SILIUS ITALICUS

born AD 25/26, , Patavium died 101 in full Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus Latin epic poet whose 12,000-line Punica on the Second Punic War (218201 BC) is the longest poem in Latin literature. Silius was a distinguished advocate in his earlier years. He later took to public service and was a consul in 68, the year of Nero's death. His association with the emperor Nero was a stain on his reputation that he later expunged through his successful governorship of Asia. He then retired from public life. As a man of wealth, Silius was able to indulge his tastes as a patron of literature and the arts. He so venerated Virgil and Cicero that he bought and restored Virgil's tomb at Neapolis (now Naples) and Cicero's estate at Tusculum. His friends included Martial and Epictetus. He was a Stoic, but his Stoicism is not as marked in his writing as in that of Lucan. It was evident in his own life, however, when, suffering from an incurable disease, he starved himself to death. Silius draws heavily on the historian Livy for his material. He recounts all six battles of the Second Punic War, imitating Virgil's Aeneid in form and mythology. His Hannibal is drawn with some dramatic skill, stealing the place of hero from Scipio. The epic has been harshly judged by critics and has been scarcely edited since the 18th century. Though the last three books show signsas well they mightof fatigue, there are at least a half dozen magnificent pieces of verse, mostly in dramatic scenes of war.