![]() ![]() Virgil is mentioned at 8.593-594, where Silius says of Virgil's hometown Mantua that it was "home of the Muses, raised to the sky by immortal verse, and a match for the lyre of Homer." Indeed, Virgil is considered Silius' most pervasive influence. Silius says that his account of Ennius' fight is his attempt to "hand down to long ages noble deeds, too little known, of a great man." He describes Ennius' birth, his prowess in war, and has Apollo prophesy his future, saying "he shall be the first to sing of Roman wars in noble verse, exalting their commanders to the skies he shall teach Helicon to repeat the sound of Roman poetry." Rome) famous in song, saying "his poetry embraced the earth, sea, stars, and shades and he rivaled the Muses in song and Phoebus in glory," to which Scipio replies, "If Fate would allow this poet to sing of Roman deeds, for all the world to hear, how much deeper an impression the same deeds would make upon posterity if Homer sang of them." Ennius is a character in Book 12 of the Punica (12.387-414), where he participates in a battle in Sardinia. Silius' sybil praises Homer as the preeminent, universal, and divine poet who made Troy, (i.e. Homer is mentioned at 13.778-797, where Silius has Scipio meet his shade in the underworld. Silius specifically names Virgil, Homer, and Ennius as his epic inspiration. Naevius' influence cannot be gauged, because of the almost total loss of his poem on the First Punic War. From the time of Naevius onwards, every great military struggle in which the Romans had been engaged had found its poet. In choosing a historical subject, the Second Punic War, Silius had many poetic predecessors. Silius should not be viewed as a simple transmitter of his historical sources, as "Livy in verse", but should be viewed as a poet who, while making use of historians, is not bound by the rules of historiography but rather of poetry. It is known that Silius also used other historians as sources. Livy is considered his single most important historical source however, Silius distinguishes his work from Livy's by often embellishing themes which are only briefly treated in Livy and altering the focus of his narrative. Silius, as a poet of historical epic, had to make use of both historical sources and poetic models. Virgil was Silius' most important model, and he was personally devoted to Virgil. ![]() Poetic models and historical sources Ī 3rd century AD depiction of Virgil on a mosaic from Hadrumetum. According to the epigrams of Martial cited above, the poem met with some success and was compared with the Aeneid. The poem is a work of Silius' old age, and thus his time spent at his Campanian villas collecting antiques and giving recitations, presumably of the Punica. 96 AD, although since those dates do not include the first two or final three books, they must remain approximate. Thus, composition dates for the poem must be set at c. At 14.685-88, the mention of a contemporary vir who has brought peace to the world and put a stop to illegal theft has been interpreted as referring to the accession of Nerva in 96 AD, although this reference to Nerva has been disputed. Thus the passage puts a terminus post quem for Book 3 at 83 AD. At 3.600ff., during Jupiter's prophecy about the future of Rome, significant events are described from the Flavian dynasty and the life of Domitian, such as the death of Vespasian, Titus' destruction of Jerusalem, Domitian's adoption of the title Germanicus (83 AD), and the burning of the Capitoline temple in 69 AD. Two passages of internal evidence also help date the Punica. 7.63, dated to 92 AD also describes his work on the poem. Martial 4.14, a poem dated to 88 AD, describes Silius' work on the Punica, mentioning Scipio and Hannibal as the subjects of the poem. There is external evidence for composition dates from some of the epigrams of Martial. ![]() ![]() The dates of the Punica's composition are not entirely clear. A depiction of Hannibal crossing the Alps, a significant scene in the Punica. ![]()
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