SOURCE: "Lucan's Apotheosis of Nero," Classical Philology, Vol. LIX, No. 3, July, 1964, pp. 147-53.

In the following essay, Thompson contends that Lucan's description of the deification of Nero indicates that the originally proposed terminal date for the poem should be much later than critics have assumed.

Since epic poets customarily state their subject at the beginning of their poems it may be assumed that at the time Lucan wrote verses 1-66 of the Bellum civile he had fixed in his mind the outline of the whole, however vague the particulars of the design may have been and however altered they may have become as the work progressed. In 1950 R. T. Bruere suggested that the complete poem would have encompassed the whole period of civil warfare from 49 B.C. to the peace following Actium.¹ More recently, 0. A. W. Dilke has inclined to the same view,² whereas H. P. Syndikus has...