Cautionary Tales for the Young: Lucan

to listen, read aloud

 Cautionary Tales for the Young: Lucan 

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan) was born in Córdoba (now Spain) but was brought to Rome as a child and introduced into the court of Nero by his uncle, Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Stoic philosopher and moralist). There Lucan wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote some more, perhaps the most flamboyant poetry of his era. But no one could be more flamboyant than Nero – or so Tacitus claimed. Disturbed by the attention it was getting, the emperor disparaged Lucan’s poetry and “with the foolish vanity of a rival, forbade him to publish it.” In turn, Lucan became involved in the Pisonian conspiracy to overthrow the emperor. 

Right: the unpublished Q Sterculinius Flaccus
Left: Lucan sitting in with Gerry Mulligan ca. 1988

    The plot may have involved too many co-conspirators. In any case, there were leaks, and before long a number of those identified with the conspiracy were either executed or forced to commit suicide; others were exiled. When the dead were counted, Lucan was among them, as was Seneca (who had barely escaped execution earlier by Caligula), and the satirist Petronius Arbiter. Thus, Nero managed to kill several birds with one stone, a flamingo, a crow, and a macaw; and no one said anything too colorful, too darkly serious, or too farcical ever again.

     Then, as the  poet Quintus Sterculinius Flaccus said (but never wrote down), Pervenimus ergo ubi nunc venimus.  “So, we have arrived where we have arrived today.”

06.03.17