The Student's Companion to Latin Authors — Part 171

'Libyamque auferre tyranno dum regnum te, Roma, facit';

'Quod fugiens civile nefas redituraque nunquam libertas ultra Tigrim Rhenumque recessit';

'Felices Arabes Medique eoaque tellus, quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt fata tyrannis. Ex populis qui regna ferunt, sors ultima nostra est, quos servire pudet.'

'Non quia te superi patrio privare sepulchro maluerint, Phariae busto damnantur harenae: parcitur Hesperiae; procul hoc et in orbe remoto abscondat fortuna nefas, Romanaque tellus inmaculata sui servetur sanguine Magni.'

Cf. ix. 601-4 (where apotheosis is assigned him).

(3) Cato (the hero of Book ix.) and Brutus; ii. 234,

'At non magnanimi percussit pectora Bruti terror';

'Nam cui crediderim superos arcana daturos dicturosque magis quam sancto vera Catoni?'

'Caesar in arma furens nullas nisi sanguine fuso gaudet habere vias';

'nondum attigit arcem iuris et humanum columen, quo cuncta premuntur, egressus meruit fatis tam nobile letum. Vivat et, ut Bruti procumbat victima, regnet.'

Caesar's acts are sometimes unfairly represented, as in vii. 798 _sqq._, ix. 1035 _sqq._ (on viewing Pompeius' corpse); ll. 1038-9,

'lacrimas non sponte cadentis effudit gemitusque expressit pectore laeto.'

_Lucan's philosophical and religious views._--His Stoicism comes out strongly in the poem, ix. 566-84 (speech of Cato), especially 578-80,

'Estque dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aër et caelum et virtus? Superos quid quaerimus ultra? Iuppiter est, quodcumque vides, quodcumque moveris?'

'Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra mixturus.'

Note especially the very frequent references to fate; i. 263-4,

The gods are not introduced as chief agents; cf. the censure of Petronius quoted below. Lucan prides himself on despising the gods, and substitutes for them his favourite divinity, Fortuna; i. 128,

'Victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni';

'Sunt nobis nulla profecto numina; cum caeco rapiantur saecula casu, mentimur regnare Iovem.'

_Rhetorical treatment_ is seen in (1) the vast amount of hyperbole employed; cf. the account of the siege of Massilia, iii. 538-762; (2) the geographical and mythological learning introduced. This is sometimes inaccurate; the best known instance is his confusion of Pharsalus and Philippi; cf. i. 1 and 688.