Completeness Pharsalia

susanna braund argues that, poem have been finished, have ended cato s death.

almost scholars agree pharsalia have unfinished. (there is, however, debate whether poem unfinished @ time of lucan s death, or if final few books of work lost @ point. braund notes there little evidence 1 way or other, , question must remain matter of speculation. ) argue lucan intended end poem battle of philippi (42 bc) or battle of actium (31 bc). however, both of these hypotheses seem unlikely, have required lucan pen work many times larger extant (for instance, ten-book poem have today covers total of 20 months time, seems unlikely that, poet have continued pace, work covered 6 17 year time-span). another, more attractive argument (according susanna braund), lucan intended poem sixteen books long , end assassination of caesar. however, has problems, namely lucan have been required introduce , rapidly develop characters replace pompey , cato. might have given work happy ending , seems tonally inconsistent poem whole. ultimately, braund argues best hypothesis lucan s original intent 12 book poem, mirroring length of aeneid. biggest internal argument in sixth book lucan features necromantic ritual parallels , inverts many of motifs found in virgil s sixth book (which details aeneas consultation sibyl , subsequent descent underworld). , if book 12 books long, braund contends have ended death of cato, , subsequent apotheosis stoic hero.

conversely, latinist jamie masters argues opposite: finale of book ten indeed ending work lucan intended. masters devotes entire chapter hypothesis in book poetry , civil war in lucan s bellum civile (1992), arguing being open-ended , ambiguous, poem s conclusion avoids kind of resolution, [still] preserves unconventional premises of subject-matter: evil without alternative, contradiction without compromise, civil war without end.