From Republic to Empire challenges the long-held view that Silius Italicus Punica is a nostalgic epic and argues that it is, instead, centrally concerned with and fundamentally shaped by the contemporary Flavian world in which it was composed. The epic documents how Rome s Republic took its first steps toward becoming an Empire during the Second Punic War and identifies the leader Scipio Africanus as the critical impetus behind this development: his rise to prominence in the war s later stages brings about a change in Rome s power-structure, a shift toward one-man rule, Scipio s...