Lucan

Lucan was a Roman poet of the first century AD and author of the Civil War. His epic depicts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey without a conventional divine framework, emphasising political violence, tyranny and the destruction of republican liberty.

Lucan was born in Corduba and died in Rome. Lucan was a nephew of Seneca and achieved early favour under Nero, but their relationship deteriorated; implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy of 65, he was ordered to take his own life before completing his epic Pharsalia.

In Margaret George’s Emperor Nero, The narrative covers the Pisonian conspiracy and the enforced deaths of figures including Seneca, Lucan and Petronius, followed by Poppaea’s death, Nero’s artistic tour of Greece and the final revolts against his government.