Brill's Companion to Silius Italicus »

Antony Augoustakis, Ph.D. (2001) in Classics, Brown University, is Associate Professor of Classics at Baylor University. His publications include Motherhood and the Other: Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2010) and Plautus' Mercator (Bryn Mawr, 2009).

Contributors include: Enrico Ariemma; Paolo Asso; Neil Bernstein; Robert Cowan; William Dominik; Marco Fucecchi; Randall Ganiban; Bruce Gibson; Stephen Harrison; Alison Keith; Elizabeth Kennedy Klaassen; Helen Lovatt; Eleni Manolaraki; Raymond Marks; Frances Muecke; Arthur Pomeroy; Ben Tipping.

Only recently have scholars turned their attention to Silius Italicus' Punica, a poem the reputation of which was eclipsed by the emergence of Virgil’s Aeneid as the canonical Latin epos of Augustan Rome. This collection of essays aims at examining the importance of Silius' historical epic in Flavian, Domitianic Rome by offering a detailed overview of the poem's context and intertext, its themes and images, and its reception from antiquity through Renaissance and modern philological criticism. This pioneering volume is the first comprehensive, collaborative study on the longest epic poem in Latin literature.

Foreword and Acknowledgments Texts and Abbreviations Notes on Contributors

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Silius Italicus, A Flavian Poet, Antony Augoustakis

B. THE PUNICA: CONTEXT AND INTERTEXT

2. To Silius Through Livy and his Predecessors, Arthur Pomeroy
3. Silius Italicus: A Consular Historian? Bruce Gibson
4. Virgil’s Dido and the Heroism of Hannibal in Silius’ Punica, Randall T. Ganiban
5. Imitation and the Hero, Elizabeth Kennedy Klaassen
6. Silius and Lucan, Raymond Marks
7. Interplay: Silius and Statius in the Games of Punica 16, Helen Lovatt

C. THE PUNICA: THEMES AND IMAGES a. Silius and the Tradition of Exemplary Heroism

8. Hercules as a Paradigm of Roman Heroism, Paolo Asso
9. Virtue and Narrative in Silius Italicus’ Punica, Ben Tipping
10. The Shield and the Sword: Q. Fabius Maximus and M. Claudius Marcellus as Models of Heroism in Silius’ Punica , Marco Fucecchi
11. Fons Cuncti Varro Mali: The Demagogue Varro in Punica 8–10, Enrico M. Ariemma

b. Ekphrasis and Imagery

12. Picturing the Future Again: Proleptic Ekphrasis in Silius’ Punica , Stephen J. Harrison
13. Silius’ Natural History: Tides in the Punica , Eleni Manolaraki
14. Virtual Epic: Counterfactuals, Sideshadowing, and the Poetics of Contingency in the Punica , Robert Cowan

c. Gender

15. Engendering Orientalism in Silius’ Punica , Alison M. Keith

d. Epic and Society

16. Family and State in the Punica , Neil W. Bernstein

D. RECEPTION AND CRITICISM
17. Silius Italicus in the Italian Renaissance, Frances Muecke
18. The Reception of Silius Italicus in Modern Scholarship, William J. Dominik

Bibliography General Index Index Locorum I Index Locorum II