This edition contains the first full-scale commentary in English on an unjustly neglected part of Lucan's great epic. This second book portrays Cato, Caesar and Pompey in speech and action, and offers a flight from Italy given added pathos by its inversion of the flight from Troy celebrated by Virgil. If earlier generations found the account of the Marian and Sullan terrors distasteful, this generation cannot protest at a verbal narrative less violent than the images of current warfare and popular entertainment played and replayed before its eyes. Lucan's epic, more powerful than any prosaic record, still could not prevent the destructive violence that would break out less than five years after his death. But its world is very much with us.

Two kinds of knowledge seem particularly essential for the appreciation of Lucan; acquaintance with the Roman epic tradition, above all with the Aeneid, and familiarity with the history of the last generation of the Roman republic. The editor hopes that the fullness of historical annotation and supplementary material will enable students to overcome any lack of training in history; but there can be no substitute for the experience of reading Virgil. It is the chief purpose of this introduction and commentary to serve those who have already read at least some books of the Aeneid; only they can savour both Lucan's love of Virgil and his fiercely competitive reaction.