SOURCE: "Lucan's Apotheosis of Nero," Classical Philology, Vol. LIX, No. 3, July, 1964, pp. 147-53.

[In the following essay, Thompson contends that Lucan's description of the deification of Nero indicates that the originally proposed terminal date for the poem should be much later than critics have assumed.]

Since epic poets customarily state their subject at the beginning of their poems it may be assumed that at the time Lucan wrote verses 1-66 of the Bellum civile he had fixed in his mind the outline of the whole, however vague the particulars of the design may have been and however altered they may have become as the work progressed. In 1950 R. T. Bruere suggested that the complete poem would have encompassed the whole period of civil warfare from 49 B.C. to the peace following Actium.¹ More recently, 0. A. W. Dilke has inclined to the same view,² whereas H. P. Syndikus has reiterated the traditional termini of 15 March 44 B.C. or Philippi in 42,³ and H. Haffter has implausibly proposed that Lucan's tenth book, had it been finished, would have marked the end of the epic (47 B.C.).⁴

To the present writer the hypothesis that Lucan planned to include the entire period of plus quamcivilia bella which ended only with the overthrow of Antony and Cleopatra seems the only tenable one. Scholars favoring an earlier terminal point fail to appreciate the implications of the prophecy made by the witch Erictho to Sextus Pompeius "tibi certior omnia vates/ipse canet Siculis genitor Pompeius in arvis," BC 6. 812-13. As verbal and other similarities make plain, Lucan is here recalling the verses preceding the appearance of Anchises to Aeneas in Sicily (Aen. 5. 700-2: "Aeneas. e. / nunc huc ingentis, nunc illuc pectore curas/mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis").⁵ Just as Anchises appeared to his son in the Aeneid, so it may be presumed that Pompey was to appear to his son Sextus in Lucan's poem. From this it results not only that the poem was to continue into 43 B.C., since Sextus did not reach Sicily until this year, but that (since Pompey was to advise Sextus on his future course) the latter was to play a role of significance in the poem, as he did in the later stages of civil warfare until his defeat off Naulochus in 36 and his death the following year. The overthrow of Sextus would however be an impossible ending for a poem dealing with plus quam civilia bella, for Actium, the culminating and final engagement of the "more-than-civil" struggle, was yet to come. This paper will argue that certain features of Lucan's description of Nero's future apotheosis at the opening of his first book give strong additional support to the hypothesis that the poet proposed to treat the entire period of civil warfare that preceded the establishment of the pax Augusta after Actium.

Lucan's debt in his invocation to Virgil, Ovid, and Manilius has often been noted, and the circumstance that the passages of these earlier poets which Lucan imitates regard the period of civil warfare from the Rubicon to Actium as a unit cited to show that Lucan shared this view.⁶ The influence of these poets is also marked in Lucan's description of Nero's apotheosis and indeed throughout the introductory verses.⁷ While admitting the significance of the influence of these poets in determining Lucan's intended scope, we would point out that in his account of Nero's future apotheosis (BC 1. 45-63) Lucan has drawn to a much greater extent upon Seneca's Hercules Oetaeus, especially the description of Hercules' deification, and that the use of this source suggests an assimilation, in Lucan's mind, of Nero to Hercules. In the light of this association it becomes clear that the reminiscences of Virgil, Ovid, and Manilius, being echoes of laudes Augusti in the earlier writers, are the means by which Lucan has implied an association of Nero with Augustus. The significance of this Hercules/Augustus shadow behind Nero is explained by the explicit equation of Nero with Jupiter preceding the description of the apotheosis:

quod si non aliam uenturo fata Neroni
inuenere uiam magnoque aeterna parantur
regna deis caelumque suo seruire Tonanti
non nisi saeuorum potuit post bella gigantum,
iam nihil, o superi, querimur
[BC 1. 33-37].

The stated relevance of this equation lies primarily in the lasting peace obtained by, and following, strife. Jupiter's kingdom became aeterna only after the god defeated the giants; the peace under Nero is the pax Augusta established by Octavian after the destruction of Antony and Cleopatra marked the end of civil warfare. The identification of Nero with Jupiter and the analogy between the civil wars and the Gigantomachia emphasize the significance, for the scope of Lucan's epic, of the identifications and associations of Nero with Hercules and Augustus. Conversely, these latter identifications confirm the import of Lucan's juxtaposition of Nero and Jupiter and of the Roman plus quam civilia bella and the Gigantomachia. They, thereby, indicate that Lucan proposed to treat, as a single complex, the civil wars down through 31 B.C.

Detailed analysis of Lucan's adaptation of the passage from the Hercules Oetaeus will demonstrate that Lucan, when composing the apotheosis, was following primarily Seneca's account of the deification of Hercules; that, by praising Nero with an amplified version of the praise of Hercules, he wished to indicate the superiority of the emperor; and, most important, that he intended an identification of the two as establishers or preservers of peace.

Upon the death of the hero in the Hercules Oetaeus, the chorus, after declaring that he has earned a place in the sky, wonders where that place will be:

"Sed locum virtus habet inter astra.
sedis arctoae spatium tenebis
an graves Titan ubi promit aestus?
an sub occasu tepido nitebis,
unde commisso resonare ponto
audies Calpen? loca quae sereni
deprimes caeli? quis erit recepto
tutus Alcide locus inter astra?
horrido tantum procul a leone
det pater sedes calidoque cancro,
ne tuo vultu tremefacta leges
astra conturbent trepidetque Titan.…
tu comes Phoebo, comes ibis astris"
[HO 1564-75, 1581].

Lucan's lines read:

… te, cum statione peracta
astra petes serus, praelati regia caeli
excipiet gaudente polo: seu sceptra tenere
seu te flammigeros Phoebi conscendere currus
telluremque nihil mutato sole timentem
igne uago lustrare iuuet, tibi numine ab omni
cedetur, iurisque tui natura relinquet
quis deus esse uelis, ubi regnum ponere
 mundi.
sed neque in Arctoo sedem tibi legeris orbe
nec polus auersi calidus qua uergitur Austri,
unde tuam uideas obliquo sidere Romam.
aetheris inmensi partem si presseris unam,
sentiet axis onus. librati pondera caeli
orbe tene medio; pars aetheris illa sereni
tota uacet nullaeque obstent a Caesare nubes.
tum genus humanum positis sibi consulat
 armis
inque uicem gens omnis amet; pax missa per
 orbem
ferrea belligeri conpescat limina lani.
sed mihi iam numen …
[BC 1. 45-63].

Although Lucan's "cum statione peracta/astra petes serus," (BC 1. 45-46) has no exact precedent in the language of the Senecan passage, the words astra petes may have been suggested by Seneca's description of Hercules on his pyre, "voltus petentis astra, non ignes erat" (HO 1645).⁸ Certainly the clause summarizes the theme of the prologue to the Hercules Oetaeus. The hero there recounts his labors and states his belief that he has at last, with all his work accomplished, earned a place among the stars. The fact that for the time being that place seems denied him may have induced Lucan to assure an audience familiar with his uncle's poetry that such was not true in the case of Nero: the gods had no hesitancy about admitting him; indeed, his coming was a reason for rejoicing (gaudente polo, BC 1. 47). And Lucan may have remembered Ovid's te desideret aether (Trist. 5. 2. 51).

The statione peracta (BC 1. 45) and virtus (HO 1564) establish the equivalent credentials of Nero and Hercules; the destination of both is astra (BC 1. 46; HO 1564). In the opinion of Seneca's chorus, Hercules will be comes Phoebo, comes … astris (HO 1581.). Lucan, ever at pains to outdo his uncle and his other predecessors, represents Nero as taking over, at will, Phoebus' prerogatives or even Jupiter's. This extension of the divine positions open to the emperor was apparently inspired by Virgil's consideration of the choices available to Augustus, although the language shows little similarity.⁹ At any rate, in stressing that every god will give way to the recent arrival, Lucan stresses, with greater emphasis than Virgil, the emperor's privilege to choose.

Not only the new god's rights and privileges, but also the site of his residence become a question of importance. In like manner the chorus in the Hercules Oetaeus had been concerned about Hercules' position in the sky:

"sedis arctoae spatium tenebis
an graves Titan ubi promit aestus?
an sub occasu tepido nitebis"
[HO 1565-67].

Lucan, insisting upon the pre-eminence of Nero, explicitly asserts that nature will allow him to select the seat of his divine power: "sed neque in Arctoo sedem tibi legeris orbe/nec polus aversi calidus qua vergitur Austri" (BC 1. 53-54). The wording of HO 1565 and BC 1. 53 is markedly similar; in addition, the epic poet retains the force of Seneca's tepido (HO 1567) in calidus (BC 1. 54) and the motion of nitebis (HO 1567) in vergitur (BC 1. 54). As Hercules, in the western sky, could listen to the waves breaking against Calpe, so significant for him, in the same way Lucan imagines Nero looking down upon Rome: "unde tuam videas obliquo sidere Romam" (BC 1. 55).Although the meaning of Lucan's clause is modified by the neque and nec of lines 53-54, it is in structure very like that of the tragedy, "unde commisso resonare ponto/audies Calpen?" (HO 1568-69). Each begins with unde and each ends with the object of the hero's attentions. The epic poet hopes that Nero will select a site at neither the north nor the south pole, not only because he would be forced to view Rome obliquely, but also because his weight would throw the heavens out of balance:

aetheris inmensi partem si presseris unam,
sentiet axis onus. librati pondera caeli
orbe tene medio; …
[BC 1. 56-58].

The first line here is suggested by "loca quae sereni/deprimes caeli?" (HO 1569-70), but has an even closer parallel in Deianira's address to Juno: "quamcumque partem sedis aetheriae premis,/ coniunx Tonantis" (HO 256-57). Lucan exploits the idea of ponderousness in these verses to suggest Nero's importance.¹⁰ The chorus had proposed that Hercules find a position in the heavens far from certain constellations, lest he cause turmoil among the mythological creatures in the sky. Octavian had been represented by Virgil as destined to assume the place of Libra; on his arrival the scorpion would draw in his claws.¹¹ Seneca adapted this idea to Hercules' situation by describing the fear that would naturally be felt by the lion and the crab at Hercules' ferocious presence. Lucan, in his modern manner, eliminates his uncle's mythology but retains, as an honor to Nero, the spaciousness of a serene portion of the sky: "pars aetheris illa sereni/tota vacet nullaeque obstent a Caesare nubes" (BC 1. 58-59). The sereni derives from the Hercules Oetaeus: "loca quae sereni/deprimes caeli?" (HO 1569-70). Seneca provided the basis for Lucan's expression, but the effect is intensified, the personal note emphasized, and the position of Phoebus now enhances the dignity of the emperor, since Lucan adds "nullaeque obstent a Caesare nubes" (BC 1. 59).¹²

It may reasonably be supposed that, by imitating the Senecan account of Hercules' apotheosis, Lucan here intended an identification of Nero with Hercules. The significance of this identification is indicated by the reaction of the Senecan chorus to the passing of Hercules, as well as by Hercules' personal view of his mission on earth. Believing the hero dead, the chorus cries, "Quis dabit pacem populo timenti/ … ?" (HO 1541). Hyllus, reporting his father's passing to Deianira, repeats the hero's words: "pacata tellus … et caelum et freta:/ feris subactis omnibus victor redi" (HO 794-95). Finally the chorus, after Hercules has obtained his glory in the sky, makes this plea:

"sed tu domitor magne ferarum
orbisque simul pacator ades.¹³
nunc quoque nostras respice terras"
[HO 1989-91].

In the two latter passages, pax could be, and was, attained only by means of, and at the completion of, the hero's struggle to clean out the monsters. The implication is that pax was permanent. Lucan's explicit assertion that Jupiter acquired his kingdom by cleaning out the giants, whereupon the kingdom became aeterna (BC 1. 34), supports, by paralleling it exactly, the validity of the Hercules pattern. Lucan, following this pattern, expresses the wish that Nero seek his placein heaven as late as possible after his tasks on earth have been accomplished (statione peracta, BC 1. 45) and prays,

tum genus humanum positis sibi consulat
 armis
inque uicem gens omnis amet; pax missa per
 orbem
ferrea belligeri conpescat limina Iani
[BC 1. 60-62].

The pax Augusta still obtaining in Nero's time was established when Augustus, Nero's ancestor and early model, cleaned out the rebellious forces in the Roman world.

While he followed so closely the pattern in the Hercules Oetaeus, thereby establishing an identification of Nero and Hercules, Lucan simultaneously created an association of Nero with Augustus by enriching his description of the apotheosis and its context with reminiscences, mentioned above, from Virgil, Ovid, and Manilius. The most pertinent of the imitations of the earlier poets are all from contexts concerned with the divinity or apotheosis of Augustus, and of Augustus only, although Lucan could have drawn from any number of Ovid's accounts of apotheoses, including that of Julius Caesar. That is, statements concerning the prediction or description of Augustus' divinity or apotheosis in the passages which Lucan is imitating have now been adapted to fit the account of the apotheosis or divinity of Nero who has, in actuality, assumed Augustus' position. Of special significance then is the influence of Virgil's description (Georg. 1. 32-39) of Augustus' apotheosis upon the Lucanian lines which are concerned with the site in the heavens of Nero's future residence. For Servius states, in his comments on line 34 of the Virgilian passage, that this epic poet, as a tribute, assigned to Augustus the route by which Hercules had gone to the heavens and the site of Libra which the demigod had occupied.¹⁴ The late Professor R. J. Getty has pointed out that in BC 1. 57-58, "librati pondera caeli/orbe tene medio," there is a hint of Libra and that Lucan is following and surpassing Virgil's example.¹⁵ By means of this "hint" in librati Lucan designates as Nero's the path which Hercules had marked out for Augustus.

Lucan's extensive imitation of the Hercules pattern serves to validate this Nero/Augustus association. These identifications, substantiating each other, have their significance brought into sharp focus by the Nero/Jupiter equation: Augustus eliminated the monstrous revolutionary elements in the state and instituted, for the Roman people, the pax Augusta over which Nero now presided. Nero is a kind of Augustus par excellence, free in the early period of his reign, at any rate, from such ill repute as came to Augustus as a result of his part in the civil discord. The descendant and imitator of Augustus,¹⁶ he stated in a speech quoted by Tacitus that because he had not, in his boyhood, experienced civil wars and domestic feuds, he did not suffer from a sense of wrong and therefore had no desire for vengeance.¹⁷ That is to say that in a comparison with Augustus, Nero, perhaps, could be the more just emperor, since he had always enjoyed the pax Augusta. His rule was not marred by internal strife as Augustus' had been. The civil wars therefore prepared the way for Nero as they could not for Augustus since the latter was embroiled in them. This is implicit in Lucan's "quod si non aliam venturo fata Neroni/invenere viam" (BC 1. 33-34).¹⁸

Lucan's explicit identification of Nero with Jupiter followed the tradition of equating Roman emperors with the ruler of the gods;¹⁹ his implicit identifications of Nero with Hercules and Augustus show that Lucan was familiar with Nero's desire to emulate and be associated with these two.²⁰ On these grounds alone Lucan's interweaving of these relationships in his invocation is apt and he could hardly have accomplished more in the way of flattery. Yet mere flattery was not his aim; the identifications here established affirm the program set forth in the first book.

A statement that his theme is bella … plus quam civilia and a condemnation of this nefarious strife precede Lucan's invocation. The terms employed are general; there is no mention of any specific period of struggle; Lucan's words are the plural form, civilia bella. Immediately following the invocation, in the epic tradition, Lucan proposes to set forth the causes which forced a frenzied people to arms and drove peace from the world. Set between these two sections is the invocation to Nero, which contains an explicit and precisely formulated list of the wars, as well as the description of the emperor's future apotheosis. It begins with the equation of Nero's advent as emperor subsequent to the civil wars and Jupiter's obtaining an everlasting kingdom after crushing the assault of the giants. In each instance, emphasis is placed upon the peaceful reign which followed strife and was bought at the price of a specifically named conflict. The reason for Lucan's choice of Hercules and Augustus as additional prototypes is then clear. Jupiter, Hercules, and Augustus were all eradicators of revolutionary or destructive forces in their time; they cleansed their respective worlds of discordant elements, thereby instituting peace. Jupiter cleared the heavens of opposition once and for all when he overwhelmed the giants; Hercules freed the world forever of monsters; Augustus rid the Roman state of the villains of civil warfare. Nero and his reign are the ultimate results of the final extirpation of civil strife by Augustus and the establishment of the pax Augusta.

Although Lucan makes previous mention of the strife, the catalogue in the invocation is his first specific enumeration of the civil wars which he will treat. Here they are regarded as a single complex including the clashes down through Actium.²¹ To them Rome owed, according to Lucan, the pax Augusta. These wars are specifically enumerated; they are equated in toto with the eradication of the giants and the monsters; the victor in them is compared to Jupiter and Hercules after their final and decisive conflicts; they are said to be the purchasing price of peace, and the peace which followed them is emphasized as enduring. It is true that Nero had experienced no such struggle as Jupiter, Hercules, and Augustus; however, he is identified with Augustus, considered a kind of super-Augustus, and the peace during his reign is actually an extension of the peace under Augustus, acquired only after Actium. Its price is Lucan's theme and is stated in the series of battles named in the invocation.

It may be concluded that by implicitly associating Nero with Hercules and with Augustus in his description of Nero's future apotheosis Lucan wished to justify his dedication to the young emperor of a poem telling of the monstrous plague of more-than-civil conflicts of which Octavian-Augustus rid the Roman world, just as Hercules had once rid the world of monstrous beasts.²² Perhaps Lucan's inability to maintain this estimate of either the first or the fifth princeps was as responsible for the inchoate condition of his poem as was his suicide.

Notes

¹ "The Scope of Lucan's Historical Epic," CP, XLV (1950), 217-35. For a summary of conclusions prior to 1950, see pp. 217-18.

²M Annaei Lucani "De bello civili" liber VII. Revised from the edition of J. P. Postgate by 0. A. W. Dilke (New York, 1960), Intro., p. 9.

³Lucans Gedicht vom Bürgerkrieg (diss., Munich; Munich, 1958), p. 121.

⁴ H. Haffter, "Dem schwanken Züinglein lauschend wachte Cäsar dort," Museum Helveticum, XIV (1957), 118-26. Haffter's analysis of the symmetrical arrangement of Lucan's ten books does not preclude other such decades, nor does it take adequate cognizance of the poem's internal evidence for proposed greater length. See n. 21.

⁵ See note to 6.814 in C. E. Haskins' edition of Lucan's Pharsalia (London, 1887), p. 226.0. S. Due in "An Essay on Lucan" (Class. et Med., XXII [1962], 68 ff.) revives the hypothesis that Lucan meant to end with Philippi. He states "we must admit that according to Lucan's plan somehow or other the poem was to have touched upon Sextus Pompeius' operations in Sicily from 43 B.C." (p. 128), eiting 6. 812-16 (p. 129). The essayist fails to see that the chronological and aesthetic implications of this passage weigh heavily against an ending before 36 B.C., when the defeats of Mylae and Naulochus made it necessary for Sextus to seek refuge outside of Sicily.

⁶ J. P. Postgate in his revised edition of the seventh book De bello civili (Cambridge, 1927) in note on 1. 872 (p. 88) points out the similar catalogues in Verg. Georg. 1. 489-505; Ov. Met. 15. 822-28, 832-33; and Manil. Astron. 1. 906-26. Bruère notes the "unitarian attitude" in the Manilian passage and striking similarities with Luc. 1. 38-45, op. cit., pp. 222-23. Although Manilius and Ovid list only the battles in which Octavian had engaged, Lucan, for his purposes, was compelled to add the earlier phases of the conflict.

⁷ See esp. R. J. Getty's notes to lines 33-66 in his edition of De bello civili, liber I (Cambridge, 1940); R. Pichon, Les Sources de Lucain (Paris, 1912), pp. 227, 237, 239; W. E. Heitland's introduction to C. E. Haskins' edition of the Pharsalia (London, 1887), p. cx.

⁸ Noted by Oliver C. Phillips, Jr., "The Influence of Ovid on Lucan's Bellum civile" (diss., University of Chicago, 1962), p. 113.

⁹ According to the earlier poet it is uncertain what godly powers Augustus will wish for himself (Georg. 1. 24-32).

¹⁰ Cf. Ovid's "sensit Atlas pondus …" (Met. 9. 273) as Hercules was translated into a constellation and HO 1599: "passus an pondus titubavit Atlas?" Whether or not Lucan's expression is veiled sarcasm, he certainly found the idea in his sources.

¹¹Georg. 1. 34-35. Servius, in his comments on 1. 33, states that in the Babylonian system Scorpio occupied space equivalent to two zodiacal signs in the Egyptian system: Scorpio and Libra. Scorpio is therefore to draw in his claws to make room for Augustus. See R. J. Getty in "Liber et almaCeres," in Studies in Honour of Gilbert Norwood (Toronto, 1952), p. 174.

¹² Lucan has made the identification of Nero and Apollo before in "seu te flammigeros Phoebi conscendere currus" (BC 1. 48). For Nero's desire to emulate Apollo, see Dio 61. 20. 5, 63. 20. 5; Suet. 6. 53; Tac. Ann. 14. 14. For numismatic evidence see E. A. Sydenham, The Coinage of Nero (London, 1920). Pp. 72-74 list some thirty coins of the "Nero as Apollo" type. Also pp. 37-38, and passim. Although the equation of the emperor with Apollo is not essential to our argument, it perhaps is relevant in view of the identification of Nero with Augustus and the latter's homage to Apollo. Furthermore Lucan's source had proclaimed the status of Hercules and Apollo as about to be equal (HO 1581).

¹³ The orbisque … pacator seems an echo of Propertius' pacato … in orbe (3. 2. 19). Cf. also Eur. Herc. 696-700.

¹⁴ Despite Housman's assertion in his second edition of Manilius' Astron. (London, 1937), I, lxx, n. 1, that Virgil invited Augustus to take the place of Libra in the zodiac because there was no other site available, Getty notes that since Libra was the natal sign of Rome and the appropriate sign for the horoscope of a just ruler, Virgil was being rather more complimentary toward Augustus. See R. J. Getty, "Liber et alma Ceres," p. 178.

¹⁵ "Liber et alma Ceres," p. 182, n. 12. Lucan compliments Nero as Virgil had Augustus (see note above), but even more pertinently in view of the identification of Nero with Hercules here. Dio 63. 20. 5 states that Nero was hailed as Apollo, Augustus, and Hercules.

¹⁶ Suet. 6. 10. 1. For numismatic evidence see M. Grant, Roman History From Coins (Cambridge, 1958), p. 28, and P1. 8, No. 1. The obverse of Nero's coin shows Augustus and Claudius in a ceremonial chariot. The letters E X S C point to Nero's respect for the senate in the early years of his reign.

¹⁷Ann. 13. 4.

¹⁸ In a typical exaggeration in the later lines of his invocation (60-62) Lucan hopes that the end put to civil war by Augustus will be extended to all war under Nero. This wish is pertinent to BC 1. 33-34 and again indicates how Nero might be greater than Augustus.

¹⁹ For the association of Augustus with Jupiter see Margaret M. Ward, "The Association of Augustus with Jupiter," Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni, IX (1933), 203-24, and for Ovid's equation of Augustus with Jupiter see K. Scott, "Emperor Worship in Ovid," TAP A, LXI (1930), 43-69, esp. pp. 52-58. For Virgil's association of the same emperor with Jupiter, see Lily Ross Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor (Middletown, Conn., 1931), pp. 111-15, 174-78, R. J. Getty, "Romulus, Roma, and Augustus," CP, XLV (1950), 1-12.

²⁰ For the association of Nero with Hercules, see Dio 63. 9. 4, 63. 20. 5; Suet. 6. 53. For numismatic evidence see E. A. Sydenham, op. cit., pp. 138, 148, 151. For the association of Nero with Augustus, see Dio 61. 20. 5, 63. 20. 3, 63. 20. 5; Suet. 6. 10. 1; 6. 12. 4. For numismatic evidence see M. Grant, loc. cit.

²¹ See n. 6. The battles named in Lucan's catalogue are substantiated by the prophecies with which the first book is concluded. There Figulus seeing the blurred outlines of the entire civil conflict describes it in general terms. The Roman matron's frenzied vision is focused upon one section from a closer point of view. It introduces the first stages of the war without losing sight of those of the more distant future. They have all, however, been set forth in Lucan's invocation.

²² In spite of Lucan's "republicanism," there is no reason why he, as a Stoic, should not have admired a "good" emperor as Nero apparently was in the first five years of his reign.