Civil War and Trauma in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica

Valerius Flaccus’ Flavian epic Argonautica is replete with civil war. In this chapter I will look at one of the most obvious evocations of civil war in the Argonautica, the Cyzicus episode in Book 3, which is tainted by the civil wars that followed Nero’s death in 68 CE and brought the Julio-Claudian dynasty to an end. In dealing with these traumatic experiences the narrator is inspired by Lucan’s Neronian epic on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, which was written just before the civil wars of 68–69 CE and almost seems to predict what was to happen after the death of Nero.