Reading Order
Pharsalia Reading Order
Pharsalia (De Bello Civili, 65 CE) by Lucan is the most radical surviving Latin epic — a poem of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey that deliberately inverts the Virgilian epic tradition, stripping away divine machinery, denying any providential reading of history, and presenting the civil war not as the birth-pangs of the Roman Empire but as the destruction of the Roman Republic and the death of Roman freedom. Where the Aeneid ends with the promise of Augustan order, the Pharsalia ends in chaos and despair: Caesar victorious, Pompey murdered on an Egyptian beach, Cato continuing a doomed resistance in the African desert, and freedom — libertas, the word that recurs throughout the poem — dead. Lucan was the nephew of Seneca the Younger and a prodigy of the Neronian court — his early epic Pharsalia was so successful that the jealous Nero banned him from public recitation. He joined the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero and, when it was discovered, was forced to commit suicide at the age of 25 or 26, dying in 65 CE (the same year as his uncle Seneca). The unfinished poem — it breaks off in the middle of Book 10, apparently at or near the point of Lucan's death — has always fascinated readers by its very incompleteness: we know the war ends with Caesar's victory and the establishment of the principate, and the poem's abrupt ending feels like the silence that comes after catastrophe. Lucan's three great characters — Caesar (terrifying, amoral, unstoppable), Pompey (aging, irresolute, clinging to a past that no longer exists), and Cato (the Stoic ideal, choosing resistance even when resistance is hopeless) — are three different responses to the death of republican freedom, and the poem remains one of the great literary meditations on political catastrophe.
Where to start
Pharsalia — the Susan Braund Loeb Classical Library translation (with facing Latin) is the scholarly standard; the Joyce Roche Hackett Classics version is more accessible. Start with Books 1, 6 (the witch Erictho), and 9 (Cato in the desert).
Complete Pharsalia Book List
- 1Buy
Pharsalia (trans. Susan Braund)
Lucan·1992·Braund's Loeb translation — the scholarly standard; with facing Latin and essential notes. - 2Buy
The Aeneid
Virgil·-19·Virgil's epic — the foundational text Lucan is deliberately inverting; the Pharsalia is incomprehensible without the Aeneid as its target. - 3Buy
The Civil War Commentaries
Julius Caesar·-50·Caesar's own prose account of his wars — the factual substrate beneath Lucan's poetic distortion; Caesar's self-presentation versus Lucan's demonization. - 4Buy
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Peter Heather·2006·Heather's modern history — the long-term outcome of the political transformation Lucan mourns; the Republic Lucan defends eventually produces the Empire that falls. - 5Buy
Paradise Lost
John Milton·1667·Milton's epic of Satan's rebellion — directly influenced by Lucan; Milton's Satan owes much to Lucan's Caesar, and the Pharsalia's theodicy (or anti-theodicy) shadows Paradise Lost. - 6Buy
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway·1940·Hemingway's novel of the Spanish Civil War — Cato's situation (resistance to an unjust power in a losing cause) in a modern civil war; the ethics of hopeless resistance. - 7Buy
1984
George Orwell·1949·Orwell's dystopian novel — the world the Pharsalia fears: a world in which libertas has been permanently extinguished and there is no Cato left to resist. - 8Buy
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca·65·Seneca's philosophical letters — Lucan's uncle and mentor; the Stoic philosophy that informs the characterization of Cato in the Pharsalia.
Pharsalia — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Pharsalia about?
The Pharsalia (also called De Bello Civili, 'On the Civil War') is a Latin epic poem by Lucan about the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great (49–48 BCE), culminating in the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BCE) at which Caesar defeated Pompey, and ending (in the poem's unfinished state) in Egypt after Pompey's murder. Its three main characters are Caesar (presented as an almost satanic force of energy and destruction, beyond human moral categories), Pompey (aging, irresolute, representing a republican order that has already passed), and Cato (the Stoic philosopher-senator who continues resistance in the African desert even when all is clearly lost, because virtue requires it regardless of outcome). The poem's central theme is the death of Roman freedom — libertas — and its replacement by one-man rule.
How does the Pharsalia differ from the Aeneid?
The Pharsalia is best understood as a deliberate inversion of the Aeneid. Where Virgil's epic has gods who guide events toward a providential outcome (Rome's founding, Augustus's eventual rule), the Pharsalia has gods who are either absent or actively malevolent — the supernatural forces in the poem are ghosts, witches (the necromancer Erictho in Book 6 is one of the most disturbing passages in Latin literature), and omens of disaster. Where the Aeneid moves toward a positive outcome (Rome's founding), the Pharsalia moves toward catastrophe (the death of the Republic). Where Virgil's Aeneas is guided by pietas (duty to gods, family, and history), Lucan's three protagonists are all in different ways failures or monsters. The Pharsalia says, implicitly and explicitly, that the history the Aeneid celebrates as providential is actually a catastrophe.
Who is Cato in the Pharsalia?
Marcus Porcius Cato (the Younger, 95–46 BCE) is the moral center of the Pharsalia — the Stoic philosopher-senator who, after Pompey's defeat and murder, continues the resistance against Caesar in North Africa until, at Utica, he commits suicide rather than live under Caesar's rule. Lucan's Cato is the poem's most complex figure: he is almost inhuman in his Stoic self-discipline, rejecting all pleasures, refusing mercy from Caesar, leading his troops through the Libyan desert with a kind of grim joy in suffering. But Lucan presents his position as the only morally coherent one available: in a world where freedom is being extinguished, the only honorable response is refusal, even when refusal is hopeless. Cato's last words before his suicide ('Let Caesar have the world, since Caesar has the power — let Cato have Utica, since Utica is free') have resonated with readers in every generation who have faced unjust power.
Why was Lucan forced to commit suicide?
Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, 39–65 CE) was a nephew of Seneca the Younger and a prodigy of the Neronian court — he won prizes at the Neronian Games (60 CE) and was initially a favorite of Nero. But the success of his early work on the civil war apparently provoked Nero's jealousy, and Nero banned him from public recitation and performance. In 65 CE, Lucan joined the Pisonian conspiracy — a senatorial plot to assassinate Nero — which was discovered. Many conspirators were executed or forced to suicide; Lucan, who reportedly named his own mother among the conspirators in an attempt to save himself (the biographical tradition is complicated and possibly hostile), was ultimately forced to commit suicide by opening his veins. He died at 25 or 26, leaving the Pharsalia unfinished at Book 10.
What should I read after the Pharsalia?
After the Pharsalia, the natural companion texts are the works it is in dialogue with: Virgil's Aeneid (the foundational epic Lucan is inverting), Caesar's own Civil War commentaries (the factual basis Lucan distorts), and Seneca's philosophical writings (the Stoic framework that shapes Cato's characterization). For Lucan's reception in later literature, Milton's Paradise Lost shows Lucan's direct influence on the portrayal of Satan. For the biographical context, the relevant sections of Tacitus's Annals (Books 14–16) describe the Pisonian conspiracy and Lucan's death. For scholarly study, Frederick Ahl's Lucan: An Introduction (1976) is the standard English introduction.
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