Claire Stocks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781781380284
- eISBN:
- 9781781387252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380284.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
SiliusItalicus’ 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 ...
More
SiliusItalicus’ 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 Punicahas focused its attention on 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 inSilius’ 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. The works of Polybius, Livy, Virgil, and the post Virgilianepicists all have a bit-part in this book, which aims to show that SiliusItalicus’ Punicais as much an example of how Rome remembered its past, as it is a text striving to join Rome's epic canon.Less
SiliusItalicus’ 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 Punicahas focused its attention on 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 inSilius’ 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. The works of Polybius, Livy, Virgil, and the post Virgilianepicists all have a bit-part in this book, which aims to show that SiliusItalicus’ Punicais as much an example of how Rome remembered its past, as it is a text striving to join Rome's epic canon.
Claire Stocks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781781380284
- eISBN:
- 9781781387252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380284.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's focus: namely the character of Hannibal in SiliusItalicus’ Latin epic, the Punica. Firstly it draws attention to the potency of the name ...
More
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's focus: namely the character of Hannibal in SiliusItalicus’ Latin epic, the Punica. Firstly it draws attention to the potency of the name ‘Hannibal’ and the ability that this namestill has to enthral audiences thousands of years after the Carthaginian's death. From here the chapter shifts focus to SiliusItalicus, providing a brief overview of the ‘bad press’ that this author has received in the past and discussing the importance of this text for our understanding of what ‘Hannibal’ meant to Rome. The chapter concludes with a summary of the subsequent chapters and the various methodological approaches that are employed in them.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's focus: namely the character of Hannibal in SiliusItalicus’ Latin epic, the Punica. Firstly it draws attention to the potency of the name ‘Hannibal’ and the ability that this namestill has to enthral audiences thousands of years after the Carthaginian's death. From here the chapter shifts focus to SiliusItalicus, providing a brief overview of the ‘bad press’ that this author has received in the past and discussing the importance of this text for our understanding of what ‘Hannibal’ meant to Rome. The chapter concludes with a summary of the subsequent chapters and the various methodological approaches that are employed in them.
