Lucan, in full Marcus Annaeus Lucanus AD39-65
Roman poet

Born in Corduba (C�rdoba), Spain, he was the nephew of the philosopher Seneca, the Younger. He studied in Rome and in Athens, and became proficient in rhetoric and philosophy. He was recalled to Rome by the Emperor Nero, who made him quaestor and augur. In AD60 he won the poetry competition in the first Neronia games. In 62 he published the first three books of his epic Bellum Civile (Pharsalia) on the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar. Nero, perhaps jealous of Lucan's literary successes, forbade him to write poetry or plead in the courts, and in 65 Lucan joined the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, but was betrayed and compelled to commit suicide. He was a precociously fluent writer in Silver Latin, but Pharsalia is all that has survived of his work.

Bibliography: M P O Morford, Lucan the Poet (1967)