The fight of the triplet brothers and the image of the civil war in the Punica of Silius Italicus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2018.06.1713Keywords:
Silius Italicus, Statius, Epic, Intertextuality, Civil WarAbstract
The goal of this paper is to study the episode of the fight between two sets of triplet brothers that Silius Italicus inserts in the account of the battle of Ticinus (Sil. IV 355-400). Taking Livy’s intertext (Liv. I 25) as a starting point, the changes the Flavian epicist introduces with respect to his model are analized. Silius emphasizes some of the characteristics of civil war already apparent in Livy’s narrative; however, the episode is closed by the praise to the fighters in a clear allusion to the famous apostrophe to Euryalus and Nisus (Aen. IX 446-449). This strategy, apparently contradictory but totally deliberate, contributes to define the concept of epic in relation to his predecessors Virgil and Lucan, and his contemporaries, especially Statius. The texts of the Thebaid with which these of the Punica are compared seem to prove it.
Downloads
References
Ahl, F. 1986: «Statius' Thebaid : A Reconsideration», ANRW II 32.5, pp. 2803-2912. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110847567-004
Ahl, F., Davis, M. A. y Pomeroy, A. 1986: «Silius Italicus», ANRW II 32.4, pp. 2492-2561. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110890785-010
Albrecht, M. von, 1964: Silius Italicus. Freiheit und Gebundenheit römischer Epik, Ámsterdam.
Aricò, G. 2010: «Pulchrae certent de laude Coronae . Alcune note sull'episodio dei ludi in Silio Italico XVI 303 ss.», en Castagna, L., Galimberti Biffino G. y Riboldi Ch. (eds.), Studi su Silio Italico, Milán, pp. 121-134.
Ariemma, E. M. 2000: Alla vigilia di Canne. Commentario al libro VIII dei Punica di Silio Italico, Nápoles.
Ariemma, E. M. 2008: «Odia fraterna, fraternae acies : I gemeli gladiatori in Silio Italico (Pun . 16.527-48)», Lexis 26, pp. 325-369.
Augoustakis, A. 2010 (ed.): Brill's Companion to Silius Italicus , Leiden - Boston.
Barchiesi, A. 2000: «Genealogie letterarie nell'epica imperiale. Fondamentalismo e ironia», en Schmidt E. A. (ed.), L'histoire littéraire immanente dans la poésie latine, Vandoeuvres - Ginebra, pp. 315-362.
Bartolomé, J. 2009a: «El proemio de la Farsalia de Lucano y su recepción I», CFC(L), 29, pp. 37-56.
Bartolomé, J. 2009b: «El proemio de la Farsalia de Lucano y su recepción II» CFC(L), 29, pp. 65-83.
Bartolomé, J. 2010: «Del mito de fundación al mito de la destrucción en la épica de Lucano», en: Actas del XVII Simposio de la SELGYC, Barcelona, pp. 191-204.
Bessone, F. 2008: «Teseo, la clementia e la punizione dei tiranni: Esemplarità e pessimismo nel finale della Tebaide », Dictynna 5, 2008. <http://dictynna.revues.org/200> (10/04/2017).
Bessone, F. 2011: La Tebaide di Stazio. Epica e potere, Pisa - Roma.
Bessone, F. 2013: «Critical Interactions. Constructing Heroic Models and Imperial Ideology in Flavian epic», en Manuwald, D. y Voigt, A. (eds.), pp. 87-106.
Boyle, A. J. y Dominik W. J. (eds.) 2003: Flavian Rome. Culture, Image, Text, Leiden - Boston.
Chaudhuri, P., Dexter Joseph P. y Bonilla Lopez, Jorge A. 2015: «Strings, Triangles, and Go-betweens: Intertextual Approaches to Silius' Carthaginian Debates», Dictynna 2015. <http://dictynna.revues.org/1156> (11/01/2017).
Criado, C. 1999: «Tragicidad y epicidad de la Tisífone estaciana», CFC (L) 16, pp. 141-161.
Criado, C. 2000: La teología de la Tebaida estaciana. El anti-virgilianismo de un clasicista, Zúrich - NuevaYork.
Criado, C. 2015: «The Constitutional Status of Euripidean and Statian Theseus: Some Aspects of the Criticism of Absolute Power in the Thebaid », en Dominik, W. J., Newlands C. E. y Gervais, K. (eds.), pp. 291-306.
Dominik, W. J. 1990: «Monarchal Power and Imperial Politics in Statius' Thebaid », en Boyle, A. J. (ed.), Flavian Epicist to Claudian. The Imperial Muse Ramus Essays on Roman Literature of the Empire, Victoria (Australia), pp. 74-97.
Dominik, W. J. 1994: The Mythic Voice of Statius. Power and Politics in the Thebaid, Leiden - Nueva York - Colonia.
Dominik, W. J. 2003: «Hannibal at the Gates. Programatising Rome and Romanitas in Silius Italicus' Punica. 1 and 2», en Boyle A. J. y Dominik W. (eds.), pp. 469-497.
Dominik, W. J. 2017: «Civil War, Parricide, and the Scepter / Sword in Silius Italicus' Punica » en Ginsberg, L. D. y Krasne, D. (eds), Flavian Literature and Civil War, Berlín -Boston.
Dominik, W. J., Newlands, C. E. y Gervais, K., (eds.) 2015: Brill's Companion to Statius, Leiden - Boston. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004284708
Fröhlich, U. 2000: Regulus Archetyp römischer Fides. Das sechste Buch als Schlüssel zu den Punica des Silius Italicus, Tubinga.
Fucecchi, M. 1999: «La vigilia di Canne nei Punica e un contributo allo studio dei rapporti fra Silio Italico e Lucano», en Esposito P. y Nicastri, L. (eds.), Interpretare Lucano. Miscelanea di Studi, Nápoles, pp. 305-342.
Fucecchi, M. 2003: «I Punica e altre storie di Roma nell'epos di Silio Italico», en Casanova, A. y Desideri, P (eds.), Evento, racconto, scrittura nell'antichità classica, Florencia, pp. 267-292.
Fucecchi, M. 2006: Una guerra in Colchide: Valerio Flacco, Argonautiche 6, 1-426, Pisa.
Ganiban, R. T. 2007: Statius and Virgil. The Thebaid and the Reinterpretation of the Aeneid, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482199
Hardie, Ph. 1993a: «Tales of Unity and Division in Imperial Latin Epic» en Molyneux J. H. (ed.), Literary Responses to Civil Discord, Nottingham, pp. 57-75.
Hardie, Ph. 1993b: The Epic Successors of Virgil, Cambridge.
Hardie, Ph. 1994: Virgil, Aeneid Book IX , Cambridge.
Küppers, J. 1986: Tantarum causas irarum. Untersuchugen zur Enleitenden Bücherdyade der Punica des Silius Italicus, Berlín - Nueva York. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110863925
Landrey, L. 2014: «Skeletons in Armor. Silius Italicus' Punica and the Aeneid' s Proem», AJPh 135, pp. 599-635.
Laudizi, G. 1989: Silio Italico. Il passato tra mito e restaurazione etica, Galatina.
Littlewood, R. J. 2011: A Commentary on Silius Italicus' Punica 7 , Oxford.
Littlewood, R. J. 2013: «Invida fata piis ? Exploring the significance of Silius' divergence from the night raids of Virgil and Statius», en Manuwald, G. y Voigt, A. (eds.), pp. 279-296. PMid:23167478
Lovatt, H. 2005: Epic Games: Sport Politics and Poetics In Statius' Thebaid , Cambridge.
Lovatt, H. 2010: «Interplay: Silius and Statius in the Games of Sil. XVI», en Augoustakis, A. (ed.), pp. 155-176.
Marks, R. 2005: From Republic to Empire. Scipio Africanus in the Punica of Silius Italicus, Fráncfort del Meno.
Marks, R. 2010: «Silius and Lucan», en Augoustakis, A. (ed.), pp. 127-153.
Markus, D. D. 1997: «Transfiguring Heroism: Nisus and Euryalus in Statius' Thebaid», Vergilius 43, 56-62.
Markus, D. D. 2003: «The Politics of Epic Performance in Statius», en Boyle, A. J. y Dominik W. J. (eds.), pp. 431-467. PMid:12846609
McGuire, D. T. 1997: Acts of Silence. Civil War, Tyranny, and Suicide in the Flavian Epics, Hildesheim.
McNelis, Ch. 2007: Statius' Thebaid and the Poetics of Civil War , Cambridge.
Manuwald, D. y Voigt, A. 2013: Flavian Epic Interactions, Berlín - Boston.
Mencacci, F. 1987: «Orazi e Curiazi: uno scontro fra trigemini 'gemelli'», MD 18, pp. 131-148. https://doi.org/10.2307/40235884
Mencacci, F. 1994: «Felices leti : I guerrieri gemelli nella epica latina», AFLF 15, pp. 15-30.
Micozzi, L. 1999: «Aspetti dell'influenza di Lucano nella Tebaide », en Esposito, P. y Nicastri, L. (eds.), Interpretare Lucano. Miscelanea di Studi, Nápoles, pp. 343-387.
Niemann, K. H. 1975: Die Darstellung der römischen Niederlangen in den Punica des Silius Italicus, Bonn. PMCid:PMC354707
Río Torres-Murciano, A. 2006: «Farsalia en la Cólquide. Acerca de dos símiles en el libro VI de las Argonáuticas de Valerio Flaco» Emerita 74, pp. 201-216. https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2006.v74.i2.15
Río Torres-Murciano, A. 2009: «Las secuelas del Fortunati ambo (Verg., Aen . IX 446-449): epopeya e imperio», Emerita 77, pp. 295-315. https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2009.v77.i2.316
Ripoll, F. 1998: La morale héroïque dans les épopées latines d'époque flavienne: Tradition et innovation, Lovaina - París.
Ripoll, F. 2015: «Statius and Silius Italicus», en. Dominik, W. J., Newlands, C. E. y Gervais, K. (eds.), pp. 424-442. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004284708_025
Spaltenstein, F. 1986: Commentaire des Punica de Silius Italicus (livres 1 à 8), Ginebra.
Spaltenstein, F. 1990: Commentaire des Punica de Silius Italicus, (livres 9 à 17), Ginebra.
Tipping, B. 2010a: Exemplary Epic. Silius Italicus' Punica, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550111.001.0001
Tipping, B. 2010b: «Virtue and Narrative in Silius' Punica », en Augoustakis, A. (ed.), pp. 193-218.
Walter, A. 2013: «Beginning at the End. Silius Italicus and the Desolation of Thebes», en Manuwald, D. y Voigt, A. (eds.), pp. 311-326. PMid:23468555
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
