Cleopatra and Caesar: Lucan, Civil war 10

Abstract

This paper discusses how Lucan depicts the encounter between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra in book 10 of the Civil war. The narrator appears greatly disturbed by the way the Egyptian woman meddles with an episode of Roman history. I propose to show how Cleopatra assumes a dominant position in this passage and explain how this example of female power is seen in the (male-centred) Roman perspective offered by Lucan. To this end, I present this section of the Bellum ciuile in the context of the literary tradition dealing with Roman-Egyptian relations, especially as regards Cleopatra. Caesar’s attitude in book 10 ends up changing the narrator’s view of the general. I discuss the implications of this change for the poem as a whole. It is noticeable that the conflict between different models of femininity and masculinity enacted in the passage is linked to the internal contradictions of the narrative voice in its view of the role which Rome must play as an empire.