Cato in Libya (Lucan 9)

Abstract

After Pompey’s defeat at Pharsalus and his assassination in Egypt, Cato tries to reorganise the republican forces in North Africa. His fight is a political and philosophical one. Lucan presents this challenge by means of a fantastic crossing of the Libyan desert as well as through speeches by Cato and his interlocutors. This paper attempts to show how the shape of the narrative exposes the dilemmas faced by the characters and the narrator himself in this context of crisis. I shall address the order  of the contents in book 9, the narrator’s interventions, the use of direct speech and the manipulation of African geography.