The unexpected return of Lucan’s Pompey to civil war as a ghost (9.1–18) leads to newfound success vis-à-vis enemies and allies alike. The language and imagery of this postmortem narrative revisits the portrait of Pompey’s decline in Books 1–2, where it activates a latent theme of victorious return in spite of death. Pompey’s acts of possession as a ghost further intensify the impact of his return, insinuating his presence into the subsequent history of Roman resistance to Caesarism.