Fiction · 1896
Pharsalia
Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars
Lucan · translated by Edward Ridley
The Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, told as tragedy rather than triumph — a bleak, rhetorically ferocious epic with no gods intervening and no hero to root for, written by a young poet who would later join a failed conspiracy against the emperor who had once admired him, and die by his own hand for it at twenty-five.
Lucan left Pharsalia unfinished at his death in 65 AD; Sir Edward Ridley's English blank-verse translation was first published in 1896.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
- Note
- Book I — The Crossing of the Rubicon
- Book II — The Flight of Pompeius
- Book III — Massilia
- Book IV — Caesar in Spain. War in the Adriatic Sea. Death of Curio
- Book V — The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm
- Book VI — The Fight Near Dyrrhachium. Scaeva’s Exploits. The Witch of Thessalia
- Book VII — The Battle
- Book VIII — Death of Pompeius
- Book IX — Cato
- Book X — Caesar in Egypt
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
39–65 · Ancient
Lucan (39–65 AD) was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (Córdoba), Spain, the nephew of the philosopher Seneca. An early favorite of the Emperor Nero, he later joined a conspiracy against him; when the plot was discovered, he was ordered to take his own life at twenty-five. His unfinished epic on the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, the Pharsalia, survives as his major work.
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