This volume of essays originates from a conference held at Innsbruck in 2008. The book comprises eleven contributions (five in German, four in English and two in Italian), as well as a short introduction (with the customary summaries for each article) and two indices (locorum and nominum). Silius Italicus has certainly come into the spotlight in the past few years, with the most recent publication of a Brill Companion (Augoustakis, 2010), two Oxford monographs on the Punica (Augoustakis, 2010; Tipping, 2010), and a new Oxford commentary on the seventh book of the poem (Littlewood, 2011). The range and quality of the contributions in this volume vary and in this review, I will concentrate on some noteworthy points raised in four of the eleven chapters included in the book.
Raymond Marks' essay (‘Lucan's Curio in the Punica’) explores the organic relationship between Hannibal and Hercules in Silius' Punica and Hercules and Antaeus in Lucan's De bello ciuili 4. Some of the allusions identified by Marks betray the existence of an unmistakable relationship between these characters, while other verbal correspondences can often be ascribed to the demands of hexameter diction and are rather hard-pressed by the author to suit his arguments. Silius indeed deploys the Lucanian portrait of Curio to showcase a contrast between the Romans of the Second Punic War and their degenerate counterparts in the civil wars of the first century b.c.
Thomas Gärtner promotes an appealing argument in his chapter (‘Überlegungen zur Makrostruktur der Punica’), by revisiting the puzzling number of the seventeen books of the Punica and the poem's structure. As he suggests, Silius organizes the poem in two asymmetrical parts: the first thirteen books commemorate Hannibal's successes, while beginning with the fourteenth book, the poet marks a turning point in Roman affairs. The correspondence between the prooemium of Punica 14 and Aeneid 7 confirms Gärtner's thesis; so also does further evidence sought from Walter of Châtillon's twelfth-century Alexandreis.
In her essay on Silius' narrative techniques (‘Silius als Epitomator?’), Christiane Reitz undertakes the difficult task of looking into Silius' tendency to condense certain aspects of Livy's account and to privilege other short references in the historian's narrative by creating whole episodes just from a very brief mention in the Ab urbe condita. The chapter, however, is rather short, and Christiane Reitz promises to return to the subject with a detailed study, which is of course anticipated with eagerness.
Finally, Claire Stocks (‘[Re]constructing Epic. Sicily and the Punica in Miniature’) offers an interesting discussion of the function of the digressive fourteenth book of the poem within the Punica. The expedition led by Marcellus and taking place on Sicily becomes a mini epic within the narrative; such miniaturization allows the narrator to bring Marcellus to the forefront of the poem as a nouus Hannibal and as a prototype for later leaders, such as Scipio.
While the reader will find some articles less satisfactory than others with regard to the presentation of the material, argumentation, and bibliographical completeness, one will also discover worthwhile and often insightful ideas here. Students of Silius Italicus will certainly have to consult this new collection of essays.
