Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus

(c. 26-101 CE) is the name of the Roman statesman and poet who wrote this epic in dactylic hexameter on the Second Punic War (219-201 BCE), also known as the Hannibalic War, the most famous of the three wars which the Romans waged against their great Republican adversaries, the Carthaginians (map). At 12,204 verses, the Punica is the longest extant epic in Latin. The work spans seventeen books, but may have been originally composed, or at the very least planned, in eighteen. It is uncertain whether the poem remained incomplete at the time of Silius’ death and whether it suffered mutilation at some point in its manuscript transmission (or whether both of these calamities took place).

Summary

The epic furnishes a selective account of the major action of the Second Punic War, beginning with Hannibal’s oath of eternal hatred against Rome and ending with Scipio’s triumphant return to the city after his victory at Zama. Between these twin narrative poles, Silius recounts the fall of Saguntum (books 1-2); Hannibal’s march over the Alps with elephants during his journey from Spain to Italy (book 3); the Roman losses at the Ticinus River, the Trebia River, and Lake Trasimene (books 4-6); the stalemate between Hannibal and Fabius (book 7); the Roman disaster at Cannae (books 8-10); Hannibal’s winter at Capua and later failed march on Rome (books 11-12); the falls of Capua and Syracuse (books 13-14); the Roman victory at the Metaurus River (book 15); and Scipio’s successful campaigns in Spain and Africa, culminating in his victory over Hannibal at Zama (books 16-17[18?]). The central theme of the poem is the significance of the Second Punic War in Roman history. In order to organize such a vast undertaking, Silius vigorously engages with his forerunners in the genres of historiography and epic. The two primary literary models for the Punica are the third decade (Books 21-30) of Livy’s history Ab urbe condita, the longest surviving ancient narrative of the Second Punic War, and Vergil's Aeneid. In writing about the Second Punic War, Silius contributes to an extremely rich and diverse array of traditions which have been handed down in Greek and Latin works from all periods of ancient history.

Book VI

consists of four major parts

1. Silius offers a glimpse of the tristis ... virtus still producing miracula (line 54) in the field on the morning after the engagement at Lake Trasimene (217 BCE), as Mago and Hannibal hunt down the few surviving Romans in flight (lines 1-61)
2. In a lengthy excursus (the digression that links the past war with the present, lines 62-551), the wounded Serranus, son of Regulus and soon to become consul suffectus in place of the fallen consul C. Flaminius, arrives at the humble abode of the aged veteran Marus, who recalls Regulus' famous exploits in the First Punic War (264-241 BCE)
3. News of the army’s defeat reaches Rome and the Senate chooses as Dictator the aged Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator (“Delayer”) (lines 552-640)
4. Hannibal marches through the region until he reaches Liternum; there, upon seeing on a temple wall murals depicting Rome’s victory over Carthage in the First Punic War with Regulus as a central figure, he angrily orders his soldiers to burn the sanctuary to the ground (lines 641-716).

The Excursus in Book VI

likewise consists of four major parts

1. Silius refers to the son of the hero Regulus as Serranus (a later cognomen of the Atilii). Wounded and alone, he spends the entire day and much of the night struggling to make the journey from Lake Trasimene to Rome, until he enters the region of Perusia (Perugia) where he comes upon a lowly hut. Marus, an old soldier and close comrade of Regulus, answers the knock at his door, immediately recognizes Serranus as the son of his former commander, and ushers him into his home, where he lays him down on a bed, tends his wounds, and gives him food and drink before retiring for the night (lines 62-97)
2. The next morning, Marus rises before dawn to attend to his guest. As he does so, Serranus beseeches his deceased father to come to the aid of Rome and laments the recent Roman disasters at the Ticinus River, the Trebia River, and, most of all, at Lake Trasimene. In an attempt to calm the young man, Marus praises Regulus and recounts how he accompanied him on the invasion into Africa after Rome’s victory over Carthage at the battle of Ecnomus (256 BCE), when, among other exploits, Regulus slew a massive serpent along the banks of the Bagradas River (lines 98-293). Given his status as narrator, it is tempting to discern in the name “Marus” at least a faint allusion to P. Vergilius “Maro.” Moreover, the story about Regulus and the serpent recalls the story about Hercules and Cacus recounted by Evander for Aeneas in Aeneid 8.184-279
3. Serranus again bemoans the loss of his father and the current state of Roman affairs, and Marus resumes his tale. Suffering from the ravages of the Roman invasion, Carthage called in the Spartan commander Xanthippus to lead them on to victory. Soon thereafter, Regulus was defeated and captured at the battle of Tunis. Having kept him in captivity for some five years (255-250 BCE), the Carthaginian Senate sent Regulus to Rome under oath, to negotiate an exchange of prisoners and/or to negotiate terms of peace. Marus accompanied his commander on this journey and witnessed first-hand the hero’s welcome which Regulus received from the Roman Senate, the people, and, most of all, his wife, Marcia, still dressed in mourning and accompanied by their sons, Marcus and Gaius (lines 294-414:)
4. In reply to Marus’ question whether he remembers that fateful day (250 BCE), Serranus sadly recalls how his father coldly refused even to embrace his family. Marus picks up the narrative thread, confirming that, despite Marcia’s pleas, Regulus ignored his family and passed by his ancestral home, choosing instead to stay in Carthaginian lodging. The next day Regulus came before the Roman Senate and delivered an impassioned speech urging the Senators not to exchange prisoners or to come to terms with the enemy, but instead to permit him to return to Carthage to meet his end. Marus accompanied Regulus back across the Mediterranean; after witnessing first-hand Regulus' violent death by torture, he returned to Rome to report the deed (narrator poenae). With still more praise for Regulus, Marus ends his tale (lines 415-551).

Themes

As a whole, the material in the Book VI excursus on Regulus concentrates on a single theme: fides; specifically, the purported dichotomy between fides Romana and fides Punica. Indeed, at several pivotal moments in lines 62-551, either the concept fides or the goddess Fides herself is invoked: by Silius in his capacity as narrator (lines 63-64), by Marus (lines 129-132, 377-380, 490-493, 545-550; cf. lines 386-388), by the Carthaginian Senate (lines 346-349), and by Regulus (lines 467-472, 484-489). In his references to Regulus (all confined to the first six books), Silius consistently hails the Roman consul and general as spes et fiducia gentis / ... Hectoreae and as exemplum fidei.

And yet, in the excursus the poet provides us with a different perspective on Regulus: not his public fides, but his private perfidia toward his wife. Bewildered by his choice to remain in enemy custody, Marcia implores her husband to rejoin his family in his own home, assuring him that she has been faithful to their marriage contract by keeping his bed chaste, preserving his household gods, and providing him with offspring (lines 438-443). Later, when her appeal to Regulus not to desert her but either to remain with her or to take her with him back to Carthage goes unanswered, Marcia condemns him as a perjurer: data foedera nobis / ac promissa fides thalamis ubi, perfide, nunc est? (lines 517-518). In general, this episode, in which Regulus is captured by the Carthaginians in battle, is sent to Rome, and, finally, is taken back to Carthage in order to meet his death by torture, offers an interesting and important case study for the Roman law of postliminium. According to this law, any Roman soldier captured in battle became the slave of his captor and, thereby, lost both his public and private rights as a civis Romanus. If, however, the soldier was able to escape his captor and return to Rome, then he would regain his rights in full, once he had crossed “behind the threshold” (post limen, hence postliminium, i.e., the sacred pomerium of the city). This is the general definition of the ius postliminii, but there are many details about the law and its function which remain unclear. Regulus, however, upon his return to Rome, chose not to exercise his right to postliminium. Instead, he chose to forgo his public rights (i.e., his seat in the Senate) and private rights (access to his wife and family), perhaps because technically he had not escaped his captors but was still in Carthaginian custody. As a consequence, Regulus was not ransomed by the Romans, and, after delivering his message to the Senate, he returned to Carthage for his punishment. In the context of the Punica, these scenes from the excursus transform Regulus’ journey from Carthage to Rome, his rejection of Marcia, and his return from Rome to Carthage into a repetition and reversal of the events of Aeneid I-IV, with Regulus reprising the role of Aeneas and Marcia that of Dido.

Note on the language of the Punica:

In general, Silius, like his fellow Flavian epic poets, Valerius Flaccus and Statius, closely follows the example of Vergil in matters of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. However, there are a few noteworthy characteristics of Flavian epics which clearly distinguish them from the Aeneid. First and foremost, Silius makes use of the rhetorical figure known as hyperbaton (the rearrangement or transposition of words from their expected word order) more often than Vergil or Ovid. In addition, Silius also uses the infinitive and the participial forms of the verb far more regularly than his predecessors in epic. Accordingly, special note will be taken of these features in the glosses on the two passages from Punica VI.