Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
Post on 01-Jun-2018
225 Views
Preview:
Transcript
8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
1/9
Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum CivileAuthor(s): Bernard F. DickSource: Classical Philology, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Oct., 1967), pp. 235-242Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/268532.
Accessed: 01/01/2015 18:03
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
The University of Chicago Pressis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Classical Philology.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/268532?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/268532?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
2/9
CL SSIC L
PHILOLOGY
VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 4
October1967
FATUM AND
FORTUNA
IN
LUCAN'S
BELLUM CIVILE
BERNARD
F. DICK
UCH
of
Lucanian
scholarship
from
the
mid-nineteenth
century
to the present has been devoted
to
the
problem of
fatum and
fortuna
in
the
Bellum civile.1
Nisard,
whose
disdainful
attitude toward
the
Silver
Age has
per-
sisted
to
our
own
time,
was the
first
of
the
modern
critics
to
suggest
Fortuna
as
Lucan's
substitution for
the
traditional
epic
deities: "Mais
qu'est-ce
que Lucain
a
mis a
leur place?-La
Fortune.-Belle
decouverte
"2
A
little
more than
fifty
years later (Nisard's work
was
first pub-
lished
in
1834) two
important
studies ap-
peared,
each
of
which
stressed
Lucan's
philosophy as
the
decisive
factor
in
evalu-
ating
his
epic.
Souriau,
observing
that
Epicurean and
Stoic
doctrines
mingled
with
popular
superstition
appear
succes-
sively
in
the work
without
the
poet's tak-
ing
due
care to
reconcile
them, also
noted
the predominant role of Fortune: "La
Fortune
elle-meme,
qui
joue
un
role
important
dans
la
Pharsale,
est
une
d6esse
bizarre,
ou
mieux,
un
mot
obscur.
Est-elle
le
hasard,
ou
le destin?
On
ne
sait,
car elle
a
des
caprices,
meme
a
l'egard
de
ses
amis."3
Girard,
who
took
Souriau to
task
for
emphasizing
Lucan's
philosophy and
minimizing
his
poetic
invention,
con-
tinued
nonetheless
in
a
similar
vein,
find-
ing a blend of Stoic, Epicurean, and skep-
tic
elements
in
the
epic.4
Fortune
was
"la
divinite
de ces
temps,"
and
in
substituting
her
for the
Olympian
machinery, the
poet was only conforming to contempo-
rary
taste.
The major
nineteenth-century French
critics of
Lucan were well
aware
of
Fortune's
role
in
the
epic-Nisard
and
Girard
calling it
the poet's
substitute
for
the
divine
epic
machinery,
and
Souriau
taking
no
definite stand.
Our
own
century
has
witnessed
several
important
studies
that are
worthy
of
more
than
passing
notice. Pichon
cursorily
in-
vestigated the
problem
and
concluded
that whenever
Lucan
speaks
of
fate,
fortune,
or
the
gods,
he means
the un-
alterable decree of
destiny
to
which he
simply gives different
names.'
There is the
invaluable
paper
of
Friedrich,
who
main-
tained
that the critical issue in
Lucan
is
not
whether
fatum
and
fortuna
are one
and the same force or even cause and ef-
fect;
rather,
one
should
remember
that
the
Bellum
civile
partakes
of
the
nature of
a
confession,
and
the
apparent
difficulties
and
inconsistencies
can
easily be
resolved
if
the
reader will
bear
in
mind that
one's
attitude toward
fate
is
the standard
by
which Lucan
measures his
actors:
"Die
Stellung
des
Menschen
zum
Fatum
ist
der
Kanon, mit
dem Lucan
seine
Gestalten
und ihre Handlungen misst."I E. Malco-
vati
also
found
philosophical
inconsist-
[CLASSICAL
PHILOLOGY,
LXII,
October,
19671
235
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
3/9
236
BERNARD
F.
DICK
encies
in Lucan, but would
attribute
them
to the anxieties
of the
time and the
poet's
youth.7
There
is
often
a
vagueness
in
discussing
fatum and fortuna in Lucan. Pohlenz
speaks of
"die
schrille Dissonanz"
that
permeates
the
epic;8 Schonberger
speaks
of fate as "die Resultante
im Kraftespiel
des Wirkens von
Fortuna
und Gdttern."^9
There
are three
reasons for
this under-
standable
vagueness:
first, Lucan
is him-
self
at
odds with the
cosmos, wondering
whether fate
or fortune governs
human
affairs:
sive
parens
rerum,
cum
primum
informia regna
materiamque
rudem
flamma cedente recepit,
fixit
in
aeternum
causas,
qua cuncta
coercet
se quoque
lege tenens,
et saecula
iussa ferentem
fatorum
inmoto
divisit limite
mundum,
sive
nihil
positum est,
sed fors
incerta vagatur
fertque
refertque vices
et habet mortalia
casus
[2.
7-131.
Secondly,
fatum
and
fortuna
are
used
more
widely
in
Lucan than
in
any other
epic
poet, and with a variety of meanings.'0
We must
remember
that we are
dealing
with
a
poet
for whom
fortuna
can often be
a metrical convenience.
Hence,
such pas-
sages
in
which
fortuna
clearly
means
"power"
(e.g.,
1.
111;
8.
31,
558; 9.
202)
or
"'reputation"
(3.
169;
4.
342),
and such
commonplaces
as
fortuna
belli
(4.
402,
712;
6.
593)
need
not
detain
us.
Likewise,
fatum
can
be
used
in its
original
meaning
of "prophecy" (1. 599; 6. 820), and very
frequently
as a
synonym
for
mors
or
letum,
sometimes
appearing
in
the
same
context
with these
words
and
serving
only
to
amplify
their
meaning."
Thirdly,
fortuna
can
be
a
synonym
for
fatum.12
Thus
one
cannot
be
entirely
certain
that
in
every
context
fortuna
will mean
the
absence
of
any
known cause
for an
event,
or fatum, a fixed and determined order of
the world.
One
cannot
expect
a
poet
to
conform
to
a fixed
terminology.
Wherein
lies
the solution?
Poets
are
notoriously
inconsistent
philosophers;
the
truths
they expound
may be
cosmic,
but
lie far beyond
the boundaries
of definition.
If
Lucan
had expounded
a fully developed
theory on the government of the universe
with the
provinces
of
fate and
chance
clearly
defined,
the Bellum civile
would
be another
Paradise
Lost-a
hypothesis
that
no
critic
would
venture
to accept.
On
the
other
hand,
an
undue
emphasis
on
the youth
of the poet
and the
immaturity
of his
work
precludes
the possibility
of
criticism.
The crucial text
is
the Book
2 proem
in
which Lucan clearly shows that he is
aware
of a difference
between
fate
(fa-
torum
inmoto ...
limite) and
fortune
(fors
incerta vagatur).
Lucan
may
be uncertain
whether
chance
or
destiny
presides
over
the
government
of
the
universe, but
he
still
knows
the
difference
between them.
Fate
is inexorable,
fortune uncertain
and
erratic.
Furthermore,
Lucan
will
occasion-
ally use both words in the same context in
such
a
way
as to indicate
a basic
difference
between
the
two
ideas: Marius,
who
ex-
perienced
both
good
and
bad
fortune,
measured
the
full extent
of human ex-
perience
or fate
(2.
131-33);
Pompey's
fortune changed
with
his
marriage
to
Cornelia,
who
was fated
to
bring
destruc-
tion
to
her
husbands
(3.
21-23);
Fortune
hastens
to confer upon
Caesar
world
dominion, thereby hindering fate (3.
392-94);
the
fortune
of the
men at
Pharsalus
was
learned
throughout
the
world,
and all
heaven
lent
an
ear
to their
fate (7.
205-6);
Fortune
wreaks
havoc
at
Pharsalus
while
the
course
of
fate
moves
on
(7.
504-5);
the
fortune
of Caesar
and
the
fate
of
guilty
Egypt
debated
the
de-
struction
of the
realm
of
Ptolemy
(10.
3-6);
fate
gave
Egypt
a
great
capacity
for
crime,
and fortune
brings great
men
within
its
reach
(10.
384-85);
fate
opposes
the
attacking Egyptians,
and
Fortune
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
4/9
"FATUM"
AND
"FORTUNA"
IN
LUCAN'S
"BELLUM CIVILE"
237
acts as
a
protecting
wall for Caesar
(10.
485).
It is
clear,
then, that
Lucan can dis-
tinguish between
fatum
and
fortuna,
al-
though he is unable to decide which con-
trols
world
afftairs.
Knowledge
does
not al-
ways
preclude acceptance.
Still,
the
poet's
awarenesss
of
a
distinction
should
provide
the
key
to this
knotty
problem,
despite
the
fact that
the
words
will
not
have
the
same
meaning
in
every context
(and
this
sermantic
phenomenon
is not
peculiar
to
Latin).
Therefore,
a study of
isolated
passages would
be
futile;
one must view
fatum and fortuna within a wider frame of
reference. The context can
only be
pro-
vided
by
the
characters. The Bellum civile
is
not
mere
chronicle;
it
is
epic,
and with-
out
dramatic
representation
of
the
char-
acters,
epic
is
merely verse
history
or
romance. Therefore,
to understand
what
fatum and
fortuna
mean
to Lucan,
one
must
view them
in
relation to
the char-
acters
of
this epic.
THE
MARIUS
AND
ALEXANDER
DIGRESSIONS
Early
in
the
epic,
a
historical
digression
on
the
Marian
reign of
terror
appears
(2.
67-232), flowing
logically
from
what
has
preceded.
Caesar has
crossed
the Rubi-
con,
and
Rome
is
in
a
critical
state.
Matrons
supplicate
the gods,
and
old men
complain of their lot. One aged citizen,
quaerens
exempla
timori
(2. 67),
launches
into
a
digressive
speech on
Marius.
One
is
almost
tempted
to
dismiss
this
speech
as a
Nestorian
harangue,
but
actually
it
is
vital to
the
structure of the
epic.
The
citizenry
is
praeteritique
memor
...
metuensque
uturi
(2. 233).
Since the
populace is
"mindful of the
past,"
what
would
be more
apropos
than
an
em-
bittered
reminiscence of
the
Marian hor-
rors?
The
citizens are also
"fearful of the
future," that
is,
of
Caesar
and
incipient
warfare.
In
the imperial
exempla
litera-
ture,
Marius was a well-known
prototype
of one who had
enjoyed
bountiful luck
while
his
star was
in
the
ascendant, only
to suffer a reversal of fortune when at the
height of
his power;'3 he was at first
blessed with strokes of good luck
(felicitas)
that
raised
him
above the level
of
a
mere
general
and
gave
him
almost
superhuman
stature.14
In
fact,
in
the digression
Lucan
specifically calls Marius
felix (2. 74), but
by this epithet the poet does not mean
"lucky."
It has been shown
that Lucan
drew upon exempla that were
current
in
the early Empire;15according to this con-
cept
of
felicitas, anyone
who is
felix
is ear-
marked for disaster since the
felices are
under the
vacillating tutelage
of
a
capri-
cious
power,
Fortuna.
Marius
trusted
in
Fortune, won her
favor for a
time,
and
was
finally
abandoned
in
his critical hour
by this
fickle
agent. Is it
not
ironic that
prior
to
this digression-in a
passage
shortly to be discussed (1. 226)-Lucan
has Caesar swear allegiance to
this ver-
tiginous deity?
Thus,
the destinies
of
uncle
and
nephew,
of
past
and
present,
become
inextricably linked
in
an excursus that is
by
no
means
a
mere
remembrance
of
things past.
As
the climax nears
in
Book
10,
Caesar's
being
in
Egypt
provokes
a di-
gression
on
Alexander (10.
20-52), whom
Lucan also terms felix (10. 21), and who,
like
Marius,
was a
famous exemplum
of
Fortune's
favorite,
his rise to
power
and
death
both
being
attributed
to
her.'6
The
antimonarchical poet has
now linked
Caesar with
his
Greek
counterpart; the
consummate irony
would
have occurred
in
some later book
when
Fortuna
would
have at
length deserted Caesar just as she
did
Alexander
and
Marius.17
The Marius and
Alexander
excursuses
are
carefully constructed to blend
in
with
the ethical
function
of
the
epic.
Caesar's
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
5/9
238
BERNARD
F.
DICK
growing
dictatorial power suggests
a
digression on the rise
and fall of his uncle,
Marius; his occupation
of Alexandria
evokes
the Alexander digression.
Marius
and Alexander were Fortune's favorites of
the past,
Caesar, a felix of the present.
CAESAR
After
Caesar had received the
senate's
injunction forbidding
him to cross
the
Rubicon, he boldly
defied it.
If we can
trust the anecdotal
biographers,
the his-
torical Caesar let the
die be cast and pro-
ceeded across the stream
(Suet. lul. 32;
Plut. Caes. 32). Lucan, however, is not
delineating the
historical Caesar. Thus,
immediately
after the general has
crossed
the
Rubicon
and
reached the
Italian
side,
the poet
has
him
exclaim:
"'hic' . .
.
'hic
pacem
temerataque
iura
relinquo
;/te,
Fortuna,
sequor. procul
hinc
iam foedera
sunto;/credidimus
satis
his,
utendum
est
iudice
bello'" (1. 225-27).
Caesar was
a
well-known imperial
exemplum
of
Fortune's
favorite,18
al-
though
it
is doubtful
if
the
historical
Caesar
had
any
such
personal
belief
in
his
own good
luck.19 But
to
Lucan
anyone
who
swears allegiance
to
this
wilful and
capricious power
will
triumph
for a
time
but
will eventually be deserted
by
her.
Thus, almost
at
the
outset
of
the epic,
Caesar
is
paired
with Fortuna. She
deals
kindly with him (1. 309-11) and strives to
set
him
above
the whole
world
;20
he
chooses
her as
his
sole
companion
(5.
510),
and
it is
she
who saves
him from
drowning
in
the
Adriatic
(5.
696-97).
One
can
only imagine
how Lucan would have
depicted
Caesar's
death
when Fortuna
would
have
been
powerless
to
avert the
blows
of
the conspirators.
In
Book
3,
the hard
pressed
Caesar
decides
to
construct
an
agger,
using
wood
from
a
Druid
grove
(3.
399-453).
The
soldiers
are
ordered
to
fell the trees
in
the
grove,
but are overcome
with fear at the
solemnity
of the place.
Caesar thereupon
seizes
an axe, crying
that he will
assume
the
guilt for the profanation.
In despoiling
the sacred grove Caesar commits a sacri-
lege. The episode
builds up
climactically
to the pregnant
epigram,
"servat multos
fortuna nocentis/et
tantum
miseris irasci
numina possunt" (3.
448-49), and
tapers
off with a
poignant description
of the
plight
of
the
farmers
whose oxen were
forcibly
taken
to
carry
the wood
from
the plundered
grove.
The digression
is well
plotted, for it
allows the poet to introduce the Druids,
for whom he
had
great
sympathy
in addi-
tion
to
being adequately
informed of their
practices.2'
The Druids in
turn suggest a
cult place, the
destruction
of
which en-
ables
Lucan to
associate
Caesar
with
nefas,
a charge that
will remain with
him
throughout
the
epic. Fortune,
whom
Caesar
had
deigned
to
follow, "guards
the guilty." Hence, his sacrilege will go
unpunished,
but
only
for
the present.
Fortune
is
a
fickle power.
She
has
exalted
Caesar at
Pompey's
expense,
and
in
the seventh
book
the
poet
will
make
her the
causative
agent
in Pompey's
de-
feat
at
Pharsalus.
POMPEY
Throughout
the
epic,
Lucan
refers
to
Pompey for the most part as Magnus,22
the
title with which
Sulla
greeted
the
young general
after he
had
exterminated
the
remnants
of
the
Marian
faction
in
Africa
in
79
B.c.
A
few
years
earlier,
in
82,
Sulla
had taken
the
title
felix,23
and
now the young
Pompey
had
adopted
the
equally
imperious
Magnus,
henceforth
his
surname.24
Pompey's
emulation
of Sulla's
fortune
and his growing identification with the
dictator2'
soon
made
him a
living
legend
and
gave
rise
to
the
popular
belief
that,
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
6/9
"FATUM" AND "FORTUNA" IN LUCAN'S "BELLUM CIVILE"
239
like
Sulla, the
young
general
was
also
blessed
with
unexpected
good
luck
(felici-
tas).
In a
famous
passage
(De
imp.
Gn.
Pomp.
47),
Cicero
spoke in
precise and
guarded language about Pompey's felici-
tas,
inferring
that such
success
was
ulti-
mately
attributable to
the
gods and
should
not
be
the
object
of
boast
lest their
displeasure
be
incurred.26
Bearing
in
mind,
then,
that
even
in
the
Late
Repub-
lic,
Pompey
was
renowned
for
his
luck
(whether
divinely
bestowed
or
simply
unexpected
is
problematical),
and
that to
Lucan
anyone
who
is felix is
earmarked
for transitory glory and ultimate defeat,
let
us see
how the
poet
will
link
Pompey
with
Fortuna,
a
frequent
synonym
for
felicitas,27
beginning
in
the
seventh
book.
Book
7 is
the pivotal
point of
the
epic.
The
die
is
indeed
cast,
and
Lucan knows
that
Pompey's defeat is
inevitable.
Sud-
denly,
fortuna,
a word
rarely
used
in
rela-
tion
to
Pompey
in
the
first six
books,28
now
appears
with
alarming
frequency. It
is
perhaps
Fortuna
who
causes
Pompey's
dream
on
the
eve
of
battle (7.
23-24).
It
was
Fortuna
who
gave
Pompey
charge
of
Rome,
and it is
to
her that
he hands
back
the
city (7.
110).
Fortune, who
had
given him
boons in
the
past
(7.
68-69),
now
wrecks
his plans
(7.
665-66).
She
who had
long favored
him
demands
pay-
ment for
her
largess (8.
21-22);
summon-
ing him to death (8. 701-4), she over-
throws
him
(8.
707-8);
and
upon his
murder
by
Septimius,
it
is she
who
devises
a
makeshift
burial for
her
favorite
(8.
713). As a
fitting
climax,
Fortune is
con-
ceived
as
lying
in
the tomb
with
her
chosen
one,
Pompey (8.
860-61).
Lucan
has
simply
taken
over
the
popular
tradition
that
Pompey's
success
was
due to
unexpected
good luck
(for-
tuna, felicitas) and expressed it in epic
terms. It
is
not
fortuna
as
simply
"good
luck"
but
the
deity
Fortune
who
had
favored
Pompey
in
the
past
and
now,
in
his critical
hour, will abandon
him
to
Caesar.
Such
a concept would serve
Lucan
well. If Fortuna rapax were ultimately ac-
countable
for
Pompey's
defeat,
the
poet's
purpose
would be
accomplished.
Lucan's
unswerving
republicanism could
not
al-
low
him
to
admit that
Pompey
was
simply
inferior to
Caesar as a
commander,
and
that the latter's
advanced
strategy
and
planning were
the decisive factors
in
Pompey's defeat
at
Pharsalus.
Further-
more,
Lucan is neither
a
scientific his-
torian like Polybius nor a pragmatic
Sallust.
He
is
a writer of
epic, treating
his-
torical
fact and
popular
tradition
in
poetic
terms.
CATO
Of
all
the characters
in
Lucan's
epic,
only
Cato, whose Stoic
rigidity was
recog-
nized in his
own
lifetime29 and whose
repudiation of
Fortune was a common-
place of the Porch,30 frees himself from
her mangling
hold. We are first
introduced
to
Cato
briefly
in
Book
2
when
the
idealistic Brutus
calls on the
Stoic saint
on
the
eve
of
the war.
In
his
flattering
address to
Cato,
Brutus states
that virtue
will
never
be
shaken from
the
Stoic's
breast
by any
reversal
of
fortune: "omni-
bus
expulsae terris
olimque
fugatae/
virtutis iam sola fides,
quam
turbine
nullo/excutiet fortuna tibi..
."
(2. 242-
44).
The
Brutus-Cato scene
is an admirable
prelude
to the ninth book,
in which
Cato
appears
as a
fully
delineated character.
The
Pompeians
are in Africa
where they
are
suffering untold
hardships from
the
elements and
deadly serpents.
In an
effort
to seek
an end to
the
fruitless warfare,
Labienus asks
Cato to
consult the oracle
at
Ammon.
Cato
refuses, and
replies
in-
stead
with
an
exposition of the Stoic
pantheism:
Fortune has no
power
to op-
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
7/9
240 BERNARDF. DICK
pose
Virtue since
men are fragments
of
the divine,
and
the sapiens-knowing
that
whatever he sees,
whatever
movement
he
makes,
is God-has
no need
to consult
an
oracle:
quid quaeri,
Labiene, iubes? an
liber in armis
occubuisse
velim potius
quam regna videre?
an sit vita nihil sed
longa an differat
aetas?
an noceat
vis nulla bono
fortunaque
perdat
opposita virtute minas, laudandaque
velle
sit satis et
numquam successu
crescat honestum?
... .... ...
...
...
.. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. . .... ... .
................
superos
quid quaerimus
ultra?
Iuppiter
est quodcumque
vides,
quodcumque
moveris [9. 566-80].
Cato's rejectioll of fortune and his
elucidation
of the Stoic fatum3'
are
of
great importance
in
understanding
the
epic.
At last there
is one
person whom
Fortune
cannot touch.
One can
only
imagine the wealth
of Stoic
commonplaces
that
would
have issued forth
from Cato's
mouth had the poet
lived to
include the
suicide at
Utica
in
his
epic.
By a subtle use of dramatic fore-
shadowing,
Lucan
has
prepared
the
reader
for Book 9 through the
Curio episode
of
the
fourth book. Curio,
intent
on
winning
Africa from the
Pompeians,
arrives
in
Libya;
in his quest
for glory he
immediate-
ly
asks one of
the inhabitants
about
the
realm
of Antaeus.
Libya
suggests
the
regna
Antaei
which
in
turn evoke
a narra-
tive
that is
strongly
reminiscent
of
the
Cacus-Hercules episode in Aeneid 8 where
Aeneas
and his companions
arrive
at the
Palatine
and discover
rites
in
honor
of
Hercules being
celebrated
by
Evander,
who
proceeds
to relate
the
story
of
Cacus
and
how it
was that
Hercules
was then
worshiped
in
Italy.
So,
too,
does
Curio,
upon
his arrival
in
a
strange
land,
seek
to
familiarize
himself
with the eleventh
labor
of Hercules
which
took
place
in
Libya.
There
are
perhaps
deeper
overtones
in
Lucan's
tale. Trained
in
the
school
of
Cornutus
who
taught
the
allegorization
of
myths,32
the poet would
not miss
so
invit-
ing an
opportunity
to draw
a moral
from
the tale.
Hercules
was
the exemplar
in
myth of
the Stoic
sapiens,33
and of
all the
characters in Lucan's epic, it is Cato who
represents
the
true Stoic
saint.
Curio
on
the other
hand,
is not a
sage.
He believes
in the
good
luck attached
to the
spot
where
he resolves
to pitch
camp-a
spot
where
the victorious
Scipio
had
also
en-
camped;
he is convinced
that
the
lucky
spot
will win wars
for
him
and
repeat the
successes
of
former
heroes:
Curio laetatus,
tamquam
fortuna
locorum
bella gerat servetque ducum sibi fata priorum,
felici
non fausta
loco tentoria
ponens
indulsit
castris
et collibus
abstulit
omen
sollicitatque
feros
non
aequis
viribus hostis [4.
661-65].
Defeated
by Juba,
Curio
will perish
on
the selfsame
ground
because
of
his fool-
hardiness.34
Cato,
the
true sapiens,
will
reach North
Africa
in
the
ninth
book,
and
suffer
the
scorching
rays
of
the sun
and
the perils of serpent-infested sands. Her-
cules,
the
sapiens
in
myth,
struggled
with
the
giant
Antaeus
in
Libya,
where
Curio
sought
in
vain
to win
renown;
Cato,
the
sapiens
in
actuality,
will struggle
with the
forces
of nature
in
this
primitive
land,
but
being
a saint
will
triumph
over
them.
If we must have a substitute for the
absent
deities
of the
Bellum
civile,
then
it
would
be
more correct
to
say
Fortuna
and
fatum
fill
the
void
left by
the
discarded
divine
machinery.
When
we see
how
they
function
in
regard
to
the
characters,
then
the
"shrill
dissonance"
that
ostensibly
permeates
the
epic
can
be
resolved.
Lucan
employs
the
ambivalence
of
For-
tuna
for
a double purpose:
the
same
mobile
and
erratic
power
can champion
Caesar
and
overthrow Pompey.
Both
have
enjoyed
her ephemeral
favors,
and
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
8/9
"FATUM" AND "FORTUNA" IN LUCAN'S "BELLUM CIVILE"
241
both
in
turn were deserted by
her-
Pompey at
Pharsalus, Caesar, ultimately
on the avenging Ides of March. Lucan's
poem is a warning to
all
who
would choose
Fortuna as their patron; she had showered
Alexander, Marius, Sulla, Curio, Caesar,
and Pompey with
fleeting success, only to
demand recompense
when the felices
most
required
her
protection. Cato,
on
the
other
hand, has
only contempt
for
Fortuna and those who follow her; his
obedience is to the Logos that is immanent
in the universe.
IONA COLLEGE
NOTES
1.
Three late
nineteenth-century
works were
un-
fortunately unavailable
for
this
paper
and are
known
to
me
only
through
reviews
in
Bursian's
Jahresbericht:
M.
Souriau, De deorum ministeriis
in Pharsalia
(Paris,
1885) and
F.
Oettl, Lucans
philosophische Weltan-
schauung
(Brixen, 1888),
both
of
whom
found
Epicu-
rean
elements
in
the poet's use
of
fortuna;
J. E.
Mil-
lard, Lucani sententia de deis et de fato (Utrecht, 1891),
who claimed
that
Lucan was
sympathetic
to
Stoicism,
and
that Fortuna
in
almost all cases means
fate
itself,
a
personal
deity,
or
an
agent
executing
the
bidding
of
fate. L.
Jeep reviewed
all
three works-Souriau and
Oettl
in
Jahresbericht ii. d. Fortschritte d.
class. Alter-
tumswissenschaft,
LXII
(1890),
177-78,
and
Millard,
ibid.,
LXXXIV
(1895), 112-13.
2. D.
Nisard, Etudes
de moeurs
et de
critique sur
les
pogtes latins de
la
decadence,
112
(Paris,
1849),
76.
3. M.
Souriau,
"Du
merveilleux dans
Lucain,"
Revue
de 1'histoire des
religions,
XIV
(1886),
210.
4. J.
Girard, "Du
r6le
des
dieux dans
la
Pharsale,"
Journal des
savants,
April, 1888, p. 194.
5. R.
Pichon,
Les
sources de Lucain (Paris, 1912),
p.
175.
6. W. H.
Friedrich, "Cato,
Caesar und
Fortuna
bei
Lucan,"
Hermes,
LXXIII
(1938),
420.
7. M.
Anneo Lucano
(Milan, 1940), p.
59. Her
treatment
of
fate,
however,
has
been
aptly
termed
"unclear"
by
R.
Helm,
"Nachaugusteische
nicht-
christliche
Dichter,"
Lustrum,
I
(1956),
222.
8.
M.
Pohlenz,
Die
Stoa,
12
(Gottingen,
1949),
283-84.
9. 0.
Sch6nberger, "Zu
Lucan. Ein
Nachtrag,"
Hermes,
LXXXVI
(1958),
235.
10. Fortuna is
used
144
times, and
fatum, 254,
both
in
sing.
and
pl. forms,
according
to
Housman's
text,
the
one
used for
this
paper.
A
Concordance to
Lucan, ed. Deferrari, Fanning, Sullivan (Washing-
ton,
D.C., 1940),
lists
fatum 258
times,
owing
to
vari-
ants
in
1.
227;
5.
137,
695;
7. 354.
11. Cf. 3. 196
(with
mors), 242,
604, 634; 4.
474,
480
(with letum), 557
(with
mors);
5.
283, 683; 6.
244,
299; 9. 615
(with
mors), 733
(with letum),
786,
825,
833
(with
mors), 849;
10.
21,
515.
12. Cf.
the
observations of C.
Bailey,
Religion in
Virgil
(Oxford,
1935), pp. 235-37.
13.
Val.
Max. 6. 9. 14
(Kempf);
Sen. Contr. 1.
1.
3, 5; 7.
2. 6; Juv.
10.276-82. On the
rhetorical
exempla
(Marius,
Cicero,
Pompey, etc.) in
Juvenal
and
their
relationship to
the elder
Seneca, cf. J. de
Decker,
Juvenalis
declamans
(diss., Ghent,
1912), pp.
42-43.
14. This seems to have been the general notion of
the
ancient
concept
of
felicitas
before
the
Empire; cf.
R.
M.
Haywood, Studies on
Scipio
Africanus
("The
Johns
Hopkins
University
Studies in
Historical
and
Political
Sciences," LI:
1
[Baltimore, 19331),
p. 13.
A. Passerini, "II
concetto antico
di
Fortuna," Philol.,
XC
(1935), 97 on
the contrary
considered that
felicitas
was a
power
immanent
in
man-a
view
refuted
by
H. Erkell,
Augustus,
Felicitas,
Fortuna
(G6teborg,
1952), pp.
43-45, who
reviewed the problem
and con-
cluded
that the word
initially
indicated
"gottlicher
Segen,"
the
blessing
of
the
gods
which
a
great
man
earns through his pietas, his dutiful affection (hence,
the
highly formulaic and
exact
taking
of
the
auspices
by
a
general
before
battle
in order
to obtain
felicitas).
Whether
the
word continued
to possess so
heavily
re-
ligious a connotation is
doubtful,
and I.
Kajanto,
God
and
Fate in
Livy
(Turku, 1957), p.
74 has
observed
that
felicitas
as
"gottlicher
Segen"
is
hardly applicable
to
every
usage
of
the
word,
and
like
fortuna, felicitas
often means
good
luck.
The
adjective
felix, then,
can
denote either success due
to the
gods
through
a
man's
dutiful
affection to
them,
or
merely
"lucky,"
and
be-
ginning with
Sulla
in
82
B.C. could
be taken as a
cogno-
men
bestowed
by
the senate
upon
a
victorious
gen-
eral,
although later writers considered
such a
surname
a bold move; cf. Plin. NH 22. 6. 12, who terms it a
superbum cognomen.
15. C.
Bosch,
Die
Quellen
des
Valerius
Maximus
(Stuttgart, 1929),
pp.
33-34.
16. Val. Max.
1.
7
ext.
2
(Kempf).
17.
Lucan may
have
had in mind
either
Livy 8. 3.
7,
where
Alexander's
death
is
ascribed
to
Fortune,
or
he
may
have been influenced
by
the
Peripatetic-Stoic
tradition which
attributed Alexander's
success to For-
tune;
for
the ancient
sources,
cf. E.
Schwartz,
"Cur-
tius
Rufus,"
RE,
IV
(1901),
1880-82.
18.
Val. Max. 6.
9.
15
(Kempf); Plut.
De fort.
Rom.
11
(Mor.
324).
19.
T. R.
Holmes, Caesar's
Conquest
of Gaul2
(Ox-
ford,
1911), p. 41, claimed
that
Caesar
had a
personal
belief in Fortune, a view since discountenanced; cf.
W.
W.
Fowler,
"Caesar's
Conception
of
Fortuna,"
CR,
XVII
(1903),
153-56;
E.
Tappan,
"Julius
Caesar
and
Fortuna,"
TA
PA,
LVIII
(1927),
xxvii;
H.
Ericsson,
"Caesar
und
sein
Gliick," Eranos, XLII
(1944), 69;
I.
Kajanto,
op.
cit.
(above,
n.
14), p. 16.
20.
Cf. also 4.
256; 5. 582,
593,
668, 677; 6.
141;
7.
734,
796.
21. Cf. 1.
450-65 and
J. A.
MacCulloch,
The Re-
ligion
of
the
Ancient Celts
(Edinburgh,
1911), passim;
P.
Duval,
"Teutates,
Esus,
Taranis,"
EC, VIII
(1958), 41-58.
22. Lucan
calls
him
Magnus 193
times,
Pompeius
81
times.
23. On the monarchical overtones of Sulla's cogno-
men, cf. J.
Carcopino, Sylla
ou la
monarchie
manquge2
(Paris, 1931),
pp.
94-95; J. P.
V. D.
Balsdon,
"Sulla
Felix,"
JRS,
XLI
(1951),
1-10.
24. When
the
surname became
offlcial is uncer-
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Thu, 1 Jan 201518:03:35 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Fatum and Fortuna in Lucan's Bellum Civile
9/9
242
BERNARD
F.
DICK
tain; cf. J. van Ooteghem,
Pompee le Grand
(Brussels,
1954), p. 66, n. 2.
25. Cf.
ibid., p. 69. Cic. ad
Att. 9. 7. 3 realized
Pompey's
Sullanism too late:
"mirandum enim in
modum
Gnaeus noster Sullani regni
similitudinem
occupavit."
26. Cf. also
Vell. Pat. 2.
53.
3
and
Florus 2.
13
(Rossbach).
27. Cf.
I.
Kajanto, op. cit.
(above, n.
14), p. 75.
28.
Fortuna occurs only
flve
times In
relation to
Pompey in the flrst six
books: 1. 135 (fortuna as
"power"); 2.
568 (perhaps equivalent to
"fate");
3. 21, 169; 5.
755.
29. Cic. Mur. 64;
Att.
1.
18. 7; 3. 8. Cf. further,
H.
Nelson,
"Cato the
Younger
as
a Stoic
Orator,"
CW,
XLIV
(1950), 65-69.
30. Sen. Epist. Mor.
24.
7-8;
98.
12.
31.
Commenta Bernensia 9. 573 is
especially sound
on
this
passage:
"his versibus locum
stringit
de
fato;
hoc
omnia
esse
constricta et
ex
aeternitate
quadam
catenatione
causarum
implicata
destinatis diebus
et
nasci et flniri, mentesque nostras iam tunc ita forma-
tas secundum voluntatem
deorum
(id est Fatorum)
cuncta facere, et debere nos aequo animo necessitati
publicae parere
tamquam domino subiectos."
32. Sen. Epist. Mor. 88. 5; Gell. NA 2. 6. 1; 9.
10. 5.
33. Idem De
const. sap.; Ben.
1.
13. 3.
34. Caesar (BC 2. 38-42) relates the incidents
leading up to Curio's defeat, and in his usual de-
tached style indicates
that
the
tribune's
rashness was
the decisive factor.
Lucan also
perceived this fault
in
Curio, but E. Longi,
"Tre
episodi
del
poema
di
Lu-
cano,"
in
Studi
in onore
di
Gino
Funaioli
(Rome,
1955), p. 181,
maintains that the poet showed "pro-
found sympathy"
for Curio and also that there is
"pathos"
In
the tragic
ending
of
the
episode.
E.
Fraen-
kel, "Lucan als Mittler
des
antiken Pathos," Vor-
trdge
der Bibliothek
Warburg
(1924-25), 242-43,
has
shown
that
there
is indeed
pathos
in
the
Hercules-
Antaeus description,
but
hardly
in
Lucan's
depiction
of Curio's vainglory.
This content downloaded from 132 248 9 8 on Thu 1 Jan 2015 18:03:35 PM
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
top related