Pharsalia

Five things you didn't know about Nero:

1- His name is synonymous with egotism and debauchery - but this might be (somewhat) unfair. No contemporary sources have survived.

2- That said, did Nero fiddle while Rome burned? Nope. The fiddle hadn't been invented yet.

3- Okay, that's nitpicky. Nero was accused of fiddling while the city burned because he was widely accused of starting it. This is probably unknowable (Nero rushed to blame Christians, a sect previous Emperors mostly ignored) but Nero definitely took advantage of the fire, seizing the opportunity to build a massive palace, the infamous Domus Aurea (Golden House.)

4- Nero's economic policy has been compared to that of recent United States presidents - large-scale public works projects intended to create jobs. In short, Nero believed in the stimulus package.

5- Nero was the last of the "Julio-Claudian" Emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and then Nero.

Lucan made this face a lot. It got him killed. Progress is good.

Like a lot of classics, most translations were wooden and sound archaic.

It's one thing to read Shakespeare in his original words, but Lucan wrote in Latin (duh) and for a very contemporary audience - first-century hipsters. He was trying to be the Jon Stewart of his day - avant garde, satirical, and where the worldly types got their news. (You know, instead of the Fair and Balanced loud guy in the Forum.)

Of course, Nero's secret (and not-so-secret) police didn't look too kindly on tame economic criticisms, much less incitement to revolt and assassination.  Lucan's solution was to compose an epic poem about the civil wars between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, some 100 years prior. (Pharsalus, in Greece, was the site of the decisive battle.)

Lucan blamed the current political situation on Caesar's victory; an oversimplification, but really not too far off. While the Republic wasn't quite in living memory anymore, it certainly wasn't the distant past, either. Lucan's retelling is a tragedy for the lost Republic and having to endure Emperors.

Nero was an easy Emperor to roll your eyes at (in private.) He ruled Antistius, a top public official, should be put to death for speaking ill of his Emperor at a party. Antistius was far from alone. Nero also rode chariots, sang and danced for literally captive audiences.

Not even the Emperor could make this fashionable

So Lucan was a patriot? Well...maybe. His uncle Seneca had been Nero's tutor and desperately tried to steer the promising young Emperor towards sensible policies before giving up in despair. But Lucan had recently been a favourite of the Emperor's, winning an award at the Neronian Festival (there's that reputation for egomania) for extemporaneous speaking.

The two had a falling out. By some accounts, Nero simply tired of Lucan and moved onto new pets. By others, Nero grew insanely jealous of Lucan (he saw himself as a transcendent artist) and effectively proscribed his best work.

Robert Graves, who wrote I, Claudius (my all-time favourite book) was a man who knew his classical Latin and how to make it relatable, but still authentic. This is a rare skill. Like anything else, language and idiom ages - sometimes, not so well. (When was the last time you called anything groovy? Or tubular?)

This happened a lot under Nero. Also, above and around him.

Graves doesn't put words in Lucan's mouth, but keeps him from sounding like a bad parody of a Shakespearean soliloquy.

Pharsalia is essentially a historical novel - well, historical epic poem, anyway - so there's no worries about spoilers: Caesar wins, the Republic falls, stuff happens, and Emperor Nero makes his citizens applaud his mad dance skills. 

In another sense, though, Pharsalia has a different, depressingly predictable ending - it doesn't. 

It was never completed. Lucan was forced to commit suicide.

In 2010, 105 journalists were killed worldwide. Some things, sadly, have not changed.