Quid meruere nepotes. Responsabilità e merito nella Pharsalia di Lucano

The paper deals with Lucan’s Pharsalia, reconstructing the contexts in whichmeritum and derivatives appear, images that both involve the notion of merit asthat of responsibility. It is a highly visible and active presence within the poem,where such meanings frequently appear, characterizing both the actions of theprotagonists as the severe judgments of the narrator.