Paesaggi della fine del mondo in Lucano

In Lucan’s Bellum civile there are several references to the ‘end of the world’ or to ‘another world’, set beyond the limits of the ecumene. The depiction of the landscape of these remote and exotic places shows some recurring features, intended to emphasize their alterity and marginality in relation to the known world. This paper analyzes some of these landscape elements, such as the appearance of the sky, rivers and the Ocean, and climatic zones, highlighting the recurrence of common motifs, and illustrates the rhetorical origin of many of these topoi, which are linked in particular with the tradition about Alexander the Great.