Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

LUCAN
Fire, crashing buildings, shouts, uncertain flight, final embraces, wailing women
and children, old men: the possibilities are exploited by Petronius, Virgil and
Silius, as well as Dio and Livy. 1
Lucan begins his treatment with a version of the negation antithesis, reproving
the flight of the Senate:
nee solum uolgus inani
percussum terrore pauet, sed curia et ipsi
sedibus exiluere patres inuisaque belli
consulibus fugiens mandat decreta senatus. (1.486—8)
Nor was the populace alone stricken with groundless fear. The Senate House was
moved; the Fathers themselves sprang up from their seats and the Senate fled, deputing
to the consuls the dreaded declaration of war.
"We might excuse the flight of the uolgus: but that of the Senate is not to be
pardoned. Two similes follow, neatly adapted again to the irregular state of
affairs. In the first, Lucan recalls the rhetorical formula, then implicitly denies
its application:
credas aut tecta nefandas
corripuisse faces aut iam quatiente ruina
nutantes pendere domos: sic turba per urbem
praecipiti lymphata gradu, uelut unica rebus
spes foret adflictis patrios excedere muros,
inconsulta rait. (1.493—8)
One might think that impious firebrands had seized hold of the houses, or that the
buildings were swaying and tottering in an earthquake shock. For the frenzied
crowd rushed headlong through the city with no fixed purpose, and as if the one
chance of relief from ruin were to get outside their native walls.
'One might have thought. . -but one would be wrong': that is the upshot.
Lucan's faces and ruina, the equivalent of the effusae per domus ac templa flammae
and ruentium tectorum fragor prescribed by Quintilian, would normally be
just reason for deserting a city. But on this occasion, the absence of the usual
causes is an indictment of Rome's unnatural susceptibility to rumour and
panic. By abrogating the rule, Lucan highlights the guilt. His nautical simile
has a like effect. Plutarch uses it straightforwardly: oiicrpoTOCTOv 5£ T6 9teua
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