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.
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.
"This book is … a comprehensive treatment of some of the most important aspects of [the
Punica]; it makes a significant contribution to the scholarship developing around this poet …" – Jessica S. Dietrich, in:
The Classical Review 61/2
"
Brill’s Companion to Silius Italicus is an essential acquisition for the growing number of scholars now working on Flavian epic. Its success in highlighting the essential aspects of Silian poetics owes much to the judicious and imaginative arrangement of 18 wide-ranging contributions within a cohesive structure by Antony Augoustakis." – Joy Littlewood, in:
The Classical Journal 2011/08/09
"Antony Augoustakis' team (including several leading scholars on Silius) here brings together a wealth of refreshing viewpoints and new intertextual observations." – Michiel van der Keur, in:
BMCR 2010.10.07
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
All those interested in Latin literature and Flavian epic poetry in particular, intertextuality, and Roman intellectual history