Title: Caesar's servitium amoris : some comments on the references to Roman love poetry in Book 5 of Lucan's Civil War
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2020, vol. 25, iss. 1, pp. 179-197
Extent
179-197
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2020-1-12
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142629
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In his Civil War, Lucan enters into intertextual game not only with epic and tragedy, but also with love poetry. A number of references to Roman elegy, the Heroides, and Ariadne's lament in Catullus (64) have been noted in Book 5, when Caesar arrives in Epirus and summons his troops from Italy. The aim of this article is to examine the functions of these elegiac references related to Caesar and to propose an interpretation slightly different from that found in earlier studies. Using elegiac vocabulary, motifs, and topoi (servitium and militia amoris) in 5.476–497, Lucan makes his audience perceive Caesar in the role of an elegiac mistress (domina), who thereby imposes the role of lover on his soldiers. However, those roles do not correspond to their real meaning in the poem as Caesar is quickly forced to transform into a lover. This shift is crucial for the intertextual game with love poetry. Nevertheless, the troops do not notice the change, standing by the role they were previously cast in (5.678–699). In this way, they allow their leader to become a mistress again and continue the war.
References
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[2] Barratt, P. (1979). M. Annaei Lucani Belli civilis liber V: A Commentary. Amsterdam: Hakkert.
[3] Bramble, J. (1982). Lucan. In E. J. Kenny, & W. V. Clausen (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, 2: Latin Literature (pp. 533–557). Cambridge: University Press.
[4] Bruère, R. T. (1951). Lucan's Cornelia. Classical Philology, 46, 221–236. | DOI 10.1086/363415
[5] Cairns, F. (1989). Virgil's Augustan epic. Cambridge: University Press.
[6] Cairns, F. (2010). The Mistress's Midnight Summons: Propertius 3.16. Hermes, 138, 70–91.
[7] Caston, R. R. (2011). Lucan's Elegiac Moments. In P. Asso (Ed.), Brill's Companion to Lucan (pp. 133–152). Leiden: Brill.
[8] Copley, F. O. (1947). Servitium amoris in the Roman Elegists. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 78, 285–300. | DOI 10.2307/283500
[9] Duff, J. D. (Ed.). (1928). Lucan: The Civil War. London: William Heinemann.
[10] Fantham, E. (1985). Caesar and the Mutiny: Lucan's Reshaping of the Historical Tradition in De bello civili 5. 237‒373. Classical Philology, 80, 119–131. | DOI 10.1086/366909
[11] Farrell, J. (1998). Reading and Writing the Heroides. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 98, 307–338. | DOI 10.2307/311346
[12] Fratantuono, L. (2012). Madness Triumphant: A Reading of Lucan's Pharsalia. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
[13] Fredrick, D. (1997). Reading Broken Skin: Violence in Roman Elegy. In J. Hallett, & M. Skinner (Eds.), Roman Sexualities (pp. 172–193). Princeton: University Press.
[14] Gildenhard, I. (2006). Reckoning with Tyranny: Greek Thoughts on Caesar in Cicero's Letters to Atticus in Early 49. In S. Lewis (Ed.), Ancient Tyranny (pp. 197–207). Edinburgh: University Press.
[15] Hardie, Ph. R. (2002). Ovid's Poetics of Illusion. Cambridge: University Press.
[16] Haskins, Ch. H. (Ed.). (1887). M. Annæi Lucani Pharsalia (with an introd. by W. E. Heitland). London: G. Bell and Sons.
[17] Henderson, J. (1987). Lucan/The World at War. Ramus, 16, 122–164.
[18] Hutchinson, G. O. (2013). Greek to Latin: Frameworks and Contexts for Intertextuality. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press.
[19] James, S. L. (2003). Learned Girls and Male Persuasion: Gender and Reading in Roman Love Elegy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[20] Katz, V. (Transl.). (2004). The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius. Princeton: University Press.
[21] Kenney, E. J. (Ed.). (1996). Ovid: Heroides XVI‒XXI. Cambridge: University Press.
[22] Leigh, M. (1997). Lucan: Spectacle and Engagement (Oxford Classical Monographs). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[23] Littlewood, C. (2016). Elegy and Epic in Lucan's Bellum Civile. In A. M. Keith, & J. Edmondson (Eds.), Roman Literary Cultures. Domestic Politics, Revolutionary Poetics, Civic Spectacle (pp. 159–184). Toronto: University Press.
[24] Lyne, R. O. A. M. (1979). Servitium Amoris. The Classical Quarterly, 29, 117–130. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838800035229
[25] Masters, J. (1992). Poetry and civil war in Lucan's Bellum Civile. Cambridge: University Press.
[26] Matthews, M. (2011). The Influence of Roman Love Poetry (and the Merging of Masculine and Feminine) in Lucan's Portrayal of Caesar in De Bello Civili 5.476‒497. Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, 66, 121–138.
[27] Matthews, M. (Ed.). (2008). Caesar and the Storm: A Commentary on Lucan, De Bello Civili, Book 5, lines 476‒721. Oxford – New York: Peter Lang.
[28] McCune, B. C. (2014). Lucan's Militia Amoris: Elegiac Expectations in the Bellum Civile. Classical Journal, 109, 171–198. | DOI 10.5184/classicalj.109.2.0171
[29] McKeown, J. C. (1995). Militat Omnis Amans. The Classical Journal, 90, 295–304.
[30] Murgatroyd, P. (1981). Servitium Amoris and the Roman Elegists. Latomus, 40, 589–606.
[31] Murgatroyd, P., Parker, S., & Reeves, B. (2017). Ovid's Heroides: A New Translation and Critical Essays. London – New York: Routledge.
[32] Pelling, Ch. (Transl.). (2011). Plutarch: Caesar. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press.
[33] Perrin B. (Ed.). (1919). Plutarch: Lives, VII: Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar. London: William Heinemann.
[34] Pichon, R. (1902). De sermone amatorio apud Latinos elegiarum scriptores. Paris: Hachette.
[35] Pitcher, L.V. (2008). A Perfect Storm? Caesar and his Audiences at Lucan 5.504–702. The Classical Quarterly, 58, 243–249. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838808000189
[36] Richardson, Jr., L. (Ed.). (2006). Propertius. Elegies I–IV. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
[37] Rimell, V. (2006). Ovid's Lovers: Desire, Difference, and the Poetic Imagination. Cambridge: University Press.
[38] Sannicandro, L. (2010). I personaggi femminili del Bellum Civile di Lucano. Rahden, Westfalia: VML Verlag Marie Leidorf.
[39] Saylor, C. (1967). Querelae: Propertius' Distinctive, Technical Name for his Elegy. Agon, 1, 142–149.
[40] Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (Ed.). (1968). Cicero's Letters to Atticus, IV: 49 B.C., 133–210 (Books VII.10–X). Cambridge: University Press.
[41] Showerman, G. (Ed.). (1914). Ovid: Heroides. Amores. London: William Heinemann.
[42] Watson, P. (1985). Axelson Revisited: The Selection of Vocabulary in Latin Poetry. The Classical Quarterly, 35, 430–448. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838800040271
[43] Weiden Boyd, B. (1997). Ovid's Literary Loves: Influence and Innovation in the Amores. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.