We would all agree that Lucan fits the mould of the metapoetically aware author who employs Callimachean poetics in a dense web of inter- and intratextual allusions demarcating his place as Neronian author and Virgil's epic successor. Annemarie Ambühl addresses Lucan's drive to be more than his literary predecessors — indeed the leitmotif ‘plus quam’ rings through all of Neronian Rome. She specifically focuses on Lucan's imitatio and aemulatio of the three mythological cycles of Troy, Thebes and the journey of the Argonauts. By including this mythological material, Lucan positions himself as reader not only of the Homeric epics, Attic tragedy and Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica but also of any Roman adaptations and readings thereof. In sum, so A. argues, we are touching the essence of Lucan's strategy of being ‘more than’ when studying Lucan's use of this material as it allows him to outdo not only the epic tradition, but all genres which were part of the literary canon.

A detailed and remarkably well documented introduction (1–54) situates this study in the methodological landscape of Lucan studies and outlines its focus on generic enrichment, a form of intertextuality in which according to Harrison (2007) ‘generically identifiable texts gain literary depth and texture from detailed confrontation with, and consequent inclusion of elements from, texts which appear to belong to other literary genres’ and which proposes a distinction between formal, thematic and metageneric elements (24). Furthermore, A. identifies both Greek and Roman tragedy as well as Hellenistic poetry as important intertexts for Lucan's epic. She exemplifies this in the second chapter (55–178) which examines the use of mythology in Lucan's similes, catalogues and excursus. In addition, two appendices at the end of the volume (479–84) organize Lucan's mythological material in tables under sub-headings such as Thebes, Argonauts, Troy, Sons of Atreus, Hercules, Gigantomachy and Rome and list the regions, rivers and cities used in his excursus on Thessaly, and thus provide an instantaneous overview of the myths Lucan employs in his epic. A. convincingly identifies a number of myths as essential for Lucan's crescendo of civil war in BC 1 and its culmination in BC 7. Here alone we find referenced the solar eclipse caused by the meal of Thyestes, the Theban war between brothers and the stories of Agaue, Lycurgus and Hercules who all kill their children in a state of madness. Lucan seems to provide a reading of Greek mythology that highlights instances of inter-familial and fraternal strife and uses them as foils for his depiction of Roman civil war. A., however, highlights that Lucan also weaves references to historical events into his exempla so as to be able to outdo all of mythology and history at once, and also all of literary history, through his own depiction of civil war.

A. then provides two chapters which offer an illuminating in-depth analysis of Lucan's use of the Theban mythological cycle (179–288) as well as the Trojan one (289–368). A. here leaves no stone unturned and highlights numerous parallels between Theban tragedy and Lucan's epic ranging from Caesar's prohibition of burying the dead after the Battle of Pharsalus as compared to Creon's decree to the same effect (259–75) to a comparison of the funeral of Pompey with that of Polynices (276–85). By referencing Theban myth, Lucan on the one hand condenses the conflict of Roman civil war to that of one tragic family in which brother kills brother and father son; on the other, by referencing the first global (Trojan) war, he simultaneously claims that very title for his war as well and fashions it as a global conflict of cosmic dimensions. The myth of the Argonauts and Apollonius’ Argonautica in particular provide a further foil for Lucan's encounter with the geography of mythology. Accordingly he directs his historical epic towards Hellenistic poetry as the catalogue of snakes in BC 9 (wonderfully dubbed ‘grotesker Totentanz’ by A. (402)) showcases.

A.’s excellent study ends by highlighting how small genres such as Hellenistic epigram and elegy shape the Hellenistic aesthetic of the ekphrasis of Cleopatra's palace and banquet (369–96). A. proposes to read the epic journey of Lucan's protagonists from Thebes/Thessaly via Troy to Alexandria as suggestive of the literary genres incorporated (tragedy, Homeric epic and Hellenistic poetry). All these feature side by side similar to Lucan's conflated timeline where past and present co-exist. They thus provide a collective intertext which effectively serves as a backdrop of violence which finds its culmination in Lucan's Bellum Civile.

The entire volume is a treasure trove of bibliographical detail and mining the footnotes will provide many a detailed overview of intricate scholarly debates. A. roots her findings in secondary literature but always makes clear where she dissents or re-interprets. Her arguments are clear and convincing; this is a truly good book and should be required reading for anyone interested in the texture of post-Virgilian epic.