Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars, credited to Lucan, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars by Lucan. (Translated by J. D. Duff.) Read in English by volunteer readers. Lucan's only surviving work, De Bello Civili, more generally known as the Pharsalia, is an epic poem about the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. The title given by posterity to the poem refers to the Battle of Pharsalus, which took place in 48 BC near the city of Pharsalus, in Thessaly. The work is important as an example of Roman Historic Epic, since divine intervention plays little part in the narrative and very few supernatural occurrences happen in the story. Lucan's Civil War is considered a major expression of literature from the Neronian times, and has attracted renewed scholarly attention in the past decades. The work remains unfinished, due to the untimely death of its author. - Summary by Leni

Recording facts

• Recording title: Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars
• Author credits: Lucan
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 20
• Listed recording duration: 9:23:23

Catalogue topics

• Roman history
• civil war
• julius caesar
• pompey the great

Track guide

1. 01 - Book I - The Crossing of the Rubicon, part 1 — 20:06
2. 02 - Book I - The Crossing of the Rubicon, part 2 — 35:21
3. 03 - Book II - The Flight of Pompeius, part 1 — 30:37
4. 04 - Book II - The Flight of Pompeius, part 2 — 25:52
5. 05 - Book III - Massilia, part 1 — 18:34
6. 06 - Book III - Massilia, part 2 — 25:06
7. 07 - Book IV - Caesar in Spain. War in the Adriatic Sea. Death of Curio, part 1 — 26:42
8. 08 - Book IV - Caesar in Spain. War in the Adriatic Sea. Death of Curio, part 2 — 28:17
9. 09 - Book V - The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm, part 1 — 29:19
10. 10 - Book V - The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm, part 2 — 25:33
11. 11 - Book VI - The Fight Near Dyrrhachium. Scaeva's Exploits. The Witch of Thessalia, part 1 — 29:51
12. 12 - Book VI - The Fight Near Dyrrhachium. Scaeva's Exploits. The Witch of Thessalia, part 2 — 28:50
13. 13 - Book VII - The Battle, part 1 — 29:37
14. 14 - Book VII - The Battle, part 2 — 47:44
15. 15 - Book VIII - Death of Pompeius, part 1 — 29:48
16. 16 - Book VIII - Death of Pompeius, part 2 — 31:13
17. 17 - Book IX - Cato, part 1 — 34:07
18. 18 - Book IX - Cato, part 2 — 29:57
19. 19 - Book X - Caesar in Egypt, part 1 — 21:44
20. 20 - Book X - Caesar in Egypt, part 2 — 15:04

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.