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The Agony of Departure: Silius Italicus' Punica 17.149-290

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Frances Mills
Frances Mills*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, flmills@students.latrobe.edu.au
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Extract

So much of Silius Italicus' Punica seems familiar. To read this epic is to be confronted by so many allusions to earlier poets that it is difficult to maintain a serious perusal of the poem without thinking ‘not another storm at sea / battle scene / catalogue of troops’. We have read it all before, it seems. Silius is a notable exponent of the tradition described by Conte as ‘emulative allusion’, a tradition which ‘both conditions the later poet's work and helps him to formulate its distinctive qualities.’ For example, Princess Asbyte, who appears in Book 2 during the battle of Saguntum, is a clear allusion to Virgil's Camilla, and the sea-battle in the harbour of Syracuse in Book 14 powerfully echoes Lucan's vivid description of the battle of Massilia in Book 3 of his Bellum Civile. There are catalogues of troops which emulate Homer in style, and the battle of Saguntum itself seems to encompass many of the battle scenes of the Iliad and the second half of the Aeneid.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 43 , 2009 , pp. 50 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2009

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