Non credita muris: Epicurean Views of Death and Impotent Boundaries in Lucan Pharsalia I

Matt Crutchfield

University of Missouri-Columbia

Cum pressus ab hoste
clauditur externis miles in Romanus in oris,
effugit exiguo nocturna pericula vallo,
et subitus rapti munimine caespitis agger
Praebet securos intra tentoria somnos:
tu tantem audito bellorum nomine, Roma,
desereris; nox una tuis non credita muris. (1.514-520)

These six lines from the first book of Lucan’s Pharslia point to a larger theme within that book, the impotence of walls and boundaries against the force of Caesar. In the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia the Italian cities and Rome itself are gripped with fear of Caesar’s impending invasion. It is at this point that Lucan describes the terrified city of Rome; the senators have abandoned her in her time of greatest need leaving the battle about to be fought to the consuls (1.486-489). Quickly the vast population of Rome is abandoned and left empty to the attack of Caesar. In this paper I will argue that this powerlessness of limes in Lucan connects the Pharsalia to Epicurean philosophy.

This theme of an un-walled city echoes the Epicurean notion of the body as a polin ateixiston, Epicurus writes “Against everything else we can obtain security, but as far as death is concerned, we mortals all inhabit an unwalled city”. Lucretius develops this figure in his De rerum natura, 3.434-344, 554-557, 936-937, and 6.17 ff in which he describes the body as a sort of jar, or vessel, for the soul. Once the jar is broken, the soul escapes unharmed. Lucan later adopts this characterization of death and applies it to his characterization of Caesar, who Johnson calls a “Phantasmagoria” because of his stature in Lucan as super-human.

Caesar’s first act is crossing the Rubicon (lines 183-224). Here the image of Roma herself appears to Caesar as turrigero canos effundens vertice crines (188). The image of Rome Lucan presents is a matron in distress whose white hair is streaming from her turreted head. Caesar argues with her, then crosses the Rubicon, described as a limes (216). By crossing this boundary, Caesar has begun the civil war. Throughout book one Lucan constantly reminds his readers of either the ineffectiveness or emptiness of natural or man-made walls against the onslaught of Caesar. The citizens of Ariminum, the first to be attacked by Caesar, complain O male vicinis haec moenia condita Gallis, O tristi damnata loco! (248). The Arminians lament their location on the border of Italy and Gaul, for they see that their city will not be able to withstand the attack of Caesar and they blame their moenia, city walls. As the fear and rumors spread about Caesar impending invasion Lucan writes sic turba praecipiti lymphata gradu, velut unica rebus spes foret adflictis patrios excedere muros (495-497). Book one, like the Pharsalia as a whole, contains many thematic issues, one of which is the impotence of walls against Caesar, who symbolizes death. In Lucan’s Pharsalia walls whether natural, man-made or divine, are useless against impetus of death. This reflects a deeper influence of Epicurean philosophy in Lucan’s epic.