This book is a major literary reevaluation of Lucan's epic poem, the Bellum Civile ("The Civil War"). Its main purpose is to bring out the implications of one basic premise: this poem is not only about civil war, but uses the metaphor of civil war (i.e. self-destruction and internal discord) as the basis for the way it tells its story. Aimed primarily at classicists, the book offers a provocative new interpretation of most of the important issues in the poem, while attempting to avoid the glibness of generalization by concentrating on detailed readings of selected parts of the text.

This book is a major literary reevaluation of Lucan's epic poem, the Bellum Civile ("The Civil War"). Its main purpose is to bring out the implications of one basic premise: this poem is not only about civil war, but uses the metaphor of civil war (i.e. self-destruction and internal discord) as the basis for the way it tells its story. Aimed primarily at classicists, the book offers a provocative new interpretation of most of the important issues in the poem, while attempting to avoid the glibness of generalization by concentrating on detailed readings of selected parts of the text.