Tacitus, the epic successor : Virgil, Lucan, and the narrative of civil war in the histories / / by Timothy A. Joseph.

• Superior document: Mnemosyne supplements ; volume 345
• Author: Joseph, Timothy A.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum ; 345.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (227 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Tacitus the Epic Successor /; History as Epic /; The Deaths of Galba and the Desecration of Rome /; The Battles of Cremona /; Otho’s Exemplary Response /; “Savage Even in Its Peace” /; Bibliography /; General Index /; Index of Passages Discussed /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 1283551160; 9786613863614; 9004231285
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Timothy A. Joseph.

Allusions to the epic poets Virgil and Lucan in the writing of the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 55 – c. 120 C.E.) have long been noted. This monograph argues that Tacitus fashions himself as a rivaling literary successor to these poets; and that the emulative allusions to Virgil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Bellum Civile in Books 1–3 of his inaugural historiographical work, the Histories , complement and build upon each other, and contribute significantly to the picture of repetitive, escalating civil war in the work. The argument is founded on the close reading of a series of related passages in the Histories , and it also broadens to consider certain narrative techniques and strategies that Tacitus shares with writers of epic.