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The Elements of Slaughter: On a Prophetic Acrostic in Lucan Bellum civile 7.153–58

Following recent work on the narrative significance of acrostics in Lucan, this note presents a newly identified acrostic in Bellum civile 7.153–58: CAEDE. Occurring alongside a description of prophetic omens, the acrostic references the traditional role of acrostics in Sibylline prophecies and provides an alternate voice of narratorial comment. Lucan uses the acrostic’s many potential meanings to reveal the ambiguity of who, in this poem, is culpable for the crime of civil war.