One is the enumeration of Pompey's exploits "Quod si tam sacro dignaris nomine saxum--" The other is the character which Cato gives of Pompey, "Civis obit, inquit--" a pure gem of rhetoric, without one flaw, and, in my opinion, not very far from historical truth.

When I consider that Lucan died at twenty-six, I cannot help ranking him among the most extraordinary men that ever lived.
[The following remarks occur at the end of Macaulay's copy of the Pharsalia August 30, 1835.
"When Lucan's age is considered, it is impossible not to allow that the poem is a very extraordinary one; more extraordinary, perhaps, than if it had been of a higher kind; for it is more common for the imagination to be in full vigour at an early time of life than for a young man to obtain a complete mastery of political and philosophical rhetoric.

I know no declamation in the world, not even Cicero's best, which equals some passages in the Pharsalia.

As to what were meant for bold poetical flights,--the sea-fight at Marseilles, the Centurion who is covered with wounds, the snakes in the Libyan desert, it is all as detestable as Cibber's Birthday Odes.

The furious partiality of Lucan takes away much of the pleasure which his talents would otherwise afford.