Exempla Mala: The Crisis of Memory in Lucan

Mark A. Thorne (University of Iowa)

The recognition of memoria as an important theme in Roman literature has been a growing field of research in the past decade (e.g. Edwards 1996, Feldherr 1998, Walter 2004, Gowing 2005).  Alain Gowing in particular has recently shed light on the crucial importance of memoria as a theme within Lucan’s Bellum Civile, arguing that the epic constitutes “a sort of counter-memory of the civil war” (84) that sets itself up in competition against the oblivio often favored by the Julio-Claudians.  The aim of this paper is to build upon Gowing’s assessment by investigating Lucan’s use of the concept of the exemplum, a concept that has not yet been fully examined in this light.  I argue that the traditional exemplum within Lucan’s epic world suffers a functional breakdown, and a brief investigation into the first three uses of this word in the epic (1.94, 2.67, 2.514) will neatly illustrate in microcosm the problematic nature of memory in a world consumed by civil war. 

Livy’s prologue (Pr.10) provides the clearest model for how a traditional exemplum is intended to function.  His history is a monumentum full of every kind of exemplum (omnis…exempli documenta) from which you can see what should be imitated (quod imitere) and what should be avoided (quod vites).  These exempla—essentially loci memoriae— are thus beneficial and fruitful (salubre ac frugiferum) for those who consider them.  Lucan’s use of the word, however, shows that the exemplum in his epic no longer always carries this beneficial function.  Its first appearance is at 1.94 when Lucan explains that Rome need not look elsewhere to find a model for fraternal bloodshed (nec gentibus ullis | credite nec longe fatorum exempla petantur) as Romulus himself provides a clear model.  While unproblematic at first glance, a closer look shows that this kind of exemplum does not create any beneficial affect, for instead of producing a memory of fratricide that leads the people of Rome to avoid such behavior, in Lucan’s world they are on the verge of imitating it on a grander and more horrific scale.  The second appearance of exemplum at 2.67 produces a similar affect.  Facing the prospect of another civil war, an anonymous old man steps forward and thinks of a “model of great fear” (magno quaerens exempla timori); he then begins a narrative memory of the bloody purges of Marius and Sulla (2.68–233).  Once more, such an exemplum seems to have salutary potential, but the closing lines of the episode reveals otherwise: sic maesta senectus | praeteritique memor flebat metuensque futuri (2.232–3).  Rather than spur the people on to any kind of beneficial or fruitful activity, the memory provided by the exemplum only reinforces the people’s fear, making them more susceptible to defeat at Caesar’s hands.

The third instance comes after Caesar has conquered Corfinium and has exercised his (in)famous clementia over the Pompeian general Domitius Ahenobarbus.  In so doing, Caesar effectively transforms Domitius against his will into a walking exemplum or memory of Caesar himself (victis iam spes bona partibus esto | exemplumque mei, 2.513–5)—in this case an exemplum of a dominus and his power to grant life through the stripping away of libertas.  Thus, from Lucan’s perspective, Domitius as a model cannot exert any beneficial affect but is doomed only to confirm the all-consuming power of the dominus who will destroy Rome.  These three illustrations of exempla that can no longer function as they should thus provide further evidence that Lucan depicts the very issue of memoria itself in crisis within his epic’s fractured world of civil war.