| From Republic to Empire: Scipio Africanus in the Punica of Silius Italicus Contributor(s): Marks, Raymond (Author) |
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ISBN: 0820498092 ISBN-13: 9780820498096 Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing OUR PRICE: $55.05 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2005 |
| Additional Information |
| Dewey: 873.01 |
| LCCN: 2005057940 |
| Series: Studien Zur Klassischen Philologie |
| Physical Information: 308 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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 - rule, that prefigures and paves the way for the political arrangement under which the poet himself lived, the Principate. In portraying Scipio as a good king and a virtuous princeps, Silius, furthermore, offers the emperor of his own day, Domitian, a leadership-ideal to aspire to and emulate." |