The Roman Hannibal
：Remembering the Enemy in Silius Italicus’ Punica
Publication subTitle ：Remembering the Enemy in Silius Italicus’ Punica
Publisher： Liverpool University Press
Publication year： 2014
E-ISBN: 9781781385920
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781781380284
Subject： I106.2 Poetry
Language： ENG
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Description
Silius Italicus’ Punica, the longest surviving epic in Latin literature, has seen a resurgence of interest among scholars in recent years. A celebration of Rome’s triumph over Hannibal and Carthage during the second Punic war, Silius’ poem presents a plethora of familiar names to its readers: Fabius Maximus, Claudius Marcellus, Scipio Africanus and, of course, Rome’s ‘ultimate enemy’ – Hannibal. Where most recent scholarship on the Punica has focused its attention of the problematic portrayal of Scipio Africanus as a hero for Rome, this book shifts the focus to Carthage and offers a new reading of Hannibal’s place in Silius’ epic, and in Rome’s literary culture at large. Celebrated and demonised in equal measure, Hannibal became something of an anti-hero for Rome; a man who acquired mythic status, and was condemned by Rome’s authors for his supposed greed and cruelty, yet admired for his military acumen. For the first time this book provides a comprehensive overview of this multi-faceted Hannibal as he appears in the Punica and suggests that Silius’ portrayal of him can be read as the culmination to Rome’s centuries-long engagement with the Carthaginian in its literature. Through detailed consideration of internal focalisation, Silius’ Hannibal is revealed to be a man striving to create an eternal legacy, becoming the Hannibal whom a Roman, and a modern reader, would recognise. The works of Polybius, Livy, Virgil, and the post Virgilian epicists all have a bit-part in this book, which aims to show that Silius Italicus’ Punica is as much an example of how Rome remembered its past, as it is a text striving to join Rome’s epic canon. This book offers a new reading of Hannibal in Silius Italicus’ Punica and provides fresh insight into how the Romans remembered their past. 1. New reading of the character of Hannibal in Silius Italicus’ Punica. 2. First published book-length discussion in English on Hannibal in the Punica. 3. Offers new insight into how Rome remembered its past. 4. First detailed discussion on Hannibal as a cultural icon in Rome’s literature. 5. Re-evaluation of the Punica as a text that combines historiographic and epic traditions. Augoustakis, A. (ed) (2010) Brill Companion to Silius Italicus. Leiden: Brill. Hoyos, D. (2008) Hannibal: Rome’s Greatest Enemy. Exeter: Bristol Phoenix. (Now LUP) Levene, D. S. (2010) Livy on the Hannibalic War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marks, R. (2005) From Republic to Empire. Scipio Africanus in the Punica of Silius Italicus. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Tipping, B. (2010) Exemplary Epic: Silius Italicus’ Punica. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The above constitute the major publications on either Silius Italicus or Hannibal in Rome’s literature within the last decade. I don’t think that any of these books provides any serious competition. Levene’s book focuses on Hannibal in Livy, and so overlaps with one of my chapters, but Levene approaches his subject from a Historian’s perspective and so he is not concerned with Hannibal as a cultural icon for Rome. Hoyos’ book does touch upon what Hannibal meant to the Roman psyche, but there is little (if any) consideration of the poetic texts on Hannibal. The Brill Companion to Silius Italicus does, of course, refer to Silius’ Hannibal but only in some of the articles and there is not a comprehensive discussion on the characterisation of Hannibal; in fact there is little overlap at all. The books of Ray Marks and Ben Tipping provide the grea
Chapter