Lucano e la violazione del paesaggio

This article studies Lucan’s ambivalent attitude towards the motif of the violation of the landscape in Lucan’s Bellum civile, and in particular the relevance in this regard of the model of Xerxes, the archetypal violator of nature. In 1, 19-20 Lucan regrets that the blood shed by the Romans did not serve to impose the yoke on the river Araxes; the image of the yoked river can suggest the idea of the yoking of the hellespont by Xerxes (see Serv. Aen. 8, 728). however, in the case of a war of conquest, this is seen as a positive thing. In the simile com- paring Crassus with the Isthmus of Corinth (1, 100-103) the theme of the great violations of the territory is introduced; the cut of the Isthmus, Nero’s well-known project, is here seen in a negative light, but will be recovered in a positive light in 6, 57-58. We then consider three passages in which Caesar is presented as a violator of nature: 2, 650-679 (with explicit comparison with Xerxes), 3, 375-452, 4, 130-143. Finally, we return to consider 6, 29-60, where works comparable to those of Xerxes are presented in a positive light.