| Description |
1 online resource (289 pages) |
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text rdacontent |
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computer rdamedia |
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online resource rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| 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 of 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 his military acumen. For the first time this book provides 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 to 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. |
| Note |
Description based on print version record. |
| Subject |
Hannibal, 247 B.C.-182 B.C. -- In literature.
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Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius. Punica.
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Epic poetry, Latin -- History and criticism.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Stocks, Claire. Roman Hannibal : remembering the enemy in Silius Italicus' Punica. Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2014 xii, 276 pages ; 24 cm. (OCoLC)ocn868082855 (DLC)18395465 |
| ISBN |
9781781380284 (hbk.) |
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1781380287 (hbk.) |
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9781781385920 (electronic bk.) |
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