This commentary on a part of book 5 of Lucan's 'historical epic' poem De Bello Civili aims to
provide the reader with as thorough an analysis as possible of literary and historical points
of interest within the text and so to facilitate a fuller understanding and appreciation of one
of the most important episodes in the poem Julius Caesar's failed attempt to cross the
Adriatic in the midst of a great storm. It examines how the episode contributes to the long
tradition of epic storm narratives dating back to Homer and also how it contributes to the
wider themes of the poem as a whole in particular to Lucan's portrayal of Caesar. A
line-by-line commentary is combined with longer notes summarizing issues of particular
importance. Such issues include: the influence of Roman love-poetry in the depiction of the
relationship between Caesar and his men Lucan's use of Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus episode
and the tradition of theoxeny narratives lying behind the scene at the home of the fisherman
Amyclas which allows us to view Caesar as 'playing the part' of a traditional god or hero.
Throughout Lucan's engagement with the works of Homer Virgil (particularly the Aeneid but
also the Georgics) Ovid and Seneca and the ways in which the lack of a traditional divine
machinery in his poem is compensated for are considered.
