(Inter)generic Receptions in and of Early Imperial Epic

talis ab Inachiis Nemeae Tirynthius antris ibat…(Argo.8.125)

At Tac. Hist. 2.70 the emperor Vitellius visits the battlefield of Bedriacum after the decisive clash against Otho. He enjoys the sight of the bodies so much that he cannot turn his eyes away from that spectacle. Among the numerous scholars who have offered various interpretations of this chapter (Morgan 1992; Keitel 1996; Haynes 2003), particularly noteworthy are Manolaraki (2005) and Joseph (2012), who suggest reading this passage in the light of Caesar’s visit to the battlefield of Pharsalus (Luc. B.C. 7.787-95).

While the Aeneid is clearly the most prominent intertext for Silius’ Punica, an important relationship with Homer, either directly or through Virgil, has long been noted (Juhnke 1972, including a listing of all parallels detected by commentators since the Renaissance at 371-410; Ripoll 2001). Rome is a new Troy and Hannibal and the Carthaginians the counterparts of Achilles and the Greeks.

Critics of Lucan’s Bellum Civile have argued since antiquity about the structure and significance of the poem’s introduction. Most recently, Stephen Wheeler and Paul Roche have suggested that Lucan’s allusions to the Augustan poets consistently focus on negative interpretations latent in the source texts; consequently, they may be seen to anticipate the pessimistic tone that Lucan adopts throughout the rest of his narrative.

Lucan, a master of allusion, refers to authors from genres as diverse as epic, didactic and tragedy within the Bellum Civile. However, none of these authors is referenced as frequently and consciously as Lucan’s epic predecessor, Vergil. In this paper, I explore the influence of Vergil’s shield ekphrasis on Lucan’s poem, a previously unexamined and essential element of the connection between these two authors.

Lucan's Bellum Civile pushes constantly at the boundaries of epic norms and the limits of a recognisably 'real' past. In Lucan's battle scenes our perception of historical reality is often stretched, as we witness traumatic clashes between bloody historical fact and the awful flight of poetic imagination, and are encouraged to recognise the emergence of the sublime (Day). In Tacitus' historical works we find an author engaged in the same creative endeavour, seeking to pluck the sublime from the often unreal 'reality' of Roman history.