SOURCE: "Poetry and Philosophy" in Roman Poetry, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1923, pp. 153-220.

In the following excerpt, Sikes discusses Lucan's portrayal of Cato as a Stoic hero.

Iv

… The Pharsalia, like Paradise Lost, has been' said to want a hero; and, in the popular sense of the word, the criticism is quite true. Caesar is no more, if perhaps no less, the hero than is Milton's Satan, being rather the villain of the piece, although Lucan is forced to admit his greatness. Pompey is at least on the side of the angels, standing for law and order, for the established constitution, and for the unenlightened oligarchs whom Lucan thought to be champions of "freedom". But, in the Civil War, Pompey had become "the shadow of a mighty name", and, with the best will, Lucan could not make him a worthy match for Caesar. His death inspires some fine rhetoric...