Trampling over Troy: Caesar, Virgil, Lucan

Abstract

Caesar's visit to the site of Troy in Lucan, 9.950-999, is a scene of both decay and grandeur. After a lengthy absence from the narrative the blood-glutted victor of Pharsalus returns, in pursuit of his vanquished foe, Pompey. He comes upon Troy in his travels through the East. The city is neglected, decayed, virtually uninhabited andunrecognizable. The site of Troy, the reader understands, is laden with stories and history connected to Rome's origins, and has an especial significance for the 'gens Julia'. Caesar, standing amid these ruins, revels in these connections and proclaims his intention to resurrect Troy, a Roman Troy. The passage shows the past and futurecoming together. Yet it is not Caesar but his heir, Augustus, who achieves the recreation of Troy remade and on a grand scale. Apart from physical monuments proclaiming these connections, Virgil's Augustan epic, the 'Aeneid', expresses and creates links between Troy and Rome, and Augustus and Aeneas which are crucial to Augustan ideology. This paper explores Lucan's Caesar's responses to Troy andLucan's own reaction to Virgil and to the Augustan programme through this passage.