"Lucan was the grandson of a professor of rhetoric, nephew of Seneca the Stoic philosopher, and a playwright and politician. He was a very serious and pompous young man, with a flair for the sententious and the delicately macabre (see Book VII, 764ff.). Lucan spent too much of his youth in the company of Nero and other litterati who were in the process of creating Silver Latin literature and amusing the Emperor. His magnum opus is this epic poem in the Stoic vein about a civil war between Liberty (Pompey the Great) and Caesar (Julius—or Nero??) that entangled Lucan in conspiracy and led to his suicide in 65 CE. In prodcucing a verse translation, Widdows (Concordia University, Montreal) had hard choices to make. To render the rhetorical and verbal art of the Latin would have sacrificed meaning, charm, and his audience; to jettison the verbal art would have been equally dangerous, for much in the Civil War is somewhat dull, except for historians and military enthusiasts. His aim was evidently to achieve something like R. Lattimore (on Homer), D. Grene (on Greek drama), and A. Mandelbaum (on Dante). The translation, amazingly, is eminently readable, supple, and coherent; this is in keeping since it is verse, and not high poetry. Lucan's artistic style shows through (distantly) and the diction achieves a middle ground of clarity and stylishness. Explanatory notes and a useful glossary of names are included. The text is thoughtfully divided up with italicized summary sentences. All libraries will find this translation preferable to any other. It is essential for collections on ancient and medieval Latin literature, the Renaissance and 18th-century literature. —Choice"— J. P. Adams, University of California, Los Angeles, January 1989
