Lucan

MARCUS ANNEUS LUCANUS, (loo'kan,) an eminent Roman poet, B. in Spain,38 A. D., was educated at Rome. Hewas a nephew of Seneca(q. v.), and attracted so much reputation by his early poems, that the emperor Nero himself competed with him in a literary contest, and was worsted. Having by this means lost that monarch's favor, L., in conjunction with others, entered into a conspiracy against his life. The plot having become discovered, L. suffered death in 65 A. D. His reputation rests mainly upon the l'harsalia, a powerful epic descriptive of the war between Cæsar and Pompey. [s. 559]