Replacing Rome: Geographic and Political Centrality in Lucan's "Pharsalia"

Abstract

Replacing RomeThat Lucan's Pharsalia is a narrative of disillusionment is widely recognised in recent criticism. 1 That it bemoans Rome's loss of power to a would-be tyrant is, currently, almost an axiomatic observation.Although this paper relies on these assertions it does not intend to reiterate them in any detail, but instead aims to investigate a particular series of connections that appear to have passed unnoticed: the distinctive parallels Lucan constructs between Rome and three other geographic locations -Delphi, Pharsalus, and Ammonand the ways in which he uses these sites to represent the Urbs' physical and conceptual dislocation.Although at the epic's outset Lucan places Rome at the world's midpoint and depicts the relationship between the city and its contemporary ruler, Nero, as one of co-dependent significance, he soon destabilises the equilibrium.The contradictory geography Lucan creates symbolises contested power: Caesar's desperate grab for command literally carves up the world and undermines Rome's assumed role as the political pivot of the globe.The Pharsalia's multiple centres illustrate Caesar's irresistible force.Of the three locales, Delphi and Ammon are associated with Rome's past; Lucan equates them with the mores maiorum, especially in the figure of Cato, and the senatorial government, led by Pompey, that Caesar threatens to overthrow.As Caesar's political and ethical rivals, they occupy a peripheral position, while Pharsalus' bloodied fields, which mirror Caesar's appetite for destruction, are granted centre stage.Via this triadic interplay of location, individual personality and the idea of Rome, Lucan asserts that the Urbs' assumed centrality is neither guaranteed nor necessary in the impending Caesarian universe.* * * * * In order to examine the political geography of Lucan's epic the proem requires some prefatory remarks.The poet's enigmatic encomium of Nero has generated a disproportionate amount of commentary.While resolution of its internal contradictions seems impossible, one more proposition may, however, be added to the pile: the Nero proem introduces Lucan's preoccupation with the politics of space and one-man rule (1.53-8).sed neque in Arctoo sedem tibi legeris orbe nec polus aversi calidus qua vergitur Austri, unde tuam videas obliquo sidere Romam.aetheris inmensi partem si presseris unam, sentiet axis onus.librati pondera caeli orbe tene medio 2The poet's insistence that Nero's prospective divinity claim a seat at heaven's midpoint assigns corresponding positions and, by implication, corresponding roles to Rome and the emperor.Just as the deified Nero will be the focal point of all heavenly beings so Rome is, by association, the pivot of the terrestrial globe.A metaphorical balance of power has become literal: if Rome and the emperor are not situated in the middle of the universe, then this universe will be thrown out of kilter.3 This reciprocal relationship between Rome and its ruler has led Masters to affirm "the Romanocentrism of the Caesarian universe" in the Pharsalia.4 Yet this assertion entails further speculation.Although the proem establishes Rome's geographic centrality via the Urbs' political associations, it nonetheless betrays anxiety over the emperor's relationship to the capital.5 If, as Lucan's expression implies, Nero's dominance is such that he may shift his power away from

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