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

LUCAN
at uagus Afer equos ut primum emisit in agmen
turn campi tremuere sono, terraque soluta,
quantus Bistonio torquetur turbine puluis
aera nube sua texit traxitque tenebras. (4.765-8)
But as soon as the African skirmishers launched their steeds at the host, the plains
shook with their trampling, the earth was loosened, and a pillar of dust, vast as is
whirled by Thracian stormwinds, veiled the sky with its cloud and brought on
darkness. 1
Elsewhere, the battle is unheroic and abnormal: for the Romans, unlike the
Africans, are at war with one another.
At 749 the brave man and the coward are refused their usual actions, the
negatives creating an air of paralysis:
non timidi petiere fugam, non proelia fortes
the coward did not flee, nor the brave man fight.
And then, in contrast to the ensuing African charge, follow the feeble, listless
movements of the Roman war horses, all epic associations denied, and replaced
by reminiscence of the plague of Georgic 3. Firstly, the negations:
quippe ubi non sonipes motus clangore tubarum
saxa quatit pulsu rigidos uexanria frenos
ora terens spargitque iubas et subrigit aures
incertoque pedum pugnat non stare tumultu. (4-75°~3)
For there the war-horse was not roused by the trumpet's blare, nor did he scatter
the stones with stamping hoof, or champ the hard bit that chafes his mouth, with
flying mane and ears erect, or refuse to stand still, and shift his clattering feet.
The Roman horse is not roused by the trumpet; nor does it strike the ground
with its hoof; nor champ at the bit; nor shake its mane; nor prick up its ears;
nor refuse to stand its ground — a far cry from Virgil's noble animal:
turn, si qua sonum procul arma dedere
stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus (Geo. 3.83—4)
If he hears armour clang in the distance,
He can't keep still, the ears prick up, the limbs quiver
or the fiery creature of Statius:
qui dominis, idem ardor equis; face lumina surgunt,
ora sonant morsu, spumisque et sanguine ferrum
uritur, impulsi nequeunt obsistere postes
1 The motif of the galloping horse begins with Horn. //. 10.535, passes into Ennius, Ann. 439 V,
and thence to Lucr. 2.319—30, Virg. Aat. 8.596, 9.599—600, and 975, Stat. Theb. 12.651, and Sil.
4.95—6. The dust cloud was equipped with a wind simile at Horn. //. 3.1 off: Virgil drops it at Aen.
n.876-7, 908—9, 12.407—8, and 444—5. See Miniconi (1951).
549
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