What is it about?
This chapter compares how the Epic poet Silius plays with the language of the speeches from Livy's historical account of the Second Punic War to suggest a new interpretation for the figure of Hercules in the poem: that Hannibal's own use of Heraclean imagery provides a subtle indication that the Emperor Domitian is a potential threat to the people of Rome similar to that seen in the Second Punic War.
Featured Image
Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hannibal, Hercules, and the Livian Narrators of Silius Italicus’ Punica, December 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004750227_008.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page







