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 of the problematic portrayal of Scipio Africanus as a hero for Rome, this book shifts the focus to Carthage and offers a new...