Brill's Companion to Lucan

Although it was labeled an anti-epic for trumping the celebratory scope of the Roman national epos, Lucan's Bellum Civile is a hymn to lost republican liberty composed under Nero's tyrannical empire. Lucan lost his life in a foiled conspiracy to replace the emperor, but his poem survived the wreckage of antiquity and enjoyed uninterrupted readership. The present collection samples the most current approaches to Lucan's poem, its themes, its dialogue with other texts, its reception in medieval and early modern literature, and its relevance to audiences of all times.

Review:

Der Band liefert [...] in gewaltiger inhaltlicher Fulle substantielle und durchaus auch kontroverse Forschungsbeitrage auf hohem Niveau und ist daher jedem Lucan-Forscher zu empfehlen. Nadja Kimmerle in Sehepunkte 12, 2012