Caesar and the Storm: A Commentary on Lucan de Bello Civili, Book 5 Lines 476-721

ISBN-13: 9783039107360 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 321 str.

Matthews, Monica

Opis

This commentary on a part of book 5 of Lucan s historical epic poem De Bello Civili aims to provide the reader with as thorough an analysis as possible of literary and historical points of interest within the text and so to facilitate a fuller understanding and appreciation of one of the most important episodes in the poem, Julius Caesar s failed attempt to cross the Adriatic in the midst of a great storm.
It examines how the episode contributes to the long tradition of epic storm narratives dating back to Homer and also how it contributes to the wider themes of the poem as a whole, in particular to Lucan s portrayal of Caesar.
A line-by-line commentary is combined with longer notes summarizing issues of particular importance. Such issues include: the influence of Roman love-poetry in the depiction of the relationship between Caesar and his men, Lucan s use of Virgil s Nisus and Euryalus episode, and the tradition of theoxeny narratives lying behind the scene at the home of the fisherman Amyclas which allows us to view Caesar as playing the part of a traditional god or hero.
Throughout, Lucan s engagement with the works of Homer, Virgil (particularly the Aeneid but also the Georgics), Ovid and Seneca, and the ways in which the lack of a traditional divine machinery in his poem is compensated for are considered."

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction - Text and translation - Commentary (lines 476-503: Caesar and Antony; lines 504-596: Caesar at the house of Amyclas and the beginnings of the storm; lines 597-677: The Storm; lines 678-702: Caesar's return to camp and the end of the storm; lines 703-721: The journey of the troops in Italy from Brundisium to Nymphaeum on the Illyrian coast) - Bibliography - Maps - Appendix I: The Historical Sources for De Bello Civili 5.476-721 - Appendix II: Lucan's Adaptation of the Traditional Epic Storm in De Bello Civili 5.540-702.

O autorze

The Author: Monica Matthews studied Classics at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1985 to 1989. After a number of years working in school-teaching and publishing she studied for an M.A. in Classics at University College London followed by a Ph.D. in Classics at King's College London. She received her doctorate in 2004.