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The Escalating Repetitiveness of Civil War: Lucanian Allusions in Tacitus' Account of the Conflict between Otho and Vitellius in Historiae 1–2
- Classical World
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 114, Number 2, Winter 2021
- pp. 171-199
- 10.1353/clw.2021.0001
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract
ABSTRACT:
This paper shows that Tacitus patterns his account of the civil war between Otho and Vitellius in Historiae 1–2 on Lucan's account of the conflict between Pompey and Caesar in the Bellum Civile. The characters involved, the setting of the decisive clash, and the sequence of events of the two conflicts are analogous. By emulating Lucan, Tacitus suggests that the civil war that he is recounting is the worst of all times, for both sides implicated in the conflict are potentially harmful for Rome.
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