LUCANUS, Μ. Annaeus, a celebrated Latin poet, who vas born at Corduba, now Cordova, a city of Baetica, the southern province of Spain, a. d. 38, the year after the accession of the Emperor Caligula. He was the son of Annaeus delà, a Roman knight of considerable reputation, and the >rother of the philosopher Seneca. The young Lucan, edu- ’ ated at Rome in the doctrines of the Stoic philosophy by knnaeus Cornutus, displayed at an early age great poetical l alents. His uncle Seneca, the preceptor of Nero, made im acquainted with that prince, who, admiring his nume-ous acquirements, raised him to the quaestorship before he usual age, loaded him with favours, and even honoured im so far as to enter the lists of literary competition gainst him. Lucan sung the descent of Orpheus to the ιfernal regions, Nero jhe metamorphosis of Niobe; and it i said that Lucan, forgetful of his duties as a courtier, cared off the palm of victory, and thereby lost the favour of lie emperor (Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 58). It is impossible to fix ∣ae period when he composed those adulatory verses which isgrace the beginning of the Pharsalia; but, from their tsgusting servility, we might be inclined to suppose that ιey were addressed to a tyrant who was well known and ; ared. According to an ancient tradition, one of these ftrses had already prepared the emperor to take umbrage I any thing that had the appearance of an insult. Nero i)uinted, and was deeply offended at the verse,

Unde tuam videas obliquo sidere Romam.

All these various circumstances excited the wrath of the rant; and when Lucan, having composed a poem on the lrning of Troy and on that of Rome, requested permission it read it at the public theatre, according to the custom of tbse times, this favour was denied him. Such persecution i∣itated the poet, and induced him to join a conspiracy ífâinst the emperor, which was composed of all the best ¢izens of Rome. It was, however, discovered before it add be carried into execution; and many of the conspirais were arrested and put to the torture. It is said that Ucan, on promise of his life, denounced his associates, and vrs base enough even to name his own mother.

Such conduct, however, does not appear to have pro-cred for him forgiveness, as the only favour granted was tie choice of his mode of death. In his last moments Luca recovered his firmness of mind, and, opening his veins iia warm bath, allowed himself to bleed to death, whilst h is said to have repeated his own description (Pharsali, iii. 637) of the death-scene of a young warrior who U been wounded by a serpent.

Scinditur avulsus; ruptis cadit undique venis, Discursusque animae diversa in membra meantis Interceptus aquis. Nullius vita pereunti Est tanta dimissa via. Pars ultima trunci Tradidit in letum vacuos vitalibus artus.

*4 e died at the age of twenty-seven, in the year 65 of ο» era, leaving a wife, Polla Argentaria, one of the most raarkable women of her time (Tacit. Ann. xv. 49, 56, 71'; Sidon. Apollinar. ii. Ep. 10).

I, ucan was the author of many works which have not cijtic down to us, particularly the Burning of Troy, the Brning of Rome, the Descent of Aeneas to the Infernal Rgions, Ten books of Sylvae, Medeia an imperfect trage- d⅛ and Epistles, one of which, in praise of Calpurnius ⅛, has been preserved; but the work for which he is ∞*t celebrated is his poem entitled Pharsalia, in ten books, wich he did not live to finish. The subject of the poem is thnwar between Caesar and Pompey, from its commencement to the siege of Alexandria. Lucan adheres closely to chronological order in his narrative, and scarcely deviates from historical truth in his account of the various transactions. From the little scope he allows to his imaginative powers, some critics have thought that Lucan should not be considered as an epic poet, but ranked amongst historians. His poetical merits have in all ages been fiercely contested; some considering him equal to Virgil and Ovid, whilst others have placed him in the lowest rank of poets. The judgment of posterity, however, is without appeal, and it has long stamped the character of the poem as cold and declamatory, notwithstanding that there are many passages full of genuine poetry. The style is by no means uniform, and even the political sentiments of the author vary in different parts of the work. In the first three books his love of freedom is scarcely to be discovered, and every opinion is suppressed which was likely to have offended Nero. In the remainder of the poem, as his hatred increased against Nero, we can trace his aspirations after freedom gradually growing stronger. There seems no good reason for believing that the poet had any great moral end in view, except perhaps that he wished to excite in the breasts of his countrymen a love of freedom, by exhibiting before their eyes the last contest which their ancestors had maintained in its defence. He wished also, perhaps, like the historian Livy, to forget the fearful images of the present, by occupying his mind with, and dwelling on, the past. His want of a glowing imagination and of inventive genius is somewhat counterbalanced by powerful and energetic language, by a disdain of every thing that is mean or grovelling, and by noble thoughts, which are uttered with all the dignified seriousness of a Stoic. There are many editions of this work, but one of the best is that of Burmann (Leyden, 1740), and the last is that by C. F. Weber, in 3 vols., the last of which contains some valuable scholia (Leipzig, 1828).