Petrarch's Lucan and the Ambiguities of Ancient Heroism

This article reconsiders the issue of Petrarch's reception of Lucan's political views. Its contention is that Petrarch does not regard Lucan as a fiercely anti-Cesar author, as scholars have often assumed, but rather as the poet of both Caesar and Pompey and as a narrator who is able to highlight the different standpoints, virtues, and shortcomings of the two opposing commanders. In his works, Petrarch exploits the ambiguities that he already finds in Lucan's text to produce ambivalent representations of both Caesar and Pompey. At the same time, Petrarch substantially re-adapts the "Bellum Civile" from a Christian perspective: he extols Lucan's heroes as models of fortitude, and yet in so doing shows the intrinsic inferiority of pagan heroism to Christian virtus.