Silius Italicus describes the mass panic in Rome during Hasdrubal’s invasion of Italy. In doing so, he also deals with the reaction of the senators. The nature of this description has not yet been fully understood in terms of content; Josef Delz even suggested changing the text. I argue for keeping the text and propose a new interpretation of the description: The author of the epic exaggerates the account of the historiographical source by having the Roman senators contemplate suicide and (...) reflect on its manner. As arguments for my interpretation, I draw on a parallel in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica (1.767–770), refer to the general importance of collective suicide in the Punica and relate this description to the conquest of Rome by the Gauls. (shrink)

Tradicionalmente se ha considerado a la antroponimia como la vía prioritaria de acceso al conocimiento de la piedad popular en el marco de las culturas del Próximo Oriente Antiguo. Sin embargo, determinados problemas asociados a la utilización de este tipo de material limitan sus posibilidades. En el presente trabajo, junto a la recopilación de la antroponimia fenicio-púnica hallada en la Península Ibérica, se ha intentado proceder a su contextualización en el marco de la religión cananea del primer milenio y su (...) expansión hacia el Mediterráneo occidental. (shrink)

This paper considers two scenes in Books 15 and 16 of the Punica of Silius Italicus: Hasdrubal’s celebration of the founding of Carthage with the ecphrasis of the general’s cloak (Sil. 15,410–440) and Scipio’s visit to the court of King Syphax (16,170–276). For both passages there are important reference texts in scenes of Vergil’s Aeneid and Statius’ Thebaid that have until now received no, or not enough, attention: Aeneas’ visit to the future Rome (Aen. 8,102–553) and the sacrifice of (...) Eteocles (Theb. 11,205–238). After a brief assessment of the historiographical basis, I set out the influence in content and language of these reference texts on the two scenes. Further, I consider the adaptation of other epic pre-texts in the ecphrasis of Hasdrubal’s cloak and propose a new interpretation: the ecphrasis links Hasdrubal to Ganymede, Polyphemus and Cacus, and Scipio with Jupiter, Odysseus and Hercules. The study highlights positive and negative aspects of the pre-texts and shows the ambivalent characterisation of Silius’ Scipio, who is associated both with positive figures (Hercules and Aeneas) and with the sinister Polynices. The shared reference of the two scenes of the Punica has a linking, framing and preparatory function. (shrink)

Columella invites his readers to plant different flowers, including violets—which will be the main focus of the following discussion :uerum ubi iam puro discrimine pectita tellusdeposito squalore nitens sua semina poscet, 95pangite tunc uarios, terrestria sidera, flores:candida leucoia et flauentia lumina caltae,narcissique comas et hiantis saeua leonisora feri, calathisque uirentia lilia canis,necnon uel niueos uel caeruleos hyacinthos. 100tum quae pallet humi, quae frondes purpurat auro,ponatur uiola, et nimium rosa plena pudoris.96 pangite Heinsius: pingite SAR || 99 nitentia Gesner || 101 (...) frondes SA: frondens R | purpurat auro ϛ: purpura tabo SAR: purpura et auro Ursinus: purpurat albo HeinsiusThis is the text of Rodgers's recent OCT, but with a somewhat modified apparatus criticus. For the purposes of my argument, it will be useful also to quote from the outset a related catalogue of melliferous flowers from another book of Columella's treatise : mille praeterea semina uel crudo caespite uirentia uel subacto sulco flores amicissimos apibus creant, ut sunt in uirgineo solo […] gladiolus narcissi. at in hortensi lira consita nitent candida lilia nec his sordidiora leucoia, tum Punicae rosae luteolaeque et Sarranae uiolae, nec minus caelestis luminis hyacinthus.There are a number of more general similarities, but the relevant point is that the two catalogues list many of the same flowers and describe them in similar ways, which means that one catalogue can serve as an interpretative guide to the other. The first two items in the prose list of garden flowers correspond to candida leucoia and calathisque uirentia lilia canis, similarly listed in the first half of the verse catalogue; nitent can thus support Gesner's emendation nitentia for uirentia, unduly neglected by recent editors. The metaphoric periphrasis gladiolus narcissi can be compared with narcissique comas. Both texts describe the hyacinth as sky-blue, which seems to be otherwise unparalleled. Finally, just like the prose list, Columella's poem groups roses with two varieties of violet :tum quae pallet humi, quae frondes purpurat auro,ponatur uiola, et nimium rosa plena pudoris.The prose version makes it all but certain that the poem should likewise refer to a yellow and a purple varieties of violet. While Columella's verse description of the former variety is fairly unambiguous, that of the latter raises questions. (shrink)

The authenticity of the Additamentum Aldinum (Sil. Pun. 8.144–223) has long been a matter of debate. While many scholars have expressed doubts that it is by Silius and suggest rather that it is from the hands of a skilful humanist, it has not, up to this time, been possible to provide solid evidence to support their intuition. This paper not only re-examines the standard arguments for and against authenticity but brings the latest computational stylometric techniques to bear on the question. (...) These analyses reveal that the style of the Additamentum differs in statistically significant terms from the rest of Silius’ Punica.1. (shrink)

L’annonce à Rome de la défaite de l’armée romaine face à Hannibal au lac Trasimène (217 av. J.-C.) déclenche une forte émotion collective. Un passage de l’épopée des Punica de Silius Italicus, un auteur de la fin du ier siècle, rapporte notamment cet épisode. Le personnage de Marcia, incarnation de l’idéal de la matrone romaine, évoque la mémoire de son défunt époux, le héros de la première guerre punique, Régulus. Elle tient un rôle de médiatrice et permet, par son (...) deuil, de transformer la « mort tragique » de Régulus en souvenir apaisé. Par le deuil collectif des soldats morts sur le champ de bataille, la société romaine reconnaît aux matrones une fonction « politique » : celle d’expulser, par leurs pleurs et leurs lamentations, la mort et l’émotion de la cité et d’assurer la transmission du souvenir des disparus, gage de la pérennité de la cité. (shrink)

Before proceeding to consider certain passages of Silius in detail I should like to enter a protest against the undue disparagement which has been meted out to this poet. The letter of Pliny , containing reflexions suggested by the voluntary death by which with stoical fortitude he sought release from the agony of an incurable tumour, presents to us a character which if not great was attractive; the character of a wealthy and kindly noble, who had made no enemies; one (...) whose house was the resort of men of letters; a devotee of poetry, who worshipped Vergil with almost religious veneration; a lover of the beautiful, who found his pleasure according to the accepted Roman fashion in amassing works of art and tasteful country mansions. Pliny's terse criticism of his poem ‘scribebat carmina maiore cura quam ingenio’ is more just than that of modern critics. Though Silius is not a great poet, a poet he is, with merits distinctly his own. His Punica is hardly an epic proper, but is rather a chronicle in verse: as such its author displays considerable skill in the clearness with which he marshals the mass of events, and in the realistic force of his descriptions, especially that of the plague , and those of the numerous battles, and particularly of the sea-fights ; and in the elaboration of geographical detail, where the vividness of the topographical presentation shows a well-trained eye and no common literary power The numerous episodes which enliven the poem, such as the legend of Pyrene , the killing of the monster serpent , the pretty description of Pan , are executed with much imaginative fancy which recalls the manner of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Again there is a dignity and sustained elevation of language which results not unfrequently in vigorous, well-turned phrases of no ordinary merit. Such are the expression for an echo xiv. 365 ‘clamat scopulis clamoris imago,’ or for breaking through the ranks of the treacherous Greeks xvii. 425 ‘periuria Graia resignat,’ or again the fine line describing the sobbing sound made by water rushing into a wrecked ship's hull and out again xiv. 550 ‘mox sua ponto | singultante anima propulsa refunditur unda.’. (shrink)

In Epistles 3,7, Pliny the Younger gives a short account of the life of Silius Italicus, who had recently committed suicide at his Neapolitan villa. Scholarship has not only considered this letter as a rather critical and unsympathetic description of the epic poet’s vita, but has also read some of its information (for example Silius’ veneration of Vergil and his passion for antiquities) to Silius’ poetics in general. In this paper, I shall highlight one specific intertextual connection - not proposed (...) to date - between this epistle and the Capua episode in Book 11 of Silius’ „Punica“. I shall show that Pliny the Younger, concurring with Martial’s similar representation of Silius (Epigr. 4,14), has to some extent modelled Silius’ retirement in Campania upon Hannibal’s enervating winter in the luxurious city of Capua. (shrink)

The Flavian writers of epic verse took their business seriously enough and seldom permitted themselves anything that might pass for an allusion to contemporary events: so much so that only an ingenuity that runs a risk of being perverse can wrest from them much more than what they have themselves chosen to say in their dedications or invocations. Where the man survived to complete and edit his work, such a dedication, the last thing to be written, more or less bears (...) on its face the date of publication. The proem of the Thebaïs of Statius and the ‘Flavian Panegyric,’ which Silius Italicus inserted in the third book of his Punica thus reveal, to within a year, when the whole of the one and a portion of the other were given to the world, viz. in 91–2 and in 92–3 respectively. With an unfinished work the case is different; indeed, the very presence of that panegyric might sufficeto prove that though Silius had reached the end, in a fashion, when he finished his seventeenth book, he did not truly complete his poem or himself publish it as a whole. In order to determine at what date he got as far with his poem as he ever did, some other source of information is therefore desirable. Similarly with the Argonautica. Valerius Flaccus does not appear to have composed any more than the eight books that have come down to us, nor is he known to have published any part of them save, if at all, by recitation. It is for this reason that the proem, with its invocation of Vespasian, to all appearance as still living, has always been taken to be, not a later insertion, but an integral part of the first book, and thus a clear indication of the date at which Valerius began his task. (shrink)

This article adopts a revisionist approach to the intertextual relationship between Statius’Thebaidand Silius Italicus’Punica, two contemporary Flavian epics that interact with one another (first centurya.d.). As such, this is not only an excellent illustration of intertextuality in action but also a prime example of how texts can be read in either direction depending on which takes precedence. Since both epics overlap in time, it is precisely the difficulty in establishing the direction of influence between the two poets that opens (...) up texts in creative ways by allowing further readings. Of course, such an overlap calls for a shift in power from the author onto the reader in constructing meaning in text. However, textual evidence only allows us to do so much. It is my contention that Statius could not have interacted with Silius’Punicabeyonda.d.92, which is the year when he published hisThebaid. This is also the year when Silius is thought to have composed Book 12 of thePunica. Therefore, Statius could only effectively engage with Silius up toPunicaBook 12, it seems, while Silius carried on writing the remainder of his seventeen-book-long epic. Still, there is ample material from Statius’Thebaidand Silius’PunicaBooks 1–12 to explore in terms of mutual influence. A critical trend in Flavian scholarship has produced a list of parallels between the two epics showing Silius’ potential borrowing from Statius and vice versa. As recently discussed in Ripoll's study, the most significant parallel inviting close comparison is Hannibal's siege of Rome inPunicaBook 12 and Capaneus’ assault on Thebes inThebaidBook 10. In this article, I would like to return to these two specific episodes and read them alongside each other. The purpose of the reading is to evaluate whether this single interaction changes the model of how we think about the intertextual activity between Silius and Statius, before the final publication of theThebaidina.d.92, when Statius could still revise, amend and polish in the light of thePunica. (shrink)

Both in the fourth book of Cicero’s De signis (Verr. 2,4) and in the fourteenth book of Silius Italicus’ Punica, there are descriptions of the city of Syracuse at important points of the texts. In this paper, both descriptions are combined and for the first time thoroughly related. I discuss form and content of the accounts, show their functions in their oratorical and epic contexts and consider their similarities. The most important facets, where the descriptions coincide in, seem to (...) be their link to Marcellus’ conquest in the Second Punic War, the resulting precarious beauty of the city and the specifically Roman perspective on which these ekphraseis are based. (shrink)