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  • Exemplary Epic: Silius Italicus' Punica
  • Antony Augoustakis
Ben Tipping . Exemplary Epic: Silius Italicus' Punica. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. x, 245. $99.00. ISBN 978-0-19-955011-1.

Bibliography on Silius Italicus' Punica has grown significantly in the past decade, and the present book is a fine contribution to a number of monographs that have appeared on various aspects of this poem on Rome's Second Punic War. Tipping's study is divided into six chapters, a bibliography, a general index, and an index locorum. This is the product of the author's revision of his 1999 Oxford dissertation on the role of exemplarity in the historical epic of Silius. An important predecessor of Tipping's study is R. Marks' 2005 book, From Republic to Empire: Scipio Africanus in the Punica of Silius Italicus (Frankfurt); Tipping's monograph offers a different reading of heroism, contrasted to but also complementing Marks' own interpretation.

In the first chapter ("Exordium"), the author focuses on the opening six verses of the poem to demonstrate that the Flavian poet promotes the theme of his epic as the epic of Rome, "glorifying martial Roman conduct in victory over an external enemy at the height of the republic" (7). In Silius' epic, Tipping contends, the Roman generals' conduct serves as an exemplum, while at the same time the poet raises questions about their value as exemplars, as for instance in the case of Scipio, who according to Tipping's interpretation is ultimately associated with autocracy and tyranny.

The second chapter ("Perspective and Paradigm") delves into the question of paradigmatic heroism by surveying principally the figure of Hercules as an example of instability, a hero who serves as a model to be emulated but also very frequently to be avoided. Virtue and vice fight a constant battle, without it being always clear which will prevail. Thus, as the author claims, the past that Silius portrays here is not only contrasted to the decline of the present but is also paralleled with the hic et nunc of Domitianic Rome.

Each of the following three chapters examines a major figure in the Punica, namely Hannibal, Fabius Cunctator, and Scipio Africanus. In the third chapter, in particular, Tipping offers an attractive interpretation of Hannibal's dubious [End Page 282] figure: on the one hand, the Carthaginian expectedly and stereotypically exemplifies perfidy and treachery; on the other hand, however, Hannibal's villainy situates him in the center, not the periphery, as his conduct reflects and evokes the similar behavior of many Roman generals. Through a series of intra- and intertextual allusions, Hannibal's portrayal blurs any distinctions between Romans and Carthaginians and destabilizes the seemingly homogeneous surface of Silius' patriotic historical epic. A good example of Hannibal's and Scipio's point of contact is the scene at Liternum, where Hannibal views the murals at the temple, representative episodes from the First Punic War, and fantasizes about his upcoming victory in the Second. This is the locus of Scipio's own exile a few years after the victorious end of the war, an event anticipated in the poem, nicely prefiguring the similarities between the two peoples, the convergence of same and other.

Chapter 4 surveys in detail the seventh book of the poem, in which Fabius emerges as the great cunctator. And yet Fabius' heroism, representative of an ideal Republicanism, displays its own limitations: ultimately Fabius' heroic efforts cannot save Rome from Hannibal, without the emergence of the one individual, Scipio, who is able to face the enemy effectively. Fabius therefore prepares the ground for Scipio's rise as the autocrat in Roman politics. Here I would have expected a discussion of the role of other generals in the poem, such as Marcellus, for instance, and of how they fit into Tipping's own interpretation of the poem's orientation towards Scipio's imperial aggrandizement and the problematization thereof.

The final chapter is devoted to Scipio himself. This is a persuasive discussion, in which Tipping correctly identifies those elements in Scipio's character that associate him with Hercules and Alexander, models of heroism who also represent a certain megalomania and lack of self-control. The...

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