Name: THAYRYNNE DE FARIA COUTINHO
Publication date: 30/04/2024
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| BRUNNO VINICIUS GONÇALVES VIEIRA | Examinador Externo |
| GILSON CHARLES DOS SANTOS | Examinador Externo |
| LENI RIBEIRO LEITE | Presidente |
Summary: Lucan’s epic, Civil War or Pharsalia, narrates the Civil War between Julius Caesar and
Pompey. As did Ennius in his Annals and Nevius in his Punic War, Lucan sings in his epic
about a historical event, the military deeds in war, and in doing so, he aligns his poem with
the tradition of Roman historical epic. The boundaries that distinguish a historiography
composition from a poetic one are historically determined, which means that the
characteristics attributed to a certain field were not always read as inherent indices of these
works. As a genre concerned with recording the deeds of the illustrious Romans generals in
battle, we understand that historiography works and poetic ones share a close relationship.
Therefore, we aim to discuss how the poet Lucan wrote his historical epic through a narrative
that incorporates rhetorical-discursive techniques that are dear to the historiography discourse.
Thus, we analyze the relationship between Pharsalia and other epics and historiography
works in order to discuss Lucan’s historical epic poetically and also historically as we also
aim to identify in Lucan’s epic the presence of recurring historical procedures in historians
considered models, such as Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus. We understand that these procedures
featuring in Pharsalia contribute to create a narrative texture that brings lucanian verses
closer to a historiography work. To deepen this discussion, we investigate how the poet
constructs the account of the First Civil War (88 BCE), whose main characters are Cornelius
Sulla and Gaius Marius, as exemplary narrative and how this account is incorporated in his
epic according to how the historians report on a past event to establish a benchmark for the
deeds of the generals Julius Caesar and Pompey. We verify that Lucan employs techniques
used by historians, primarily Livy, to build his account of the First Civil as a sign for the war
between Julius Caesar and Pompey.
