Roman Hannibal

About this book

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 scholariship on the 'Punica' has 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 in Silius' epic, and in Rome's literary culture at large. Celebrated and demonished 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. 'The Roman Hannibal' provides, for the first time, 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 of 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. -- Publisher's decription.