Fiktion im Historischen

Lucan’s epic on the Roman civil war written during the reign of Nero was less directed at a historically correct narration than at a much wider interpretation. For this purpose, the author broke with the conventions of the genre although he employed its typical elements. Decisive for an understanding is his figurative language with its allegories, brief comparisons, metaphors, and exempla which had not deserved due attention before and have been fully compiled for the first time now. Thus, Crassus resembles an “isthmus” keeping Caesar and Pompey apart, senescent Pompey reminds of a “tumbling oak” or Caesar’s rapid and resolute behaviour recalls a “flash”. Such phrases are employed and interwoven in a planned manner in order to communicate the central role of the protagonists. By doing so, Caesar, Pompey, Cato, the soldiers, the people, and minor characters obtain greater significance than in other reports and epic pre-texts. The reader’s attention is rather directed at human behaviour than at actual events, for what purpose individual chains of events are weighted and developed in a substantially different manner from those described by the rest of the ancient textual tradition.