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LUCAN
and redeploys it in various forms throughout his epic, as at 1.667—8:
nomen erit uirtus
atrocious crime shall be called heroism
scelerique nefando
or again, at 6.147—8, as a preface to the inverted dpicrreia of Scaeva:
pronus ad omne nefas et qui nesciret in artnis
quam magnum uirtus crimen ciuilibus esset.
Ready for any wickedness, he knew not that valour in civil war is a heinous crime.
In the fourth line of the proem — rupto foedere regni — the bond which previously
contained the ambitions of self-seeking individuals is broken; and the
laws of Rome are rescinded by the onslaught of war at 1.176—7:
hinc leges et plebis scita coactae
et cum consulibus turbantes iura tribuni.
Hence came laws and decrees of the people passed by violence; and consuls and tribunes
alike threw justice into confusion.
This confusion and transgression of law and proportion has its counterpart in
nature. Cicero sees civil war as involving a violent and universal upheaval
(uis et mutatio omnium rerum et temporum, Fam. 4.13.2), while Sallust connects
political discord •with lawlessness in nature: considerate quam conuorsa rerum
natura sit (Hist. 1.77.13 M). And Petronius, like Lucan, connects cosmic
disturbance with the onset of civil strife:
aedificant auro sedesque ad sidera mittunt,
expelluntur aquae saxis, mare nascitur aruis;
et permutata rerum statione rebellant. {Bell. Civ. 87—9)
They build in gold and raise their homes to the stars, expelling water from the seabed
and introducing sea to the fields, rebels from an order they have changed.
Lucan's version is more general:
iamque irae patuere deum, manifestaque belli
signa dedit mundus, legesque et foedera rerum
praescia monstrifero uertit natura tumultu
indixitque nefas. (2.iff.)
And now Heaven s wrath was revealed; the universe gave clear signs of battle; and
Nature, conscious of the future, reversed the laws and ordinances of life, and, while
the hurly-burly bred monsters, proclaimed civil war.
Another sign of nature's confusion prefaces the climactic battle:
segnior Oceano, quam lex aeterna uocabat
luctificus Titan numquam magis aethera contra
egit equos. (7.iff.)
Unpunctual to the summons of eternal law, the sorrowing sun rose from Ocean,
driving his steeds harder than ever against the revolution of the sky.
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