The Roman Hannibal : remembering the enemy in Silius Italicus' Punica / by Claire Stocks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stocks, Claire, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hannibal, 247 B.C.-182 B.C--In literature.

Hannibal.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius--Criticism and interpretation.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius. Punica.

Hannibal, 247 B.C.-182 B.C.

Epic poetry, Latin--History and criticism.

Epic poetry, Latin.

Hannibal / 247 B.C.-182 B.C. / In literature.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius / Criticism and interpretation.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius / Punica.

Criticism and interpretation.

Epic poetry, Latin / History and criticism.

Punica (Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius).

Literature.

Local Subjects:

Hannibal / 247 B.C.-182 B.C. / In literature.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius / Criticism and interpretation.

Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius / Punica.

Epic poetry, Latin / History and criticism.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 276 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2014.

Summary:

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 scholarship 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 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 hit 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Roman Hannibal Defined 6

1 The power of the name 6

2 Reading the Roman Hannibal 9

3 Roman uiri are real men 11

Chapter 2 Before Silius: The Creation of the Roman Hannibal 13

1 Examining the Carthaginian texts: The tale Hannibal might have told 13

2 Hannibal in prose and verse: From Greece to Rome - Polybius and the Roman Hannibal 16

3 From prose to verse: Rome and her Hannibal - crossing genre boundaries 21

Chapter 3 Silius' Influences 35

1 Livy and his uiri (59 BC-AD 17) 35

2 Livy and Silius: Structuring the Hannibalic War 36

3 Livy's Hannibal in exile: A life after the Punica 46

Chapter 4 Epic Models 53

1 The paradox and the hero 53

2 Silius' Hannibal: More than Roman 75

Chapter 5 Silius' Roman Hannibal 80

1 The conception of Silius' Roman Hannibal: Juno, Dido, and Hannibal the uir 82

2 The influence of Dido 88

3 Fathers and sons: Hannibal and the 'Barcid' family 96

Chapter 6 Out of the Darkness and into the Light 103

1 Hannibal at Saguntum 103

2 Spectacle on the battlefield 108

3 The Saguntine envoys at Rome 113

4 At war with Hannibal: Rome and her uiri 114

5 Hannibal and Fabius: Delaying the man and his myth 122

6 Hannibal at Cannae: The fall of Paulus 126

Chapter 7 Hannibal's Decline after Cannae: Separating Man from Myth 133

1 Hannibal at Capua: The point of separation 134

2 Succumbing to luxury 138

3 Mago in Carthage: Propagating the myth 140

4 Pacuvius and Perolla: The power of the myth 143

Chapter 8 Imitators and Innovators 147

1 Marcellus 147

2 Marcellus in Sicily: The Punka in miniature 150

3 Marcellus: Tire 'new' Hannibal 152

4 Marcellus in Syracuse: The correct way to win a war 156

5 Marcellus vs. Hannibal: After Sicily 162

Chapter 9 Band of Brothers 167

1 The Barcids and Scipiadae: Brother vs. brother 167

2 Hasdrubal: A life in the shadows 170

3 Hasdrubal and Nero at Metaurus 174

4 Mago: The brother-in-arms 178

Chapter 10 The 'Lightning Bolts' (Fulmina) of War 182

1 Hannibal and Scipio part I 182

2 Scipio in the underworld: Out of the light and into the darkness 185

3 Scipio in Spain: The boy becomes a man 186

4 Hannibal and Scipio part II: Clash of the super-uiri 197

5 The battle of Zama 208

Chapter 11 The Man and his Myth: The Self-Defined Roman Hannibal 218

1 Books 1 and 3: Choosing Hercules as a role model 218

2 Book 6: Hannibal at Liternum: Erasing the past 221

3 Book 12: Hannibal at Rome: Titanic aspirations 223

4 Book 17: Hannibal above the plain of Zama: This is my myth 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-253) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781781380284

1781380287

OCLC:

868082855