Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 37

245. Vacca.

246. Tac. _Ann._ xvi. 17.

247. Vacca.

248. Vacca.

249. The young Lucan is said to have formed a friendship with the satirist at the school of Cornutus; Persius was some five years his senior. _Vita Persii_ (p. 58, Bucheler).

250. Suetonius and Vacca. The latter curiously treats this victory as one of the causes of Nero's jealousy. Considering that the poem was a panegyric of the emperor, and that it was Lucan's first step in the imperial favour, the suggestion deserves small credit.

251. Sueton. There is an unfortunate hiatus in the Life by Suetonius, occurring just before the mention of the visit to Athens. As the text stands it suggests that the visit to Athens occurred after the victory at the Neronia. Otherwise it would seem more probable that Lucan went to Athens somewhat earlier (e.g. 57 A.D.) to complete his education.

252. Sueton., Vacca.

253. Vacca; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 49; Dion. lxii. 29.

254. Vacca.

255. Suetonius.

256. Suetonius.

257. Sueton.; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 56.

258. Vacca; Sueton.; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 70. Various pa.s.sages in the _Pharsalia_ have been suggested as suitable for Lucan's recitation at his last gasp, iii. 638-41, vii. 608-15, ix. 811.

259. Statius, in his _Genethliacon Lucani_ (_Silv._ ii. 7. 54), seems to indicate the order of the poems:

ac primum teneris adhuc in annis ludes Hectora Thessalosque currus et supplex Priami potentis aurum, et sedes reserabis inferorum; ingratus Nero duleibus theatris et noster tibi proferetur Orpheus, dices culminibus Remi vagantis infandos domini nocentis ignes, hinc castae t.i.tulum decusque Pollae iucunda dabis adlocutione.

mox coepta generosior iuventa albos ossibus Italis Philippos et Pharsalica bella detonabis.

Cp. also Vacca, 'extant eius complures et alii, ut Iliacon, Saturnalia, Catachthonion, Silvarum x, tragoedia Medea imperfecta, salticae fabulae xiv, et epigrammata (MSS. _appamata_ sive _ippamata_), prosae orationes in Octavium Sagittam et pro eo, de incendio Urbis, epistularum ex Campania, non fastidiendi quidem omnes, tales tamen ut belli civili videantur accessio.'

260. Vacca.

261. See chapter on Statius.

262. See chapter on Drama.

263. Cp. Mart., bks. xiii and xiv.

264. There are two fragments from the _Iliacon_, two from the _Orpheus_, one from the _Catachthonion_, two from the _Epigrammata_, together with a few scanty references in ancient commentators and grammarians: see Postgate, _Corp. Poet. Lat._

265. Vacca, 'ediderat ... tres libros, quales videmus.'

266. Sueton. 'civile bellum ... recitavit ut praefatione quadem aetatem et initia sua comparans ausus sit dicere, "quantum mihi restat ad Culicem".' Cp. also Stat, _Silv._ ii. 7. 73:--

haec (Pharsalia) primo iuvenis canes sub aevo ante annos Culicis Maroniani.

Vergil was twenty-six when he composed the _Culex_. Cp. Ribbeck, _App.

Verg._ p. 19.

267. Vacca, 'reliqui septem belli civilis libri loc.u.m calumniantibus tanquam mendosi non darent; qui tametsi sub vero crimine non egent patrocinio: in iisdem dici, quod in Ovidii libris praescribitur, potest: emendaturus, si licuisset, erat.'

268. See p. 4.

269. Boissier, _L'Opposition sous les Cesars (p. 279), sees some significance in the fact that the list of Nero's ancestors always stops at Augustus. But there was no reason why the list should go further than the founder of the princ.i.p.ate. It is noteworthy that Lucan's uncle Seneca wrote a number of epigrams in praise of the Pompeii and Cato. The famous lines,

quis iustius induit arma scire nefas: magno se iudice quisque tuetur, victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni (i. 126),

are supremely diplomatic. Without sacrificing his principles, Lucan avoids giving a shadow of offence to his emperor.

270. See p. 116.

271. Petron., loc. cit.

272. v. 207, vii. 451, 596, 782, x. 339-42, 431.

273. i. 143-57.

274. ii. 657 nil actum credens c.u.m quid superesset agendum.

275. v. 317 meruitque timeri non metuens.

276. See Sh.e.l.ley, _Prometheus Unbound_, Preface.

277. vii. 45-150.

278. vii. 342.

279. vii. 647-727.

280. Cp. the epigrams attributed to Seneca, _P. L. M._ iv, _Anth.

Lat._ 7, 8, 9.

281. The one exception is Curio, sec iv. 799.

282. i. 185:

ut ventum est parvi Rubiconis ad undas, ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago, clara per obscuram voltu maestissima noctem turrigero canos effundens vertice crines caesarie lacera nudisque adstare lacertis et gemitu permixta loqui: 'quo tenditis ultra?

quo fertis mea signa, viri? si iure venitis, si cives, huc usque licet.'

283. iii. 1:

propulit ut cla.s.sem velis cedentibus Auster inc.u.mbens mediumque rates movere profundum, omnis in Ionios spectabat navita fluctus; solus ab Hesperia non flexit lumina terra Magnus, dum patrios portus, dum litora numquam ad visus reditura suos tectumque cac.u.men nubibus et dubios cernit vanescere montes.

284. v. 722-end.