Lucan

Lūcan (Marcus Annaeus Lucānus) (AD 39–65), Silver Latin poet, born at Corduba (Cordoba) in Spain. He was grandson of Seneca the Elder, and his father was the brother of Seneca the Younger (and the brother of Gallio of Acts 18). He was educated at Rome, studying philosophy under the Stoic Cornūtus, whose tuition he is said to have shared with the satirist Persius. He continued his studies at Athens but was recalled by the emperor Nero, who admitted him to his circle, made him quaestor and augur, and greatly admired him for a time. In AD 60 at the first celebration of the games called Neronia he won a poetic competition. In 62 or 63 he published three books of his epic Pharsalia (on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey). However, he incurred the enmity of Nero, for which various reasons are given; it is possible that the emperor was jealous of Lucan's literary success, having himself some claim to being a poet. Lucan was forbidden to write further poetry or to plead in the courts. He took to lampooning the emperor and even joined the conspiracy of Piso (64–5). When this was discovered Lucan, in spite of confessions and abject pleas, was compelled to commit suicide (as were his father and both uncles). There is a biography of him by Suetonius.

Lucan was a voluminous and precocious writer, but all his works apart from the Pharsalia are lost, among them an address to his much-loved wife Polla Argentaria. The Pharsalia is the greatest Latin epic after the Aeneid, and Lucan's brilliant style won him the admiration of his contemporaries. One of them, Quintilian, while recognizing its qualities, adds that it is ‘a safer model for orators than for poets’.