The work known as Lucan's First Book is Christopher Marlowe's translation of the first book of the Pharsalia, by the Roman poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39-65 CE). The Pharsalia , which is also known by the name Bellum Civile, treats of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, describes the battle of Pharsalia in Book 7 and breaks off when Caesar reaches Egypt. Lucanus was the nephew of Seneca, the famous statesman and tragedian whose work strongly influenced Elizabethan drama; he was also one of the chosen poets of Nero, until he conspired against him and was compelled to commit suicide at the age of 27. In Marlowe's work we therefore find one wildly-gifted and short-lived poet translating another, and when M