(25) The island of Pharos, which lay over against the port of
Alexandria, had been connected with the mainland in the
middle by a narrow causeway. On it stood the lighthouse.
(See Book IX, 1191.) Proteus, the old man of the sea, kept
here his flock of seals, according to the Homeric story.
("Odyssey", Book IV, 400.)
(26) Younger sister of Cleopatra.
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Pharsalia, [Civil War] by Lucanus
PREPARER'S NOTES:
Lucan's "Pharsalia" (or, "Civil War", as many scholars now prefer
to call it) was written approximately a century after the events
it chronicles took place.
Lucan was born into a prominent Roman family (Seneca the Elder
was his grandfather, and Seneca the Younger his uncle), and seems
to have befriended the young Emperor Nero at an early age. He
was for several years a poet of some prominence in the Emperor's
court, and it is during this period that the "Civil
War"/"Pharsalia" was probably begun. However, Nero and Lucan's
friendship evidently soured, and in A.D. 65 Lucan joined
Calpurnius Piso's conspiracy to overthrow Nero. When the
conspiracy was discovered, Lucan was given the option of suicide
or death; he chose suicide, and recited several lines of his
poetry while he died (possibly Book III, l. 700-712).
Lucan's "Pharsalia" was left (probably) unfinished upon his
death, coincidentally breaking off at almost the exact same point
where Julius Caesar broke off in his commentary "On the Civil
War".
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