Pharsalia

The words most alive here

When a word means “great” in every kind of book, is it describing the world, or the writer's wish to enlarge it?

• magnus 337
• bellum 296
• fatum 242
• do 195
• nullus 193
• caesar 185
• terra 180
• tantus 176
• fero 170
• arma 166
• video 158
• sui 158

By how often they stand in this work, the commonest particles set aside. Each opens onto its own word.

Read from it

• Extremaeque sonant, domita iam virgine, voces:

  Lucan, Pharsalia 5.193

• Impatiensque diu non grati victima sacri,

  Lucan, Pharsalia 1.611

• Collatura meae nil sunt iam vulnera morti:

  Lucan, Pharsalia 6.231

• Incensusque dies, manant sudoribus artus,

  Lucan, Pharsalia 9.499

• Corpora caesa tenent, spoliantque cadavera ferro.

  Lucan, Pharsalia 3.675

• Non sibi dant. Pro fas! ubi non civilia bella

  Lucan, Pharsalia 10.410

Doors

• Ask about the words of the Pharsalia →