
Please join us for a prospectus presentation by Julius Grant-Gubbins.
The Poetic Intertexuality of Civil War: Lucan’s Bellum Civile in Late Antique Latin Literature
In this project, I investigate the intertextual influence of Lucan's epic poem, the Bellum Civile, which versifies the 1st c. BCE civil war between Caesar and Pompey, on late antique Latin literature. Although serious studies have been undertaken on the influence of Vergil and Ovid in this period, Lucan has been neglected due to his prior scholarly dismissal as "Silver Age Latin," in spite of his recent resurgence. I aim to test the hypothesis that authors of Late Antiquity would have Lucan's poem in mind when writing about civil strife or when seeking to allusively add undertones of civil strife.