Poetry and Civil War in Lucan's Bellum Civile

This book is a major literary reevaluation of Lucan's epic poem, the Bellum Civile ("The Civil War"). Its main purpose is to bring out the implications of one basic premise: this poem is not only about civil war, but uses the metaphor of civil war (i.e. self-destruction and internal discord) as the basis for the way it tells its story. Aimed primarily at classicists, the book offers a provocative new interpretation of most of the important issues in the poem, while attempting to avoid the g...