LATN3209 - Epic and Civil War

They say that history is written by the victors. So, how do you write the history of a nation if you’re on the losing side? The young Roman poet Lucan’s answer was to write a story full of horror. His epic poem Civil War tells the story of the bloodshed between the rival armies of the lightning-fast Julius Caesar and the stately Pompey the Great – and Cato the Stoic who was forced to choose between them. With a narrative that moves around the Mediterranean from the streets of Rome to the deserts of Africa and Cleopatra’s palace in Egypt, Civil War reminds us that Roman history was a long cycle of violence from Republic to Empire. In this course, we will read substantial portions of Lucan’s epic poem in Latin, with the support of commentaries. We will also familiarize ourselves with the modern history of translating this poem into English. The poem’s regret over the demise of the Roman Republic – along with the death of Lucan after an attempt to assassinate the emperor Nero – has made it an important source of literary inspiration during periods of political conflict in the modern era.