Authors

Roman · 39–65

Lucan

Lucan was a Roman poet, nephew of Seneca, who wrote Pharsalia (Bellum Civile) — a verse epic on the Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey that is the most politically radical epic in the classical tradition. He began as a favourite of Nero but was forbidden to publish after the Emperor grew jealous of his poetry; he joined the Pisonian conspiracy and was ordered to commit suicide at twenty-five. Pharsalia — unfinished, breaking off mid-sentence in Book X — portrays Caesar as a tyrant and Pompey as a flawed but legitimate defender of the Republic.