volteius mentions fides and pietas and calls his men’s attention to what must be faced in their present predicament in order to express that pignora amoris for Caesar may not have been any greater (non maiora). Setting up the Opitergians’ sacrifice as a
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demonstration of loyalty to Caesar’s cause is a true tour de force even for L.’s rhetorical style. 496-7 nescio quod nostris magnum et memorabile fatis | exemplum, Fortuna, paras Whether Fortuna here is Fate or just Chance is perhaps not as relevant as the fact that Volteius’ present apostrophe to Fortuna looks toward his next apostrophe – to Caesar. The fate that Fortuna (and therefore Caesar?) prepares for them, however, is death; Comm. Bern. ad 496: ‘NOSTRIS FATIS hoc est morti.’ On Fortuna and fata as synonymous when it comes to Caesar, see Getty 1940 on 1.227 and 393-4. On the cult of Fortuna Caesaris, see Weinstock 1971, 123-5 (with North 1975, 174), based on Plut. Caes. 38.5. 497 quaecumque The indefinite relative 497-9 quaecumque… pietas is the direct object of 499 transisse. 498 monimenta fides By affirming that his generation already surpasses any other in monimenta fides and 499 militiae… pietas, Volteius (meta-poetically) points to the imminent act of self-annihilation as an even greater memorial for his men and himself. 498-9 seruataque ferro | militiaeque pietas The genitive militiae qualifies this pietas as the military kind, in the sense illustrated by Cic. Phil. 14.6 si hostium fuit ille sanguis, summa militum pietas (OLD s.v. ‘pietas’ 4). 500 suis gladiis… incumbere To fall on one’s sword is the preferred way to take one’s own life for a Roman (Grisé 1982, 95). pro te…, Caesar The apostrophe to Caesar has here the customary function of heightening the speaker’s appeal to his audience. Caesar is absent, but his presence is necessary as the intended receiver of Volteius and his men’s demonstration of fides and pietas. 501 esse parum scimus ‘We know that it is not enough.’ For this frequent meaning of parum, see OLD 2a. 501-2 non maiora… |… pignora… amoris The sense of amor here is political as well as personal-affective, e.g., ‘loyal devotion’, and denotes one of the affective manifestations of amicitia (chiefly intended as a political relationship); see Hellegouarc'h 1963, 48-51 and 146-7. The only poetic parallel for the phrase pignus amoris in this political
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sense is Laus Pisonis 211; in the remaining twenty occurrences the nonpolitical sense is key (e.g., Verg. A. 5.538; Ov. Ars 2.248). 503-4 Volteius admits that he and his men have been deprived of their chance for greater praise and that they are not held captive with their elders and children. 505-14 The viewpoint here is the enemy’s. Volteius asserts that by dying he and his men will show themselves invincible and reluctant to compromise by rejecting any offers of mercy, which actually have not been extended, but Volteius whishes that they had, for in rejecting offers of mercy their glory would be even greater. 505-7 Volteius’ jussives (505 sciat and timeat, and 506 gaudeat) grandly concede that the enemy (506 hostis) enjoy their victory over the unconquerable. The implication is that one may conquer neither the dead nor the determined to die. 507-12 For Volteius any offer of peace from the Pompeians is a temptation one ought to resist, and accepting pardon is an act of cowardliness. Here we witness L.’s subtle interpretation of Caesar’s clemency as a refined form of cruelty; cf. Caesar’s pardon of Domitius at 2.512-25 (Due 1962, 85). L.’s audience knows, however, that the likelihood that Volteius and the Opitergians will be able to consider (let alone reject) a Pompeian offer of pardon in exchange for their surrender is nil, as the precedent of Petreius’ ferocity in Spain has shown. 508 turpique… uita The instrumental ablative goes with corrumpere and is parallel to foederibus (which goes with the preceding 507 temptare). 510 promittant… iubeant The optative subjunctives (announced by 509 o utinam) express Volteius’ frustrated wish that he be treated like the Pompeians who accepted Caesar’s pardon in Spain (see Afranius’ speech at 337-401n. above), but contrast at 205-53 Petreius’ massacre of Caesarians. 511 calido fodiemus uiscera ferro This impassionate image of selfwounding Romans is obsessively present to L.’s mind: 1.3 in sua uictrici conuersum uiscera dextra, which supports the argument that ‘The image of self-killing dominates the work’ (Hill 2004, 213), for ‘The Pharsalia enacts a violation of its own life-blood, appropriately enough
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(it could be argued) in a poem which might well be read under the sight of self-slaughter, both individual and collective’ (Martindale 1993, 48). calido The adjective calidus describes a recent wound in Ov. M. 5.137 torquet in hunc hastam calido de uulnere raptam, and 12.119 extrahit illud idem calido de uulnere telum (Moreno Soldevila 2006, 202 ad Mart. 4.18.6 calido uulnere). With a hypallage, L. has transferred the adjective calidus from the wound to the weapon that caused it; as does Verg. A. 10.486 rapit calidum… de uulnere telum; cf. Ov. M. 8.443-4. 512-13 Volteius’ standard (or criterion) for praise consists in performing the act that will earn his men and himself a portion of Caesar’s praise. The tragedy, or perhaps the irony, is that the Opitergian sacrifice has no strategic significance in the greater context of the civil war. 513 amissis inter tot milia paucis Caesar’s casualties in the first year of the war had been conspicuous, hence Volteius’ modesty in characterizing his Opitergian contingent as pauci by comparison. Besides, only Volteius’ raft is about to fall in Pompeian hands and this is the one on which the tragedy of mutual suicide is about to be staged. 514 damnum clademque To call the mass suicide a damnum is to denote it for what it is, but clades is definitely hyperbolic, as the term applies militarily to a ruinous defeat, e.g., Cannae (Liv. 23.30.19). The phrase should be parsed as a hendiadys: ‘the damage of our defeat’. 514-20 Volteius ends his speech in an escalation of possessed furor expressed as his own resolution to die. 514-15 dent fata recessum | emittantque licet, uitare instantia nolim Volteius’ determination to die for Caesar’s cause is unconditional. 516-17 proieci uitam, comites, totusque futurae / mortis agor stimulis: furor est Volteius’ happiness in death is rendered as a form of ecstatic madness (Malcovati 1940, 59); his furor is a divinely inspired possession (Esposito 2001, 46; Saylor 1990, 190 n. 1; Ahl 1976, 11921). To illustrate this particular brand of furor, similar to what, e.g., Plato calls ἐνθουσιάζειν (e.g., Ion 535c; Phaedrus 241e; Meno 99d), see Cic. Diu. 1.66 inest igitur in animis praesagatio extrinsecus iniecta atque inclusa diuinitus. ea si exarsit acrius, furor appellatur, cum a corpore animus abstractus diuino instinctu concitatur; cf. also Conte 1988, 106.
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520 sic cunctas sustulit ardor The effect of Volteius’ words on his men is not so much encouragement but impatience for battle; see e.g, Liv. 24.30 tanto ardore militum est usus… ut primo impetus urbem expugnauerunt. In other words, the result of his exhortation is positive in that he succeeds in motivating his troops to do what they are urged to do. The paradox is that they are being asked to kill each other. 521 mobilium mentes iuuenum With a hypallage, the adjective mobilium agrees with iuunenum but would more logically apply to mentes. mobilium Bentley’s conjecture is to be accepted against the MSS’s reading nobilium (which, aside from the universal confusion of m and n in medieval scripts, could have been inspired to an unusually Latinproficient as well as imaginative amanuensis by the general tone of Volteius’ address that began at 476 with the apostrophe libera… iuuentus). Bentley (ad Hor. C. 1.1.7) compared Verg. G. 3.165 dum facies animi iuuenum, dum mobilis aetas, but that the sense here requires ‘mobility’ rather than ‘nobility’ is given by the context of 521-5, as further confirmed by recalling 474-5, where the Opitergians about to be addressed by Volteius are called attonitam uenturaqe fata pauentem |… cohortem (Housman). The effect of Volteius’ words, in fact, is that of firing new courage in the ‘changing’ minds of his men (Morford 1967, 9). The transmitted nobilium, however, is less preferable but in no way impossible; for its sense would emphasize by prolepsis the ‘ennobling’ destiny of collective suicide that Volteius and his men are to embrace. 521-8 After Volteius’ words are spoken, the Opitergians are emboldened to action and are convinced that mutual suicide is the glorious choice. The astral language that characterizes this passage emphasizes one more time the contrast between light and darkness that permeates the Volteius episode: ‘[T]he Caesareans seem to proceed from a spiritual twilight, through darkness, and into sunlight, but in fact end in a false form of light, or darkness, with their determination to die’ (Saylor 1990, 291-2). 522 oculis humentibus These are tears of fright, as the soldiers fear the approaching daylight of their last day of life (Arnulf). 523 flexo Vrsae temone In other words, they feared daybreak, here indicated in astronomic terms. The asterism formed by the seven stars in Vrsa Maior is also known as ‘The Plough’ (see OED s.v. ‘Charles’s
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Wain’). As seen at 2.237 Parrhasis obliquos Helice cum uerteret axe, and 722 flexi iam plaustra Bootae, as well as 5.23 Hyperboreae plaustrum glaciale sub Vursae, L. refers to both traditional identifications, ‘Great Dipper/Wagon’ (see Fantham 1992a, 124 ad 2.237). The pole or yoke-beam (temo) of the Wagon or Plough was held by the human figure (Bootes) standing near the polar constellations. Comm. Bern. ‘temonem ursae caudam significat, quae semper ad ortum solis conuertitur.’ See Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 177-8 ad Sen. HF 130-1; Ov. Met. 10.447; Cic. DND 2.109; Aratus 91-3. The connection of the polar asterisms with Bootes, also known as Bear’s Guardian, Arctophylax, revolves around Arcturus (< ἆρκτος, ‘bear’), Bootes’ brightest star (Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia 1996, 228-9 ad Manil. 1.316; Boll 1903, 229, 355, 371). 525 optauere diem Volteius’ men are hoping for daylight, which they will eventually scorn at 534 and 568 (see 483n. above). As shown by Saylor 1990, 295, the light the Caesarians are hoping for is the light as defined by Volteius at 492, i.e., to be in conspicuous view of both friend and foe. For the two different kinds of light in this episode, see 534n. below. 525-6 nec segnis uergere ponto | tunc erat astra polus uergere] mergere 526-7 sol Ledaea tenebat | sidera Sun is in Gemini; Leda gave birth to the later twins, Castor and Pollux; see Ov. F. 5.693ff.; Germanicus 540ff.; Hyg. Astr. 2.22; contra Manil. 1.265, who identifies the twins with Apollo and Hercules: Goold 1977, xxiv. 527 uicino cum lux altissima Cancro est This is the time of summer when the sun light is particularly intense and the day lasts longer, sometime around the summer solstice. The higher the sun, the longer the day (Arnulf; pace Haskins, who understands ‘high noon’, yet here the ‘height’ is an astral measure). It is not clear whether L. refers to an observable phenomenon, i.e., the sun’s approaching the northernmost position in its annual progression from south to north, or rather the sun’s approaching its furthest point from earth, its apogee; see Avery 1993, 453 and n. 2, who favors the hypothesis that L. is more likely to refer to the observable phenomenon.
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uicino… Cancro Although the grammatical sense could be either that Cancer is near the sun (now in Gemini) or that Cancer is near us (Arnulf), we know the Crab is next to Gemini in the sun’s yearly journey around the zodiac ecliptic, which means that the date of the events should be placed around the time that the sun is leaving Gemini, probably between June 20 and 25 according to the reformed Julian calendar (details in Avery 1993, 454). Regardless, it is still possible to take Cancro here as a generic metonymy for the summer star (Francken). Catasterism was the reward for the crab sent by Hera against Hercules, when the latter was facing the Hydra (Comm. Bern.). Biting Hercules earned it a place in the zodiac (Manil. 2.33; Germanicus 543-6; Hyg. Astr. 2.22). 528 Thessalicas… sagittas The arrows are given the epithet Thessalian in reference to Chiron, here referred to by metonymy. L. is referring to Sagittarius. The time of year, therefore, is the same as the time of the Ilerda campaign narrated at the beginning of this book (Francken); see 56-9n. above. L. evidently follows the tradition, which goes as far back as Hipparchus, that ascribes four legs to the Archer, and identifies him with the noble Centaur (Manil. 1.270, with Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia 1996, 221; Goold 1977, xxv). nox… urguebat… parua The short night is said to ‘urge’ (urgueo here is synonymous with premo, see Housman’s n.) the Sagittarius because the latter is diametrically opposed to Gemini on the zodiac circle, and therefore in this season, when daybreak is near, Sagittarius appears to be setting (as explained by Arnulf and Comm. Bern.). 529-40 At dawn the enemy, constituted by the Histrian and Liburnian contingents among Pompey’s army, show themselves both on land and sea. After a vain attempt at negotiation, the fighting begins and continues until Volteius and the Opitergians turn away from the enemy and against themselves. 529 Histros Inhabitants of the Illyrian coast, the Histri sided with Pompey. The Illyrians’ choice of siding with Pompey rather than Caesar is to be associated with Pompey’s successes in the region, whose peoples were divided between Caesar and Pompey at the outbreak of the war (Marasco 1997, 315; see also Dzino 2005, 88; Marasco 1995; Veith 1924).
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530 Graia cum classe Liburnos These Liburnians were Pompeian allies, but in their ranks there were also Achaeans with naval squadrons: Caes. BC 3.5.3 mentions Liburnicae atque Achaicae classi; more vaguely, Plut. Pomp. 64 just states that Pompey had a huge fleet; see Dzino 2005, 88 and n. 58-60. 531-2 fieret captis si dulcior ipsa | mortis uita mora This protasis, part of a contrary to fact condition, expresses the unlikelihood that the extension of life would be attractive to war prisoners. The underlining assumption seems to be that for the Opitergians life as Pompey’s prisoners can never be sweeter than the glorious death they choose. 533 stabat deuota iuuentus The Caesarian faction is described as ‘devoted’ to Caesar (as at 695 below). The adjective deuota inevitably carries an ill-disguised allusion to an element of the ancestral deuotio ritual, in which an enemy army and/or city is vowed to destruction and offered in sacrifice to the gods of the underworld (Macr. Sat. 3.9.10-12 preserves the text of the Deuotio celebrated before the walls of Carthage). Sometimes this involved the self-sacrifice of a commander who would fight the enemy until certain death. The Opitergians are in some sense offering themselves in sacrifice to Caesar’s cause and their act, seen as implying the destruction of Pompey and the Pompeian army, may be interpreted as an enactment of the deuotio ritual, with the attractive implication that Caesar here is equated with the Underworld gods. The monstrous anomaly, however, is that this is a civil war, whereas such a ritual is meant for wars of conquest against a foreign enemy. 534 damnata iam luce The damned lux here inevitably resonates with the sense ‘light’ had at 483 as the common metonymy for ‘life’ (hence the epithet ferox qualifying the Opitergian iuuentus). ‘With a carefully chosen word that means both light and life, the text poses the opposition of two kinds of life as well as two conceptions of light […]: the ordinary life of the rest in opposition to life brief but conspicuous by suicide.’ (Saylor 1990, 296). 539 tanta est fiducia mortis This half line resonates with the Aeneas’ labor of founding the Roman race memorably described in Verg. A. 1.33 as tantae molis erat. If the association with Virgil’s famous line is not arbitrary, L.’s point is to heighten the paradox of self-annihilation by echoing Rome’s orgins in the Opitergians’ end.
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540-9 Volteius dies first, pierced by more than one of his men’s swords, and thus leads them all in death. 544-5 per uulnera nostra | testetur se uelle mori Volteius urges his men to demonstrate their death wish. 545 uiscera non unus iam dudum transigit ensis Whether non unus ensis is to be taken literally or hyperbolically, the situation is so extreme as to eclipse such distinctions. The killing of fellow Romans is the horror of Pharsalus: 7.491 odiis solus ciuilibus ensis | sufficit, et dextras Romana in uiscera ducit, except that at Pharsalus the killing of one’s kin does not take place within the same faction. 548-9 totumque in partibus unis | bellorum fecere nefas L. here distances himself from the aberrant act and condemns the suicide of the Opitergians (Esposito 2001, 59). L. shows that the Caesarians display all the evil (totum… nefas) of civil war in its hopeless senselessness because even within the reversed logic of civil strife that pits kin against kin, the Opitergians go one step further in turning against one another within their own faction on the same side of the civil war. The phrase totum… nefas literally contains in hyperbaton what civil-war evil consists in (see 172 above). The hyperbaton emphasizes the poet’s unique opportunity to miniaturize in the Opitergians’ death the nefas brought on by Caesar and the Caesarians upon Rome. By a process of exemplification and dilation (Gorman 2001, 282; McGuire 1997), the action of the mass suicide is emblematic of the whole enterprise of civil war, for L. makes the Volteius episode function as a synecdoche pars pro toto for the war. 548 unis The rare plural of unus, which expectedly has the same meaning as the singular, attracted the attention of the grammarian Priscian, De figuris numerorum, who glosses in partibus unis as pro ‘in una parte’; Esposito 2001, 59 n 55. 549-56 The myth simile adds grandeur and fratricidal pathos in evoking the myth of Thebes’ foundation, characterized by the fratricidal strife of the Spartoi and the Seven against Thebes. 550 Dircaea cohors These are the Spartoi, warriors sprung out of the dragon’s teeth sawn by Cadmus. Per antonomasia, the epithet means Theban, from Dirce (Sen. Oed. 42), the Boeotian spring into which of
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Theban King Lycus’ wife was said to have been turned (Ov. Met. 2.239). 551 dirum Thebanis fratribus omen The mutual slaughter of the Spartoi is an omen of fratricide (see 563 below). The Theban brothers are Eteocles and Polynices, Oedipus’ children. 553 terrigenae The epithet denotes per antonomasia the monsters born from the soil against whom Jason fought with the help of Medea’s magical herbs. 554 cognato… sanguine The mythic paradigm of fratricide is a matter of kin blood, obviously, but the redundancy is necessary to create in the audience that morbid attraction to the spectacle of internecine slaughter. 556-62 When these desperate men finally die, their fall is described in epic terminology, and the expected paradox is that ‘the conventional association of virtus with the assault on the breast is acknowledged in order to be denied […] no skill or courage is required because the victim does not resist’ (Leigh 1997, 219). 557 minimumque in morte uirorum | mors uirtutis habet See Esposito 2001, 42-3. 562-81 Brothers, fathers, and sons kill each other in mutual suicide. Some drag themselves to the gangplanks and bleed into the sea. When the raft is finally piled up with bodies, the enemy are astounded at the worth their leader had to these men. sorte cruenta The bloodied destiny reoccurs below at 570 as strage cruenta. 568-70 This sentence is arranged in three noun-clauses acting as the grammatical object of 570 iuuat. The three verbs, 568 cernere, 569 spectare, and 570 sentire, encompass the range of perceptions experienced by the dying men: seeing, staring, and feeling. 568 despectam cernere lucem See 534 above. 569 uictoresque suos uoltu spectare superbo The Opitergians’ deadly stare, inflicted to the winners, attests to their defiance. 570 mortem sentire To enjoy the feeling of one’s death seems to be a uniquely Lucanian notion; compare 9.758.
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573-4 nullam… |… ratem The hyperbole betrays the poet’s ambition of competing with Argo, the ship whose fame wins over all other ships. 575-81 After sealing the Opitergians’ episode as a paradigm of heroism (see 575n. below), L.’s opinion on the ship sounds quite explicit, but it has lent itself to diverging interpretations. Scholars inevitably agree in seeing the Opitergians’ suicide as an exemplum uirtutis, but the nature of the uirtus in question has been taken for granted as a ‘perverted’ kind of uirtus; see 576n. uirtus below. 575-6 non tamen ignauae post haec exempla uirorum | percipient gentes The ignauae gentes are he ‘weakling cowards’ jejune of war (ignauus < in + nauus is the antonym of strenuuus, as noted by Gagliardi 1975, 46 ad 7.272), who have not earned distinction in military valor. L. makes them also incapable of profiting from the Opitergians’ example of virtue. 576 quam sit non ardua uirtus This is what the ignauae gentes incapable of comprehending, i.e., that, all things considered, uirtus is in fact not that hard to achieve. One’s ultimate choice, i.e., taking one’s own life, is always within arm’s reach. 579 ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses These words were engraved on the swords of the French National Guard during the French Revolution; see Due 1962, 80, and Housman’s comment: ‘neque enim aut Libertas aut liberi animi homines uerum ensium usum ingnorant.’ 580 mors The authorial apostrophe to mors appropriately seals and grants some sense to the Opitergians’ senseless tragedy. 581 sed uirtus te sola daret Undoubtedly ‘death only’ may give kleos, but the logic is perverse because these soldiers die of friendly blows.
Part III: Curio in Africa 581–824 The third and last section of Book IV deals with the Africa campaign in which Curio’s legions are annihilated. After the quick change of scenery (581-8), L. launches the famous digression on the strife of Hercules and Antaeus (589-660). The war narrative resumes with Curio’s defeat of Varus (661-714), followed by Curio’s own defeat against King Juba’s forces (715-98). The poet’s apostrophe to Curio closes the book (799-824).
581–8 From Vulteius’ aristeia in Illyricum to Curio’s arrival in Africa The narrative shifts from Illyricum to Africa (581-2). Curio sails from Sicily to Libya and marches to the Bagrada (583-8). These seven and a half lines take us from Illyricum to Africa. The actual transition is rather quick, as it occurs all at once in 581-2. L. feels the need to prepare his reader for what is about to come, for some momentous incidents in the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey took place in Africa. As will be seen, this land of marvels plays a conspicuous role in Lucan’s poem. The deaths of both Cato and Pompey, the two Republican champions, are associated with Africa. The disastrous campaign of Curio in Africa contrasts the preceding section (402-581), in which L. has celebrated the suicide of Vulteius and his contingent. Contrasting these two episodes, L. balances similarities and differences: both the Illyrian fight, with the suicide of the Opitergini, and Curio’s battles against Varus and Juba are equally fierce (see below 581n. on non segnior), despite being fought on liminal terrains, i.e., one between land and sea off the Illyrian shore, the others in an arid area on the edge of the African desert. As L. himself reminds us at the outset of Book V, the whole of Book IV is characterized by alternate victories and defeats of Caesar’s faction (cf. 5.1-3 sic alterna duces bellorum uolnera passos / in Macetum terras miscens
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aduersa secundis / seruauit fortuna pares). The mid-line break, pausing before the narrative of the African campaign begins, quickly introduces the transition from Illyricum to Libya, and the words non segnior might also suggest the narrator’s urgency to move on. And yet, after the change of location, a delaying device will slow down the narrative, that is, the tale of the mythical struggle of Hercules against Antaeus (see below intro. to 589-660). As often seen with the Homeric technique of suspense-building, e.g., Zeus prophesying Patroclos’ death in Il. VIII, eight books before the event, L. lets the audience learn something important is going to take place, but then takes as long as possible to get to it. (I owe the Homeric parallel to Michael McCosker.) On delay and ‘mora’ in L. see Masters 1992: 4-5, 24, 54-5, and passim. 581-2 The strong caesura in the fourth foot marks the beginning of a new narrative section: the theater of war has shifted from Illyricum to Africa. Such midline breaks are not uncommon; cf. e.g., 1.522 in Shackleton Bailey. An illustrious precedent is Verg. A. 7.45; see also Hom. Od. 13.187. 581 non segnior The antecedent of qui has been omitted. Segnis in litotes twice more in L.: 6.181 and 10.115; cf. Verg. A. 4.149-50 haud segnior ibat / Aeneas, and 8.414 nec tempore segnior illo, where segnior is used in both cases in a transitional formula (Gransden 1976 ad 8.414). In a few instances Virgil uses an emphatic negative, e.g., G. 1.483 nec tempore eodem, with Mynors 1990 ad loc.; 3.531, as Thomas notes, introducing ‘a contemporaneous occurrence.’ Similarly, Virgil employs the comparative, as Horsfall notes, to create ‘a rare form of explicit link between simile and narrative’ at Aen. 7.383 non cursu segnior illo, cf. G. 4.80, A. 5.862, 12.525. Yet none of the Virgilian examples collected in Horsfall occurs at a major change of scene in the narrative such as L. 4.581. Unlike the analogous expression at 4.402 non eadem belli totum fortuna per orbem, contrasting the ‘happy ending’ of Caesar pardoning Afranius and Petreius in Spain with the death of the Caesarians in Illyria, here the trope emphasizes continuity and similarity between two narrative sections, even though the change of scene is abrupt: see intro. on 581-8 above. 582 Libycis… in aruis The passing mention of the ‘Libyan terrain’ suggests that one ought not to be concerned with Libya/Africa’s geographical position for the time being; before a short ethnographic cata-
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log, L. will give Africa’s geographical coordinates when describing Juba’s kingdom at 671-5 (see below) and later in Book IX he will launch on a detailed excursus on Libya (9.411-97; see Asso 2002a ad loc.). Here, as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that L.’s reader must concentrate on the primordial hostility of Africa. A hypostasis of Mother Earth (see 593-4nn. below), Libya/Africa acquires specific antiRoman traits (see Asso 2002b). For the African land as Rome-hating, see Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 2.1.25-6, and also Fantham ad 2.93 Libycas... iras (i.e., Carthage and Numidia) on the association of Marius with Antaeus and the role of Africa in Book IX. On Lucan’s Africa, see finally Hinkle 1996 passim. exarsit has here the sense of percaluit, but unlike percalescere, exardescere may be also employed metaphorically, as here; for the strictly physical sense, cf. Cic. ND 1.24 pars earum [regionum] adpulsu solis exarserit; for the metaphorical use, see esp. Sen. Thy. 171 qua [sc. siti] cum percaluit sanguis et igneis exarsit facibus (TLL V.2.1179.65, 6970, 76-7, cf. also X.1.1193). The compound form exardesco is not as common in poetry as the simple ardeo and ardesco (only twenty-six occurrences of exardesco in poetry always in the perfect tense); in L. only here and at 7.140. Otherwise used of war only in prose (cf. TLL V.2.1181.63ff.; Sil. 8.626 attonitis pila exarsere maniplis is one of the prodigies before Cannae, when the javelins spontaneously combusted, cf. TLL V.2.1179.29-30). For L.’s prosaic diction, see Introduction 21-3 above; Bramble 1982, 541-2, and below on 585, 588, 617, 627-9, 6301, 645, 667, 697, 722-3, 750, 780; see also Asso 2002a ad 9.434, 497. 583-8 Curio sets off to sail from Cape Lilybaeum in Sicily and lands on the African shore somewhere between the site of Carthage and Cape Bon (= Clipea/Aspis). From his landing point (maybe Anquillaria, see 586n. below) he immediately marches on towards the Bagrada. Cf. Caes. BC 2.24.1 biduique iter progressus ad flumen Bagradam peruenit. 583 audax Curio is qualified as audax when L. first mentions him at 1.269 (see Getty ad loc.; cf. Turnus in Verg. A. 7.409, 475 with Horsfall ad loc.); but see Hinkle 1996, 72-7 for a useful correction of Ahl 1976, 88-9, who too hastily assumes L.’s hostility to Curio; cf. Vell. Pat. 2.48.3 C. Curio tribunus plebis... uir nobilis, eloquens, audax (with the n. in Woodman 1983); see Weische 1966, 71-3, and Wirzubski 1961,
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12: ‘the attribute audax was traditional for Curio.’ See also next n. and 809n. Hardly a commendation in the context of Roman public life (see Wirzubski 1961), audacia is understandably desirable in war. In L., however, audacia is not necessarily negative, as most conspicuously shown in 3.499 audax iuuentus, apropos of the Massilians’ brave, as well as doomed, resistance to Caesar; and in 9.302 where the adjective describes Cato before the Syrtes. For a morally negative connotation, see 3.144 audaci... coepto, of Caesar’s determination in appropriating the public treasure. Woodman 1983 ad Vell. Pat. 2.48.3 lists Roman political figures associated with audacia: Clodius, Cinna, for whom Vell. Pat. 2.24.5 displays an ambiguously understated admiration (see Elefante ad loc.), C. Fimbria, Antony, and finally Catiline, on whom see Sall. C. 5.4; cf. Catiline’s own words to the conspirators at 20.3, and to his soldiers at 58.2, 58.12, 58.15, and 58.17. Cicero often refers to Catiline’s audacia, see e.g., Cat. 1.1, 1.4, Mur. 17, Phil. 2.1, Or. 129, etc. Be it positive or negative, audacia is a remarkably convenient narrative engine because it renders the audaces interesting and appealing and makes them perform their (narrative) roles. As with Catiline in Sallust and Turnus in the Aeneid, Curio’s audacia spurs the narrative on. Curio C. Scribonius Curio (84-48 BCE; cf. Münzer in RE IIA.1.867-76 s.v. ‘Scribonius’ Nr. 11) was a gifted orator (Cic. Brutus 280-1); cf. 809n. below. As tribune of the plebs in 50 he became notorious for switching from Pompey to Caesar. On Curio see also: Longi 1955; Lacey 1961; Schrempp 1964, 71-4; Saylor 1982; Esposito 2000a. Lilybaeo litore The reference to Lilybaeum may be either a metonymy for Drepanum (or even Panormum) or an actual reference to Cape Lilybaeum. Against the latter hypothesis, cf. Caes. BC 2.23.1 Curio in Africam profectus ex Sicilia. No other ancient source mentions as explicitly as L. the embarkation point from which Curio left Sicily. Cape Lilybaeum might be mentioned specifically because it had been both a Punic stronghold in Sicily and the port from which Scipio Africanus sailed in 202 BCE (Liv. 29.24, cf. Hinkle 1996: 87). However, Caesar himself will sail to Africa from Lilybaeum (B. Afr. 1.1 Caesar itineribus iustis confectis nullo die intermisso a.d. xiiii Ian. Lilybaeum peruenit statimque ostendit sese nauis uelle conscendere, cf. 2.3 and Appian BC 2.95),
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and Lilybaeum will play an important part in the war against Sextus Pompey (Appian BC 5.97, 98, 122). Whether or not Curio actually sailed from Lilybaeum, L. may have chosen to name Lilybaeum because it evokes all these campaigns. 584 nec The negative here has copulative value and equals et non, cf. Getty ad 1.72 nec se Roma ferens, 138; Mayer ad 8.303 spicula nec solo spargunt fidentia ferro; Clausen ad Verg. E. 2.40 nec tuta mihi ualle; Housman ad Manil. 4.738; Kühner/Stegman II, 39-40; Hofmann/Szantyr 1965, 448 and 480. nec forti... Aquilone If we accept Housman’s comma between Curio and nec, this would be the only place in Latin literature where Aquilo is non fortis, that is, lenis; which is still preferable to the impossible syntax produced by Martina 1995, 196 (punctuating with a comma between nec and forti). Unlike Aeneas, who was shipwrecked by a wind storm (instigated by Juno) in those very waters (see e.g., Verg. A. 1.102-4 talia iactanti [sc. Aeneae] stridens Aquilone procella / uellum aduersa ferit fluctusque ad sidera tollit. / franguntur remi…; cf. also 1.170 and Della Corte 1985, 81ff.), Curio sails uneventfully. And unlike Aeneas leaving Drepanum north-eastbound to Latium (cf. Serv. A. 1.103 ad Italiam nauigantibus Aquilo contrarius est), Curio is meaning to go to Africa and is not driven off course by the north wind: audacemque Aquilo fortis Curionem iuuat. A favorable wind will escort the Caesarian proconsul Alienus on the route from Lilybaeum to Caesar’s African camp in Ruspina (B. Afr. 34.5 naues ventum secundum nactae quarto die in portum ad Ruspinam ubi Caesar castra habuerat incolumes peruenerunt). 585 semirutas The adjective semirutus (lit. ‘half-ruined’) applies strictiore sensu to architectural structures such as urbs, tecta, castella, muri, moenia, uallum; in a metaphorical sense it may also apply to patria (Liv. 26.32.4) and uestigia (Apul. M. 9.4.16). It is rare in Latin prose and even rarer in poetry. It occurs a total of seventeen times in the entire extant corpus of classical Latin, starting with Sallust Hist. 2 frg. 64.3 Maurenbrecher semiruta moenia (of Saguntum). Of the only three occurrences in poetry, two are found in L. (here and at 1.24-5 at nunc semirutis pendent quod moenia tectis / urbibus Italiae), and one in St. S. 5.3.104, where it is metaphorically applied to uultus. Cf. also Florus Epit. 1.31.44 semiruta Carthagine.
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586 tenuit... litora For the technical sense of tenere here, see 3.182 tenent naualia puppes, with Housman’s n. See Verg. A. 5.159 tenebant with Servius’ n.: ‘nauticum verbum’; Housman (ad 3.181-3) offers the following parallels from L.: 515-16 classis / Stoechados arua tenens; 755-6 naualia... tenuere; 5.720 Nymphaeumque tenent; 8.463 nec tenuit... montem. See also OLD s.v. ‘teneo’ 5. stationis litora notae recalls Caes. BC 2.23.2 non incommodam stationem. L. does not say what this statio was called. In Caesar’s BC Curio lands on a Tunisian beach protected by two high headlands ad eum locum qui appellatur Anquillaria, perhaps situated on the site of present-day El Hauria, in the Gulf of Carthage to the west of Cape Bon. Cf. Barrington Atlas 32G2. 587 qua se Here and at 10.486 (cf. Berti’s n.) L. echoes such line endings as Verg. A. 3.151; cf. ibid. 2.224, with Austin’s n. Page (cited by Williams 1960 ad Verg. A. 5.372) argues for a spondaic ‘heaviness’ conveyed by this type of line ending. Monosyllabic words are rare as line endings after Lucretius. But double monosyllables have the same effect on ictus and accent coincidence as dissyllabic words, and are therefore not felt as abrupt. For se at end of line preceded by a monosyllable (usually a preposition like ab, ad, ex, in, or per) see e.g., Lucr. 1.445, 729; 2.241, etc.; cf. Norden 1926, 438. 588 Bagrada The mention of this river, already famous after Regulus’ killing of a monstrous serpent during the First Punic War (Tubero 8 Peter = Gell. 7.3; Liv. per. 18; Plin. NH 8.37; Val. Max. 1.8 ext. 19; Sil. 6.140-205; cf. P. v. Rohden in RE II.2087.27; Dessau, ibid., 2773.42), prepares the reader for further historical associations, notably the reference to P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior. As the digression on Antaeus (589-660) clearly shows, the memory of Scipio’s African campaign of 202 BCE informs and contrasts L.’s narrative of Curio’s campaign for the rest of the book (see below intro. and n. to 589-660, esp. 656-60). The reason why in three different Libyan campaigns the Romans pitched camp on the same spot is the presence of a river in a land so poor in water; cf. how Marus explains the choice of the campsite in the First Punic War in his account to Serranus in Sil. 6.141-5: non ullo Libycis in finibus amne / uictus limosas extendere latius undas
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/ et stagnante uado patulos inuoluere campos. / hic studio laticum, quorum est haud prodiga tellus, / per ripas laeti saeuis consedimus aruis. Bagrada lentus agit siccae sulcator harenae The spondees in the third and fourth feet effectively render the image of the river Bagrada sluggishly (lentus), almost lazily, ‘ploughing’ the desert, i.e., digging a furrow in the sand, rather like a snake than a stream of water would do. The line is imitated by Silius in his excursus on Regulus and the First Punic War: Sil. 6.140-1 turbidus arentes lento pede sulcat arenas / Bagrada. L. might have transformed an Ovidian snake into an African rivulet: Ov. M. 15.725-6 litoream tractu squamae crepitantis harenam / sulcat; perhaps via the association with the historical serpent killed by Regulus; see 588n. above. The hissing alliteration in the voiceless sibilant makes us think of a snake, and in combining it with the insistence on the voiceless velar plosive in siccae sulcator L. highlights the contrast between the wetness of the exiguous flow and the dry landscape across which the river runs. sulcator This rare post-Virgilian derivative of sulcare, personifies the river Bagrada in a unique image. Compare the other three occurrences of the noun: Sil. 7.363 sulcator nauita ponti (Häussler 1978, 163), St. Theb. 8.18 sulcator pallidus undae, 11.588 pigri sulcator Auerni. The noun sulcus and its derivative verb sulco occur a few times in poetry in sailing contexts with ratis, puppes, and/or carina; see e.g., Verg. A. 5.158 (repeated verbatim in Sil. 17.155); 10.197, and 295-8 (with Harrison 1991) Ov. M. 15.726-7; P. 1.4.35-6. This metaphorical usage of sulco also occurs at L. 3.550-1 puppes / sulcato... gurgite; but here sulcator undoes the sailing metaphor, as the Bagrada hopelessly ploughs an unfruitful sicca harena. On prosaic nouns in –tor, see above ad 4 rector. Häussler’s parallel (Häussler 1978, 163; cf. Fröhlich 2000, 189) with Ov. M. 15.15.725-6 may suggest that in describing the river furrow with this epithet L. alludes to the trace left by a serpent and his Ovidian echo activates the resonance of Regulus’ African destiny. Curio’s future will turn out to be just as doomed.
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4.589–660 Hercules and Antaeus Curio reaches the site of Hercules’ fight with Antaeus (589-90) and asks a local peasant why the place is called Antaeus’ Kingdom (591-2). The local peasant replies by telling a myth. Antaeus is a Giant, a son of Earth, but his mother did not deploy him at Phlegrai, where his brothers fought against Jupiter (593-600). His strength is magically restored by contact with mother Earth; he feeds on lions, lives in a cave, and kills strangers (601-9). He meets Hercules in a wrestling match; both adversaries marvel at each other’s strength (610-16). The poet exploits the opposing similarities of the two adversaries as the struggle begins; Antaeus resists then falls down to touch the ground and recover strength (617-44). Hercules realizes Antaeus’ secret and speaks his only words ever in this epic as he forces the Giant to stand and fight (645-50). Antaeus dies in Hercules’ powerful clasp (650-3). The local peasant closes the etymological aition by reminding Curio that the place is also known as Castra Cornelia (654-60). After the quick transition from Illyricum to Africa (581-9), the narrative is delayed by the digression on Antaeus and Hercules, a section rich in mythological detail. Extensive mythological accounts are uncommon in L. Only the Medusa excursus in Book IX matches this one in length and relevance. Hercules’ victorious fight against Antaeus prefigures Curio’s subsequent action in Africa, who first wins against Roman Varus and then loses against African Juba. It is in close relation to Curio’s African campaign that the Antaeus’ episode must be read if we want to make full sense of its presence in the poem. The episode of Hercules and Antaeus is especially significant because it invites the reader to contemplate five crucial factors, each of them functioning at one and the same time on three levels, the literary, the historical, and the political: 1) Libya as an elemental force of nature; 2) Libya/Africa as a geopolitical entity; 3) the myth of the Gigantomachy as a hyperbole for civil war; 4) the civil war as a historical event and a literary theme; 5) the story of Hercules and Cacus from Virgil’s Aeneid as Lucan’s literary precedent. All of these five factors are inextricably linked to one another. Relying on linguistic artifice and rhetorical technique, L.’s poetic language seamlessly weaves the literary, historical, and political threads in the symbolical narrative of the famous myth. The five factors need to be outlined one by one.
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The first and most prominent factor is 1) Libya, the mother of Antaeus, whose presence as an elemental force of nature breeding monster Antaeus in her shallow caves allows her to function as a hypostasis of Earth (=Tellus=Ge). For the insistence in referring to Earth, see n. on 4.593 Tellus below. The idea of land, embedded in the concept of Libya as Mother-Earth, represents the second factor. Constituted as a Roman province after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE; on the evocation of ‘elemental’ civil war, see the insightful remarks of Henderson 1998, 190ff. on the battle at Ilerda and the opening of Book IV; 2) Libya/Africa is a signifier of anti-Roman hostility and epitomizes the historical forces and processes that brought Rome to fight wars on African soil. Next, the mention of the Giants at the very outset of the story (4.593) activates the third and most complex of the factors, for the struggle of Hercules vs. Antaeus recalls the theological/cosmological forces facing one another in the 3) mythical battle in which the Earthborn Giants strove, and failed, to subvert the Olympian order constituted by Zeus. In L. Olympian Hercules overcomes the threat of chaos represented by the Libyan Giant, which brings us to our fourth factor. The struggle of Hercules vs. Antaeus evokes the 4) political forces that face each other in the civil conflict. The Gigantomachy functions as a mythical background to the fight and a hyperbolic metaphor for the civil war. On the Gigantomachy in Lucan, see Feeney 1991, 297 esp. n. 184 citing 1.34-6, 3.315-20, 6.347-8, 389-90, 410-12, 7.144-50, 9.6558, and 298-9 on the Gigantomachy ‘as the context for Nero’s present position’ in 1.33-8. On Virgil, see Hardie 1983, 1986. For the whole theme of civil war and Gigantomachy, see Nisbet/Hubbard 1978, 190 ad Hor. C. 2.12.7, who trace the theme as far back as Xenophanes and Pindar (on which see Vian 1952), and down to Roman times via Callimachus. See RE Suppl. 3.656-60 for the literary sources on the Giants (cf. RE 18.1.305 on piling up Ossa and Pelion; esp. Ov. M. 1.151-62 with Bömer ad loc., and St. Ach. 1.147-58). Cf. finally Mart. 8.50 and 78 on Domitian’s victory against the Sarmatians. The Gigantomachy hyperbole finally invites us to explore a fifth and final factor, the literary resonance in our passage of 5) Hercules and Cacus from Aeneid VIII. In L., however, the hyperbole highlights the paradox generated by the civil conflict, for the success of Caesar’s rebellion against a previously established order activates the analogy between the Roman civil war and the Gigantomachy. The paradoxical force of the hyperbole
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questions the very concepts of ‘order’ and ‘chaos’, not to mention the (im)possibility of telling the one from the other in this poem. In other words, as an image of chaos, the civil war threatens the Republican order. Caesar and his faction, these Giant figures of Roman history, will win by destroying the Republican order and will establish their own ‘order’, an order that defies definition in its being so closely analogous to primal chaos. On the reader’s disorientation resulting from ‘Lucan’s amplification from the military to the cosmic order,’ see Henderson 1998, 210 and passim. 589-92 These lines rapidly switch from the historical to the mythical register. The link with myth is given by Curio’s geographical and etymological curiosity. On change of registers, see ad 654-60; Asso 2002a ad 9.303-19, 348-67; 368-78; 411-20; 449-97. 589-660 See Sen. HF 480-7 in Billerbeck/Guex 2002. 589 tumulos: ‘hills’ (Haskins). The tomb of Antaeus is mentioned in Plut. Sert. 9 and Strabo 17.3.8 [829]. Strabo names his source as some Gabinius, cf. RE VII.1 nr. 1, but see Peter in HRR 2.49.1 for Tanusius Geminus. The story, as told in Plutarch and Strabo, about Sertorius uncovering a skeleton larger than human size, might have originated in an oral epichoric tradition (see the rudis incola 592n. below), perhaps stimulated by the local configuration of the terrain; cf. Mela 3.106: hic [sc. Mauretaniae] Antaeus regnasse dicitur, et signum quod fabulae clarum prorsus ostenditur collis modicus resupini hominis imagine iacentis, illius ut incolae ferunt tumulus: unde ubi aliqua pars eruta est solent imbres spargi, et donec effossa repleantur eueniunt. Mela seems to say that whenever a bit of earth is removed from the hillock water (imbres) comes out until the dug-out dirt (effossa) is restored (repleantur); for this interpretation see Fradin 1827: ‘des eaux qui circulent çà et là dans les terres viennet aussitôt combler le vide.’ Whatever the origins of these waters, L. ignores the phenomenon. And yet the erosion Mela describes does remind one of L.’s exesas… rupes below. It is however impossible to ascertain any dependence of L. on either Mela or the Hellenistic source used by Strabo and Plutarch. exesas… undique rupes ‘eroded on all sides.’ The participle exesus is common in poetry, but is almost exclusively used as an adjective rather than a verb, see TLL V.2.1317.53ff. It mostly applies to things of nature
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(e.g., land, mountains, rocks, trees, caves; cf. 9.464 exesis…cauernis) and is often rendered with ‘hollow’ (cf. Sil. 5.396 and 14.57, clearly reminiscent of Virgil’s passing reference to the Cyclops’ cave in A. 8.418 specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis; cf. also Proteus’ cave in G. 4.418). The phrase describes the landscape erosion typical of a dry area on the edge of the African desert. 590 Antaei… regna L.’s learned geography of western Africa strikes us rather for its literary and poetic erudition than for its systematic description of sites. In fact the actual location of Antaeus’ kingdom is not uniformly attested. Pliny the Elder mentions Antaeus as the founder of Tingi on the Atlantic coast of Africa (Barrington Atlas 28B3), but also as having a regia in Lixus (Barrington Atlas 28C2); cf. Plin. NH 5.2.6 nunc est Tingi, quondam ab Antaeo conditum, postea a Claudio Caesare, cum coloniam faceret; and 5.3.1 colonia a Claudio Caesare facta Lixos, uel fabulosissime antiquis narrata: ibi regia Antaei certamenque cum Hercule et Hesperidum horti; see also above 589n. The sources on Antaeus are conveniently listed in Frazer’s note on Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 (Frazer 1921, 223 n. 2), now superseded by the detailed apparatus of loci similes in Scarpi 1996 (ad Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 [115]); but see also RE I.2.2339-43; Roscher I.1.362-4; LIMC I.1.800-1. L. shows awareness of the earliest surviving texts mentioning two (different?) characters both named Antaeus; cf. Gentili/Bernardini 1995, 239 n. 1 (= intro ad Pind. P. 9). In Pind. P. 9.185 (composed in 474 BCE) Antaeus is the king of an African city called Irasa, but in I. 4.87 (composed ca. 476 BCE) he is the Giant defeated by Hercules. The detail of the skulls adorning Antaeus’ father’s (Poseidon) temple (Pind. I. 4.54b) is known to L. 2.162-4 scelerum non… tantum / uidit… pendere… / postibus Antaei Libye, clearly reminiscent of Cacus’ cave in Verg. A. 8.196-7 foribusque adfixa superbis / ora uirum tristi pendebant pallida tabo. Pindar’s Irasa could, yet need not, be identical with the city of the same name mentioned in Herodotus (4.158). In Herodotus Irasa is situated to the east of Cyrene whereas the site of the fight between Hercules and the Giant is usually located to the west of Cyrene. In a fragment ascribed to Pherekydes of Athens (floruit Ol. 81.1 = 456 BCE, according to Eusebius) Irasa is said to be located in the area of Lake Tritonis (on which see Asso 2002a ad 9.348-67). However, as Jacoby rightly remarks, ‘The city of Irasa… and the lake Tritonis do not fit together’
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(F gr Hist 3 F 75 ap. schol. Pind. P. 9.185a, with Komm. I: 414). Jacoby goes on to explain that Pherekydes’ fragment is evidence of the conflation of different versions in the compilations of the genealogists. This conflation must have happened at a very early stage, because the 6th cent. BCE Rhodian epicist Peisander mentions Alkeis, king Antaeus’ daughter, marrying Hercules after the fight; see Pisander frg. 6 Bernabé = 7 Davies ap. schol. Pind. P. 9.185a (Drachmann 2.238); LfgrE I.499 s.v. Ἀλκηΐς. non uana uetustas Arnulf ad 592: ‘PER MVLTOS PATRES Literati per historias annalium nouerunt antiqua, rustici uero per successionem patrum sibi ad inuicem dicentium.’ Although Antaeus’ tale is represented as oral tradition through the figure of the nameless peasant, L. belongs to Arnulf’s first category, the literati, and in fact his tale of Antaeus is a learned mythic account relying on ancient authority, which for L. must have been available in a bookish format. For a different nuance of the expression, see e.g., 3.406 si qua fidem meruit superos mirata uetustas. After telling the aition, the nameless Libyan will describe this uetustas as famosa (see 654n below), that is, ‘rich in fama’; cf. Asso 2002a ad 9.348. Nuances in reporting mythological or otherwise traditional material might indicate different degrees of credibility, or more plausibly, erudite (dis)agreement on less known mythic variants (Stinton 1976); for the same phenomenon in Virgil, cf. Horsfall 1990. On the feature known as the ‘Alexandrian footnote’, see Hinds 1998, 1-16 on ‘Reflexivity: allusion and self-annotation.’ 591 nominis… causas designates the digression on Antaei… regna as an etymological aition, interestingly flagged with the substantive nomen (655n. below). The learned interest in etymology is an aspect of the epic fondness for historical causality and mythic aetiology, both features being so essential to Roman epic discourse; cf. Heinze 1915, 480 n. 1: ‘Übrigens ist die Vorliebe für Namensetymologien in der römischen Poesie alt,’ who provides examples from Naevius and Ennius’ Medea; and see now O'Hara 1996, esp. his ch. 1: ‘Etymological Thinking and Wordplay before Virgil.’ noscere causas Cf. 10.189 nihil est quod noscere malim | quam fluuii causas, where Caesar’s appetite to learn about the origins of the Nile is proportionately greater than his legate’s (Berti 2000 ad loc.). The phrase has a distinctly Virgilian (and Epicurean) tinge, cf. G. 2.490 (on
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which see Mynors 1990; pace Thomas 1988), but is ultimately of Lucretian origin, e.g., Lucr. 3.1055, 5.775 (cf. 1185). Sil. 6.139 cognoscere causam probably imitates L.; in Silius Marus sets out to tell Serranus about the African struggle of Regulus against the Bagrada serpent, one of the highlights of Silius’ digression on the First Punic War. 592 docuit rudis incola A nameless peasant will tell Curio of Antaeus’ struggle against Hercules. L. plays on the meaning of the adjective rudis, which as a derivative of rus can mean ‘of the country’, and therefore rudis incola may simply mean ‘an inhabitant of the land’. And yet the oxymoron ‘docuit rudis’ suggests for rudis also the sense ‘uncouth, ignorant’, which is thus pointing to the paradox that an ignorant peasant (see OLD s.v. ‘rudis’ 4 and 6) may be doctus enough to lecture Curio about local African (Greek) myth. 593-7 L. alludes to the Gigantomachy elsewhere (cf. e.g., 1.36; 3.316; 6.347, 389; 7.145) in relation to the Civil War theme, see Feeney 1991, 297: ‘The civil war is consistently represented under the guise of Gigantomachy’; and Henderson 1998, 165-211: ‘Lucan/The Word at War’. In replying to Caesar’s summons to join his faction in civil strife, the Massilians decline and compare Caesar to the Giants: see 3.315-20 (with Hunink’s comments) si caelicolis furor arma dedisset / aut si terrigenae temptarent astra gigantes / non tamen auderet pietas humana uel armis / uel uotis prodesse Ioui sortisque deorum / ignarum mortale genus per fulmina tantum / sciret adhuc caelo regnare Tonantem. Hyperbolic comparing of human to divine feats returns in 7.145ff. si liceat superis hominum conferre labores… For the Gigantomachy theme in Roman epic, see Hardie 1983, 1986, 1993; O'Hara 1994. 593-4 nondum… antris The nameless peasant begins his etymological/ aetiological tale of the struggle between Hercules and Antaeus by recurring to a series of etymological and bilingual puns, whose purpose is to emphasize both Antaeus’ parentage and the resulting Gigantomachic implications of the struggle to follow: nondum post genitos Tellus effeta gigantas / terribilem partum concepit in antris. The figura etymologica is arranged in a chiasmus around effeta: genitos matches –gantas ([γε-]γαοντας) as Tellus matches gi- (Γῆ; cf. Maltby 1991, 259 s.v. ‘gigas’; Isid. Orig. 11.3.13 Gigantes dictos iuxta Graeci sermonis
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etymologiam, qui eos γηγενεῖς existimant, id est terrigenas; cf. also Voss in Weber ad 4.593: ‘Gigantes dicuntur quasi Gegentes i.e. terrae gentes; nam sunt filii terrae, γῆ enim Graece, Latine dicitur terra, unde Gigantes’). The ge- in genitos and the gi- in gigantas are bilingually echoed both in Tellus and terr- (of terribilem). As O'Hara 1996, 61-2 observes, even though natural quantity cannot be altogether ignored, ‘changes in vowel quantities alone do not prevent etymologizing.’ See also 3.316 terrigenae… gigantes; Verg. G. 1.278 partu Terra nefando with Thomas 1988 ad loc. 593 Tellus personified, as Ge, for she is the hypostasis of Earth and the mother of the Giants. The rudis incola repeatedly refers to the Earth: 599 Terra; 629 arida tellus (or Tellus? i.e., Africa); 636 Telluris uiribus; 644 Tellus; 647 Terra. effeta Housman’s ecfeta against effeta of the MSS. may give emphasis to the etymological figure centered on effeta (593-4n.), which might explain why he chooses to print ecfeta here but effetas at 9.285. The prefix ec- (ex- before vowel, cf. Greek ἐκ/ἐξ; Ernout/Meillet 1939, 31213) may mean, among other things, ‘out of’ with the nuance ‘deprived’; cf. the compounds expers, exsanguis, exanimis. Here the adjective means ‘out of fetus’, i.e., no longer capable of fertility, and in this sense is used of Tellus also in Lucr. 2.1150 and 6.843; cf. Horsfall 2000 ad Verg. A. 7.440. In the simile at 9.285, however, effetas describes the hive cells (ceras) having released the bees and therefore ‘out of fetus’ as if ‘hatched’ (so Duff 1928, probably on the basis of Verg. G. 4.21-2 cum prima noui ducent exanima reges / uere suo ludetque fauis emissa iuuentus). 594 terribilem is the only adjective that directly qualifies Antaeus; see above 593-4n. An analogous kind of wordplay may be found in Hor. C. 3.4.49 Magnum illa terrorem intulerat Ioui / ... iuuentus, where the sound of the noun terror echoes Terra, the mother of illa iuuentus, i.e., the Giants. 595 gloria terrarum plural for singular or rather for Terra in all of her hypostases; see below on Typhon, and 596n. on Tityos and Briareus, all sprung out of Ge. Typhon appears to be mentioned here as a Giant (one more argument, if at all needed, in favor of this variant against Python; see the ap. crit.
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in Housman 1927), but in 6.92 he represents the fetid exhalations of Nisida. The Roman poetic tradition often confuses Titans and Giants, see Lyne 1978: 115 ad Cirim 32-4. Both Typhon and Tityos appear to be mentioned as Giants in Sen. Thy. 804-12. In Hes. Th. 820-80 Typhon is the monster born of Ge and Tartarus to oppose Zeus after the latter’s defeat of the Titans. The early Greek mythological tradition is itself varied about the birth of Typhon; see now Fowler 2000 in index verb. 2: ‘Nomina Propria’ s.v. ‘Τυφών (Τυφάων)’. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo Typhon is born by parthenogenesis of Hera alone, jealous of Zeus’ own offspring Athena (305-55). The scholiast to Il. 2.783 has Typhon born of two eggs rubbed with Kronos’ semen and buried in the earth; see West 1966, 380 ad Hes. Th. 820-80. As Kronos’ belated offspring Typhon is a Titan. As for Antaeus (590n. above), L. may be aware of the inconsistencies of the tradition. His referring inclusively to these monsters as Giants might signify his stance on the erudite matter, or adherence to the position most common in his own time. See Hunink 1992b ad 3.150. Similarly, Val. Fl. 4.200 calls Amycus a saeuus gigas (cf. 148-9 Amycus... qui uertice nubila pulset) even though he is not a direct offspring of Ge, but of Poseidon and a nymph (see on Tityos 596n. below). 596 Tityos L. is not explicit about Tityos’ gigantism, but see Lucr. 3.988, Verg. A. 6.595-7, Hor. C. 3.4.77; Sen. HF 976-8 (with Billerbeck/Guex 2002 and Fitch 1987 ad loc.); and Thy. 804-12. Tityos’ vastness is a topic in poetry since Homer’s underworld: Od. 11.576; see Prop. 3.5.44; Ov. Am. 3.12.25; M. 4.457-8; Sen. Thy. 9. Cf. also St. Th. 1.710; 6.753. Either Zeus (Hygin. Fab. 55), or Apollo, or Artemis (Pherekydes, cited below), killed Tityos because, instigated by Hera, he assaulted Leto (Od. 11.580-1). His punishment in the underworld is to have his liver perpetually eaten by vultures. Unlike Od. 11.576, L. does not explicitly say that Tityos is a son of Ge; the ambiguity is already in Virgil A. 6.595 Terrae omniparentis alumnum, see Norden 1926 and Austin 1977 ad loc.; cf. terrigena in St. Th. 1.710. In Ap. Rh. 1.761-2, Tityos is a son of Zeus by Elara, a Boeotian heroine, perhaps to be considered as a peculiar hypostasis of Ge according to Waser in Roscher 5.1034.17. L. may be aware of the tradition attested in Pherekydes of Athens (F gr Hist 3 F 55 ap. schol. Ap. Rh. 1.760b) that when Elara was pregnant with Tityos, Zeus concealed her under the earth to hide
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her from jealous Hera. When the time came, Tityos sprang out of Earth. As Earth-born, Tityos qualifies, at least etymologically, as a Giant. Tityos’ physical vastness implicitly emphasizes the magnitude of his (foster) brother Antaeus. If the figure who is about to be pierced by Leto’s torch on the Pergamon frieze is Tityos, this would be his earliest attestation in a Gigantomachic context; see LIMC 6.1, 260, s.v. ‘Leto’ nr. 46; K. Scherling in RE VI A 2: 1594-5, 1605-6 s.v. ‘Tityos’. On L.’s awareness of traditional inconsistencies, see 590n. on Antaeus and 596n. on Typhon. Briareus Like Tityos, Briareus is also a denizen of the netherworld; Verg. A. 6.287. In Hes. Th. 149 he is born of Ge like the other two Hundred-Handers, Kottos and Gyges. Briareus is his divine name; humans know him as Aigaion (Il. 1.403). In Homer and Hesiod Th. 617735 the Hundred-Handers help Zeus against the Titans, but in Virgil A. 10.565-8 Aigaion (= Briareus) fights against Jove (see Harrison 1991 ad loc.). A tradition attested in Eumelos’ Titanomachia Cyclica frg. 2 (schol. Ap. Rh. 1.1165) makes Aigaion and Kottos side with the Giants against Zeus; see LfgrE II.95 s.v. Βριάρεως. According to the grammarian Lukillos (schol. Ap. Rh. 1.1165d; cf. RE XIII.2.1785-91), Aigaion (= Briareus) was a Giant. For the relevance of L.’s mythological erudition, see 596n. on Typhon. caeloque pepercit Ge did not deploy Antaeus in the Thessalian plain of Phlegrai, where the gods fought against the Giants. The text here makes it explicit that Ge is the common parent of Antaeus and the Giants, among whom also these three monsters, Typhon, Tityos, and Briareus are included. 598-600 Order: Terra cumulauit tam uastas uires sui fetus hoc quoque munere, quod membra iam defecta uigent renouato robore cum tetigere parentem. The syntactical arrangement invites the reader to pause and marvel at Antaeus’ gift, as indicated by hoc quoque in emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence. Just as Terra accumulates her gifts to her son Antaeus, so does L. accumulate hyperbata to produce astonishment in his audience. 598 cumulauit munere The phrase occurs only here and in Verg. A. 5.532 Aeneas laetum amplexus Acesten / muneribus cumulat magnis. Throughout the episode of the mythic struggle, L. insists on Antaeus’
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magic gift of self-reinvigoration by contact with the mother; cf. 604-5; 607-9; 615-16; 629-32; 636-7; 642. 599 Terra... parentem Even though belonging to separate syntactical units, the first and last word of the line contain an element of hyperbaton, in a line that begins and ends with Mother Earth. On aspects of word order, see next n. 600 iam defecta... membra Antaeus’ exhausted limbs are restored with renewed strength (robore, on which see 608 below), which mimetically stands enclosed in the andjective-noun phrase; for similar instances of encosling word-order, cf. 1.55 unde tuam... Romam; 136 qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro; 269 audax uenali comitatur Curio lingua; 655 si saeuum… leonem; etc. Referring to another and even more frequent feature of word order, that of a noun and adjective framing the entire line, Norden 391 notes that this kind of word symmetry is characteristically employed by the Neoterics to heighten the elegance of their verses. Pearce 1968 offers a copious list of examples from Catullus 64 and Virgil among others. See Feeney 1982, 25-8 ad 21-33. 601 haec illi spelunca domus L. is modeling Antaeus’ abode on Cacus’ cave; Verg. A. 8.193 hic spelunca fuit. Antaeus inhabits a cavernous recess of the earth, traditionally secluded in a remote depth, 601-2 latuisse sub alta / rupe ferunt. 602 Antaeus’ lion-based diet, a detail unique to L., may be his innovation. The only other known lion eater is Achilles, who is reported to have fed on bear and lion marrows (schol. Il. 16.36, with Robertson 1940 and Heslin 2005, 173-5 on Achilles’ food). By virtue of sympathetic magic, a lion-based diet should provide Achilles with the lion’s strength (Frazer 1921 ad Apollod. 3.13.6) and ira, µῆνις, the narrative engine of the Iliad; on angry lions see 685-6n. below. See also how Achilles replies to Diomedes inquiring about his unusual upbringing in St. Ach. 2.96-100 dicor et in teneris et adhuc reptantibus annis, / Thessalus ut rigido senior me monte recepit, / non ullos ex more cibos hausisse nec almis / uberibus satiasse famem, sed spissa leonum / viscera semianimisque lupae traxisse medullas (Fantham 1999, 63-4 nt. 14; cf. Heslin 2005, 179). Lions are African creatures, more precisely, they are Gaetulian (cf. Hor. C. 1.23.10 and 3.20.2; Verg. A. 5.351). Lions appear on the coins
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of both Juba I of Numidia and his learned son, the historian Juba II of Mauretania. Juba II wrote also about lions (F gr Hist 275 F 47-61) and it is possible that L. had access to his works; see Asso 2002a on 9.478. Juba II was restored to his father’s kingdom after fighting for Octavian at Actium (Dio 51.15.6; Nisbet/Hubbard 1980 on Hor. C 1.22.15); cf. F. Jacoby in RE IX.2.2384-95 s.v. ‘Iuba 2’; Der neue Pauly V.1185-6 s.v. ‘Iuba 2’. 605 in nuda tellure iacens Like the fierce beasts he feeds on, Antaeus sleeps on the bare earth, without the usual animal hides or leaves, obviously because of the reinvigorating magic depending on contact with Mother Ge. Cf. Comm. Bern. 4.605 ‘ut pote supra matrem.’ 605-6 Antaeus’ human victims include not only the local peasants, coloni aruorum Libyae, but also the unsuspecting sea-farers, quos appulit aequor. Amycus likewise challenges the Argonauts to fight in Ap. Rh. 2.11-18; cf. Val. Fl. 4.145-56. 606 appulit Etymologically applied to sheep and cattle (e.g., Accius Praetext. 19-20 Ribbeck [ap. Cic. Diu. 1.22.44] pastorem ad me adpellere pecus lanigerum; Ov. F. 6.80; cf. TLL II.275-6 with Horsfall ad Verg. A. 7.39), the verb is also used metaphorically in nautical contexts, cf. Afran. Com. 137 appellant huc ad molem nostram nauiculam. L. uses it only three times in this latter sense; cf. 8.563, 567. With the exceptions of Ov. F. 6.80 and Val. Fl. 2.446 and 559, the dactylic appulit/adpulit occurs in the fifth foot in thirteen out of sixteen instances in dactylic poetry. In the formula appulit oris it occurs four times in Virgil, always in the fifth and sixth feet; see Verg. A. 1.377 tempestas; 3.338 deus; 715 deus; 7.39 exercitus (three out of four times the grammatical subject of appulit in Verg. is more than human; in 7.39 as well as in L. here it is an army that lands on the beach); cf. Ov. F. 3.621; Val. Fl. 4.484; 5.277; Sil. 8.159; 14.113. 607-8 Order: uirtus, diu non usa auxilio cadendi, spernit opes terrae. For long (diu) Antaeus needed not have recourse to the earth’s power (terrae opes), as he remained invincible by everyone even without his mother’s help. There is a jarring oxymoron in the phrase auxilio cadendi. 608 inuictus robore The Roman cult title of Hercules is here applied to his antagonist Antaeus; Hercules is referred to simply as uictor at 626.
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The significance of the epithet inuictus here as ‘strongly evocative of both Hercules and Alexander’ (Ahl 1976, 272); Ahl’s opinion of Cato as the ‘only unconquerable man’ (9.18 inuicti… Catonis, cf. Ahl 1976, 274) relies on a fundamentally Stoic reading of the Bellum Ciuile. In 9.18 inuictus means ‘unshaken in resolve’ (see OLD 4) although it can evoke the sense ‘unconquerable’, i.e., the Latin translation of the originally poetic epithet άνίητος, later applied by the Delphic oracle to Alexander; cf. Plut. Alex. 14.7 and LSJ. L. uses the adjective inuictus only five times in the poem. At 3.334 it applies to Rome, whose (almost) proverbial invincibility (cf. Hunink ad loc. and Rhet. ad Her. 4.66 urbs inuictissima) in the utterance of the Massilian ambassadors to Caesar may betray the understandable opportunism of their flattering intentions – that is, if one does not resist the temptation of taking 3.334 inuictae... urbi as a plain metonymy, addressed as it is to ‘Caesar inuictus.’ Ductor inuictus is what Caesar calls himself at 5.324 in haranguing his mutinied soldiers, and similarly at 10.346 he is referred to as dux inuictus, both contexts in which inuictus is part of a formula referring to either a commander or, later, to the ruler in the imperial etiquette, as attested for Scipio Africanus Maior in Enn. var. 3 Vahlen ap. Cic. Or. 45.152, cf. Cic. De re p. 6.9 and Suet. Iul. 59; for Hannibal, cf. Cic. leg. agr. 2.95, Nep. Hann. 6.1, Liv. 22.44.4, etc.; for Caesar in Cic. pro Marcello 12, cf. Val. Max. 7.6.5; for Augustus in Hor. Serm. 2.1.11, Ov. Tr. 5.1.41, Manil. 1.925; for Tiberius in Ov. Tr. 4.2.44, cf. Suet. Tib. 17.2; for Domitian in St. S. 4.7.49; for Trajan in Frontin. Aq. 31 (cf. Plin. Pan. 8.2). Finally, the epithet becomes a constant component in imperial cult inscriptions from Commodus to Constantine, see e.g., Inscr. Afr. 612 (191-2 CE) pro salute et incolumitate imp. Caesaris L. Aeli Aurel. Commodi pii inuicti felicis Herculis Romani... (Berti 2000, 256 ad 10.346 is regrettably very concise; but see the passages cited above from TLL VII.2.186). For the interesting argument that inuictus came to be applied to heroes only after its use for Alexander the Great, see Tarn 1948, 2.338-9 (cited by Ahl 1976, 272 nt. 51). On the early and mid-imperial history of the epithet inuictus at Rome, see the fundamental article by Weinstock 1957. L. must have been aware of the rich nuances as well as the irony of applying such an epithet to Caesar (and Cato 9.18, on which see above), and unexpectedly to Antaeus and not to Hercules. The jarring effect of
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qualifying Hercules’ opponent with a cultic epithet ritually reserved to Hercules himself as a Roman god is even more striking when we notice that the limit set by the immediately following ablative of limitation robore is rounded off by cunctis – which ultimately makes Antaeus’ robur limitless. L. repeatedly uses robur in pointing to Antaeus’ extraordinary vigor: 600 iam defecta uigent renouato robore membra; 633 constitit Alcides stupefactus robore tanto; 642 sponte cadit maiorque accepto robore surgit. 610 fama Rumor about Antaeus attracts Hercules to Africa. Remarkably, the struggle against Antaeus is mentioned in isolation, for it is not explicitly linked to any of the canonical twelve labors. terras monstris aequorque leuantem The participial clause concisely epitomizes Hercules’ beneficial action in ridding the world of monsters. The polar expression terras… aequorque is meant to embrace the totality of the bestial monsters killed by Hercules, as in Pind. N. 1.62-3; see Carey 1981: 125 ad Pind. N. 1.62-3: ‘Heracles’ cleansing of land and sea is of course one of the most important aspects of the legend.’ Cf. Pind. N. 3.22 (killer of sea-monsters and explorer of seas); I. 4.55-7 (explorer of land and sea); Eur. HF 225-6 (killer of monsters on both land and sea), and 400 with Bond’s learned n. on sea-clearing, citing Hercules’ victory over Triton (in the Great Syrte: cf. Strabo 17.3.20 and Plin. NH 5.5, RE VII.A.253ff.), as seen on an archaic pediment from the Athenian acropolis with the remains of a fish-tailed Triton fighting Heracles (Richter 1950, 120 pl. 379); more pictures of Heracles fighting sea or river monsters in Beazley 1963, 54-5; Soph. Tr. 1012 (traveler through sea and forests), 1059-61 (winner over Giants and wild beasts, traveler through every land). For the polarity earth/sea, see Kemmer 1903, 160. 611 magnanimum Alciden Both rhythm and metrical position echo Verg. A. 1.260 and 9.204. On the heroic epithet, very frequent in Roman epic, see Fantham on 2.234 (Brutus), and Harrison on Verg. A. 10.139. It occurs four more times in L.; cf. 475n. above (Vulteius’ uox); 9.133 (Pompey); 9.807 (a disciple of Cato). The epithet describes Hercules also in Sen. HF 310 magnanimi Herculis and, as noted by Billerbeck/Guex 2002, 235, applies to Theseus too, as at HF 646-7 comes / magnanime, and Thy. 869 magnanime Theseu; cf. finally Val. Fl. 1.634.
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612-13 Cleonaei... Libyci Hercules and Antaeus take off their lion hides, but only on a superficial level are the two opponents similar to each other (Ahl 1976, 95). Hercules adorns himself with the lion hide after ridding Nemea, which is here denoted by a synecdoche with the mention of the nearby Argive city of Cleone, as in Sen. HF 798 and HO 1891; see Moreno Soldevila 2006, 421 ad Mart. 4.60.2. As a predator of lions, however, Antaeus is more akin to the Nemean beast itself than to Hercules, yet one should add that the similarity effectively emphasizes Hercules’ risk and effort in facing an equal-looking opponent. The polarity of the opponents is first and foremost genealogical: Hercules is a son of Zeus and a human, while Antaeus is the offspring of Ge and Poseidon. This type of genealogical opposition supports those inclined to interpret the episode of the struggle as pitting the Olympian forces of order against the earlier generations of immortals (esp. Grimal 1949; but see contra Ahl 1976, 62-81, esp. 80). Here, however, we have two mortals facing each other, as in the boxing match between Amycus and Polydeuces (Ap. Rh. 2.1-96), in which Apollonius emphasizes the polar diversity of the opponent in genealogical terms, likening Amycus to ‘Typhoeus or one of the monstrous offspring of Ge’ (Ap. Rh. 2.38-40), and Polydeuces to the evening star, alluding to the well known catasterism. 613-14 perfudit... palaestrae Just like a Greek athlete, Hercules smears his body with oil. Oil smearing was part of the preliminaries to a wrestling match. For what follows is a wrestling match (617-53n. below). The detailed description of the fight suggests L. and his audience’s interest in athletic wrestling. Wrestling was popular in ancient Greece; see Gardiner 1905; Gardiner 1910, 372-401 (repeated more or less verbatim in Gardiner 1930, 180-196); Poliakoff 1987, 23-53. Even though an athletarum certamen was first introduced at Rome by M. Fulvius Nobilior among the celebrations during the ludi organized in 186 BCE after the Aetolian war (Liv. 29.22.2), Graeca certamina (an expression used derogatorily about the Neronia in Tac. Ann. 14.21.1-2), including various types of agonistic performances, did not become popular at Rome until much later. We know of two occasions dating from the age of Caesar in which competitive combat sports were performed at Rome: the agones gymnikoi kai mousikoi offered by Pompey to inaugurate his theater in 55 BCE (see Plut. Pom. 52.4; cf. Cic. Fam. 7.1; Dio 39.38.1), and the munus funebre offered by Curio on the occa-
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sion of his father’s death in 53 BCE (see Plin. NH 36.24.120), featuring performances by both athletae and gladiatores; cf. Caldelli 1993, 1-52, esp. 16-17. By having him listening to the peasant’s account of the wrestling match between Hercules and Antaeus, L. might point to Curio’s munus funebre of 53 BCE. By Nero’s time, however, athletic competitions inherited from Greece, such as wrestling and boxing, were finally gaining popularity at Rome in spite of more conservative taste; see e.g., Harris 1972, 63-74; Köhne/Ewigleben/Jackson 2000, 75-85. Competitive sports are institutionally established under Domitian with the foundation of the agon Capitolinus in 86 CE (for the date, see Cens. De die nat. 18.15; cf. Suet. Dom. 4.8; Caldelli 1993: 54). In Flavian times Statius reveals a keen interest in athletic wrestling; see e.g., the struggle of Tydeus and Agylleus in St. Theb. 6.847-910. 614 hospes Hercules is the foreign guest per antonomasia, for he travels the world far and wide to rid it of its monsters. Cf. Ov. F. 4.66-7 and Sil. 3.421; cf. also 610n. above. Olympiacae seruato more palaestrae ‘according to the custom of the Olympian wrestling-school (palaestra).’ The mention of the Olympic games, a festival in honor of Zeus, reminds the reader of Hercules’ divine father. On more palaestrae see Hor. C. 1.10.4 and TLL X.1.99. 615 parum fidens pedibus contingere Antaeus does not feel he can simply rely on his feet for the reinvigorating contact with his mother. And yet, the construction of fidens (which both as adj. and participle normally requires the gen. or dat.; cf. 5.577; 6.1; 8.303; 9.373) with the infinitive has puzzled Haskins 1887, who wrongly notes here: ‘contingere is equivalent to quod contingere.’ It is better to intend the participle fidens as governing the inf.: [Antaeus] parum fidens [se is not needed, but could stand here] contingere matrem pedibus; for the construction of fido (which normally requires either abl. or dat.) with either the sole inf. or acc. and inf. is indeed possible both in prose and verse (starting with Cic.; see TLL VI.696.81-697.7; cf. IV.208.69ff., and V.1.1102.41ff.). In Verg. A. 5.69 seu crudo fidit pugnam committere caestu, therefore, one need not (pace Williams 1960 ad loc.) explain the inf. committere on the ground that fidit has the sense audet, since ‘The poets, partly because of its metrical neatness, greatly enlarged the function of the infinitive in comparison with the prose usage [sc. with the personal construction of sufficio],’ thus Williams 1960, 42 ad Verg. A.
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5.21-2 obniti... sufficimus, where he produces L. 5.153-4 conplere... sufficiens (a feature of L.’s Sprachgebrauch which has not gone unobserved in Barratt 1979 ad 5.152-4). 616 auxilium membris calidas infudit harenas In contrast to Hercules, who is said to smear only oil on his limbs, Antaeus covers himself with sand to secure contact with his reinvigorating parent. Spreading dust over their oil-smeared body allows the wrestlers a firmer grip on each other; see Achelous’ match against Hercules in Ov. M. 9.35-6 ille cavis hausto spargit me puluere palmis, / inque uicem fuluae tactu flauescit harenae; cf. St. Theb. 6.848-9, 874; Mart. 7.67; Iuv. 6.421; Harris 1972, 58-9. 617-53 The technical vocabulary and expressions qualify the struggle as a wrestling match; cf. Gagliardi 1976, 117-19. 617 conseruere... nexu The struggle begins. This and the following line begin in a dactylic rhythm (-uu-uu-), which slows down in 619 immotumque caput, giving the idea of the opponents’ eagerness to start the fight followed by a partial immobility as they lock their arms and hands in a powerful clasp. For visual representations of the hand- and arm-hold on Greek vase-painting, see the handsome color reproduction of a ca. 500 BCE red-figure pelike (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) in Yalouris 1979, 204 fig. 107. conseruere manus The expression conserere manus generally denotes fighting. Here it applies to wrestling in a technical sense. It occurs seven times in poetry; it is repeated verbatim from Ov. Her. 12.100 inter se strictas conseruere manus (of the spartoi sown by Jason); but see also F. 3.282 conseruisse manus; Sen. HF 562 conseruit... manus; Sil. 9.10 consertaeque manus; St. Theb. 3.18 conserta manus; Val. Fl. 3.30-1 manus... conserat. nexus ‘hold’, a technical term in wrestling: see above all Quint. Inst. 2.8.13; cf. Ov. M. 6.241-3 transierant ad opus nitidae iuvenale palaestrae; / et iam contulerant arto luctantia nexu / pectora pectoribus; and St. Theb. 6.889. 618-19 colla... lacertis... caput... fronte The four different terms denoting body-parts in the space of two lines graphically illustrate the
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sense of the previous line where manus and bracchia join in multo nexu. 620 parem Gladiatorial term, Haskins ad 1.7 pares; cf. 636n. and 710n. below. ‘Par/pares (‘equal’) is one of the poem’s key words’ Feeney 1991, 297; cf. also Ahl 1976, 86-8; Masters 1992, 35, 44, 109-10, 155; Leigh 1997, 235 n. 4; Henderson 1998, 165-211; Jal 1963, 341 on par in other writers). For the idea of opposition of ‘equals’ in civil war, see e.g., 1.7 pares aquilas (with the notes in Haskins 1887 and Getty 1940 on the context of the poem’s exordium); 129 pares, Getty ad loc.: ‘‘equally matched’ like gladiators.’ For L.’s fondness of the gladiatorial metaphor in representing the opposing factions in the civil war, see Heitland 1887, xc, who lists 1.7, 97 commisit, 348 uiribus utendum est quas fecimus (see Haskins’s n. and Quint. 10.3.3 uires faciamus), 4.710 odere pares (see below ad loc.); 5.469 composuit (cf. Haskins’s n. and 1.97), 6.3 parque suom (with Haskins’s n.), 63 aestuat angusta rabies ciuilis harena, 191 parque nouum (with Conte 1988, 84 ad loc.), 7.695 sed par quod semper habemus / libertas et Caesar erunt (with Dilke/Postgate 1978 and Gagliardi 1975 ad loc.); to these, add 1.129. Cf. finally Sen. Prov. 1.3.4 fortissimos sibi pares quaerit (sc. fortuna), Const. Sap. 2.8.3 etc.; and on the ‘pares who are in fact not equal’, see Masters 1992: 35 with n. 62; Ahl 1976: 88 with n. 12 622 exhausit cf. 638 exhaustas. The symptoms of exhaustion described heretofore, e.g., sweat and panting, will be applied to Curio’s warhorse at 754ff. (see below). uirum Since Antaeus is a Giant, uir sounds odd. Generically uir may stand for a male person previously named and, like homo, is often used by poets to avoid the inflected forms of is (OLD 6), as often in L., e.g., 3.304 with Hunink’s n. Cf. Verg. A. 6.174, 890 with Norden’s comment on 174; Axelson 1945, 70; Austin 1955 ad Verg. A. 4.479; Kühner/Stegman I, 618. Given the gladiatorial terminology found in the context of this passage (see 620n. above), here uir might also be a gladiatorial term to refer to one of the opponents (cf. e.g., Duff’s translation: ‘his foe’s yielding back’), even though in this latter sense it usually occurs repeated in polyptoton, e.g., uir uiro, see OLD 7. 622-3 quod creber anhelitus illi / prodidit et gelidus fesso de corpore sudor The closest verbal parallel is Verg. A. 3.175 gelidus toto
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manabat corpore sudor (cf. Turnus in the Allecto scene at 7.458-9 olli somnum ingens rumpit pauor, ossaque et artus / perfudit toto proruptus corpore sudor), but the context of fear does not apply: Aeneas’ telling of his horror at his sudden waking up from the Penates dream (cf. Austin 1964 ad 2.174 on the ‘typically Roman portent’ of the Palladium sweating). Much closer in context to our passage is Verg. A. 5.432 uastos quatit aeger anhelitus artus, which occurs in the boxing match between Dares and Entellus during the funeral games for Anchises, but the verbal parallelism is confined to anhelitus, common enough to denote ‘panting under effort’ (cf. the rowing match at 5.199-200 tum creber anhelitus artus / aridaque ora quatit, with Williams ad loc. quoting Il. 23.688-9). The clausula reappears at A. 9.812-14 tum toto corpore sudor / liquitur et piceum (nec respirare potestas) / flumen agit; fessos quatit aeger anhelitus (with Hardie’s excellent n.; 812-13 imitated by Val. Fl. 3.577). Panting (anhelitus = ἄσθµα) and sweat (sudor = ἱδρώς) as symptoms of fatigue in battle contexts are expectedly common in ancient epic since Homer (e.g., Il. 16.109-10; cf. LfgrE I.1395 s.v. ‘ἄσθµα’ and II.1134-5 s.v. ‘ἱδρώς;’ cf. finally Ap. Rh. 2.85-7 on the boxing match between Amycus and Polydeuces). 623 corpore sudor The formula corpore sudor occurs as a clausula nine times in the corpus of Latin poetry; besides Ennius Ann. 416 Skutsch and the three Virgilian occurrences (A. 1.375; 7.459; 9.814) quoted above, see Lucr. 5.487, 6.944, and the anon. frg. 14 Morel (= 38 Blänsdorf ap. Schol. Veron. Verg. A. 2.173 [421 H]) <salsus nam>que laborando manat de corpore sudor. The clausula corpore sudor acquires the prestige of a formula after Enn. 417 Skutsch. tunc timido manat ex omni corpore sudor (Macr. Sat. 6.1.50; cf. Ann. 396 Skutsch totum sudor habet corpus), adapting the Homeric formula to the Latin hexameter (Macr. Sat. 6.3.1-4 ad Verg. A. 9.806-14; EV IV.1057 s.v. ‘sudor;’ Cassata 1984, 65-7). 624-5 tum... quati, tum... urgueri, tunc... labare The sequence of adverbs coordinating the infinitives lets the reader concentrate on the wrestler’s body-parts: 624 ceruix, pectus (see 624n. below), and 626 crura. The description suggests immediacy. For the anatomic vocabulary, see André 1991, 626n. and 631n. below. 624 pectore pectus This alliterative polyptoton occurs in the same metrical position, and also in a battle context, at 783 frangitur armatum
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conliso pectore pectus (see 783 below), where it describes the fate of Curio’s troops in the same terms as Antaeus’ death (cf. Hercules’ words at 649 haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris; Hinkle 1996, 99100). See also Sil. 5.219 pressoque impellunt pectore pectus. The earliest attested occurrence in a similar context and in the same metrical position is in Lucil. 8.305 tum latus conponit lateri et cum pectore pectus. Cf. also 648 intra mea pectora below; Ov. M. 6.243 pectora pectoribus (see ad 617 nexus above). For different contexts, see e.g., Sen. Phoen. 470, and TLL X.1.190.6-20. 626 crura L. uses crus only three times (cf. 3.637, with Hunink’s note; 9.763), Manilius and Statius also three times each, and Valerius Flaccus never. In the Aeneid the term refers to human legs only once at 11.777 (11.639 refers to the legs of a horse, as G. 3.76 and 192, whereas 3.53 refers to a cow and 4.181 to the bees). Once in the Georgics the term occurs in reference to the lower part of the human leg at 2.8, more precisely to the part covered by the ‘buskins (coturnis), the footwear of the tragic actor’ (Thomas ad loc.). Likewise, the later epic poets, with the exception of Ovid, tend to avoid crus. Adams 1980, 56-7 suggests that the avoidance of crus and the preference of Latin epic for mentioning rather its parts (pes, sura, planta, femur, poples) may be explained with a close imitation of the Homeric model, for in Homer the human leg is mentioned explicitly only once (Il. 16.314). For the epic habit of privileging the mention of certain anatomic parts against others, see 626n. above, and Adams 1980, 57: ‘The leg is the sum of its parts in Virgil and later writers.’ 626-9 iam terga... uirum Waistlock and throw: ‘The victor [Hercules] applies a fast grip on the yielding back of his foe, holding him tight by the waist (medium... artat) and squeezing his loins. By thrusting his own knees (insertis pedibus), [Hercules] strains his foe’s groin and spreads him out on the ground for the whole length of his body.’ Hercules succeeds in applying on Antaeus the waistlock from the back (terga uiri... alligat). It is less clear what type of action is meant with the ablative absolute insertis pedibus (627), where the translation above understands pes as a metonymy for knee (genu) but it could also be a synecdoche for the whole leg, following the logic according to which anatomical terms may be used pars pro toto even to represent the whole person (prevalently, but not exclusively, sexual parts, e.g., Catullus’
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mentula; see Adams 1982). If pedes is metonymic for genua, one must picture Hercules inserting his thighs/knees between the giant’s legs so as to force Antaeus’ legs apart and lift him off the ground, while (perhaps) also pounding his knees from below against Antaeus’ groins. The initial grip of a waistlock from behind, perhaps not as efficacious as the one applied by Hercules on Antaeus in L.’s description, is pictured on a black-figure Panathenaic vase from Eretria (360/50 BCE; Eretria Museum; Poliakoff 1987, 41 fig. 31). On a red-figure Attic amphora from Vulci by the Andokides painter (ca. 525 BCE; Staatliche Museum Berlin 2159; Poliakoff 1987, 36 fig. 22) a trainer is portrayed in the act of watching wrestlers in what appear to be two different moments of a waistlock move: in the scene on the left a wrestler attempts to slip behind his opponent to gain the back waistlock; on the scene on the right a wrestler has lifted his opponent in a back waistlock. Finally, a Hellenistic bronze statuette (ca. 150 BCE; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 54.972; Poliakoff 1987, 42 fig. 32) shows a wrestler who has lifted the opponent in a back waistlock and looks as if he might be in the act of throwing him on the ground. For images of Herakles and Antaeus fighting see Poliakoff 1987, 29 fig. 12, 39 fig. 27, 48 fig. 45. 626 uiri see 622n. above. 627 alligat et... artat Artare, ‘constrict’, a derivative of artus, here used as a synonym of alligo, occurs (at least) seven times in L.: 2.678, 3.398, 4.370, 5.234, 7.143, 9.35 (variant aptare in 8.655, see Housman’s note, cf. 7.143). Before L. artare is found in poetry one time each in Plautus (Capt. 304) and Lucretius (1.576; perhaps not in Manilius 5.660, where artare is Scaliger’s conjecture, accepted by Housman); in prose, it occurs once only in Livy (45.36.4) but becomes more frequent in post-Augustan literature, beginning with Velleius, Columella, and the philosophical works of Seneca. After L., it is common in Silver Latin poetry, e.g., Silius, Statius, and Martial; cf. TLL II.707-9. 628-9 omnem / explicuit per membra uirum Antaeus’ body, thrown to the ground by Hercules, spreads out in all of its gigantic length. Explico is used for bodies stretching out in death or sleep starting with L., cf. also 5.80-1 rudibus Paean Pythona sagittis / explicuit; Sil. 2.147 membra super nati moribundos explicat artus; imitated by Statius’ allusion to Python at Th. 1.569, also St. S. 5.3.260-1 te torpor iners et mors imitata quietem / explicuit; cf. TLL V.2.1725.22-6. Virgil uses explico
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only three times in three slightly different senses: ‘to extend in space’ in G. 2.279-80 cum longa cohortis / explicuit legio (OLD 4a); ‘to free from folds’ in G. 2.335 frondes explicat omnis (OLD 1a); and ‘to explain, unfold in words’ in A. 2.362 quis funera fando explicet? (OLD 9a, undoubtedly derived from sense 1a). The Adnotationes 629 helpfully gloss explicuit with extendit (perhaps extendit is to be read in the lacuna at Comm. Bern. 629 ‘legitur et * *’, but see Usener in the ap. crit.). Arnulf: ‘EXPLICUIT terre extendit. PER MEMBRA VIRUM ita scilicet quod non remansit aliquod membrorum inextensum.’ As Haskins notes, omnem… uirum points to Antaeus’ large body; for this use of uirum, see 622n. above. 629 arida tellus Perhaps Tellus. The phrase occurs in poetry only here and in St. Theb. 4.454 quantum bibit arida tellus, in the same metrical position; cf. St. Theb. 6.419 bibit albentis humus arida nimbos. Cf. also Hor. C. 1.22.15-16 nec Iubae tellus generat, leonum / arida nutrix; Tib. 1.7.26 te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres, / arida nec pluuio supplicat herba noui. The adjective aridus is more common with terra; cf. TLL II.565; more simplistically, Arnulf: ‘ARIDA causa est quare melius receperit.’ Here, however, arida is contrasted with the following 630 sudorem. 630 sudorem The dry Libyan sand ‘absorbs’, rapit, Antaeus’ sudor; which here stands for the giant’s exhaustion, as if the Libyan land herself were toiling in Antaeus’ place; cf. 636-7, and 644. For the expression, see Enn. trag. 338 Ribbeck (ap. Cic. Off. 1.18.61, with Dyck 1996 ad loc.) Salmacida spolia sine sudore et sanguine (Otto 1890, 334 s.v. ‘sudor’). 630-1 calido... artus The description of Antaeus’ becoming reinvigorated displays medico-scientific terminology. L. is aware of the vital function of blood and blood-circulation in making live bodies move (1.363 dum mouet haec calidus spirantia corpora sanguis) and in keeping them alive as long as the blood remaining in them is sufficient in quantity (3.746-7 nondum destituit calidus tua uolnera sanguis / semianimisque iaces; 6.751 in uenas extremaque membra cucurrit), see Migliorini 1997, 95-125, esp. 97-9. For the role of Stoic doctrine in human physiology, see Schotes 1969, 47-73. The redundancy, however, is not unusual and is in line with L.’s taste for repetition and detail in
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his search for pathos and other rhetorical effects; cf. Fraenkel 1970; Syndikus 1958, 44-57; Seitz 1965; Schrijvers 1989. conplentur sanguine The phrase occurs only three times in poetry (here, 7.539, and Sil. 10.237) and three more times otherwise (Marcius Vates ap. Liv. 25.12.6; Varro Men. 200; Cic. Verr. II.5.142). Such prosaic precision is surprising in a poetic text: the veins on Antaeus’ neck fill with blood and make his muscles swell (631n.). The literal precision of the expression seems unique to this passage in all of Latin poetry. For different contexts, cf. 7.539 compleri sanguine (of the fields of Pharsalus); cf. Liv. 25.12.6 compleri sanguine campum; Varro Men. 200 sanguine riuos compleret; and finally Sil. 10.237 compleuit sanguine uultus, ‘covered in blood’, as in Cic. Verr. II.5.142 sanguis os oculosque complesset. 631 intumuere tori The plural tori (see OLD s.v.) denotes visibly bulging muscles (especially, but not only, in animals), as in Ov. M. 15.229 (of Hercules); cf. Cels. 7.18; Sen. Phaedr. 1042 opima ceruix arduos tollit toros (of the bull’s neck); Val. Fl. 4.244 horrendosque toris informibus artus (of Amycus). induruit The first attestation of induresco is in Verg. G. 3.366 (see Thomas’ n.). This is the only occurrence in L. One would expect induresco to be fairly common; it occurs sixty-three times in all of the extant corpus, and only nine times in poetry but always in the same form (Ov. M. 4.745, 5.233, 9.219, 10.105, 241, 15.306; Tr. 5.2.5). Its frequency in Celsus, as well as the context in which it occurs here, suggest that the verb specializes in a medical sense. 632 nodos cf. Verg. A. 8.260 in nodum, and Plin. NH 28.63. 633-5 Hercules’ bewilderment at Antaeus’ magical reinvigoration is emphasized by 635 constitit in a prominent position at the beginning of the line. Cf. Verg. A. 6.559. 634 Inachiis... undis The slaying of the hydra in the marshes alimented by the river Inachus came only second, after the Nemean lion, in the tradition of the twelve labors, which explains quamvis rudis esset. 636 conflixere pares cf. 620, with n. above, and esp. 710 odere pares (see n. below), in Curio’s speech/monologue to his legions before engaging in battle against Varus.
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636-7 pares, Telluris uiribus ille, ille suis pares is effectively glossed with the explanation why Antaeus and Hercules are such a perfect match for each other, one with his mother’s strength, the other for his own. 637 saeuae... nouercae It is Juno’s cruelty that causes Hercules’ labors. Juno exercises her saeuitas also against Aeneas (e.g. A. 1.4 with Horsfall ad 7.287 and 592). The malevolence of the stepmother is a cliché in Latin poetry; see Watson 1985, 92-134. L.’s closest precedent may be Juno’s prologue in Sen. HF 35 (cf. 32 and Hercules’ own words in Ov. M. 9.199 saeua Iouis coniunx.) See also Otto s.v.; Verg. G. 2.128 (with Thomas’ n.); Ov. Her. 6.126, 12.188; [Sen.] Oct. 21; St. S. 2.1.49; and also Sil. 2.478 (with Spaltenstein’s n.) and Val. Fl. 3.580 (cf. 3.506 and Sil. 3.91); Courtney 1980 ad Iuv. 6.627. 638 exhaustos sudoribus artus / ceruicemque uiri Cf. 622 exhausitque uirum, but now the uir is Hercules, see above 622n. 639 siccam Hercules’ strength had not undergone as much challenge when he sustained the vault of the sky to grant rest to Atlas. 643-4 Solve the hyperbaton: quisquis spiritus inest terris egeritur in fessos artus. 645 ut tandem This adverbial phrase, usually connoting the fulfillment of an either explicit or implied expectation out of fear or hope, occurs in emphatic position at the beginning of the line also in Verg. A 2.531 and four more times in poetry (Ov. P. 4.8.84; Val. Fl. 7.579; Mart. 6.35.5, 10.83.10). The text insists on Antaeus’ falling. Redundancy is a conspicuous characteristic in L., who has been blamed for his ‘tedious prolixity’ (Frazer ad Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 (115) p. 223 n. 2). Far from tedious, L.’s insistence on Antaeus’ falling effectively stages the spectacle of the heroic fight. We should imagine that during a wrestling match at the games, the second fall of one of the wrestlers marked a moment of heightened suspense in the audience (see 646-9n.). 646 Alcides sensit Hercules’ realization of Antaeus’ secret has been profusely anticipated. The aoristic sensit merely isolates the moment in which it actually happened. L.’ might have innovated on the tradition in disregarding the intervention of Athena; cf.
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Comm. Bern. 646: dissimulat poeta Minervam hoc inuenisse consilium. But see Martindale 1981, 79 n. 11, who rightly points out that ‘Athena’s assistance features only in the second Vatican mythographer § 164 vol. I p. 131 in [Bodé 1834] (monitus a Minerua).’ See also the introduction to 589-660 above. 646-9 standum... cades Hercules pronounces the outcome of the match in the form of an order imparted to Antaeus. These are the only words spoken by Hercules in the entire poem. Hercules does not speak in Evander’s narrative from Aeneid VIII (or in Livy I), nor does he speak in either Silius or Valerius; but he does speak in Ov. M. 9.120-6, before striking the centaur to rescue Deianira. Both Ovid and L. might be imitating the Homeric model of the victor who speaks to taunt the loser. When Antaeus falls for the third time the wrestling match comes to a close and Hercules is victorious. No extant ancient source offers a summary of ancient rules for wrestling, but there certainly were fixed rules: Plat. Lg. 833e, Ael. VH 11.1 (Jüthner in RE XVIII.2.2, 83). We do know, however, that the wrestling match is pronounced over whenever one of the opponents has been thrown down and has fallen for three consecutive times: Sen. Ben. 5.3 luctator ter abiectus perdidit palmam; cf. A. Eu. 589, Plat. Phdr. 256b, and the poet of AP 9.588.5 (Gardiner 1903, 63-5; Jüthner ibid.). In this case, however, Antaeus’ magical capacity produces the paradox standum… cades, that is, Antaeus shall ‘fall’ (i.e., lose) remaining in a standing position because Hercules is holding him; cf. the oxymoron auxilio cadendi in 607 and 648n. below. 647 non credere solo As the scansion shows, credere (two long and one short) is here the second person from the future passive, lit. ‘you shall not be entrusted to the ground,’ parallel to the following uetabere. The sense of the metaphor is patently explained by the following coordinate clause. sternique uetabere terra explains the sense of the previous clause. Usually sternere (in the active form) means ‘to cause to lie down’ and is a common euphemism for ‘kill, i.e., defeat’ (in nineteen out of a total of twenty-three occurrences of sternere) in the Aeneid, e.g. 7.426 Tyrrhenas, i, sterne acies, with Horsfall ad loc.: ‘‘Lay low’, part of the ample lexicon of synonyms (not all, like sternere, euphemistic) for ‘kill’ or ‘defeat’ open to the poets... At least as early as Acc.trag.557,
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trag.inc. 61;’ similarly, sterni (either middle or passive) denotes lying down in death (nine out of fourteen occurrences in the Aeneid): cf. OLD 7; Horsfall ad 7.533; Axelson 1945, 67; Lyne 1989, 107; Austin 1964 ad 2.398; Harrison ad 10.119. Paradox: to win the wrestling match Hercules has to forbid (uetabere) his opponent to lie down. In regular combat, throwing one’s opponent to the ground is the only way to win a wrestling match (6469n. above). The paradox highlights the extraordinary character of this struggle in a poem in which paradox is the rule; see Bartsch 1997, index s.v. ‘paradox’. Finally, as a synonym for ‘defeat’, sternere might have been part of the technical vocabulary for wrestling. 648 haerebis pressis intra mea pectora membris The idea of constriction expressed in the future haerebis is repeated for emphasis in the participle pressis; cf. Verg. A. 8.259-61 Cacum…/… corripit in nodum complexus, et angit inhaerens, with Gransden’s translation: ‘He grabs him, clasping him into a knot…’ Cf. also Apollod. Bibl. 2.5.11 (115) τοὑτῳ παλαίειν ἀναγκαζόµενος Ἠρακλἣς ἀράµενος ἅµµασι µετέωρου κλάσας ἀπέκτεινε; where ἅµµατα (‘clinches’, see 5 in LSJ) is technically applied to a wrestler’s hug, as in Plut. Fab. Max. 23 and Alcib. 2 (Frazer 1921, 223 n. 2). 651 permittere The compound, common in poetry since Plautus and Ennius (TLL X.1.1551.46), funtions here as the simple mittere, as in Sen. Clem. 4.17.4 uirtus lumen suum in omnium animos permittit; cf. TLL X.1.1552.6-9 and esp. 43ff. In line with L.’s redundant style, it may function as a synonym of 644 egeritur. 652-3 Alcides... tenuit... hostem Understand: ‘While Antaeus’ chest had been now strangled in motionless (pigro) frigidity, Alcides held him in suspension (i.e., by standing in between, medio, the Earth and her son; see Housman quoted below 652n.) and no longer entrusted his enemy to the earth.’. 652 medio Housman shows why his choice is correct in the ap. crit. (quoted below), pace Fränkel 1926: 513, who opts for medium, thinking it impossible that tenuit can at one and the same time govern both the ablative (with locative sense) medio and the accusative pectora. Housman: ‘medio ZMG, -um PUV et ad 50 c [= Comm. Bern. quoted at 653n. below]: illud recte Hosius recepit. quid tum, si medium tenuit
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Antaeum? ideo uicit quia medio, hoc est medio inter Tellurem et natum loco constitutus tenuit. intellexit Bentleius, sed praeter necessitatem medius nouauit.’ If Bentley’s conjecture medius (pace Shackleton Bailey who prints it in his text, cf. Fraenkel 1964, 286-7) had been a variant reading, medio attested in ZMG should still be preferred as a lectio difficilior—and not too difficult at that, since medium as a noun, meaning ‘the place occupying the middle position (relative to two or more things)’, is attested throughout Latinity, to say nothing of the noun’s locative sense in the ablative, for which see Verg. A. 3.354 aulai medio (with Williams’ n.); 7.59, 563 (with Horsfall’s notes). Liv. 5.41.2 also has the plain ablative medio aedium, which (perhaps wrongly) puzzles Ogilvie who suspects in is to be restored. Cf. OLD s.v. ‘medium’ and TLL VIII.587.75-80. 653 gelu is metonymical for death despite the fact that one would expect the adjective piger to qualify the cold winter season. The epithet pigro agreeing with gelu may rather describe bruma as if by enallage rather than hypallage. See Comm. Bern. 4.50: ‘PIGRO BRVMA GELV µετονυµικῶς, sicut ‘Alcides medium tenuit. iam pectora pigro stricta gelu’;’ cf. Rhet. Her. 4.43 frigus pigrum quia pigros efficit. stricta has here the sense of the compound constringere: cf. 4.51 bruma… aethere constricto pluvias in nube tenebant, and TLL IV.545. It renders the idea of a closely compact density (OLD 1), as when applying a fast grip. In addition to ‘compression’, the context here also conveys an idea of death-like frigidity, as in 3.613 deriguitque tenens strictis inmortua neruis (with Hunink’s excellent n.). For stringo of cold, cf. Curt. 3.13.7 humus rigebat gelu tum astricta. Introduced in poetry by Virgil (Horsfall ad 7.526; EV IV s.v. ‘stringo’), stringere is used in the Aeneid mostly for brandishing swords (with mucro, ensis, ferrum, or gladius as objects; often in Ovid too, who varies with culter and telum as objects), as also in L. 5.143 scit non esse ducis strictos sed militis enses. 654-60 The rudis incola’s closing remarks return the narrative from the mythical to the historical register: Curio’s campaign in Africa. The first word of 661 is indeed ‘Curio’. The passage can be analyzed in two sections: a) 654-5 mark the episode of Antaeus as a traditional myth and qualify it as an etymological aition; b) 656-60 point to another name by which these Antaea regna are known as the site where P. Cor-
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nelius Scipio Africanus Maior pitched camp in the campaign of 202 BCE, when the Romans routed Hannibal’s army at Naraggara near Zama in the battle that ended the Second Punic War. 654 hinc, aeui ueteris custos, famosa uetustas Housman’s punctuation, preserved by Shackleton Bailey, helps us feel the triadic rhythm of this line. The emphasis rests on famosa uetustas. The story of the fight belongs to a mythical past of more than human proportions. famosa ‘Rich in renown’, hence ‘conferring renown’; cf. Plin. Ep. 6.23.1 causam... pulchram... et famosam (OLD s.v. 7; cf. TLL VI.1.258.21ff.). One may ask whether this story is a true paradigm or the product of a credulous age; cf. Haskins’s: ‘full of rumors’ and next note. 655 miratrixque sui The phrase may be read as a rejection of traditional views of the past and thereby become a mark of L.’s anticlassical (read anti-Virgilian) poetics, in line with the progressive belief-system of the Annaei (Gagliardi 1976, 69). Cf. Sen. Phaedr. 742 fama miratrix senioris aeui. signauit nomine To designate with a name is to bring something out of obscurity into renown, a principle embedded in the epic genre itself. Antaei regna identifies the specific place in Africa where the mythical struggle took place. In closing the peasant’s account, L. highlights once more the etymological nature of the digression. For the ‘naming’ practice, cf. Verg. A. 7.3 with Horsfall’s n. and O'Hara 1996, 75-9. 656 maiora... cognomina The comparative maior alludes to P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior after whom the site got to be called Castra Cornelia, from Scipio’s nomen ‘Cornelius’; whereas the phrase maiora cognomina refers to Scipio’s cognomen ‘Maior’. Corneliana in no way would fit into the hexameter, and yet L.’s elaborate allusiveness makes explicit naming completely superfluous; at least up to 658, where Scipio is named in emphatic position at the beginning of the line. On the literary resonance of Curio’s African campaign, see Henderson 1998, 108-62, esp. 141-3 on Hor. C. 2.1. 658 Scipio... potito Scipio frames this line, which, like the following, begins with a dactyl emphatically isolated by the diaeresis.
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Libyca tellure potito Scipio succeeded where Curio will fail. For the expression see Verg. A. 3.278 insperata tandem tellure potiti (albeit here potiti only means that Aeneas and the Trojans landed on Leucas after escaping the bane of the Harpies); 10.500 quo nunc Turnus ouat spolio gaudetque potitus; the trisyllabic participle is a convenient line ending in Virgil, cf. A. 3.278, 296, 6.624, 9.363 (cf. 9.267 with the infinitive), 450; cf. also Lucr. 4.761 and 766. L. indeed uses potior only six times, always in the participle and only as line ending: 4.160, 385, 5.165, 589 (with the same sense as Verg. A. 3.278 quoted above), 7.610. 659 en ueteris cernis uestigia ualli The interjection, followed by the alliterative expression, reveals what Curio has been beholding throughout the narrative: the mere uestigia of Scipio’s camp. 660 Romana hos primum tenuit uictoria campos This closing remark deceives Curio into believing that Romana uictoria is a good omen for himself; but see below 663n. felici non fausta loco tentoria ponens.
4.661–714 Curio defeats Varus Elated by the positive omen he reads in the peasant’s account, Curio encamps at Castra Cornelia, the spot of Scipio’s camp during the African campaign of 202 BCE (661-5). L. launches in a catalog, a display of ethnographic erudition, before introducing the African king Juba (666-86). Juba and Curio are old enemies: Curio as tribune had tried to take Juba’s kingdom away from him (686-93). Feeling insecure about his troops’ loyalty to Caesar’s cause (694-701), Curio delivers a monologue about his resolve for an aggressive strategy (702-10) and succeeds in defeating Varus (710-14). Curio’s operations in Africa are not easy to follow. The accounts of Appian and L. diverge in numerous instances and are each lacking in several respects. Appian makes no mention of Varus’ attempts to attract the Caesarian troops on his side. The battle ending with Varus’ defeat is reported in Appian’s narrative with the bare mention of the casualties (one on Curio’s side vs. Varus’ six-hundred; cf. Appian BC 2.44, with Pichon 1912, 114). If Pichon is right in seeing in Livy L.’s main source for Varus’ defeat (cf. Per. 109-16, with Jal 1963, 24 and n. 4), the scanty details about this event in Appian, in addition to the fact that
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also Dio 41.41.2 barely mentions Varus’ defeat in passing, require the historian of Curio’s African campaign of 49 to pay some attention to L. as a historical source in complementing Caesar’s narrative. For a conveniently concise summary of L.’s sources, especially in connection to Livy’s lost books, it is still profitable to consult C. Vitelli 1902. 661-5 Transition from the aetiological digression to the military operations in Africa. 661 laetatus Curio’s elation after the rudis incola’s account is due to self-deception. Curio errs in evaluating the proper course of action. He persists in his misjudgment when driving Varus’ soldiers away from the fields: 711-12 deceptura… fortuna (Hinkle 1996, 95). A state of mind analogous to Curio, albeit in the aftermath of an actual victory, is ascribed to Hannibal in Liv. 22.51.3: Hannibali nimis laeta res est uisa maiorque quam ut eam statim capere animo posset. As Lucan’s Curio deceives himself by interpreting the mythical tale of Hercules’ victory as an omen favorable to his own endeavor, so does Livy’s Hannibal about the significance of his own victory; cf. Maharbal’s warning in Liv. 22.51.4: ‘non omnia nimirum eidem di dedere. uincere scis, Hannibal; uictoria uti nescis.’ It is difficult therefore to agree with Arnulf ad L. 4.661: ‘ecce causa digressionis, inducta est enim digressio pro uanitate et stulticia Curionis ostendenda.’ The digression on Antaeus does more, if at all, than merely showing Curio’s vanitas and stulticia. The question about Curio’s laetitia is not answered by simply decoding laetitia as vanitas and/or stulticia. In line with L.’s taste for paradox, the mythological digression succeeds in conveying to the reader the hopeful expectation, although contrasted with the foreknowledge of Curio’s imminent ruin (cf. Hinkle 1996, 78-144, esp. 88 n. 31: ‘Curio is the plaything throughout of forces beyond his control, e.g., Fortuna allows Curio to win the first battle easily, only to impose upon him utter defeat later.’). fortuna The word denotes an important and complex concept. It occurs five more times in the narrative of Curio’s doomed campaign in Africa: 712, 730, 737, 785, 789. The importance of Fortuna in L. is attested to by 147 occurrences of the word in the poem; see Gagliardi 1989 ad 1.111 non cepit Fortuna duos: ‘La posizione di Fortuna nel verso ribadisce il potere determinante di questa forza cieca nelle cose umane.’ On Fortuna in L., cf. 1.84, 111, 160, 226, 264 with Gagliardi’s notes; but
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on the role of Fortuna as a pathos intensifier (understanding pathos in the Roman way, in the context of the rhetorical recourse to emotion as a means of persuasion, cf. Fraenkel 1970) see Fantham 1992, 10-11 (with n. 33, quoting Liebeschuetz 1979, 147), and esp. Hunink 1992, 42 ad 3.21: ‘The precise relation of Lucan’s Fortuna with fatum and the Gods remains a matter of dispute, but in recent years many scholars have subscribed to the view that Fortuna, Fatum and dei in [the] B[ellum] C[iuile] are merely synonyms for one evil power’ (a view already explored in the late 14th century by the Italian humanists, see e.g Coluccio Salutati De Fato et Fortuna 2.5). Examples of synonymal proximity among fatum, fortuna and the gods are collected in Schotes 1969, 1423, esp. n. 477-80, cf. Liebeschuetz 1979, 142-3; cf. also Friedrich 1970; Dick 1967; Schönberger 1968, 172-6, with further bibliography passim; Ahl 1976, 290-305, with further bibliography 293 n. 36. Kajanto 1981, 549-51 offers a helpful synthesis on Fortuna; on the concept of destiny in relation with L.’s ‘sense of history’, see most recently Salemme 2000, 2001. Scarcia’s concise entry on ‘Fortuna’ in EV II.563-7 manages to cover the range of complexities attached to the concept in Virgil. On the fundamental value of fortuna in imperial times, see Hellegouarc'h 1963, with the remarks of Lazzarini 1984, 163 nt. 13. fortuna locorum The context suggests that the fortuna of these specific loci is subject to change; see below 662n. The phrase denotes here a special characteristic of the place (see transl. 661-2n.). Haskins compares Liv. 6.28 fortunae loci delegauerant spes suas and Ov. M. 4.565 (quoted below). Cf. TLL VI.1188.75ff., 1194.24 s.v. ‘fortuna’. In Ovid the phrase occurs twice in the same metrical position: M. 4.563-6 luctu serieque malorum / uictus et ostentis, quae plurima uiderat, exit / conditor urbe sua, tamquam fortuna locorum, / non sua se premeret (‘as if it were the place’s fortune, not Cadmus’ own that oppressed him’); Bömer’s comment ad loc. points to Fortuna as a divine concept; 15.261 sic totiens uersa est fortuna locorum (Pythagoras is showing that nothing stays the same); see also M. 10.335 fortunaque loci laedor (Myrrha complaining of having been born where incest with one’s father is a crime). Ov. F. 1.209 postquam fortuna loci caput extulit huius (‘after the fortune of this places raised [Rome’s] head’ or also ‘after Fortune raised the head of this place’) probably refers to Verg. E. 1.24: the fortune of Rome was based on her site, e.g. Camillus in Liv. 5.54.6. Finally, cf. also Sil. 7.345 quid fortuna loci poscat.
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661-2 tamquam... priorum Clearly tamquam in the sense OLD 5: ‘As though the fortuna locorum could wage war and preserve for Curio the fata of the previous commanders.’ Followed by the subjunctive 662 gerat, the conjunction tamquam immediately reduces the hopes about Curio’s campaign. In fact, there is a strident contrast between Curio’s interpretation of Scipio’s successful precedent of Zama and this campaign’s actual fortuna (or fate, or whatever one calls that which the gods have in store for Curio; see next n.). 662 ducum… fata priorum Both plurals may stand for a singular and therefore refer solely to Scipio. And yet, the notion that the time stretch covered by this fortuna loci may go as far back as the First Punic War makes one think that Scipio Africanus Maior is not the only dux one may have in mind here. After defeating Hanno and Hamilcar in the waters off the Ecnomus promontory (Polyb. 1.27; cf. Liv. Per. 17), M. Atilius Regulus also camped in Africa at Tunes, (Polyb. 1.30) in 256-5 BCE. The prodigious story of Regulus killing a monstrous serpent (see 588n. above, and Liv. Per. 18) takes place on the banks of the Bagrada, whose waters are not too far from Castra Cornelia. True, it is primarily of Scipio that we must think, but L.’s emphasis here on fatum and fortuna in relation to the upcoming campaign may remind the reader of Polybius’ well known reflections on the double reversal of Fortune of Regulus on the one hand and Carthage on the other under the Spartan Xanthippus (Polyb. 1.35 with Walbank 1957 ad locum). 663 felici non fausta loco tentoria The alliterative quasi-oxymoron felici non fausta, accompanied by a common feature of word order (abAB), alternates Curio’s camp-related hope (felici… loco) with his actual camp-related fate (non fausta… tentoria). There might also be an echo of Sulla Felix and his son Faustus, who served as pro-magistrate in Africa and was killed after the defeat of Thapsus, being denied pardon by Caesar (Suet. Iul. 75.3): Fantham on 2.464-5. 664 indulsit castris Lit.: ‘Curio let himself be seduced by (the positive omen he derived from the previous fortune of) the camp,’ see HudsonWilliams 1984: 458. The conjecture inclusit with colles as object (from collibus), accepted in Shackleton Bailey’s text, for indulsit of the manuscripts is not persuasive, despite the remarks of Shackleton Bailey 1987: 80-1: ‘indulsit castris remains odd and ambiguous.’ Castris is a
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metaphor for temeritas; cf. Housman: ‘Nimium permisit priore fortuna inuitantibus ad temeritatem.’ Sil. 8.168 indulgere quieti. abstulit omen Curio ‘took away, stole the omen;’ cf. Comm. Bern.: ‘quoniam non isdem pugnauit auspiciis quibus Scipio, si quidem ille uictus est;’ and the Adnotationes: ‘id est felicitatem locorum sua, quia illic uictus est, infelicitate subvertit.’ 666 omnis Romanis quae cesserat Africa signis is the grammatical subject of 667 fuit (see n. ad loc.): ‘All of the African territories who had surrendered to the Roman standards,’ in other words, the Roman province of Africa. 667 Vari P. At(t)ius Varus (32 RE II.2.2256-7) had held the province of Africa as praetor a few years earlier (the precise date is not known; see Caes. BC 1.31.2 paucis ante annis ex praetura prouinciam obtinuerat; Cic. Lig. 3; Brennan 2000, 546 and 712). The senate had designated L. Aelius Tubero as C. Considius’ successor in the praetorship of Africa for the year 49 (Caes. BC 1.31.2 Africam sorte Tubero obtinere debebat), but the situation took an unforeseen turn. After suffering defeat in Picenum, the Pompeian Varus fled to Africa and seized the command of the province, which he found shaken by the news of the outbreak of the civil war, as we know from Cicero defending Q. Ligarius before Caesar in 46 BCE: Cic. Lig. 3 interim P. Attius Varus, qui praetor Africam obtinuerat, Vticam uenit: ad eum statim concursum est; atque ille non mediocri cupiditate adripuit imperium, si illud imperium esse potuit, quod priuato clamore multitudinis imperitae, nullo publico consilio deferebatur. Considius had previously left the province (between the end of 50 and the beginning of 49) in the hands of his legate Q. Ligarius. While Tubero was sailing towards Utica, Attius Varus forbade him to land, despite the fact that he traveled with his son ill on board (Caes. BC 1.31.3). Thus Varus managed to hold the province. Few more details about Varus’ actions in Africa and in Spain, until his death at Munda in 45 (Bell. Hisp. 31), are available in the sources collected in RE (cited above) and Der neue Pauly II.261 s.v. ‘Attius Varus, P.’ I 4, but very little is known about Varus’ movements between the defection of his legions to Caesar in Picenum and his arrival in Africa. sub iure is not as common as other prepositional phrases with the ablative iure, see Vocab. Iurisp. s.v. ‘ius’. Only seven instances of the
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phrase sub iure are known to occur in poetry. Four are found in L., the closest parallel being 10.95 sub iure Pothini, cf. Manil. 4.348 sub iure trigoni (see also Ov. Tr. 2.199 and L. 7.63, 10.267). We lack the possibility of comparing Livy’s account of the African events of 50-49 BCE, and therefore neither approving nor condemning nuances are to be deduced from a perfectly neutral expression (Berti ad 10.95 does not help because there is no ambiguity about Pothinus’ power schemes); cf. Vocab. Iurisp. V.700-1 s.v. ‘sub’ II.C: ‘ad significandum, cui uel cuius potestati quis aut quid subiectus subiectumve sit.’ 667-8 robore… regis tamen… Varus puts his main trust in his Roman soldiers, robore… confisus Latio. However, he also summoned, exciuit, African allies among the local populations under King Juba’s domain, which allows L. a chance to launch on an ethnographic digression about the peoples of Libya. 669-70 extremaque… signa The metonymy (L. writes ‘standards’ to mean ‘army’) describes the Libycas gentis and evokes the spectacle of Juba’s army, coming from the far (extrema) African west. On world extremity, cf. 4.1n. Together with a possible echo of Alexander the Great, extrema might also carry the nuance ‘exotic’. Cf. 735 with n. below. 670 non fusior For the litotes in a transitional formula, see 581n. above. ‘More widely spread’ (Haskins, who compares Verg. A. 6.440 nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem lugentes campi). 671-3 ‘Where its length is the greatest, Juba’s kingdom stretches westward up to Atlas next to Gades and eastward up to Hammon on the border of the Syrtes.’ When discussing a country, the ancients indicate territorial boundaries (e.g. Polyb. 2.14.3; Sall. Iug. 17.4; Tac. Germ. 1; and further loci cited in Feeney 1982, 126-7 ad Sil. 1.195). Angular coordinates were not common in antiquity until the famous Alexandrian geographer, Claudius Ptolemy (fl. AD 146 - ca. 170), set the standard for measuring terrestrial distances, and therefore allowed map drawing, (see Ptol. Geogr. 1.2-3; cf. M. Folkerts in Der neue Pauly X.559-70 s.v. ‘Ptolemaios 65’, esp. 563-4). In giving the geographical coordinates of Juba’s kingdom, L. is also situating the Roman province of Africa, since Juba controls (almost?) all of the African inhabitants of the province (669-70).
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Geographical details about Africa are found in different places in L.’s poem. In the immediately preceding lines, L. has defined Africa in Roman political terms as a province governed by a Roman magistrate (666-9). Elsewhere, Libya is the dry territory between the western Mauri and the eastern Syrtes (cf. 3.294-5 with Hunink’ note). Compare Silius emphasis on Libya’s heat and dryness in Pun. 1.193-4 (with Feeney’s note) reminiscent of L.’s description of the Syrtes in 9.431-44 and 447-9, in the context of L.’s general excursus on Libya at 9.411-97 (see Asso 2002a); see also 582n. above. 671 longissima It is regrettably counterintuitive that longissima here indicates not the longitude but the latitude of Juba’s kingdom, because what L. gives immediately after are the western and eastern borders. (see 674n. lata). 672 cardine ab occiduo ‘From the western edge.’ The meaning of cardo is here very close to what we mean by ‘cardinal point’. In ancient astronomy, cardo denotes one of the four regions (κέντρα) of the sky, or better, the four points defined by horizon and meridian intersecting the zodiac. As is clear from Manil. 2.788-800, the four points are the eastern horizon, or horoscopus or ortus, the western horizon, or occasus, the meridian overhead, or medium caelum, the meridian underfoot, or the imum caelum; on the errors deriving from presuming that the celestial horizon and meridian cut the zodiac into four equal parts (which is not the case), see Housman 1903-1930, vol. 2 (1912), xxvixxviii and ad Manil. 2.788-800; see now also Flores/Feraboli/Scarcia 1996 ad 2.788-807 and passim. Cardo has the same meaning as at 4.73 summus Olympi / cardo, 5.72 cardine Parnasos gemino petit aethera colle, 7.381 ultima fata / deprecor ac turpe extremi cardinis annos (metaphorical for ‘a portion of human life’, on which Housman 1919, 78-9 on Mart. 10.24.9 uitae tribus arcubus [arcubus Housman; areis codd.] peractis; cf. Sen. Tr. 52 mortalis aeui cardinem extremum premens), and 9.528 nihil obstat Phoebo cum cardine summo / stat librata dies (the zenith); see Housman 1927 ad L. 4.73 and Manil. 2.788-800 with TLL III.444.54-9. It seems therefore that even though astronomically cardo denotes either a point or a region of the sky, cardo occiduus may denote here a line, as indeed the same term does in the agrimensores (in opposition to decumanus, see H.J. Schulzki in Der neue Pauly II.984-5 s.v. ‘Cardo’, E. Fabricius in RE XIII.672-701 s.v.
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‘Limitatio’; A. Schulten in RE III.1587-8 s.v. ‘Cardo’); for the projection of a line on the celestial sphere is indeed a point. There follows that if cardo denotes a line, the cardo occiduus marks here the western border of Juba’s kingdom. There is only one occurrence of cardo in L. that has a different astronomical sense: 1.552-3 tum cardine Tellus / subsedit, the axis on which the earth turns (see 6.481-2 and TLL III.444.9-14). 673 medio sc. cardine; Housman: ‘pro a medio Bentleius et Maduigius requirebant Eoo; sed medius cardo linea est orbis terrae antiquis noti media inter ortum occasumque… dicit igitur longitudinem regni Iubae ab Atlante usque ad Hammonem pertinere.’ As shown in the translation at 671-3n. above, by medio cardine L. means the eastern border of Juba’s kingdom. 674 lata Just as counterintuitively as for 671 longissima, here lata refers to Juba’s kingdom’s longitude, because the ‘width’ is defined as a north-south stretch. 674-5 After giving the longitude of Juba’s kingdom, now L. gives the latitude: ‘And where its stretch is the broadest, the hot region of the vast kingdom divides the Ocean from the burnt places (exusta, sc. loca) of the torrid zone.’ Housman: ‘latitudo regni a septentrionibus Oceano et, qui eius sinus est, mari interno, a meridie zona torrida terminatur.’ 676-86 ‘Lists occur throughout the B[ellum] C[iuile]’ (Hunink 1992, 105), but there are only two more catalogs of forces, Caesar’s forces from Gaul at 1.392-465 and Pompey’s eastern allies at 3.169-297. This catalog of Africans is not a traditional epic catalog. The major feature that distinguishes L.’s catalogs from, say, the Homeric catalog of Achaeans and the Virgilian catalog of Italians, is that in L. the crowds are more significant than the individuals, for no leaders are mentioned among either Caesar’s or Pompey’s or Juba’s forces (Gagliardi 1989, 95). Traditionally, however, the catalog is a privileged locus for erudite display. One could place this catalog within the category of ‘digressive’ ethnographical entertainment, a well-known form of the historiographical sub-genre represented by Tacitus’ Germania and some chapters of Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum (e.g. 17) or Caesar’s Commentarii de bello Gallico. On Sallust and the Romans’ ethnographic interests in Africa, see Oniga 1995, 37-50 and passim, esp. 37 n. 2. Getty 1940,
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xxxvii-xiv on ‘Lucan’s Geographical Knowledge’ is still useful, if limited to spotting L.’s ‘mistakes’ in localizing tribes and peoples mentioned in Book I. On the ethnographical tradition in Roman poetry, cf. Thomas 1982, 108-23 (on L.), but also passim. 676 populi is proleptic for the following catalog of Juba’s allies. Housman: ‘tot populi, castra enim Iubae sunt.’ L. mentions eleven Hamitic groups (who probably spoke various forms of Berber): Autololes, Numidians, Gaetulians, Mauri, Nasamones, Marmaridae, Garamantes, Mazaces, Massylians, and maybe the Arzuges (for the latter see Shackleton Bailey 1987, 81 and 684n. below). The catalog is meant to impress a reader interested in geo-ethnographical erudition. As in Sallust (Iug. 17-19), L.’s African ethnography is dominated by nomadic peoples, which makes the task of the geo-ethnographer harder, since these peoples are mobile and do not have fines. 677 Autololes Gaetulian tribe, located in north-western Africa, an area known in antiquity as Mauretania Tingitana (Barrington Atlas 28-9; Plin. NH 5.5 …Autololum gente, per quam iter est ad montem Africae uel fabulosissimum Atlantem; 5.17 Gaetulae nunc tenent [sc. Tingitanam prouinciam] gentes, Baniurae multoque ualidissimi Autololes…), is mentioned only here in L. Silius mentions the Autololes several times, most prominently in the catalog of the Carthaginian forces, where in listing the peoples subject to the legendary African king Hiarbas (Pun. 2.59-64), Silius probably has this passage of L. in mind together with the classic Virgilian locus A. 4.326; for the Autololes in Silius, see Pun. 2.63, cf. 3.306, 5.547, 6.675, 9.69, 15.671; 11.192 and 13.145 probably function as a synecdoche for African, see Spaltenstein 1986ad 2.63 and 13.145. Cf. RE II.2.2600. Numidaeque uagi Before the time of the war against Jugurtha, by Numidians the ancient sources usually mean not a specific people but a group of Berber tribes; e.g. for Polyb. 3.5.1 Masinissa was king of the Libyans (Windberg in RE 17.2.1348.35-7: ‘Die Numider sind in Wirklichkeit keine eigene Rasse, sondern nomadisierende Berber oder Libyer’). By the time of the Hannibalic War the Numidian tribes organized themselves in two confederacies under Syphax, allied of Carthage, and Masinissa, allied of Rome (Windberg, ibidem, 1372). For the Greeks the Numidians were νοµάδες, ‘itinerant, roaming about for pasture’ (LSJ s.v. ‘νοµάς’; Der neue Pauly VIII.1055-8 s.v. ‘Numidae, Nu-
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midia’; OLD s.v. ‘Numida’). L. explains Numida with uagus in figura etymologica; cf. 721 Numidae fugaces; Isid. Orig. 14.5.9 Numidia ab incolis passim uagantibus sic uocata, quod nullam certam haberent sedem. nam lingua eorum incertae sedes et uagae ‘numidia’ dicuntur. It was the search for pasture that forced the Numidian tribes to perpetual transhumance: Fest. p. 179 Lindsay Numidas dicimus quod Graeci Nomadas, sive quod id genus hominum pecoribus negotietur, sive quod herbis, ut pecora, aluntur. Despite Festus’ explicit note, Oric Bates expresses doubts about the etymology of Numidae from νοµάς / νοµάζειν (maybe based on Isidorus’ implicit hint that Numidia is originally not a Greek word?) but does not propose an alternative opinion (Bates 1914, 255 n. 2). L. could draw information on the Numidians from Sallust’s monograph on the war against Jugurtha; abundant historical notes in Paul 1984, index s.v. ‘Numidia’. 678 inculto Gaetulus equo The Gaetuli, mentioned only here in L., are (Numidian? see previous note) Berber tribes localized in the area between the Lesser Syrte and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Numidae and Mauri and north of Sahara (Barrington Atlas 31; Der neue Pauly IV.732-3 s.v. ‘Gaetuli’; RE 17.2.1360.23-31 s.v. ‘Numidia’). According to Dessau (RE VII.1.464-5), the ancient Gaetulians are the ancestors of the Saharian nomadic tribes of the Tuaregs (Tuwariks). Silius says that they have no homes and live in tents that they reportedly carry around in carts, also used for shelter: Sil. 3.290-1 nulla domus; plaustris habitant; migrare per arua / mos atque errantes circumuectare penates; cf. Sall. Iug. 19.5 partim in tuguriis… alios uagos agitare. In L. they are characterized as expert horse riders, a feature they share with (their fellow?) Numidians and other African peoples. Initially the name Gaetuli ‘was applied to those inhabitants of indigenous stock who had remained largely independent when the Mauretanian and Numidian kingdoms were formed’ (Paul 1984 ad Sall. Iug. 18.1). It would be interesting to know how much there was to know at Rome about Gaetulians (see e.g., Pease 1935a ad 4.40 hinc Gaetulae urbes), or whether L. and other Romans referred to the Gaetulians as a specific ethnos or just as a generic name for nomadic tribes of North Africa, as for instance Silius does with the Autololes at 11.192 and 13.145; see on 677 above. It is therefore difficult to distinguish clearly among the different ethnonyms, since the ancients tend to conflate the categories for their specific ends, esp. in poetry; see Virgil’s elaboration on the figure
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of the legendary king Hiarbas (A. 4.36ff.), who is said to have ruled over many African tribes, including those named by L. (see Pease ad 4.196; A.M. Tupet in EV II.884-5 s.v. ‘Iarba’; and Sil. 2.59-64). 678-9 concolor Indo Maurus The figura etymologica shows that L. supports the etymology from (ἀ)µαυρός, ‘dark’ (see LSJ s.v. ἀµαυρός and µαυρός / µαῦρος), Manil. 4.729-30 Mauretania nomen / oris habet titulumque suo fert ipsa colore; Isid. Orig. 14.5.10 Mauretania uocata a colore populorum, Graeci enim nigrum µαῦρον uocant. On etymologizing in L. see above 591n., 593-4n., and 677n. The first mention of the Mauri in the ancient classical sources occurs in Polybius, who calls them Μαυρούσιοι (Polyb. 15.11.1; 38.7-9 with Walbank ad loc.; this same name appeared on a bilingual inscription of Hannibal attested in Polyb. 3.33.15), cf. Plin. NH 5.17 who explains the Mauri as gentes in ea [sc. Tingitana prouincia]: quondam praecipua Maurorum—unde nomen—quos plerique Maurusios appellant; hence the adjective Maurusius occurring one time each in L. and Virgil (L. 9.426 and Verg. A. 4.206 with Pease’s note; Servius traces an earlier attestation in Coelius Antipater frg. 54 Peter from Seru. Auct. A. 4.206 Maurusii, qui iuxta Oceanum colunt), and several times in Silius (see the index in Delz 1987). But their Latin name was Mauri: ‘Here [sc. in Libya] live those whom the Greeks call Μαυρούσιοι and the Romans and the natives Μαῦροι’ (Strabo 17.3.2). On the attractive hypothesis of an etymology from Semitic Maouharim, ‘people of the west’, see Gsell 1927, 88-90 and Weinstock in RE XIV.2.2349-52 s.v. ‘Mauretania’. In Latin writing the name is Mauri: cf. B. Afr. 3, 6, 7 and 83. Relying on the Libri Punici of King Hiempsal, Sallust (Iug. 17.7 with Paul’s note, and 18.10 nomen eorum paulatim Libyes corrupere barbara lingua Mauros pro Medis appellant) makes the Mauri of Persian, Median and/or Armenian origin, their name being a corruption of Medi: Sall. Iug. 18.4 Medi, Persae et Armenii nauibus in Africam transuecti proxumos nostro mari locos occupauere… Sallust’s etymology (obviously) cannot be accepted, but it helps to reconstruct the aetiological and etymological background on which L.’s etymological figure relies (Oniga 1995, 85; on aetiological etymology in Virgil, see O’Hara 1996, index s.v. ‘aetiology’; in Silius, see Asso 1999, 2001).
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679 inops Nasamon The Nasamones were a wandering people localized along the eastern and northern shores of the Greater Syrte (Plin. NH 5.33; 7.14-15; 13.104). In Book IX L. mentions the miserable Nasamones for their huts dragged away by the strong southern wind (9.458 pauper Nasamon, see below ad loc.), and for their drawing meager profits from the vessels that happened to shipwreck in the region of the Syrtes; hence their characterization as inopes and pauperes. On their customs see above all Hdt. 4.172 with the note in Corcella/Medaglia/Fraschetti 1993; cf. Windberg in RE XVI.2.1776-8. Garamante perusto Tribes of Berbers, the Garamantes occupy the Libyan hinterland around Garama (today’s Jarmah in the Fezzan region, south of Tripolis), their capital city at the time of the Elder Pliny and the geographer Ptolemy (Plin. NH 5.26; Ptol. Geogr. 4.16.2; Der neue Pauly IV.783). Earlier in Book IV, L. has mentioned the Garamantes as ploughing naked under the tropical sun (334 nudi Garamantes arant), which explains their sunburn (perustus: either sun-burned or black-skinned or both). Herodotus describes their curious practice of sowing in the humid soil that they would have previously scattered over the salty surface (Hdt. 4.183.1). Their housing facilities are as ‘volatile’ as those of the Nasamones: 9.559-60 uolitant a culmine raptae / detecto Garamante casae. On their customs see Hdt. 4.183 with Corcella ad loc.; cf. RE VII.1.751-2. 680 Marmaridae uolucres It is not clear in what way the Marmaridae are winged or swift. Perhaps in reference to their nomadic life. They might be identical with the Psylli at 9.893, praised for their knowledge of poisons and remedies for snake bites; cf. Sil. 3.300 Marmaridae, medicum uulgus. They were situated in the vast area immediately south of the Pentapolis Cyrenaica (Barrington Atlas 38; Der neue Pauly VII.926-7 s.v. ‘Marmarica’; cf. also RE XIV.2.1881-3 s.v. ‘Marmarica’, a coastal region flanking the eastern edge of the vast territories across which the Marmaridae spread). 681 tremulum cum torsit missile Mazax The collective singular Mazax for Mazaces/Mazices (on the form see below) describes a people localized in Mauretania: cf. Ptol. 4.1.5 with Müller’s note. They are here characterized as expert archers and thereby compared to the Medes (680). Elsewhere they are seen as a belligerent and enduring race, Ammian. 29.5.25 Mazices… bellicosum genus et durum.
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Mazax. The form Mazaces, whence L.’s sing. Mazax, appears in an emendation: Suet. Nero 30 phalerataque Mazacum turba (Mazacum Salmasius; cymazacum codd. plerique). In his note to the passage cited from Ptolemy (681n. above), Müller invites to compare Μάζικες to Μάζυες οἱ Λιβύης νοµάδες of Hecataeus FgrHist 1 F 334 and Herodotus’ Μάξυες (Hdt. 4.191 with Corcella’s learned note; cf. Iustin. 18.6 Maxitani). In any case, the evidence is thin. Oric Bates suggests a common ethnic name for Hamitic peoples of western Libya and reconstructs a root MZGH, meaning ‘noble or free people’, combining (perhaps too cleverly) Egyptian and Graeco-Roman evidence (Bates 1914, 42-3); cf. Weinstock, in RE 14.2.2358.22-3 s.v. ‘Mauretania’: ‘Μάζικες: 1. Alte einheimische Bezeichnung für alle berberischen Stämme Nordafrikas,’ who, however, ignores Bates 1914. 682-3 et gens quae nudo residens Massylia dorso / ora leui flectit frenorum nescia uirga The Massyli (RE XIV.2.2166 and Der neue Pauly VII.994 s.v.) were an eastern Numidian tribe situated south of ancient Numidia: Barrington Atlas 34.2E-F; cf. Huss 1989, Camps 1967, Decret/Fantar 1981, 99-115, Desanges 1962, 109-10. Bareback riding is seen as a marvel by ancient authors (because it was considered primitive? So Spaltenstein on Sil. 1.215). Here bareback riding is emphasized by the lack of reins (cf. Verg. 4.41 Numidae infreni, with Pease ad loc.), which is especially noted in mentions of the Numidians (B. Afr. 19.4, 48.1, 61.2; Sil. 2.115 with Feeney’s note), whose horses are indeed represented unbridled on the Column of Trajan. More generally on this custom, see Strabo 17.828 (Mauri), Arr. Cyneg. 24.3 (Libyans), Dict. ant. II.2: 1334b s.v. ‘frenum’; des Noëttes 1931, 227-8; Lhote 1953, 1182 ff. (esp. 1172 fig. 8.3 and 4: two 202 BCE coins of Syphax showing Numidians riding with the uirga); Anderson 1961, 40. 684 Arzux is J.D. Morgan’s (see Shackleton Bailey in ap. crit.) brilliant emendation for Afer of the tradition, probably originated from a gloss. After listing such exotic ethnonyms, Afer uenator sounds odd; Shackleton Bailey 1987, 81 supports Morgan’s emendation quoting Sidonius Carm. 5.336-7 Gaetulis, Nomadis, Garamantibus, Autololisque, / Arzuge, Marmarida, Psyllo, Nasamone timetur. The Arzuges were localized in Africa Tripolitana, south of the Lesser Syrte; see Barrington Atlas 35.1C; RE II.2.1498-9 s.v. ‘Arzuges’. J.-P. Martin per
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litteras informs me that in the “Archives d’Outre-Mer – Aix-enProvence série F 80” is reported that “Dans la nuit du 24 au 25 mai 1849, dans la Montagne des Lions (Djebel Khar), au lieu-dit Arzelef, situé près de la route Oran-Mostaganem, le dénommé Bartolo Navarro, berger de son état, à tué d’un coup de fusil la dernière lionne de la montagne, qui attenait son troupeau de moutons. L’animal mesurait 2 m, 60 de la tête à la queue. Attesté par le capitaine du Génie Pascal Eugène Chaplain, Directeur du centre de colonisation de Saint-Cloud (Gdydal), le 25 mai 1849.” J.-P. Martin also observes that the toponym Arzelef might indicate that the area of the Arzuges extended from the sea to the mountains of the lions, which might explain why the fishermen of Arzew (coast locality) caught their fish by utilizing a technique very similar to the one described by L. for capturing lions. 685-6 ferrique simul fiducia non est / uestibus iratos laxis operire leones When they can no longer trust their weapons against angered lions, the Arzuges throw their large cloaks over them—using them as nets? Such erudite curiosities must have interested L.’s contemporaries. A probable source could have been Juba’s work on lions, see Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.22.15; cf. Aelian. HA 7.23, Plin. NH 8.48, and Plut. Sert. 9.5. On the lion’s wrath and vengefulness, see Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.16.15; cf. 602n. above. 687 studiis ciuilibus Studium is one among many nouns that denote civil war when accompanied by the adjective ciuilis (TLL III.1215-16). The phrase occurs with the same sense in Sall. Iug. 5.2 ut studiis ciuilibus atque uastitas Italiae finem faceret, with Kraus 1999: 219-21, whereas in Tac. Ann. 3.75.1 studiis ciuilibus adsecutus refers to Ateius Capito’s knowledge of the juristic discipline. 688 priuatae… bella… irae Juba’s reasons to fight Curio are also of a personal nature; see 690n. below. Iuba Juba I, son of Hiempsal II of Numidia; see Lenschau in RE IX.2.2381-4, Badian in OCD s.v. ‘Juba (1)’; Der neue Pauly V.1185 s.v. ‘Iuba 1’. In Appian BC 2.44, Juba is ‘the king of the Numidian people of Mauretania.’ 689 superosque humanaque polluit The polar juxtaposition of gods and humans gives solemnity to the expression; see Kemmer 1900 and Ehlers in TLL VI.3.3090.44-74; 3089.53. L. refers to Curio’s change of
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allegiance; cf. Caelius in Cic. Fam. 8.6.5 transfugit ad populum et pro Caesare loqui coepit. 690 lege tribunicia Months after his election to the tribunate (held in August 51 BCE, according to Caelius in Cic. Fam. 8.4.2), Curio failed to pass a land law which was part of a series of bills in favor of veterans and plebs he proposed early in his term, probably in February 50 BCE. To acquire sufficient land Curio not only planned to purchase it from the ager Campanus but also proposed to dethrone King Juba and incorporate his kingdom; Caes. BC 2.25.4; Dio 41.41.3; Wiseman in CAH IX (1994) 418; esp. Gruen 1974, 472-3. 692 dum regnum te, Roma, facit The apostrophe is among L.’s favorite figures, cf. 799-824 below. Here, the apostrophe to Roma brushes the passage with a tragic tinge of pathos, enriched with the strident contrast implied in Curio’s past position of tribune of the plebs as the guarantor of the Roman people’s libertas, vis-à-vis his present loyalty to a faction which, as the reader unfailingly knows, will end that very libertas. There is a strident paradox in Curio’s act of taking the Numidian throne from Juba while imposing a despot on Rome. 692-3 memor ille doloris / hoc bellum sceptri fructum putat esse retenti Juba seizes the opportunity to take his revenge on Curio (see 690n. above and Dio 41.41.4 quoted at 721n. below). 694-701 Curio fears Juba also because he doubts his own troops’ loyalty to Caesar’s cause. 694-5 hac… trepidat… fama… / et quod… The syntax suggests that for two reasons is Curio afraid of King Juba: hac… fama refers to what precedes (689-93) as a sufficient motive for Juba’s revenge, whereas 695 et quod… points to Curio’s doubts about the loyalty of his legions to the Caesarian cause. On political propaganda and the instrumentation of the esprit de corps in the legions, always faithful to their commander rather than to an abstract political or ideological cause, see Jal 1963, 132. 695-6 Caesareis numquam deuota iuuentus / illa nimis castris Note the enclosing word order of adjective and noun followed and preceded by temporal (numquam) and modal (nimis) adverbs respectively, and resulting in a chiastic arrangement on either side of deuota iuuentus /
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illa, which holds a prominent position at the center of the expression and carries the main meaning. On word order, see notes on 599, 600 and 663 above. 695 deuuota iuuentus The phrase occurs also earlier in Book IV in the episode of Vulteius’ aristeia 533-4 stabat deuota iuuentus / damnata… 696-7 nec Rheni miles in undis / exploratus erat ‘Nor had the soldiery been tested in the waters of the Rhine.’ These soldiers had served on Pompey’s side under Domitius (Nero’s ancestor, consul in 54 BCE) but did not fight at Corfinium. They surrendered to Caesar, cf. 2.507 nefas belli, as well as 2.478-525 with Fantham 1992, 171 ad loc. and 231-3 on the affair at Corfinium. 697 exploratus Not common in poetry, explorare occurs a total of seven times in L. It has here the sense ‘to test, try out’; cf. its occurrence in the same sense in the famous simile in which Pompey in flight through Apulia towards Brundisium is compared to a bull trying his strength against the trees at 2.603 aduersis explorat cornua truncis; and also at 8.581-2 in hac ceruice tyranni / explorate fidem (Pompey to his wife and son). 697 Corfini captus in arce Curio’s legions were at Corfinium the previous year under the then quaestor Sextus Quinctilius Varus (Caes. BC 1.23.3). They eventually swore loyalty to Caesar (Caes. BC 1.23.5). Defeated by Caesar, they passed to the latter’s side but had no time to prove their loyalty to the Caesarian cause; hence Curio’s doubts, cf. 696-7n. above. 698 infidus nouis ducibus dubiusque priori Before telling about the doubts of their present leader, L. succeeds in presenting the paradoxical situation in which the soldiers are as they prepare to go to battle. For dubius used of disloyalty, cf. 2.447. 699-700 languida segni / cernit cuncta metu The epithet segnis attached to fear is an obstacle both to military action and to the narrative (see 581n. on non segnior above). The athmosphere of inert idleness, languida cuncta, is produced by fear. See next n. below. 700-1 nocturnaque munera ualli Curio realizes why everything seems so still (see previous note): the night guards have deserted their posts.
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munera This is the reading of the consensus codicum and it is printed both by Housman and Schack. One MS (U) has munia, and two more (MV) add munia as a correction: see Housman ad loc. One wonders whether munia, printed by Badalí in his text, might not be explained either as a gloss or a wrongly interpreted abbreviation. Munia is the transmitted reading at 5.8 belli per munia (only occurrence in L.), which perhaps explains Badalí’s choice to print munia also here. In fact, munera can refer to a soldier’s duties, as Housman notes by quoting Liv. 32.16.15 segnius munere belli obeunt, but see also OLD s.v. ‘munus’ 1c. 702-10 It is reasonable to read this monologue in L. as a speculation on what Curio had been thinking when he spoke to his soldiers in Caes. BC 2.32. As Caesar notes (ibid. 33.1), Curio’s harangue impressed the soldiers and was therefore successful in securing their support. On monologue in ancient epic and drama, see Lefèvre in EV III.568-70 s.v. ‘monologo’, with bibliography. 702 audendo magnus tegitur timor This sententia has a gnomic tone and its weight is emphasized by alliteration in the voiceless dental stop and a quasi-homeoteleuton –ur –or. On audendo, see above 583n. audax. Note also how Curio speaks (profatur) in a fearful state of mind (trepida mente), and nonetheless his first word is audendo, as it behooves audax Curio. His audacia can hide his fears. 702-3 arma capessam / ipse prior Curio’s resolution is the demonstration and the result of his audacia. With his example Curio exhorts his legions to engage the enemy in battle. 704-5 uariam semper dant otia mentem. / eripe consilium pugna These further gnomic statements after 702 intensify Curio’s resolution and lend a Senecan tinge to the passage. Curio’s solution is to defy uncertainty (varia mens) by repressing the leisure (otium) of reflection and deliberation (on the pregnancy of consilium, see TLL IV.441-4 and OLD esp. senses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) with the busy violence of battle. 705 eripe Curio figuratively apostrophizes his own mens to exemplify how any doubts should be dispelled. dira uoluptas The oxymoron efficaciously expresses in two words what the violence and gore of battle is for both soldiers and civilian on-
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lookers (or readers) alike. With uoluptas the phrase is unique to L.; elsewhere an analogous idea is conveyed with synonyms: Lucr. 4.1046 dira lubido; Verg. G. 1.37 dira cupido; TLL V.1.1273.5-9. 707 quis conferre duces meminit, quis pendere causas? Curio reassures himself that his soldiers are not going to compare the worth of their present and past leaders. Nor are they likely to question the validity of the cause supported by the faction for which they are fighting. On the ‘amphitheatrical’ sense of conferre, equivalent to committere ‘matching against each other’ (Haskins), see Leigh 1997, 291 n. 137 and cf. 803-4n. below. 708 qua stetit, inde fauet sc. miles. Here comes the answer to the doubts Curio expressed in the previous line. By default the legion’s loyalty is mechanical, but Curio (and L.) knows all too well that the legions’ loyalty is on sale at the best offer. qua The antecedent is causa. 708-9 ueluti fatalis harenae / muneribus When two factions are opposed to one another they act like gladiators in the arena, an image that evokes Hercules and Antaeus pitted against one another as wrestlers in the arena. In the mythical match, however, Hercules’ victory against the violence of the monster is a point in favor of civilization. Here instead, as Ahl 1976, 98 notes, ‘The dispassionate struggle between Curio and Varus serves only to damage civilization and works to the advantage of neither victor nor vanquished.’ harenae gladiatorial term; see 620n. above and 710n. below; cf. Jal 1963, 341 and Leigh 1997, 235 n. 4. 710 odere pares ‘They hate each other as opponents do,’ i.e., as gladiators matched against one another in the arena; it is impossible to render the concept as incisively and concisely in a translation. For the gladiatorial term par/pares, see 620n. above. The expression resembles 636 conflixere pares (see n. above), sc., Hercules and Antaeus. On the function of gladiatorial similes in Book IV, see Ahl 1976, 82-115, esp. 88 and 97-9 (with the quote at 708-9n. above). 710 Curio defeats Varus. L. limits the report of this battle to the bare essential.
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710 sic fatus Not just ‘Thus spake he.’ L.’s Neronian reader is aware of Curio’s upcoming end. Given therefore the tragic irony of the context, it is tempting to read in fatus also the nuance of prophecy (cf. Vollmer in TLL VI.1.1029.75-6): ‘So he foretold,’ that is, to be reduced to a par against another par; Roman Curio equals Roman Varus. (How many gladiators were actual Roman citizens?) The double entendre is not merely ironical; it also heightens the tragedy of Curio’s ruin following the deceitfully promising victory against Varus. On the Homeric pedigree of such speech formulas as sic effatus, dixerat, etc., see Pease 1935 ad Verg. A. 4.30; Harrison ad 10.246-7 and 535-6. 711 instruxit In L. instruo occurs only here in the military sense ‘draw up in battle order’ (OLD 2), and two more times elsewhere in the sense ‘provide’ (OLD 7): 6.486 mortibus instruit artes and 8.541-2 exiguam… carinam / instruit. 711-12 quem blanda futuris / deceptura malis belli Fortuna recepit The nuance of ‘deceit’ is doubly conveyed by Fortuna’s double epithet: the adjective blandus (‘flattering deceptively’OLD 3) and the future participle. The future tense implies Curio’s viewpoint because, strictly speaking, Fortuna is deceiving Curio now. And yet the result of this deceit is in the future battle against Juba. On the association of Fortuna with deception, see 2.461 dubiamque fidem fortuna ferebat, and esp. 4.730 fraudibus euentum dederat fortuna, with n. below. On Fortuna in L., see 661n. above.
4.715-98 Curio and his army surprised and annihilated by King Juba Glad to have his chance to earn glory in the aftermath of Varus’ defeat, King Juba prepares to attack by surprise (715-19). Sabbura, the king’s second in command, is sent ahead with a small contingent while Juba, swift and deceptive as a mongoose, gathers his forces (720-9). Unaware of Juba’s moves, Curio sends out the cavalry on a nocturnal foray (730-3). Disregarding the warnings against Punic fraudulence, the following morning Curio orders his men to leave the camp (734-9), mistakes the movements of Juba’s forces as flight (739-45), and is surrounded (746-9). The state of mind of Curio and his army is conveyed through a description of the horses in Curio’s cavalry (750-64). The assault of the Numidian cavalry devastates Curio’s infantry (765-72).
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Denied their chance to escape or charge in counteroffensive, Curio’s soldiers die on the spot (772-87). Curio fights back and dies (788-98). In recording the preliminaries to the battle, L. highlights Curio’s hastiness and lack of caution; cf. esp. 719 and 731. Perceptive comments on this section (esp. 738-9, 750-87 and 796-8) are available in Bramble 1982, 548-54. 716 laetus See 661 laetatus, with n. above, analogously describing Curio’s mood after hearing about Hercules and Antaeus. Note the contrast with Varus’ tristia proelia from the previous line. 717 rapit agmina furtim Note the immediacy and rapidity of Juba’s reaction to the news about Varus. Furtim introduces the vocabulary of treachery: 722 simulator, 725 ludit, 730 fraudibus, 742 fraude. 719 hoc solum metuens incauto ex hoste, timeri ‘Juba feared only one thing from an incautious enemy: to be feared.’ Shackleton Bailey’s minimal corrections are to be preferred to Housman’s hoc solum incauto metuentis ab hoste (see Anderson 1917, 29). L. highlights Juba’s cautiousness in taking full advantage of Curio’s want of caution; hence Juba’s fear of being feared, i.e., of alerting Curio and allow him to escape. Cf. Dio 41.41.4-5: ‘Juba did not attack with the whole of his army because he feared that Curio might be driven away if informed [of Juba’s approach].’ Dio goes on to say that Juba was interested more in taking his revenge on Curio than in driving him away from Utica; cf. 690n. and 692-3 above. 722 ‘Pretending that the war had been entrusted to him’ (Haskins), with simulator functioning as a participle. Sabbura, Juba’s second in command, pretends that he is attacking of his own initiative. Caes. BC 1.38.1-2 informs us that Sabbura was in charge of the Numidian contingent encamped at the Bagrada. ut sibi ‘As if to himself…’, with the dative governed by commissi. commissi… belli participial clause functioning as object of simulator. simulator Only here in L. and four more times in Latin poetry: Ov. AA. 1.615, 2.311; M. 11.634; St. Th. 4.551 simulatrix. Less uncommon in prose, it is applied in its earliest attestation to Catiline in a famous paronomasia: Sall. Cat. 5.4 quoius rei lubet simulator ac dissimulator,
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cf. Fronto Ant. 3.1.1 van den Hout 1999. On L.’s nouns in –tor, see 588n. above on sulcator. A ‘feigner’, Sabbura is characterized as Juba’s instrument of deceit; cf. 744 with n. below. Sabbura’s trick consists in deploying his forces in order of battle but having them recede a little so as to make Curio believe in a retreat; cf. Caes. BC 2.40.2-3 where Juba makes his troops gradually withdraw as if they were afraid, his imperat ut simulatione timoris paulatim cedant. Sabbura Thus spelled for metrical reasons; otherwise Saburra, as e.g. in Caes. BC 2.38.2, but see Frontin. Str. 2.5.40 tamquam fugientem Sabboram. 724-9 Juba deceiving Curio is compared to an ichneumon deceiving a serpent. On the duel of a snake and an ichneumon, see Plin. NH 8.88, cf. Arist. HA 9.6.612a15-20 and Strabo 17.39. For a perceptive comment on the simile, see Hinkle 1996, 96-7: ‘[Juba] is in touch with the land in the same way his troops are, and as is Antaeus. Juba knows the ‘trick’ for surviving and winning in Africa.’ 724 aspidas… Pharias The metonymy of Pharian for Egyptian begins with Augustan poetry. L. is the first who makes it very common: see Berti ad 10.65, and cf. OLD s.v. ‘Pharos’ and ‘Pharius’. Strictly speaking, Egypt is not Africa, but it is contiguous with it, which allows the metonymy, eventually resulting in a synecdoche pars pro toto, where Egypt of course is the part. The Pharian asps might be foreshadowing the Alexandrian phase of the civil war, the subject of Books 8-10, ending ultimately with Cleopatra’s famous suicide, which lies outside of L.’s narrative. 725 incerta… umbra This daring figure conveys the idea of the ichneumon’s rapidity of movement; see 753n. below. Incerta could also work as a transferred epithet referring to the snake’s uncertainty at the ichneumon’s movement; for a similar type of ‘misapplied’ epithet (Lanham 1968, 86 s.v. ‘hypallage’), or ‘enallage adiectivi’, see Fantham ad 2.65. The phrase is attested only here and in Verg. E. 5.5 sub incertas Zephyris motantibus umbras, where Mopsus analogously calls ‘uncertain’ the shadow of the elms shaken by the breeze; see Servius’ note: incertae autem umbrae sunt et ex solis circuitu et ex mobilitate ventorum.
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prouocat Gladiatorial term. For the profession of the prouocator, cf. Cic. Sest. 134 and CIL V.4502; see Leigh 1997, 274 n. 104. 728 letiferam First attested in Catull. 64.394 in letifero belli certamine, this solemn compound neatly fits the hexameter. L. inherits it from Virgil (cf. L. 3.500 with Hunink’s n.); used of snakes also at 9.384 and 729. It is attested only in epic poetry, with the sole exception of Colum. RR 7.12.14 letifer morbus. It occurs twice in Virgil (A. 3.139, 10.169) and often in Flavian poetry, e.g. with snakes in Sil. 3.191 letifero stridebat turbine serpens, and St. Theb. 5.628 and 737 letifer anguis. Nominal compounds occur three more times in this final section of Book IV: 750 sonipes, 762 cornipes, 800 signifer. For a full list of such compounds covering the whole poem, see Gagliardi 1999, 106-7. 729 faucesque fluunt The snake’s jaws ‘melt’, i.e., their poisonous strength ‘flows out’. Alternation of the fricatives (/f/) and sibilant (/s/) might evoke the hissing sound produced by the snake emitting its vainly spent venom. For the sense of fluo, see 1.241 and OLD s.v. ‘diffluo’ in senses 2 and 3; TLL V.1.972.18ff.; and finally Lucr. 4.919 dissoluuntur membra… fluuntque, of a body that relaxes and loses force while falling asleep. pereunte ueneno L. is fond of the paradox that a cause of perishing can itself perish: 2.143 periere nocentes; 4.252 pereat scelus; 7.558 ne qua parte sui pereat scelus; 8.868-9 mortisque peribunt / argumenta tuae; 9.969 etiam periere ruinae. 730-48 Curio has the cavalry go out of the camp on a foray by night, then at dawn he himself exits the camp with the infantry. Cf. Caes. BC 2.38-40. 730 fraudibus euentum dederat Fortuna ‘Fortuna granted success to the treachery.’ L. does not explain that some deserters informed Curio that Juba stayed behind in his kingdom to attend to some internal conflict among the people of Leptis (Caes. BC 2.38.1). On the association of Fortuna with deception, see 711-12n. above. ferox ‘Belligerent, warlike’: cf. 822 (applied to Marius). One of two epithets which directly describe Curio in this poem; the other is audax, see 583n. above.
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731 non exploratis occulti uiribus hostis Curio neglected to perform a reconnaissance into the surrounding area. Juba’s cavalry was in fact only six miles away, cf. Caes. BC 2.38.3 rex omnibus copiis insequebatur et sex milium passuum interuallo a Saburra consederat. 732-3 nocturnum… equitem Curio has the cavalry go on a dangerous sortie by night. The epithet nocturnum, agreeing with equitem, has here an adverbial force better applied to erumpere; cf. Verg. A. 5.868 with Williams’ note. 733 ignotis . . . campis The phrase, framing the line, denotes expansiveness and emphasizes the danger of a foray in unfamiliar terrain. In recording the same event, Caesar does not mention the soldiers’ lack of familiarity with the terrain: BC 2.38.3 equitatum omnem prima nocte ad castra hostium mittit ad flumen Bagradam. 734 ipse sub aurorae primos . . . motus Curio himself leaves the camp at the crack of dawn; cf. Caes. BC 2.39.1 Curio cum omnibus copiis quarta uigilia exierat. On getting up at the crack of dawn, cf. Q. Lutatius Catulus Epigr. frg. 2.1-2 Blänsdorf (= Cic. ND 1.79) constiteram exorientem Auroram forte salutans / cum subito a laeua Roscius exoritur; Liv. 1.7.6 (Hercules find a few heads of cattle have been stolen); Ov. Her. 8.112; 19.195; M. 3.600-1; etc. 735 signa For this frequent metonymy, see 1.6-7, 4.669-70n. above, and 740 below. multum frustraque rogatus These warnings against the notorious Libycas fraudes, on which see below, are not mentioned by Caesar, who instead emphasizes the soldiers’ eagerness to fight and seeks to rouse his reader’s pity for Curio whose only mistake was believing what he was told by Numidian deserters and prisoners (Caes. BC 2.38.1-3 and 39.1-4). Caesar understandably pictures his legate as favorably as he can. And yet, the question remains about Curio’s optimism, which from the strictly tactical viewpoint seems an avoidable mistake: Curio could have saved his men’s lives as well as his own had he made sure that Juba was actually retreating. On the figure of the adviser and its narrative function, see Bischoff 1932, 1-5 (on Homer) and Lattimore 1939; cf. also Laocoon in Verg. A. 2.40-56.
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multum frustraque On this phrase and adversative –que, cf. Hor. AP 241 (with Brink 1971 ad loc.). 736-7 ut Libycas metuat fraudes infectaque semper / Punica bella dolis The phrase Libycas… fraudes, which with a synecdoche pars pro toto extends a notorious Carthaginian feature to the whole of Libya/Africa, appears to be unique to L. Punic fraudulence is a topos. In fact, L. is not the first who connects the Carthaginians’ deceitful nature with their African homeland: cf. Cic. Agr. 2.95 Carthaginienses fraudulenti et mendaces non genere, sed natura loci; Livy on Hannibal at 21.4.9 inhumana crudelitas, perfidia plus quam Punica…; cf. Otto 1890, 291 s.v. ‘Punicus’; Feeney ad Sil. 1.5. Strictly speaking, Juba and Sabbura are Numidian, not Punic. L. renews the memory of the Punic Wars wherever Africa is mentioned: see e.g. 588n., and esp. 654-60 with notes above; 2.79-93 (with Fantham ad 2.93). infectaque semper / Punica bella dolis To say that Punic Wars are always ‘infected with deceit’ is an exaggeration that puts Scipio Africanus in a bad light. On ‘infection’ in L., see 7.769 (with Dilke’s n.), 851 (Deferrari wrongly lists the present occurrence of infecta s.v. ‘infestus’). 737-8 leti fortuna propinqui / tradiderat fatis iuuenem ‘The fortuna of approaching death had handed the young man over to his destiny (fata)’: the pluperfect indicates that the matter has already been decided. If fortuna and fata are to be disentangled, one can say that fortuna, set within the genitive phrase leti . . . propinqui, denotes the way events appear to mortals, who are unaware of fatum before it becomes factum: propinqui can therefore be read as a focalizing epithet, suggesting the perspective of Curio as his death approaches. The reader, however, already knows that fortuna and fata coincide. On fatum and fortuna, see 661n. on fortuna above and the next n. 738 iuuenem Cf. 813 below. Iuuenis is ‘technically, any adult male up to the age of 45’ (OLD 1), i.e., the fighting age: cf. Cens. 14.2 (= Varro Ant. Rer. Hum. 14 frg. 4 Mirsch ) …usque quinque et quadraginta annos, iuuenes appellatos eo quod rem publicam in re militari possent iuuare. Born before 84 BCE (Neue Pauly 11.302), Curio could have been 37 or older; but here L. might be alluding to the epic topos of youth wasted by untimely death: 2.198 tot simul infesto iuuenes occum-
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bere leto (with Fantham’s n.); cf. also the mordant irony at 6.168 (on which, see Conte 1988, 76). The epic archetype of this kind of death is Achilles (e.g. TLL VII.1.736). 738-9 tradiderat… trahebat Framing the line, these two verbs both distinguish and conflate the actions of fortuna (sc. leti propinqui) and bellum (sc. ciuile) respectively; see previous and following notes. bellumque trahebat / auctorem ciuile suum L. says that the bellum ciuile is claiming Curio as its auctor (Duff’s translation in the Loeb), or better ‘civil war was claiming the man who made it’ (Bramble 1982, 548). The narrative of the Civil War begins in our sources with a letter read by the tribune of the plebs Marc Antony to the senate in session on January 1, 49 BCE. The letter contained Caesar’s ultimatum proposing the simultaneous disarming of his own and Pompey’s armies, and had been delivered to the consuls by none other than Curio, upon his departure to join Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul at the expiration of his mandate as a tribune of the plebs (December 10, 50 BCE): Caes. BC 1.1, with more detail in Dio 41.1-2. Cf. also 803-4n. below. 739-43 Translate as only one sentence from super ardua to committeret aruis: ‘As Curio is leading (ducit) his maniples (signa) through a steep path, on top of tall rocks, over fragments thereof (cautes), the enemy, detected (conspecti) on top of the hills from a distance, pretend (fraude sua) to recede (cessere), while (dum) Curio abandons the hill and lets his army spread across the plain valley.’ Lit.: ‘Having abandoned the hill, Curio entrusts his spreading (effusam) army to the flat (patulis) fields.’ 739-40 super ardua…saxa super cautes… Almost identical synonyms, cautes and saxa highlight the unfriendliness of the terrain; cf. 6.34; Verg. A. 3.699; Apul. M. 5.7; TLL III.711. 740 abrupto limite ‘steep path’, completes the image of a perilous and toilsome march through a deserted landscape; St. Theb. 1.332 scopuloso in limite. Here applied by L. in its primary sense of ‘pathway track’, limes elsewhere denotes a sanctioned limit or boundary line that should not be crossed, see Fantham ad 2.11. For the adjective abruptus, cf. 8.46 rupis… abruptae (in figura etymologica).
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signa Following Nutting 1934: 323-4, Shackleton Bailey correctly punctuates with a comma after signa. Signa is the object of 739 ducit. For the metonymy, see 669-70n. above. 741-2 cum procul… conspecti… / …cessere The cum-inuersum clause is complicated with the participle conspecti, of the type known as participium coniunctum because it agrees in gender, number and case with the agent to which it refers (Kühner/Stegman I, 771), in this case the nominative hostes (741). Grammatically, the action of cessere should be prior to the action of ducit. In fact, the two verbs denote almost simultaneous actions: as Curio is leading his men through the difficult path, the enemy, who has suddenly appeared on the hills, pretend to recede as if in retreat; see the translation at 739-43n. above. 741 cum procul L. is fond of this variation of cum subito and cum repente; e.g. 41; 10.436 (Nutting 1934, 323-4). 742 parum This adverb usually means ‘too little’, occasionally approaching the force of a negation, see TLL X.1.571.33ff. In this sense, it might suggest that Curio did not wait for the enemy to withdraw far enough. And yet, given the rapidity with which the Numidian cavalry surround Curio and his men (746 fugaces), perhaps one should understand parum here as ‘a little’, i.e., the Numidians were far enough as to require their proverbial swiftness to cut Curio’s retreat. 744 ille fugam credens simulatae nescius artis Having believed his false informants, see 730 above and Caes. 2.38.2 temere credens, Curio now thinks he is seeing the Numidians in flight, see 741-2 above. 745 ut uictor Convinced that the Numidian cavalry are fleeing, Curio acts as a winner and orders his men to come down in the plain; cf. 608n. inuictus above. 746 patuere doli in the same place in the line at 5.141 (cf. Val. Fl. 1.64); echo of Verg. A. 2.309-10 tum uero manifest fides Danaumque patescunt / insidiae 746-7 Numidaeque fugaces /… clauserunt fugax here denotes the act of fleeing (cf. 744n. fugam credens above), as shown in the oxymoron fugaces clauserunt. And yet, the Numidian cavalry were notoriously ‘swift’; for this latter sense, cf. 2.588 Tethynque fugacem; and esp. Hor. C. 2.1.19 iam fulgor armorum fugacis terret equos, with Porphyr. ad
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loc.: ‘fugacis pro uelocibus accipe,’ TLL VI.1.1474.61ff., but OLD 3 and Nisbet/Hubbard incline towards the sense ‘running away, fleeing’. 748 obstipuit Only here in L. In sixteen out of seventeen occurrences of obstipescere in Virgil (exclusively in the perfect indicative, either with obstipuit or obstipuere) the verb begins the line, as almost always in poetry, see TLL IX.2.260.43ff. The sense of the compound implies ‘a blockage of function’ (Austin 1971 ad Verg. A. 1.513 and 2.120) usually marked in the rhythm with a strong pause at the end of the syntactical unit governed by obstipuit/obstipuere, e.g. Verg. G. 4.350-1 uitreisque sedilibus omnes / obstipuere (with Thomas ad loc.), A. 9.123 obstipuere animis Rutuli. 749 non timidi petiere fugam, non proelia fortes Brave and coward are denied their usual actions (Bramble 1982, 549). In conveying the image of Curio’s army surrounded by Juba’s, L. creates a vivid contrast between fright and courage. The anadiplosis of the negative establishes a static equipoise between timidi and fortes. L.’s fondness for litotes extends to listing what does not happen in peculiar detail, a feature we could call ‘negative enumeration’ (with Berti ad 10.16-17). A famous example is the scene of Marcia’s remarriage to Cato in Book Two (cf. 2.354-71 with Fantham ad loc.), listing the accessories to the ritual only to specify that they are missing. Likewise, in the following description of Curio’s cavalry at 750-8 below, L. tells how the horses behave before a cavalry charge, except that this time the horses do not behave as described because the charge is not happening. On this feature in L., see Bramble 1982, 544-5. With their emphasis on lack of normality, these negative lists effectively contribute to heightening the pathos. For parallels (and a suggestive interpretation of Marcia’s wedding), see Bartsch 1997, 126-7 and esp. n. 69. 750-8 On this section, see Bramble 1982, 549-50. 750-3 quippe… tumultu echo Verg. G. 3.83-4 tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere / stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus, in which the sense is opposite, that is the horses in Virgil are active whereas L. says what the horses are not doing: denial of epic action. Cf. Bramble 1982, 549. 750 quippe Explanatory, as always in L. (cf. 2.377 with Fantham’s note, 5.118, 259, 7.240, 8.282, 572; Verg. G. 1.268, 505; A. 1.59 and
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661 with Austin’s note). The particle introduces a brilliant description of the cavalry’s mood focused on the horses. Axelson 1945, 48 treats quippe among such other prosaic words as quodsi, quare, and quidem. Quippe is understandably common in Lucretius, but occurs only nine times in Virgil and seven times each in Lucan and Propertius. sonipes See 225n. above. Lit. ‘making a sound with its foot;’ which is precisely what these horses are not doing (753 pedum tumultu). Here it seems to have collective sense, i.e., singular for plural (as perhaps also at 2.501). In this collective sense it is not previously attested. clangore tubarum For the expression, see 1.237 and 10.401 with Berti’s good note. Initially referring to the song of birds, from Virgil (cf. A. 2.313, 8.526, 11.192) onwards onomatopoeic clangor applies in epic to the sound of the martial instruments, especially the tuba. 751 pulsu Used of galloping and/or foot-stamping since Enn. Scen. 341 Vahlen (for galloping, cf. Verg. A. 6.591, 12.533; for foot-stamping, cf. Enn. Ann. 1 pulsatis, Verg. A. 7.722 with Horsfall’s n., 12.334), in L. puls- based forms denote some kind of beat or stroke (2.456, 5.119, 10.480; cf. Verg. G. 4.49) or are applied in medical sense to the pulse, as at 1.629, or to some analogous throbbing in a living animal, as in 757 below. 752 ora… iubas… aures Three parts of the horse’s head help the reader focus on the animal’s mood, as well as on its rider’s. 753 incerto… tumultu The phrase frames the line and nicely conveys the restless moving of the feet which may occur when a warhorse is held still—although this description is in the negative, and we are being told everything the horse is not doing; cf. 749n. above. The restless warhorse usually foreshadows victory and therefore L.’s graphic metaphor (see next. n.) creates an even more jarring effect in the context of Roman defeat. For the sense of incerto, conveying both hesitation and rapidity, see the translation at 750-8n. and cf. 725n. above. Note how this line ends the ‘negative enumeration’ (see 749n. above) with the bracketing word order of noun and adjective (observed at 600n. above). pedum… tumultu ‘With an uproar of feet’. This particular metaphorical use of tumultus applied to feet seems unique.
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754-8 ceruix… artus / ora… lingua / pectora… / …ilia Note the detailed enumeration of body parts, and cf. 752n. above. The same technique is used also for Antaeus; cf. 618-19n. above. This passage is remodeling Verg. G. 3.500-1, 505-8, 516 to reflect L.’s ‘ignoble theme’ (Bramble 1982, 550). 754 fessa iacet ceruix Cf. Verg. G. 3.500 demissae aures and 524 ad terram fluit deuexo pondere ceruix. After the negative formulations of 749-53, this is the first positive statement relating to the horse. One would therefore expect a strongly adversative conjunction to introduce it. But L. has chosen to convey the contrast with fessa, and thereby keep the sequence of the description unbroken by a particle. As noted by an early commentator, the present enumeration is phrased as a positive statement but casts a dark omen on the outcome of the battle: Comm. Bern. ad loc. ‘haec ominosa, illa [sc. 749-53] felicia.’ Note how for the horse’s exhaustion L. employs the same vocabulary he used for Antaeus; cf. 622-3n. and 638n. above. fumant sudoribus artus Cf. Verg. G. 3.500-1 incertus ibidem / sudor and 515 duro fumans sub uomere Taurus. 755 oraque proiecta squalent arentia lingua Cf. Verg. G. 3.501-2 aret / pellis and 508 obsessa fauces premit aspera lingua. 756 pectora rauca gemunt, quae creber anhelitus urguet Cf. 622n. above on Antaeus; Verg. G. 3.497 tussis anhela, 505-6 attractus ab alto / spiritus. 758 siccaque sanguineis durescit spuma lupatis Cf. 6.398. Note the insistence on the hissing sibilant, whose phonic effect expands on the emphasis put on panting in 756-7. The bloodstained bit graphically renders the image of the worn-out, exhausted animal. L. is here expanding on the topos of the exhausted horse’s ‘frothing mouth’: e.g., Callimach. Hymn. 5.13; Verg. G. 3.507-8 it naribus ater / sanguis, 516 mixtum spumes uomit ore cruorem; A. 4.135 stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit (imitated by Sil. 5.147, cf. 12.254-5 and Ov. M. 5.518) with Pease and Serv. ad loc., 11.195, 12.372-3; St. Theb. 7.766 iam lubrica tabo frena, 8.542 saucius extremo… cum sanguine frenos respuit (sc. equus); and Claud. Rapt. Pros. 2.202 sanguine frena calent (TLL VI.1291-3).
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lupatis ‘lupi (λῦκοι or ἐχῖνοι) were spikes in the mouthpiece of a bit used to hurt the horse’s tongue and palate’ (Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor. C. 1.8.6, who note the cruelty of ancient taming methods and add an anecdote from Dio Chrys. 63.5); cf. Verg. G. 3.208. This particular type of jagged-toothed bit is used for horses that are hard to tame; perhaps especially for warhorses? Cf. TLL VII.2.1848.37ff. On ancient bits, see Anderson 1961, 40 ff.; des Noëttes 1931, pl. 62, 248; Dict. ant. II.2, 1339a-b s.v. ‘frenum’. 759-60 iamque gradum… addunt The adverbial iamque suggests immediacy, urge to move on. And yet the negative adverbs that immediately follow thwart the expectation. 761 uolneribus coguntur equi Since all else fails, the horses are spurred on by stabbing—which will eventually fail, too. 762 cornipedum As a noun it occurs twice in L., cf. 8.3; as and adjective, twice each in Virgil and Ovid. Henceforth it is frequent as a noun in Silius and Statius. It might be a Virgilian coinage after such words as sonipes (Norden ad Verg. A. 6.591; Feeney ad Sil. 1.223; Horsfall ad Verg. A. 7.779). 762-3 neque enim impetus ille / incursusque fuit: tantum perfertur ad hostem total denial of epic action. 764 et spatium iaculis oblato uolnere donat The bracketing word order (here also denoting closure, see e.g. 753n. above) imitates the dynamics of the action described. Note the intentional vagueness of the impersonal phrasing, with donat apparently lacking a proper grammatical subject, but in fact deriving it from the impersonal perfertur. The agent is therefore Curio’s cavalry in general, e.g. eques understood collectively as equitatus, though by hypallage cornipes is the grammatical subject of perfertur. The cavalry are the spatium through which the weapons travel (lit. they give spatium to the iacula). And the ablative absolute oblato uolnere audaciously describes their passivity in a daring hypallage: offering themselves as vehicles for iacula they are already wounds. Cf. Hübner 1972, 593: ‘Das Ziel bohrt sich in seinem Treffer. Die extravagante sprachliche Wendung setzt das Wiedersinnige der Situation in grelles Licht.’
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765-8 at uagus Afer equos… traxitque tenebras The motif of the galloping horse goes as far back as Homer Il. 10.535. It resonates in Latin literature from Ennius Ann. 439 Vahlen, to Lucr. 2.329-30, Verg. A. 8.596, 9.599-600 and 975, St. Theb. 12.651 and Sil. 4.95-6. Bramble 1982, 549 n. 1. 765 uagus Afer i.e., ‘Numidian’, cf. the figura etymologica at 677n. above. 766 terraque soluta One of L.’s daring images: the earth ‘dissolves’, i.e., it is released in the air as the Numidian cavalry charge. By the end of the next line, this terra will have dissolved into dust, 767 puluis. The image of the sand being released into the air returns almost obsessively in Book IX; cf. esp. the tableau of Cato and his soldiers caught in a desert windstorm: 9.451 liquidas se turbine soluit in auras, 456-6 pars plurima terrae / tollitur, and notes below. On the motif of the dust cloud, see Homer Il. 3.10ff.; the motif is absent in Verg. A. 11.876-7, 908-9, 12.407-8, and 444-5 (Bramble 1982, 549 n. 1). 767 quantus Bistonio torquetur turbine By synecdoche the adjective Bistonius (also Bistonis, from the ethnomym Bistones or Bistonii, cf. TLL II.2015-16) stands for Thracius. Reference to the Bistonians is not very common. Chiefly applied to mythical figures such as Orpheus, Diomedes, and Tereus, the epithet occurs four more times in L. and elsewhere only in poetry: it is absent in Virgil and occurs only once each in Lucretius and Horace, first becoming popular with Ovid, who ostensibly follows Hellenistic models. Its occurrence here, in a simile in which the dusty gusts aroused by the charging Numidian cavalry are compared to the Thracian wind, alludes to the proverbial ferocity of the Bistonians, a people dear to Mars: cf. 7.569 and RE III.504ff. It may also evoke by association with Thrace the Orphic Bacchanal and its loud, gory and boisterous ritual, as well as the sanguinary King of the Bistonians, Diomedes (alluded to at 2.163); cf. Nisbet/Hubbard ad Hor. C. 2.19.20 and Lyne on Ciris 165. 768 texit traxitque tenebras The insisting assonance in the voiceless dental lends this threefold alliteration a rhythmic beat, perhaps evoking the tinny clangs of the weapons audible in the dark and dusty confusion as the charging cavalry approaches the target.
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769-87 The actual battle is described. Note the emphasis on lack of space and movement, as in Caes. BC 2.41. 770-1 nullo dubii discrimine Martis / ancipites steterunt casus ‘There was no doubting about outcome (ancipites casus) in the perils (discrimine) of Mars the fickle (dubii Martis).’ Redundancy is a typical feature of L.’s expression. Here the idea of war’s dual outcome is applied to both casus and Mars, and since anceps is a compound of ambo with caput, there might be etymological play with dubius, which contains the root of the numeral duo, and with dis- of discrimine, in the latter case also highlighted by alliteration. The epithets anceps and dubius are found together in at least thirteen occurrences from Livy to Tacitus; in L. cf. 2.447-8 tunc urbes Latii dubiae uarioque fauore / ancipites… cessurae, 8.283 hinc anceps dubii terret sollertia Mauri (with Mayer’s n.), 9.581-2 sortilegis egeant dubii semperque futuris / casibus ancipites; cf. also 389-90; Liv. 7.25.4; Vell. 2.79.3; Tac. Ann. 4.73.4. 770 dubii… Martis cf. Verg. G. 2.283, on which Thomas: ‘perhaps suggested by the formulaic metonymy dubio Marte’ (cf. A. 11.899; Vell. 2.55.3), hence L.’s use of dubius as epithet where of course there is no doubt about the outcome of the war. The metonymy was current in the late Republic: Cic. Att. 7.8.4 (quoting Il. 18.39). discrimine Martis For this hexameter ending, see 3.336 (with Hunink’s n.), 5.723 (cf. also 8.389 discrimina belli); Sil. 5.660. For the sense of the phrase, see also 4.48 and TLL V.1.1362.23-30. On discrimen in L., see ad 9.493 below. 771-2 tempora pugnae / mors tenuit Lit. ‘Death held the time of battle.’ This seems to be the only place with tempora as direct object of tenere in a military context, but the epexegetic pugnae gives tenere the well attested military sense of ‘occupy, be in control of’ (OLD 9). L. is describing the result of the fatum belli (769) falling on Curio’s pedites in the form of Juba’s cavalry; see following note. 772-3 neque enim licuit procurrere contra / et miscere manus As the turn of phrase neque enim shows, this sentence explains the previous one: since there was no room to move (see 782n. below), it was impossible to counterattack.
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773 undique saepta iuuentus Here the soldiers begin to lose room for movement: they are surrounded on all sides. 774 comminus… eminus These two adverbs describe the deadly strikes coming aslant (when from near) and straight down (when thrown from afar). The point of view belongs to the saepta iuuentus of the previous line. 775-6 non uolneribus nec sanguine solum, / telorum nimbo peritura et pondere ferri The point here is that Curio’s soldiers are not going to perish of wounds and blood-loss only. They are crushed under the weight of a cloud of weapons; but telorum nimbo peritura is reversing the topos that a cloud of weapons usually does no harm (e.g. Persian missiles against Phocians at Thermopylae in Hdt. 7.218.3). Cf. the dead bodies crushing the living in the Sullan massacre at 2.204-6 (with Fantham’s n.); Bartsch 1997, 17. As seen in his recalling the Gigantomachy in the telling of the struggle of Hercules and Antaeus, L. is very fond of hyperbole; cf. intro. and notes to 589-661 above. 777 acies tantae paruum spissantur in orbem In this image of large crowds concentrating in a small circle, note the contrast in tantae paruum and the sense of density in both sound and rhythm with a series of seven long syllables, expanding on the idea of heaviness expressed in the previous line with pondere. spissantur As a technical term, spissare denotes condensation. L. uses it only here and 77; not attested before Ovid, who uses it only once: Ov. M. 15.250 ignis enim densum spissatum in aera transit (with Bömer ad loc.); cf. Sen. NQ. 3.15.7, 25.12; 5.6. 777-81 Note the ‘circular’ phrasing and vocabulary to describe how the army folds into a circular mass: 777 acies…. orbem… 780 globus… 781 gyros acies; 777 orbem For the metaphor to describe soldiers, see 780 globus below. 778-81 ac, si quis… acies L. illustrates in what way the army is crushed onto itself, as it were, in a vice-like grip. Translate: ‘If anyone seized by fright (metuens) crawled (correpsit) into the middle of the mass (medium in agmen), he could scarcely move about (uix conuertitur) unhurt (779 inpune) amidst allied swords (suos inter ensis). And
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the throng (780 globus) thickened as much as the receding (pede relato) front line tightened (781 constrinxit) the circle.’ 780 globus Probably an extension of the concept introduced by 777 orbem, this is the only occurrence in L. of globus as a metaphor for crowd (Gregorius 1893, 12) in the military sense of ‘closely packed mass’ sc. of soldiers (OLD 4a); in its other two occurrences in L. it mainly carries the idea of density, cf. 4.74, 9.801. Attested as a military term since Cato Mil. frg. 11, it is sometimes applied in poetry to a compact group of soldiers, e.g. Verg. A. 10.373 globus ille uirum densissimus. 781-2 non arma mouendi / iam locus est pressis Total denial of opportunity for epic action (non arma): there was no room for maneuvering the weapons. Note how the syntax emphasizes the paradoxical circumstance that the agent, expressed by the dative pressis, is denied room for action. Starting with 777, the degree of immobility, as it were, has been constantly increasing. On the topos of the weapons that cannot be wielded, see Masters 1992, 57-8 n. 29. 782 stipataque membra teruntur The soldiers are no longer identifiable as a group of individuals. They are just stipata membra, for the synecdoche conveys the sense of frustration proper to an army caught in dire straits and prevented from reacting by lack of room. The only action that is possible for these ‘packed limbs’ is passively to rub against one another. L. is innovating on a topos: not mere ‘limbs’ (membra) or chests (see ad 783 pectore pectus), but arms and feet are supposed to rub on one another; for analogous expressions in battle contexts, see Enn. Ann. 572 Vahlen (cf. Bell. Hisp. 31.6) pes premitur pede et armis arma teruntur (with Vahlen’ s n. ad loc. tracing the topos as far back as Hom. Il. 13.131 and 16.215); Furius Bibaculus Ann. 10 Blänsdorf (cf. Macrob. sat. 6.3.5) pressatur pede pes, mucro mucrone, uiro uir; Verg. A. 10.361 haeret pede pes densusque uiro uir. stipata usually of protective bodyguards: e.g. 4.208. Here there might be an implied paradox. 783 frangitur armatum conliso pectore pectus This polyptoton shows the extent of L.’s innovation on the topos (see previous n.): usually the nouns denote the opposing sides in a battle, whereas here both
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pectores belong to the same side. On the clausula pectore pectus, see 624n. above. conliso This is the only occurrence of conlidere in L. Attested also one time each in Lucretius, Horace, Ovid, Manilius and Nemesianus, twice in Statius and five times in Silius (TLL III.1601.74-7), collidere is definitely more common in prose. 784 laeta This adjective recalls the very beginning of the campaign narrative, when Curio was laetatus by the fortuna locorum, thus enclosing Curio’s African campaign in a kind of ring-composition; cf. 661n. above. 784-7 non tam laeta… spectacula / quam Fortuna dabat… / …non ille… / uidet… / corpora Juba’s Numidians (784 Maurus has collective sense) could not enjoy the spectacle of their own victory because the corpses were too many and amassed in too narrow a space. On the theatrical/gladiatorial aspects of construing a slaughter as a show, see Leigh 1997, ch. 7 ‘A view to a Kill’, esp. 290. See next n. 787 compressum turba stetit omne cadauer ‘Every corpse stood upright compressed by the crowding.’ The hyperbole ends L.’s account of Curio’s defeat. Cf. 776n. above and Bartsch 1997, 17. Note the insistence on stare: 753; 771. cadauer There are thirty-six occurrences of this noun in L., five in Seneca’s tragedies, seventeen in Silius, and three in Statius’ Thebaid. It is not attested in Horace, Tibullus or Propertius. Norden 1926, 178 shows how Virgil preferred corpus (ad 6.149; cf. Axelson 1945, 49-50); interestingly Virgil uses cadauer twice, but not for human corpses, cf. G. 3.557 (beasts) and A. 8.264 (Cacus). On this word in L., see Bramble 1982, 541. 788-90 ‘May Fortune evoke with renewed burial offerings the loathed ghosts of cruel Carthage; may gory Hannibal and the spirits of the Punic dead welcome these ghastly expiations.’ Almost unobtrusively, L. sets the mood for the long apostrophe that will follow Curio’s death. Though he does it in a wishful tone, or nothing good is expected from Fortuna, as the vocabulary of funereal ritual shows. 788-9 excitet… ferat… Even though in L. both tone and chronological perspective are different, it is useful to be reminded of Dido’s anath-
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ema: Verg. A. 4.625 exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor (with Pease ad loc.). Dido’s curse is spoken as a prophecy in the future tense, and in a startling second person singular, whereas L.’s subjunctives of wish could almost function as an exhortation (i.e., if they were in the first person plural) and express the hope that Curio’s army can in fact serve as funeral offerings (inferiis) to appease Hannibal’s ghost. Dido is addressing Hannibal whereas in L. it is Fortune who shall allow this expiatory sacrifice of Roman lives in retribution, as it were, for the failure of Dido’s prophecy. 789 inferiis For the metaphorical use, see 2.176 piacula and 3.292 exsequias (with Gregorius 1893, 12). Here inferiae are the ‘last rites’ offered to the manes of the dead; cf. Thomson ad Catull. 101.2; Ov. F. 5.422. The metaphor suggests that the Roman dead are offered in expiation to placate the manes of a defeated enemy, an idea that resurfaces at 6.309-11 nec…/ Poenorumque umbras placasset sanguine fuso / Scipio (= Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, defeated at Thapsus in 46). Also in the Aeneid the offerings to the dead include human sacrifice; for instance when Aeneas, seized by homicidal frenzy (furor), slaughters two groups of four brothers, 10.519 inferias quos immolet umbris, to avenge Pallas killed by Turnus; cf. also Dido’s anathema quoted in previous n. Historians of religion have noted the ancients’ need to placate furor ‘with the sacrifice of human and animal victims in the order of ritual revenge’ (De Martino 1958, 221; Massenzio in EV II.963 s.v. ‘inferiae’). The chain of nemesis does not function here in strictly genealogical terms, at least not for the offended, since Juba is neither a Carthaginian nor a descendant of Hannibal: cf. Hor. C. 2.1.29 inferias Iugurthae, with Nisbet/Hubbard’s suggestion that L. ‘is not just imitating Horace (who seems to complicate a familiar topic by introducing Jugurtha), and Pollio has been suggested as a common source;’ on Pollio as a source, see Dahlmann 1965, 144. L.’s conceit implies a synecdoche pars pro toto: both Juba and Hannibal belong in Africa, who is taking her revenge upon Rome, see 793n. below. 790 dira piacula ‘It is both appropriate and ironic that a man named Curio should bring the first piaculum to Hannibal and Carthage in Africa. No Roman reader would have been unaware that Curio’s name recalls the sacerdos curio sacris faciundis, the priestly curio in charge
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of sacrifice. And Lucan probably knew also that Curio was himself a pontifex [Dio 40.62]’ (Ahl 1976, 113 and n. 51-2). 791-3 In an outburst phrased as an address to the gods, which almost functions as a prelude to the longer apostrophe (799-824) that will follow the account of Curio’s death, L. points to the indignity that the death of Romans benefits other Romans by favoring the righteous cause of Pompey and the senate: ‘O gods, [it is] impious (nefas) that the disgrace of Rome on African soil benefit Pompey and the wishes of the senate! Let rather Africa win over us for her own sake (sibi).’ 791 Romanam, superi, Libyca tellure ruinam The enclosing word order (Romanam… ruinam) highlights the paradox that the victory in a battle against the enemy of the Republic is a disgrace for Rome; but see next note. 792 prodesse nefas has the force of an oxymoron: it is a disgrace that so many Roman deaths should be a benefit for Pompey and the senate. 793 Africa nos potius uincat sibi As 788 excitet and 789 ferat , also uincat is a subjunctive of wish. L.’s opinion is that it would have been better for Rome if Juba’s Numidians had won for themselves, i.e., not on Pompey’s behalf – which points to the paradox that Africa defeating Romans is much more shameful because the Romans are using Africa against one another. 794-5 ut… et cernere tantas / permisit clades conpressus sanguine puluuis ‘As soon as Curio saw his army lying (fusas) on the battlefield, as soon as the dust laid by the blood allowed the sight of the slaughter…’ The concept of the blood allowing the dust to settle and offer a clear view of the corpses is perhaps not as hyperbolic as it sounds. It certainly conveys well the mood of Curio pausing and looking at the grim spectacle of his slaughtered army. 796-8 On Curio’s death, see Caes. BC 2.42. 796 animam producere Curio cannot bear to live on after losing the legions which Caesar had entrusted to him, cf. Caes. BC 2.42.4 Curio numquam se amisso exercitu, quem a Caesare fidei commissum acceperat, in eius conspectum reuersurum confirmat atque ita proelians interficitur; but the tragic tone of producere animam, highlights the pathos of his despair. Anima clearly has the sense of uita, and the
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phrase, not attested before L., therefore means ‘go on living’; cf. Iuv. 15.93-4 Vascones, ut fama est, alimentis talibus usi / produxere animas. Note, however, that producere occasionally also has the sense ‘come to life, be born’, cf. OLD 5. 797 ceciditque in strage suorum Curio dies fighting and his corpse tops the heap. In Caes. BC 2.42.3-4, the prefect of the horse offers Curio a chance to seek safety in flight, but Curio is resolved to die with his infantry, proelians interficitur. 798 inpiger ad letum et fortis uirtute coacta L.’s tone has a tinge of admiration for Curio’s choice to die as a uir fortis. Yet Curio’s act of uirtus, albeit worthy of praise (cf. 809 below), is not the result of choice (coacta) as it should have been, and is clearly unfortunate (ad letum). On inpiger, see 8n. above.
4.799–824 The final apostrophe Book IV ends with a complex apostrophe. After an address to Curio (799-804) and the party leaders (805-6), there follows a general moralizing reflection (807-10) and a second address to Curio (811-13). At last, evils past and present are attributed to the wretched times, and the book is sealed off with an epigram expressing the poet’s angry disgust at Curio (814-24). The funerary commemoration of an important person is a characteristic of the historiographical mode: Sen. Suas. 6.21: quotiens magni alicuius uiri mors ab historicis narrata est, totiens fere consummatio totius uitae et quasi funebris laudatio redditur. Obituaries ‘give the historian scope for epigram, for praise or blame without subsequent appeal’ (Syme 1958, 312-13 on Tacitus’ obituaries; see also Pomeroy 1991, 110-225 from Sallust to Tacitus). L.’s eulogy contains both praise and blame and is delivered in the form of a long apostrophe to Curio that serves as an epigrammatic seal to the account of Curio’s disastrous African campaign. On L.’s apostrophes, see Asso 2008, Martindale 1993, 67, the Introduction above, and Viansino 1974, 47-75. On apostrophe in L. see index s.v.; on the use of apostrophe in Latin epic it is still profitable to consult Curcio 1903, Endt 1905 and Hampel 1908. 799 quid… tibi With the apostrophe to dead Curio, this exordium efficaciously conveys the heightened sense of tragedy. After the practice of
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oratorical peroration (cf. esp. ad Herenn. 2. 47-49, Cic. Inv. 1. 100-105, Quint. Inst. 6. 1. 12 ff.), the tone is meant to stir the reader’s indignation: Curio’s qualities did not save him. In the following two lines L. offers a summary of Curio’s career: rostra and forum (on Curio’s gift for oratory, see next n. below), tribunate of the plebs (see 800n. below), civil war and illegal pro-praetorship of Sicily (see 801n. below). Cf. Hor. C. 4.7.23-4 non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te / restituet pietas. prosunt On the funerary motif of nil profuit, see Courtney 1993 on Porcius 3.8; Nisbet/Hubbard on Hor. C. 1.28.4; Prop. 3.18.11; Cornelius Severus 13.8-9 [ap. Sen. Suas. 6.26] (with Courtney’s n.). Note the reiteration of prodesse: 761; 792; 811. rostra… turbata forumque The hendiadys is best solved: ‘the ruckus provoked at the rostra in the forum,’ with turbata functioning also as a transferred epithet for forum (hypallage). Curio naturam habuit admirabile ad dicendum, as we know from Cic. Brutus 280, who remembers him for his skill in rounding off deep thoughts with elegant and fluent turns of phrases, facile soluteque uerbis uoluebat satis interdum acutas, crebras quidem certe sententias, ut nihil posset ornatius esse, nihil expeditius. 800 tribunicia plebeius signifer arce The hendiadys plebeius signifer solves into ‘standard bearer of the plebs.’ Cf. 1.270-71 uox quondam populi libertatemque tueri / ausus. Curio had been tribune for 50 BCE, the year before the African campaign, and in that capacity he had proved a defender of the people when trying unsuccessfully to pass an agrarian law; see 690n. above. signifer On this metaphor, see Suet. Vita Lucani 23 (Rostagni 1944, 147) ad extremum paene signifer Pisonianae coniurationis extitit. This compound, used as a noun in its military sense of standardbearer (here in metaphor), occurs three times in L. (cf. 7.163, 9.737); four more times it occurs as an adjective, in three cases referring to the sky, more properly the zodiac, as ‘holding constellations (signa)’, cf. 3.254, 7.363, 8.172, but in one case applying the military sense of ‘standard-bearer’ to the flag-ship, cf. 3.558. 801 arma dabas populis In the place of arma one would expect iura with reference to Rome’s traditional role of civilizing foreign, con-
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quered nations: cf. Verg. G. 4.561-2 per populos da iura (Octavian); cf. Austin ad Verg. A. 1.293; Hor. C. 3.3.44 Roma ferox dare iura Medis. The problem here is that, given the context about Curio’ tribunate in 50 BCE, the plural populis refers to the Roman people (L. might be using the plural to allude to the formula iura dare populis). The sense of arma is clearly metaphorical and probably political: until his tribunate, Curio’s policy favored the people and opposed the despotism of the triumvirs (Lacey 1961, 319-20). On ‘putting weapons in someone’s hands’ in metaphorical sense, see TLL II.595.79ff. prodita iura senatus This may refer to Caesar’s resistance to recall implied in the letter Curio delivered to the consuls (see 738-9n. above); and also to the right of the senate to appoint the governor of the provinces, blatantly broken by Curio’s taking possession of Sicily as propraetor with the two legions given him by Caesar in March 49 BCE; cf. Caes. BC 1.30.2; Cic. Att. 10.4.9; Münzer in RE II.1.872.41-5. 802 et gener atque socer bello concurrere iussi The participle iussi gives the impression that Pompey and Caesar were forced to go to war – which is probably Curio’s view, given that L. is addressing him in the second person (e.g. 801 dabas). In April 49, once the war was being fought, Cicero calls it a bellum… non iniustum… quidem sed cum pium tum etiam necessarium (Cic. Att. 10.4.3). gener atque socer Cf. 1.289-90; 10.417. Forced by her father Caesar, Julia had to break off a previous engagement and marry Pompey in 59 BCE. The earliest attestation of this talismanic phrase in poetry is Catull. 29.24; cf. Verg. A. 6.830-1; 7.317 (with Horsfall ad. loc.); Mart. 9.70.3. On the use of socer and gener in L., see Viansino 1974, 9-15. 803-4 ante iaces quam dira duces Pharsalia confert / spectandumque tibi bellum ciuile negatum est Curio is dead and shall therefore miss the show of Pharsalus, thus being spared the embarrassment of facing the question put to Pompey at 7.698-9 nonne iuuat pulsum bellis cessisse nec istud / perspectasse nefas? Leigh 1997, 291 and n. 137 points to the ‘political dynamic of Lucan’s amphitheatre’ and interestingly compares 803 duces… confert with Curio’s conferre duces at 707, rightly highlighting the ‘amphitheatrical sense of conferre’ (ibid. n. 137). The show of the bellum ciuile may go on even without its auctor,
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i.e., Curio, as L. already implied at 738-9 bellumque trahebat / auctorem ciuile suum, on which see n. above. 805-6 Understand: ‘This is the vengeance (poenas, see next n.) that with your blood (uestro de sanguine) you make our wretched city suffer (ferre datis): [for] thus you atone for the [civil] wars (arma) with your life (iugulo).’ The syntax is hard to render in English, but L. does a good job of conveying the paradox of the warlords’ deaths being the cause of Rome’s double penalty of tyranny and grief for the deaths of some of her greatest citizens. Introduced in the previous mention of 802 gener atque socer, the vocative potentes shifts L.’s address from Curio to the leaders of the factions opposing one another in the civil war: Pompey, whose death figures in L.’s poem in Book VIII (613ff.), and Caesar, whose death lies out of L.’s narrative. Mention of Curio together with the potentes occurs also at 1.270-71 uox quondam populi libertatemque tueri / ausus et armatos plebi miscere potentis, on which see 583n. on audax, 801n. above, and the notes below. 805 has… poenas As in the Aeneid (and perhaps also in Ennius, see next note), poena has here its ancient sense of ‘compensation’ exacted from the body itself of the offender: cf. Paus. 3.15.6; Hom. Il. 13.659, 14.483, 16.398, 21.28; Od. 23.312; Hdt. 2.134, 136; see EV IV.153 s.v. ‘poena’. The enclosing word order imitates Verg. A. 7.595 ipsi has sacrilego pendetis sanguine poenas, where King Latinus’ emphasis is on ipsi, i.e., the Rutulians and Turnus, on whose blood Aeneas will take his revenge for the death of Pallas. Here L.’s emphasis is on the revenge itself, which rather than retributive is paradoxically punitive for Rome; hence the phrase has poenas encloses the whole line while also referring to Latinus’ words; for this ultimately Ennian intertext, see next note. sanguine poenas The clausula sanguine poenas has an august pedigree. L. is imitating quite closely Romulus’ words as he is about to kill Remus in Enn. Ann 95 Skutsch (= 100 Vahlen = 103 Flores) nam mi calido dabis sanguine poenas; repeated almost verbatim by the Rutulian Volcens as he is about to kill Euryalus in Verg. A. 9.422-3 calido mihi sanguine poenas / persolues (with Hardie 1994 ad loc.); Virgil uses this exact phrase four more times: A. 7.595, 766, 10.617, 11.592; but cf. also 2.72 and 366; Ov. F. 4.239 (with Fantham’s n.); [Sen.] Oct. 812.
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By going all the way back to the earliest historical legends of Rome, the Ennian intertext fills L.’s apostrophe to the potentes with profoundly complex ideological, political, and religious/ancestral implications. Through the reference to the foundational fratricide, the massacre of Curio is elevated to the level of the Romans’ ancestral memory and thereby acquires ‘mythical’ proportions. In other words, Rome’s myth of foundation revolves around an impious act that is fated to repeat itself in the past, present, and future civil wars and imperial dynastic strife; cf. Asso 2002b. 806 luitis iugulo sic arma As at 3.135-6 haud… iugulo se polluet isto nostra… manus (Caesar to Metellus blocking access to the public treasure), iugulum is here almost metonymic for ‘blood’, and therefore ‘life’ (TLL VII.2.638.71-2). There is a possible echo of Hor. C. 1.6.1 delicta maiorum inmeritus lues. 807-24 Curio’s moment; the tribune is praised for his natural talents but blamed for his political opportunism. After the address to Curio (799804) and to Caesar and Pompey (805-6), 807-9 are spoken generally, almost as an incidental interjection of the poet’s persona, but they also fit the syntactical context very nicely, switching unobtrusively to the third person. Then the poet addresses Curio for the last time (811-13), and concludes (814-24) with a eulogy that is offset by a scathing judgment, giving an epigrammatic seal to the book: 824 emere omnes, hic vendidit urbem. Curio’s death comes at the end of Book IV and, as in Caesar (BC II), the end of Curio in Africa marks the end of both a book and a phase in the war. For the characterization of Curio, cf. Vell. Pat. 2.48.3 (cf. 583n. above), modeled on the Sallustian portraits of Aemilius Scaurus (Iug. 15.4) and Catilina (Cat. 5.4). 807 Felix Roma quidem ciuisque habitura beatos The main verb fuisset (cf. e.g. Kühner/Stegman II.408-9 on conditional sentences preceded by ‘non dubito quin’) is not needed, given the presence of the future participle: translate as the apodosis of a conditional sentence, ‘Rome could have surely (quidem) been considered lucky and her citizens a happy lot, if…’ or even ‘Rome would now be…’ (verb absence may encourage contemporary application). The mention of the state along with its citizens has a grim tone, embittered by the poet’s historical hindsight as well as his personal experience as a subject under a despotic rule. The adjectives felix and beatos are not intended ironi-
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cally, though it is hard for modern sensibility not to see some irony in this statement. One should take L.’s remark as acknowledging what Rome was not during both the time of the narrative and the poet’s own time; see next n. below. 808-9 si libertatis superis tam cura placeret / quam uindicta placet ‘…if the superi had cared (superis… cura placeret ) for freedom as much as they care for revenge;’ cf. Tac. Hist. 1.3 (Haskins). This typically Lucanian sententia is one of the many sign posts the poet leaves on his way to build up to Pharsalus in Book VII (Malcovati 1940, 28). Curio’s death is avenging the superi, as one can clearly see from what follows in 809-10. These superi – always referred collectively in L. – do take interest in the war and their presence invites us further to consider L.’s moral point. These superi are avenged by Curio’s death and also by his lack of burial. On (poetic) morality and justice in human affairs, or lack thereof, in relation with fate, gods and Fortuna, see Pichon 1912, 180-1, Syndikus 1958, 82-3, Schotes 1969, 100-55, Narducci 1979, 76-7; and esp. Fantham 2003. 809-10 Libycas, en, nobile corpus, / pascit aues nullo contectus Curio busto The qualifier nobile (Curio was the son of a Roman consul), with the direct apostrophe and praeconia that follow, expresses genuine regret that such a man is unburied. The apostrophe to Curio’s nobile corpus emphasizes both the uirtus of his final act and the paradox that his noble death does not guarantee him the burial honors proper to a Roman (a foretaste of Pompey’s delayed burial in Book VIII). The pathos is intensified by the mention of his name ‘Curio’, in reference to Curio’s religious pontificate: cf. Dio 40.62 and 790n. above. 811-13 Like many other victims of the war, Curio too lacks burial. These lines addressed to him cannot conceal L.’s admiration for his character. On this apostrophe, see Endt 1905, 121. 811 non proderit ista silere To draw attention to his eulogy for Curio, L.’s litotes varies on the panegyric formula ‘non silebo’ (by mixing it with the ‘quid profuit’ motif): cf. h. Ap. 1.1 µνήσοµαι οὐδὲ λάθοµαι; cf. Cic. Red. Sen. 30; Verg. A. 7.733 (with Horsfall ad loc.); 10.793; Hor. C. 1.12.21 neque te silebo, with Nisbet/Hubbard ad loc., OLD s.v. ‘sileo’ 3b, Endt 1905, 120-2.
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812 a quibus omne aeui senium sua fama repellit ‘the fame of which [a quibus refers to 811 ista] rebuffs all decay of time.’ In other words, it will do no good (811 non proderit) to overlook the mention of deeds whose fame will forever last. senium A pejorative synonym of senectus, senium esp. connotes decrepitude and decay: Haskins ad loc. and Mayer 1981 ad 8.476, cf. the other two occurrences at 1.130 (Pompey) and 10.162 (wine aging). Rare in poetry before Seneca (seven times), senium figures once each in Ennius, Horace and Valerius, twelve times in Silius and sixteen in Statius: cf. Lyne 1978 on Ciris 248-9. 813 digna damus, iuuenis, meritae preconia uitae A funerary eulogy, marked with a typical panegyric formula: digna… praeconia uitae varies e.g., [Tib.] 3.7.177 non ego sum satis ad tantae praeconia laudis; cf. Ov. Her. 17.207 praeconia famae, M. 12.773 praeconia rebus, Tr. 1.6.35-6, 4.9.19-20 nostra per immensas ibunt praeconia gentes ׀ quodque querar notum qua patet orbis erit, St. Theb. 2.176 praeconia famae. The noun praeconia is metonymical for poetry (of praise): see above all Cic. Fam. 5.12.7 praeconium…ab Homero Achilli tributum, cf. OLD 1c. iuuenis L. was 25 years old when wrting this: it is striking that he so addresses a character who in the narrative is about 20 years his senior. On iuuenis, see 738n. above. 814 haut alium tanta ciuem tulit indole Roma ‘Rome scarce produced another of such inborn talent…’ Ostensibly foreshadowed by the address to Curio as iuuenis in the former line, this remark comes as no small praise. One could detect a veil of irony, supported by the epigrammatic seal at 824. But the context suggests actual praise for the dead Curio; see also next note. 815 aut cui plus leges deberent recta sequenti ‘…nor [anyone] to whom the laws would have owed more if only he had followed the right course.’ The circumstantial partciciple sequenti (with recta as its object) is here equivalent to a proviso clause: Curio once did follow recta and was therefore honored by ‘the laws’; cf. Caelius to Cicero (August 1, 51 BCE) on Curio’s candidacy to the tribunate: Cic. Fam. 8.4.2 ut se fert ipse [sc. Curio] bonos et senatum mallet.
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816 perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt saecula This is L.’s sad excusatio to explain the state’s fall – victim of the times – under tyrannical leaders. The phrase urbi nocuerunt is glossed by Housman with nocendo Curioni, i.e., a kind of circularity analogous to what was expressed earlier, cf. 805-6n. above: the perdita saecula are harmful both to the state and Curio, who in turn is harmful to the state. 817 ambitus et luxus et opum metuenda facultas Corruption, luxury, and the fearsome power of riches are the vices of the age that proved fatal to Curio; here elegantly arranged in a tricolon occupying a whole line. On luxus in L., cf. 1.160-73; 4.373-81; 10.111-71 (Cleopatra’s palace and banquet), esp. 146-54; Sall. Cat. 10.2; 12; Iug. 41; Viansino 1974, 19-31. 818 transuerso… torrente tulerunt The alliteration concentrates the attention on the beginning and the end of the line, emphasizing the misleading confusion generated by the false values of ambition, riches and luxurious decadence (817). Literally, the adjective transuersus means ‘crosswise’, but in a figurative sense it means ‘off the true or proper course in conduct or understanding’ (OLD 2b) and thereby might be near to our ‘perverse’. mentem dubiam Curio’s wavering morals are graphically drowned midline in a torrent of perversion. transverso… torrente ‘stream of perversion’ As often in Latin, the prepositional compound enforces and intensifies the meaning of the verbal stem; . 819 momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum The turning point was determined by Curio’s changing sides; on metaphor of the weight movement (momentum < mouimentum) on the scale, see 3.357-8 and ad 4.3 above. But cf. Hor. C. 2.1.1 (with Nisbet/Hubbard ad loc.), pinpointing the agreement between Pompey and Caesar during the consulship of Q. Metellus Celer in 60 BCE as the true key moment (probably the beginning of the war according to Asinius Pollio); L. 1.84-5. On the expression, see also Liv. 3.12.6 maximum momentum rerum. 820 Gallorum captus spoliis Caesaris auro Curio’s price. L. believes that Curio had been bribed by Caesar to side with the populares, perhaps as a result of the senate’s rejection of his ambitious land bill dur-
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ing his tribunate. Cf. Badian in OCD s.v. ‘Scribonius Curio, C.’; Cic. Brutus 280.20 (with Douglas 1966 ad loc.); Val. Max. 9.1.6; Suet. Iul. 29; Lacey 1961. 821 ius licet in iugulos nostros sibi fecerit ensis For ius ensis, see Housman and cf. 5.312 ferri… ius, 387. In iugulos nostros recalls the powerful image evoked at 806 above. 822 Sulla potens L. has dedicated ample space to the account of Sulla’s reign of terror in the second section of a spoken narrative from a survivor of the earlier civil wars: 2.139-222. The epithet given him is not his famous agnomen Felix, but the less alluring and more matter-of-fact potens. Here his name is the first in a series of ultra-powerful leaders that culminates with the Caesars. The context of this enumeration is coherent with the perdita saecula of 816. Mariusque ferox Marius is here mentioned second in reverse chronological order after Sulla. He is mentioned again with Sulla at 9.204. He also received much attention earlier in the first section of the spoken narrative of a survivor from the previous civil wars: 2.70-133. The soldierly epithet is not flattering, as at 534 (the Opitergini), and it probably simply has the sense ‘violent, fierce and therefore warlike’, e.g. when it applies to Petreius’ ira at 211 (cf. 284) or to Curio (see 730n. above). et Cinna cruentus As at 2.546 Cinnas Mariosque, Cinna is explicitly mentioned only in connection with Marius. The epithet is elsewhere applied to Mars (24) or warlike killing and slaughter (e.g. 2.111, 156, 212, 7.826 etc.) or baneful mortals as in 609 (Antaeus), 789 (Hannibal), 9.15 (Caesar). 823 Caesareaque domus series Caesar and his descendants are the emptores, just as Marius, Cinna and Sulla before them. 823-4 cui tanta potestas / concessa est? This question introduces the sneering remark of disgust that closes the book and the first tetrad. There is more to it than just a condemnation of Curio. The enumeration of potentes from Marius to the Caesars makes Curio disappear as small fry in their company. 824 emere omnes hic uendidit urbem A fulfillment of Jugurtha’s ‘prophecy’ in Sall. Iug. 35.10 postquam Roma egressus est, fertur saepe eo tacitus respiciens postremo dixisse: ‘urbem uenalem et mature
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perituram si emptorem inuenerit’. These are L.’s last words on Curio. Comm. Bern. points to Verg. A. 6.621 uendidit hic auro patriam.
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Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 2.191: 192 5.97: 217 5.98: 217 5.122: 217
AESCHYLUS Eumenides 77: 192 589: 243 Prometeus 133: 159
ARISTOTLE Historia Animalium 9.1.608a28: 195 9.6.612a15-20:
AELIANUS Historia Animalium 7.23: 260
APOLLODORUS MYTHOGRAPHUS Bibliotheca 1.9.1: 125 2.5.11: 223, 242, 244 3.13.6: 229
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS Argonautica 1.760 (scholia): 227 1.761-2: 227 1.1165: 228 2.11-18: 230 2.1-96: 233 2.38-40: 233 2.85-7: 237 4.789-90: 197
APPENDIX VERGILIANA Ciris 165: 277 248-9: 290 Culex 167: 178
APPIAN Bellum Ciuile 2.18: 108 2.42: 114, 154 2.44: 247, 260 2.95: 216
267
CATO THE ELDER De re militari frg. 11: 280 Orationum fragmenta frg. 30.1 in ORF: 132
CAESAR De bello ciuili 1.1: 271 1.23.3: 262 1.23.5: 262 1.30.2: 286 1.31.2: 251 1.31.3: 251 1.38-55: 100 1.38.1: 104 1.38.1-3: 266 1.39: 100 1.39.1: 109, 110 1.40: 100 1.41-55: 100 1.41.3: 114 1.41.3-6: 118 1.48: 125 1.48.3: 114 1.52: 134 1.54: 141-2 1.61-84: 100 1.61-2: 143 1.74: 152, 154, 155 1.74-5: 152 1.75: 155, 182
1.76.4-5: 165 1.77: 166 1.81.6: 168 1.81.7: 168 1.82.2-3: 169 1.84: 183 1.84-8: 158 1.85.6: 109 1.86.4: 160 2.23.1: 216 2.23.2: 218 2.24: 111 2.24.1: 215 2.25.4: 261 2.32: 263 2.38-40: 268 2.38.1-3: 269 2.38.1: 268 2.38.2: 267, 272 2.38.3 2.39.1 2.39.1-4: 269 2.40.2-3: 267 2.41: 278 2.42: 283 2.42.3-4: 284 2.42.4 3.5.3: 209 3.19.2: 132 De bello Gallico 1.1.7: 132 1.25.3: 196 1.37.1: 132 4.20.4: 184 4.27.4: 181
CELSUS De Medicina 1.2.7: 174 2.1.11: 175 2.10.10: 175 2.17.1: 175 3.9: 174: 174 4.1.3: 185 5.26.3b: 174
322
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 5.6.23a: 175 5.27.10: 110 5.27.13: 124 5.28.17b: 179 7.9: 172 7.18: 241
CATULLUS 29.24: 286 63.41: 159 64: 229 64.28-9: 130 64.89-90: 26 64.368: 140 64.394: 268 68.44: 163 100.7: 178 101.2: 30, 282
CICERO Arati Phaenomena frg. 34.230-1: 122 frg. 34.143: 178 Brutus 280-1: 216, 292 Carminum fragmenta frg. 34.6 Blänsdorf: 176 Catilinarians 1.1: 216 1.4: 216 De divinatione 1.20.4: 131 1.22.24: 230 1.66: 205 De inventione 1.100-5: 285 De lege agraria 2.95: 231, 270 De natura deorum 1.24: 215 2.109: 207 2.114: 178 2.138: 179 De officiis 1.18.61: 240 1.124: 107 De oratore 1.225: 176 3.167: 26
De re publica 2.51: 108 6.9: 231 Letters to Atticus 1.18.8: 108 7.8.4: 278 9.6A: 105 9.11A: 105 10.4.3: 286 10.4.9: 286 Letters to His Friends 5.12.7: 290 7.1: 233 8.4.2: 261, 290 8.6.5 16.26.2 Pro Ligario 3: 251 Pro Marcello 12: 231 Pro Milone 50: 163 91: 163 Pro Murena 17: 216 Orator 129: 216 45.152: 231 Philippics 2.1: 216 2.71: 176 11.10: 176 14.6: 203 Post Reditum in Senatu 30: 289 Pro Sestio 99: 170 134: 268 Tusculanae Disputationes 2.20.2-4 2.44.20 In Vatinium 6: 176 Verrines 2.3.7: 197 2.5.142: 241 3.155-7: 197
[CICERO] Rheorica ad Herennium 2.47-9: 285 4.66: 231
QUINTUS CICERO Carminum fragmenta 2: 125
DIO 39.38.1: 233 39.39: 108 40.62: 283, 289 41.1-2: 271 41.40: 192 41.41.2: 248 41.41.3: 261 41.41.4: 261 41.41.4-5: 266 42.11.1: 194 51.15.6: 230 57.29.4: 2 60.8.5: 4 61.21.1 62.29.4: 8
DIO CHRYSOSTOMUS 63.5: 276
ENNIUS (ed. Vahlen, unless otherwise noted) Annales 1: 274 33 Skutsch: 170 58: 114 100: 287 310: 26 416: 237 417 Skutsch: 237 439: 277 572: 280 Saturae 68: 138 Scenica 90: 170 341: 274 Tragediae 38 Ribbeck: 240 Varia 3: 231
323
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque
EURIPIDES Dictys frg. 1 = TrGF **330b Snell: 192 Hercules Furens 225-6: 232 400: 232
FLORUS Epitome 1.31.44: 217 1.35: 177 2.13.30: 191 2.13.32: 193 2.13.33: 197, 191 4.2: 191
FRONTINUS
De Aquis Vrbis Romae 31: 231 Stratagemata 2.5.40: 267 3.7.6: 177
FRONTO Ad M. Antoninum Imperatorem Epistulae 3.1.1: 267
GERMANICUS Aratea 11-12: 122 540ff.: 207 543-6: 208 frg. 4.142-3: 123
HYGINUS Astronomica 2.22: 207, 208
HERODOTUS 1.189: 143 2.134: 287 4.172: 258 4.183.1: 258 4.191: 259 7.218.3: 279
HOMER Iliad 1.403: 228 2.145: 126 2.783: 227
3.10ff.: 277 6.448: 11 8: 214 10.535: 277 13.131: 280 13.659: 287 14.483: 287 15.185-93: 136 16.109-10: 237 16.36: 229 16.215: 280 16.314:238 16.398: 287 18.39: 278 21.28: 287 23.688-9: 237 Odyssey 5.295-6: 121 11.576: 227 11.580-1: 227 12.80-4: 196 13.187: 214 19.173: 192 23.312: 287
HORACE Ars Poetica 14-18: 113 241: 270 Carmina 1.1.7: 206 1.6.1: 288 1.8.6: 276 1.10.4: 234 1.12.1: 289 1.16.15: 260 1.22.15: 230, 260 1.22.15-16: 240 1.23.10: 229 1.26.3: 129 1.28.4: 285 1.28.16: 168 1.37.26: 184 2.1: 246 2.1.1: 291 2.1.25-6: 215 2.1.29: 282 2.12.7: 221 2.18.26-8: 187 3.27.18: 117 3.3.44: 286 3.4.49: 226 3.4.65-8: 162 3.4.77: 227
3.20.2: 229 4.7.23-4: 285 Epistulae 1.6.63: 194 1.12.19: 109 Epodes 1.12.19: 151 1.19.13: 153 6.5: 195 3.8.3-4: 153 16.6: 127 Sermones 2.1.11: 231 2.6.114: 195
JUVENAL 6.627: 242 6.421: 235 14.312: 23 15.93-4: 284
LIVY 1.7.6: 269 2.10: 145 2.10.11: 115 2.13: 145 3.12.6: 291 5.41.2: 245 5.44.7: 139 5.54.6: 249 6.4.10: 119 6.28: 249 7.25.4: 278 9.45.18: 181 17 (Per.): 250 18 (Per.): 218, 250 21.4.9: 270 21.23.4: 132 21.30.5: 132 22.15.4: 114 22.51.3: 248 22.51.4: 248 21.54.7: 132 22.44.4: 231 22.51.4: 248 23.30.19: 205 24.30: 206 25.12.6: 241 26.32.4: 217 27.14.9: 202 29.22.2: 233 29.24: 216 32.16.15: 263
324
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 36.45.1: 167 38.49.5: 164 40.8.9: 170 45.36.4: 239 100.10-15 (Per.): 190 109-16 (Per.): 247
LUCRETIUS De Rerum Natura 1.445: 218 1.576: 239 1.722: 197 1.729: 218 1.1080: 185 2.241: 218 2.329-30 2.917: 168 2.1150: 226 3.1-2: 187 3.79-82: 144 3.293: 184 3.988: 227 3.1055: 225 4.227: 195 4.761: 247 4.766: 247 4.919: 268 4.1046: 264 5.466: 134 5.487: 237 5.488: 13 5.775: 225 5.1108-19: 158 5.1185: 225 5.1241-96: 158 5.1210: 122 5.1241-96: 158 5.1296-339: 158 5.1442: 158 6.250: 128 6.267: 133 6.326: 171 6.405: 133 6.482: 134 6.495: 131 6.518: 131 6.835: 171 6.841: 124 6.843: 226 6.931: 195 6.944: 237 6.1041: 171 6.1142: 133
MANILIUS Astronomica 1.45: 22 1.283: 129 1.135: 178 1.270: 208 1.265: 207 1.316: 207 1.716: 164 1.925: 231 2.33: 208 2.445: 139 2.251: 187 2.788-800 3.6: 131 4.348: 252 4.396: 159 4.532: 128 4.582: 178 4.726: 133 4.729-30: 257 4.738: 217 4.752: 133 5.542: 133 5.660: 239
MARTIAL Epigrammata 1.24.3: 23 1.52.3: 23 4.3.1: 139 4.18.6: 205 4.60.2: 233 4.85.1: 185 6.35.5: 242 7.21-3: 2 7.67: 235 8.50: 221 8.78: 221 9.70.3: 286 9.71.7: 125 10.24.9: 253 10.64: 2 10.83.10: 242 14.194: 11-12 14.199.2: 173
MELA De Chorographia 2.57.1: 192 3.13.2: 110 3.13.6: 110 3.21.1: 132 3.106: 222
OVID Amores 2.2.55: 120 2.13.4: 171 3.10.3: 193 Ars Amandi 1.615: 266 2.248: 204 2.311: 266 3.12.25: 227 3.393: 142 3.579: 120 3.765: 141 Epistulae ex Ponto 1.4.35-6: 219 1.5.59: 120 1.8.19: 106 2.9.67: 106 4.8.24: 242 4.14.24: 219 Epistulae Heroidum 6.126: 242 8.112: 269 12.100: 235 12.188: 242 17.207: 290 19.195: 269 Fasti 1.209: 249 1.285: 152 1.350: 106 1.680: 123 2.227: 202 3.282: 235 3.577: 175 3.621: 230 3.729: 127 4.66-7: 234 4.224: 160 4.239: 287 4.634: 123 5.422: 282 5.693ff: 207 6.80: 230 6.241-3: 235 6.321: 160 Medicamina faciei 55: 141 99: 141 Metamorphoses 1.30: 192 1.61: 126, 127
325
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 1.138: 159 1.149-50: 140 1.151-62: 221 1.268: 131 1.275-82: 136 1.276-92: 137 1.283: 137 1.290-2: 133 1.343-4: 140 1.345: 140 1.346-7: 140 1.433: 151 2.239-59: 113 2.239: 211 2.258: 137 2.379: 175 3.41: 178 3.397-8: 171 3.600-1: 269 4.1: 104 4.21: 127 4.126: 140 4.253: 141 4.401: 198 4.414: 175 4.481: 140 4.457-8: 227 4.563-6: 249 4.565: 249 4.745: 241 5.78: 140 5.137: 205 5.233: 241 5.518: 275 5.590: 140 6.243: 238 6.396: 141 6.527-8: 140 6.529: 140 7.7: 125 7.145: 175 7.415-19: 177 7.554-7: 178 7.556: 178 8.183: 175 8.342: 169 8.402: 141 8.443-4: 205 9.35-6: 235 9.120-6: 243 9.199: 242 9.219: 241 10.105: 241 10.241: 241
10.335: 249 10.447: 207 10.476: 163 11.146: 175 11.195: 125 11.521: 164 11.596: 198 11.634: 266 11.786: 170 12.119: 205 12.301: 141 12. 370: 168 12.582: 175 12.773: 290 14.547: 168 14.693: 175 15.221: 192 15.229: 241 15.250: 279 15.261: 249 15.306: 241 15.624: 192 15.627: 133 15.725-6: 219 15.739: 192 15.823-4: 141 Remedia amoris 522: 120 Tristia 1.6.35-6: 290 1.7.21: 175 1.11.5: 128 2.3: 158 2.24: 160 2.199: 252 3.4.48: 123 4.2.44: 231 4.4.81: 175 4.4.83: 144 4.9.19-20: 290 5.1.41: 231 5.2.5: 241
NEPOS
Eumenes 3.4: 184 Hannibal 6.1: 231
PETRONIUS frg. xviii Müller: 142
PLATO Gorgias 423a: 136 Ion 535c: 205 Phaedrus 241e: 205 Meno 99d: 205
PLINY THE ELDER Naturalis Historia 2.119: 121 2.127: 123 2.156: 133 3.28: 110 3.134: 132 3.140: 192 3.142: 192 3.152: 192 5.2.6: 223 5.3.1: 223 5.5: 232, 255 5.17: 255, 257 5.26: 258 5.33: 258 5.50: 142 7.14-15: 258 7.121: 176 7.208: 142 8.37: 218 8.48: 260 8.88: 267 9.56.4: 178 11.4: 160 11.63: 178 13.81: 142 13.104: 258 16.77: 140 25.84: 110 27.4: 177 27.9: 177 27.10: 177 28.63: 241 36.24.120: 234 37.18-22: 185 37.84.9: 128
PLINY THE YOUNGER Letters 6.23.1
326
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque Panegyricus 8.2: 231 49.5: 152
PLUTARCH Alcibiades 2: 244 Alexander the Great 14.7: 231 Caesar 36: 104 38.5: 203 Fabius Maximus 23: 244 Pompey 41: 127 44: 108 52.4: 233 53: 108 64: 209 Sertorius 9: 222 9.5: 260 19: 108
PTOLEMAEUS Geographia 4.16.2: 258
QUINTILIAN Institutio Oratoria 2.8.13: 235 3.8.24: 191 3.8.30: 191 6.1.12: 285 8.6.28: 27 10.1.90: 18 10.3.3: 236 10.3.13: 172 11.3.38: 167
[QUINTILIAN] Declamationes Maiores 4.10.19: 200 16.17: 169 Declamationes Minores 258.8: 153 271.13.2: 117 301 p. 187: 152
SALLUST Bellum Iugurthinum 5.2: 260
15.4: 288 17-19: 255 17: 254 17.4: 252 17.7: 257 18.1: 256 18.4: 257 18.10: 257 19.5: 256 35.10: 291 41: 291 De coniuratione Catilinae 5.4: 216, 266, 288 10.2: 291 12: 291 20.3: 216 56.9: 108 58.2: 216 58.12: 216 58.15: 216 58.17: 216 Historiae 2 frg. 64.3 Maurenbrecher: 217
SENECA THE ELDER Controversiae 1.praef.11: 4 1.6.4: 114 2.1.13: 185 Suasoriae 6.21: 284 6.26: 285 6.27: 4
SENECA THE YOUNGER Ad Helviam Matrem 18.4-5: 3 Ad Marciam 26.5.2: 144 Agamemnon 123: 193 134: 148 461: 117 519: 202 572: 167 De Beneficiis 1.1.5: 172 5.3: 243
De Clementia 4.17.4: 244 De Constantia Sapientis 2.8.3: 236 De Providentia 1.1.3: 122 1.3.4: 236 De Vita Beata (= Dial. 7) 22.7: 197 De Vita Patris frg. 1 Peter: 4 Epistulae ad Lucilium 14.6: 178 18.10: 185 21.10: 185 31.5: 191 45.10: 185 51.6: 175 77.4: 172 78.23: 132 79.11-12: 191 85.16: 117 122.6: 176 Hercules Furens 32: 242 35: 242 80: 137 125: 117 130-1: 207 155: 196 236: 128 310: 232 480-7: 222 562: 235 646-7: 232 673: 137 686: 137 704: 122 798: 233 884: 145 869: 232 976-8: 227 1060: 125 1072: 150 1100-1: 148 1245: 168 Medea 768: 145 977: 202 1023: 179
327
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque Naturales Quaestiones 1.3.8: 131 1.4.2: 134 2: 130 2.1.2: 175 2.21.1: 131 3.11.5: 123 3.15.1: 179 3.15.7: 279 3.25.12: 279 5.2.3: 121 5.6: 279 5.16.4-9: 126 6.6.2: 139 Oedipus 42: 210 43: 167 233-5: 106 427: 127 582-3: 137 1049: 164 Phaedra 32: 195 41: 198 742: 246 955-6: 134 1042: 241 Phoenissae 422: 134 470: 238 Thyestes 9: 227 171: 215 742: 171 804-12: 227 Troades 52: 253 114: 148 939: 169 1139: 139
[SENECA] Hercules [Oetaeus] 1891: 233 Octavia 21: 242 50-1: 193 678: 117 714: 176 735-6: 148 745: 148 812: 287
SERVIUS
7.455: 182 8.70: 133 8.159: 230 8.168: 251 8.626: 215 9.10: 235 9.560: 160 10.237: 241 11.419: 202 12.254-5: 275 12.733: 104 13.562-3: 138 13.698-701: 19, 119 13.845: 22 14.57: 223 14.113: 230 14.256: 197 14.500: 159 14.585: 21 15.110: 153 15.434: 153 17.155: 219
In Vergilii Aeneidos Libros 1.praef.70: 11 1.103: 217 1.382: 12 4.1: 192 4.135: 275 4.206: 257 5.159: 218 In Vergilii Bucolicon Librum 5.5: 267 In Vergilii Georgicon Libros 1.58: 159
SILIUS ITALICUS Punica 1.5: 270 1.195: 252 1.215: 259 1.223: 276 1.228: 173 1.289: 192 2.59-64: 257 2.147: 239 3.191: 268 3.290-1: 256 3.300: 258 2.478: 242 3.91: 242 3.334: 110 3.340: 111 3.415: 132 3.421: 234 4.95-6: 277 4.408: 160 4.589-90: 171 4.701: 153 5.147: 275 5.219: 238 5.273: 22 5.396: 223 5.660: 278 6.26: 200 6.139: 225 6.140-205: 218-19 6.141-5: 218 6.140-1: 219 7.108: 144 7.345: 249 7.363: 219
SOPHOCLES Trachiniae 1012: 232 1059-61: 232 1260: 159
SUETONIUS Divus Iulius 29: 292 59: 231 75.3: 250 Domitianus 4.8: 134 Nero 12.3-4: 6 30: 259 Tiberius 17.2: 231 Vita Lucani (ed. Badalì) 23 Rostagni: 285 400.10-11: 5 400.19-401.22: 9 400.19: 7 401.31-2: 2
STATIUS Achilleid 1.560: 104
328
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 2.61: 160 2.96-100: 229 Silvae 1.2.119: 21, 104 2.1.49: 242 2.6.6: 104 2.7: 2 2.7.54-72: 7 2.7.54-7: 6 2.7.57: 6 2.7.58-9: 6 2.7.60-1: 7 3.1.84: 23 3.1.127: 134 3.1.181: 21 3.3.92: 23 3.5.103: 23 4.3.136: 21 4.7.49: 231 5.2.135: 23 5.3.104: 217 5.3.195-6: 149 5.3.260-1: 239 Thebaid 1.147-58: 221 1.332: 271 1.346: 134 1.710: 227 2.74: 153 2.176: 290 2.527: 134 3.18: 235 3.318: 171 3.604: 23 4.150: 23 4.454: 240 4.494: 22 4.551: 266 5.628: 268 5.737: 268 6.419: 240 6.753: 227 6.847-910: 234 6.848-9: 235 6.874: 235 6.880: 23 6.889: 235 7.720: 23 7.766: 275 8.18: 219 8.91: 23 8.542: 275 8.675: 21 8.694: 22
5.277: 230 5.412: 134 5.442: 192 5.581: 21 6.161: 23 6.200: 202 6.289: 175 7.65: 139 7.143: 182 7.579: 242
9.27: 134 9.717: 200 9.846: 23 10.49: 104 11.218: 23 11.588: 219 12.464: 104 12.651: 277 12.665: 104
TACITUS Agricola 10: 141 Annals 3.75.1: 260 4.73.4: 278 14.21.1-2: 233 14.16: 6 14.20.1: 6 15.49: 2 15.49.3: 8 15.56: 2 15.70: 2, 9 15.70.1: 9 Histories 1.16.1-2: 13 1.3: 289 2.49: 153 Germania 1: 252
VALERIUS FLACCUS Argonautica 1.64: 272 1.158: 104 1.277-8: 153 1.634: 232 2.35: 118 2.446: 230 2.559: 230 3.30-1: 235 3.506: 242 3.577: 237 3.580: 242 3.582: 22 4.61: 182 4.145-56: 230 4.148-9: 227 4.199: 104 4.200: 227 4.244: 241 4.484: 230 4.497: 175
VALERIUS MAXIMUS Facta et dicta memorabilia 1.8. ext. 19: 218 7.6.5: 231 9.1.6: 292
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS Historia Romana 2.24.5: 216 2.48: 108 2.48.3: 215, 216, 288 2.55.3: 278 2.79.3: 278
VIRGIL Aeneid 1.1: 32 1.7: 167 1.33: 209 1.59: 273 1.102-4: 217 1.170: 217 1.260: 232 1.293: 286 1.375: 237 1.377: 230 1.464-5: 164 1.513: 273 1.520: 170 1.661: 273-4 2.40-56: 269 2.72: 287 2.120: 273 2.159: 117 2.174: 237 2.309-10: 272 2.324-5: 11 2.366: 287 2.397: 163 2.459: 120 2.531: 242
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 2.701: 149 3.56-7: 134 3.151: 218 3.175: 236 3.217-18: 133 3.278: 247 3.296: 247 3.338: 230 3.354: 245 3.471: 194 3.483: 171 3.582: 134 3.699: 271 3.715: 230 4.1: 104 4.27: 115 4.30: 265 4.41· 259 4.135: 159, 275 4.149-50: 214 4.206: 257 4.551: 176 4.625: 282 4.686: 182 4.479: 236 5.21-2: 235 5.69: 234 5.158: 219 5.159: 218 5.199-200: 237 5.330: 140 5.351: 229 5.368: 195 5.372: 218 5.432: 237 5.442: 120 5.458: 195 5.514: 169 5.532: 228 5.538: 204 5.679: 174 5.862: 214 5.868: 269 6.174: 236 6.287: 228 6.303: 142 6.435: 169 6.440: 252 6.559: 241 6.591: 274, 276 6.595-7: 227 6.621: 293 6.624: 247 6.830-1: 286
6.890: 236 7.1 ff.: 29 7.3: 246 7.39: 230 7.45: 214 7.59: 245 7.113: 133 7.317: 286 7.383: 214 7.409: 215 7.440: 226 7.461: 161 7.458-9: 237 7.459: 237 7.475: 215 7.563: 245 7.595: 287 7.631: 160 7.722: 274 7.766: 287 7.779: 276 7.797: 115 8.176: 152 8.193: 229 8.196-7: 223 8.197: 133 8.259-61: 244 8.260: 241 8.280: 117 8.414: 214 8.446: 159 8.478-9: 112 8.596: 277 8.700: 169 9.123: 273 9.166-7: 153 9.204: 232 9.267: 247 9.363: 247 9.422-3: 287 9.446: 11 9.450: 247 9.599-600: 277 9.720: 170 9.806-14: 237 9.812-14: 237 9.812-13: 237 9.814: 237 9.975: 277 10.139: 232 10.174: 159 10.197: 219 10.246-7: 265 10.253: 160
329 10.295-8: 219 10.361: 280 10.373: 280 10.486: 205 10.500: 247 10.535-6: 265 10.617: 287 10.690: 119 11.192: 143 11.195: 275 11.230: 181 11.248: 171 11.522-9: 146 11.522-5: 147 11.559: 169 11.592: 287 11.635: 182 11.876-7: 277 11.899: 278 11.908-9: 277 12.113-33: 152 12.117-19: 152 12.217: 122 12.260: 166 12.334: 274 12.372-3: 275 12.407-8: 277 12.444-5: 277 12.525: 214 12.533: 274 12.553: 195 12.676: 149 12.875: 149 12.940: 149 Eclogues 1.24: 249 2.40: 217 4.1: 192 4.21: 176 5.5: 267 8.3: 176 Georgics 1.37: 264 1.58: 159 1.93: 123 1.96: 193 1.233: 129 1.240: 138 1.240-3: 135 1.268: 273 1.278: 226 1.380-1: 131 1.397: 139 1.466-514: 12
330
Index locorum notabiliorum potiorumque 1.483: 214 1.505: 273 2.13: 140 2.128: 242 2.171: 104 2.283: 278 2.401: 187 2.490: 187 2.498: 187 3.83-4: 273 3.110: 195 3.165: 206
3.208: 276 3.366: 241 3.405: 195 3.382: 138 3.456: 128 3.497: 275 3.500-1: 275 3.500: 275 3.501-2: 275 3.505-8: 275 3.505-6: 275 3.507-8: 275
3.508: 275 3.516: 275 3.524: 275 3.531: 214 4.21-2: 226 4.49: 274 4.80: 214 4.289: 142 4.350-1: 273 4.408: 178 4.506: 142 4.561-2: 286
Index nominum et rerum abstract: 115, 162, 194, 261 Afranius, Lucius: 15, 24, 38-9, 64-5, 100-4, 106-11, 113-14, 118, 139, 150, 154-5, 1667, 181-4, 191, 204, 214 Afranius Burrus: 5 anadiplosis: 25, 26, 273 anaphora: 21, 25, 26, 136, 169 anastrophe: 146, 175 Antonius (Caius Antonius, brother of the triumvir): 68, 108, 189, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195 antonomasia: 26, 27, 133, 210, 211, 234, apostrophe: 17, 25, 27, 29, 30, 114, 115, 116, 134, 136, 137, 144, 148, 149, 150, 156, 161, 166, 167, 175, 176, 177, 181, 185, 186, 199, 202, 203, 206, 212, 213, 261, 281, 283, 284, 288, 289, 289 astronomy: 121, 180, 185 206, 253 audax (audacia): 19, 26-7, 80, 122, 215, 216-17, 229, 263, 268, 268, 287 Basilus, Lucius Minucius: 68, 69, 189, 193 Boreas (wind): 26, 42, 120, 126, 129
Caesar (Caius Iulius Caesar Dictator; see also index locorum): 4, 11-17, 24, 38-41, 44-5, 48-55, 58-9, 62-9, 74-5, 88, 96-7, 100-19, 124, 127, 133, 138-50, 154-8, 160-1, 164-70, 177-8, 181-4, 186, 189-95, 199, 202-10, 213-14, 216-18, 221-5, 231, 233, 236, 247-8, 2501, 254, 261-3, 269, 271, 283, 286-8, 2912 caesura: 31-2, 144, 145, 146, 184, 214, 254, Cato (Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger): 14, 17, 25, 27-8, 31, 105, 124, 135, 161, 202, 213, 216, 219, 231-2, 273, 277 Cinga (river): 38-9, 11112, 114-15 Curio (C. Scribonius Curio): 15-17, 21, 23, 27-8, 30, 80-1, 84-91, 94-7, 100, 107-8, 110, 115, 190, 21393 death (generic): 9, 27, 168, 172, 185, 187 apostrophe to death: 115 fate and death: 203, 270 feeling death: 211 glory and death: 198-9, 200, 202, 209-10, 212
lust for death (amor mortis; uelle mori): 48-9, 143-4, 201 metaphors concerning death: 130, 135, 138, 161, 205, 239, 244-5, 278 untimely death motif: 270-1 enallage: 245, 267 enclosing word order: 234, 109, 124, 126, 142, 147, 153, 199, 261, 281, 283, 287 gladiator (gladiatorial language): 6,7, 28-9, 100, 107, 139, 170, 234, 236, 264-5, 268, 281 Helles (see also myth): 42, 125 hendiadys: 158, 173, 205, 212, 285 hero (heroism, heroic paradigm): 79, 136, 139, 152, 173, 178, 187, 190, 194, 200, 202, 212, 227, 231, 232, 242 Hiberus (river): 38, 111, 113-15 hypallage: 26-8, 133, 153, 163-4, 167, 172, 174, 176-7, 180, 198-9, 205-6, 245, 267, 276, 285 hyperbaton: 23-6, 118, 124, 126, 148, 155, 184, 191, 199, 210, 229, 242
332 hyperbole: 28, 133, 134, 136, 140, 161, 183, 205, 210, 212, 220-1, 225, 229, 281, 283 inversion: 196 law (legality, legal language): 16, 41, 57, 87, 89, 95, 97, 107, 109, 117, 148, 150, 157, 181, 261, 285, 290 Libya (Africa, Africans, Libyans): 15-16, 26, 28-32, 81-7, 91, 93-5, 97, 100, 108, 110, 112, 191, 213-93 (esp. 213-15, 218, 220-1, 224, 230, 240, 252-3, 255, 257-9, 270) life: 67, 73, 75, 77, 95, 97, 172, 186, 199, 200, 253, 284, 288 granting life: 65, 182 hatred of life: 59, 209 death, suicide: 202, 212 litotes (and emphatic negative): 158, 191, 214, 252, 273, 289 Magnus, Cn. Pompeius Magnus medical vocabulary: 19, 21, 28, 103, 141, 170, 172, 174, 177-9, 2401, 258, 274 metaphor (metaphorical language): 28, 107, 122-3, 133, 139, 149, 163, 170, 176, 194, 202, 215, 217, 219, 221, 230, 236, 243, 251, 253, 274, 279, 280, 282, 285-6, 291 metonymy: 26-7, 106, 111, 121, 126-7, 12930, 132, 135, 147, 159, 170, 180, 185,
Index nominum et rerum
195, 200, 208-9, 216, 231, 238-9, 245, 252, 267, 269, 272, 278, 288, 290 myth (mythological vocabulary): 10-11, 13, 26-8, 103, 121, 125, 162, 177, 194, 210, 211, 214, 220-2, 224-5, 227-8, 243, 245-6, 248, 264, 277, 288 negative enumeration: 25, 28, 135, 156, 158, 169, 173, 185, 273-4 neologism: 19, 22, 128, 141, 192 Octavius (C. Octavius): 71, 189-90, 192, 1945 Opitergium (Opitergian, Opitergini): 72-3, 124, 189-213, 292 paradox: 28, 103, 106, 119-20, 123, 132-3, 136, 139, 144, 148, 155-6, 160-1, 164, 167, 175, 180-1, 183, 193, 199-201, 206, 209, 211, 221, 225, 243-4, 248, 261-2, 268, 280, 283, 287, 289 paronomasia: 266 pars pro toto: 27, 119, 159, 180, 210, 238, 267, 270, 282 pathos: 18, 21-2, 25-6, 28, 30, 118, 133-4, 136, 178, 210, 241, 249, 261, 273, 283, 289 Petreius: 15, 24-5, 28, 389, 48-9, 55, 100-4, 107-11, 116, 138-9, 143-5, 150, 154-62, 165, 167-70, 182, 184, 191, 199, 204, 214, 292
philosophy: see Stoicism polyptoton: 237-7, 280 Pompey (Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus): 4, 11-14, 17, 24, 39, 69, 71, 95, 107-8, 113, 115, 124, 127-8, 208-9, 213, 216-17, 232-3, 254, 262, 271, 283, 286-91 prolepsis: 206 register (linguistic; see also legal, medical, mythological, scientific vocabulary): 18-20, 22, 222, sacrifice (sacrificial language): 23, 95, 140, 152-3, 168-9, 199, 201-2, 205, 209, 282-3 science (scientific vocabulary): 5, 19, 22, 24, 103, 112, 120-2, 130, 163, 172, 194, 240 Sicoris (river): 38-9, 48-9, 65, 101-2, 111-15, 116, 140, 143 Stoicism: 3, 5, 30, 122, 124, 131, 137, 151, 185, 198, 201, 231, 239-40 suicide (self-annihilation, self-destruction; see also life): 9, 124, 135, 187-212, 213, 267 synecdoche: 27, 112, 119, 157, 159, 180, 210, 233, 238, 255, 267, 270, 277, 280, 282 syntax: 24, 26, 120, 138, 144, 146, 149, 157, 199, 217, 261, 280, 287
333
Index nominum et rerum
trope: see apostrophe, metaphor, metonymy, pars pro toto, synecdoche, etc.
Volteius (also Vulteius): 187-212
zeugma (see also hypallage): 153