Lucan. Pharsaliae Libri X. Basileae: Henric Petrina, 1578.
Grandson of the elder Seneca, Lucan was a poet and rhetorician as well as the author of an historical epic on the civil war, known as the Pharsalia (named for one of the battles between Caesar and Pompey). The poem, written in a style that imitates Virgil's Aeneid, shows the republican ideology of Lucan and his hatred of Nero's tyranny.
In this work events are determined by the actions of men, and the gods do not have a role. Lucan's Pharsalia was popular during the Middle Ages. It was translated into Spanish in 1544 by Martin Lasso de Oropesa and in 1600 Christopher Marlowe translated the first book of the Pharsalia into English. Lucan also influenced the French classic dramatists of the 17th century, especially Corneille.
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