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SILIUS 1TALICUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 96 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SILIUS 1TALICUS , in full See also:

TITUS CATIUS SILIUS ITALICUS (A.n. 25 or 26-1o1), Latin epic poet. His birthplace is unknown. Ftom his cognomen Italicus the conclusion has been See also:drawn that he came from the See also:town of Italica in See also:Spain; but Latin usage would in that See also:case have demanded the See also:form Italicensis, and it is highly improbable that See also:Martial would have failed to name him among the See also:literary celebrities of Spain in the latter See also:half of the 1st See also:century. The conjecture that Silius derived from Italica, the See also:capital of the See also:Italian See also:confederation during the Social See also:War, is open to still stronger objection. Most likely some ancestor of the poet acquired the See also:title " Italicus " from having been a member of one of the corporations of "Italici " who are often mentioned in See also:inscriptions from See also:Sicily and else-where. In See also:early See also:life Silius was a renowned forensic orator, later a safe and cautious politician, without ability or ambition enough to be legitimately See also:obnoxious to the cruel rulers under whom he lived. But mediocrity was hardly an efficient See also:protection against the murderous whims of See also:Nero, and Silius was generally believed to have secured at once his own safety and his promotion to the consulship by prostituting his oratorical See also:powers in the judicial farces which often ushered in the See also:doom of the See also:emperor's victims. He was See also:consul in the See also:year of Nero's See also:death (68), and is mentioned by See also:Tacitus as having been one of two witnesses who were See also:present at the conferences between See also:Vitellius and Flavius Sabinus, the See also:elder See also:brother of See also:Vespasian, when the legions from the See also:East were marching rapidly on the capital. The life of Silius after his consulship is well depicted by the younger See also:Pliny:— " He conducted himself wisely and courteously as the friend of the luxurious and cruel Vitellius; he won repute by his proconsulship of See also:Asia, and obliterated by the praiseworthy use he made of his leisure the stain he had incurred through his active exertions in former days. In dignity and contentment, avoiding See also:power and therefore hostility, he outlived the See also:Flavian See also:dynasty, keeping to a private station after his governorship of Asia. " His poem contains only two passages See also:relating to the Flavians; in both See also:Domitian is eulogized as a See also:warrior; in one he figures as a See also:singer whose See also:lyre is sweeter than that of See also:Orpheus himself.

Silius was a See also:

great student and See also:patron of literature and See also:art, and a passionate See also:collector. Two great See also:Romans of the past, See also:Cicero and See also:Virgil, were by him idealized his friend a poet as great as Virgil. But the younger Pliny gently says that he wrote poems with greater See also:diligence than See also:talent, and that, when, according to the See also:fashion of the See also:time, he recited them to his See also:friends, " he sometimes found out what men really thought of them. " It is indeed See also:strange that the poem lived on. Silius is never mentioned by See also:ancient writers after Pliny except Sidonius, who, under different conditions and at a much See also:lower level, was such another as he. Since the See also:discovery of Silius by See also:Poggio, no See also:modern enthusiast has arisen to sing his praises. His poem has been rarely edited since the 18th century. Yet, by the purity of his See also:taste and his Latin in an See also:age when taste was fast becoming vicious and Latin corrupt, by his presentation to us of a type of a thousand vanished Latin epics, and by the historic aspects of his subject, Silius merits better treatment from scholars than he has received. The See also:general reader he can hardly See also:interest again. He is indeed of See also:imitation all compact, and usually dilutes what he borrows; he may add a new beauty, but new strength he never gives. Hardly a dozen lines anywhere are without an See also:echo of Virgil, and there are frequent admixtures of See also:Lucretius, See also:Horace, See also:Ovid, See also:Lucan, See also:Homer, See also:Hesiod and many other poets still extant. If we could reconstitute the library of Silius we should probably find that scarcely an See also:idea or a phrase in his entire See also:work was wholly his own.

The raw material of the Punica was supplied in the See also:

main by the third See also:decade of See also:Livy, though Silius may have consulted other historians of the Hannibalic war. Such facts as are used are generally presented with their actual circumstances unchanged, and in their historic sequence. The spirit of the Punic times is but rarely misconceived—as when to See also:secret voting is attributed the See also:election of men like See also:Flaminius and See also:Varro, and distinguished Romans are depicted as contending in a gladiatorial See also:exhibition. Silius clearly intended the poem to consist of twenty-four books, like the Iliad and the Odyssey, but after the twelfth he hurries in visible weariness to the end, and concludes with seventeen. The general See also:plan of the epic follows that of the Iliad and the Aeneid. Its theme is conceived as a See also:duel between two mighty nations, with parallel dissensions among the gods. Scipio and See also:Hannibal are the two great heroes who take the See also:place of See also:Achilles and See also:Hector on the one See also:hand and of See also:Aeneas and Turnus on the other, while the See also:minor figures are all painted with Virgilian or Homeric See also:pigments. In the delineation of See also:character our poet is neither very powerful nor very consistent. His See also:imagination was too weak to realize the actors with distinctness and individuality. His Hannibal is evidently at the outset meant for an incarnation of See also:cruelty and treachery, the embodiment of all that the vulgar See also:Roman attached to the name " Punic. " But in the course of the poem the greatness of Hannibal is See also:borne in upon the poet, and his feeling of it betrays itself in many touches. Thus he names Scipio " the great Hannibal of Ausonia "; he makes See also:Juno assure the Carthaginian See also:leader that if See also:fortune had only permitted him to be See also:born a Roman he would have been admitted to a place among the gods; and, when the ungenerous See also:monster of the first See also:book accords in the fifteenth a splendid See also:burial to See also:Marcellus, the poet cries, " You would See also:fancy it was a Sidonian See also:chief who had fallen.

" Silius deserves little pity for the failure of his See also:

attempt to make Scipio an equipoise to Hannibal and the counterpart in See also:personal prowess and See also:prestige of Achilles. He becomes in the See also:process almost as mythical a figure as the See also:medieval See also:Alexander. The best drawn of the minor characters are See also:Fabius Cunctator, an evident copy of Lucan's See also:Cato, and Paullus, the consul killed at See also:Cannae, who fights, hates and See also:dies like a genuine See also:man. Clearly it was a See also:matter of See also:religion with Silius to repeat and adapt all the striking episodes of Homer and Virgil. Hannibal must have a See also:shield of marvellous workmanship like Achilles and Aeneas; because Aeneas descended into Hades and had a See also:vision of the future See also:history of See also:Rome, so must Scipio have his See also:revelation from See also:heaven; See also:Trebia, choked with bodies, must rise in ire like See also:Xanthus, and be put to See also:flight by See also:Vulcan; for Virgil's Camilla there must be an Asbyte, heroine of See also:Saguntum; the beautiful speech of Euryalus when See also:Nisus seeks to leave him is too See also:good tobe thrown away—furbished up a little, it will serve as a parting address from Imilce to her See also:husband Hannibal. The descriptions of the numerous battles are made up in the main, according to epic See also:rule, of single combats—wearisome sometimes in Homer, wearisome oftener in Virgil, painfully wearisome in Silius. The different component parts of the poem are on the whole fairly well knit together, and the transitions are not often needlessly abrupt; yet occasionally incidents and episodes are introduced with all the irrelevancy of the modern novel. The interposition of the gods is, however, usually managed with dignity and appropriateness. As to diction and detail, we See also:miss, in general, power rather than taste. The See also:metre runs on with correct smooth monotony, with something always of the Virgilian sweetness, though attenuated, but nothing of the Virgilian variety and strength. The dead level of literary See also:execution is seldom broken by a rise into the region of genuine pathos and beauty, or by a descent into the ludicrous or the repellent. There are few absurdities, but the restraining force is trained See also:perception and not a native sense of See also:humour, which, ever present in Homer, not entirely absent in Virgil, and sometimes finding grim expression in Lucan, fails Silius entirely.

The address of See also:

Anna, See also:Dido's See also:sister, to Juno compels a smile. Though deified on her sister's death, and for a good many centuries already an inhabitant of heaven, Anna meets Juno for the first time on the outbreak of the Second Punic War, and deprecates the anger of the See also:queen of heaven for having deserted the Carthaginians and attached herself to the Roman cause. Hannibal's parting address to his See also:child is also comical: he recognizes in the " heavy wailing " of the year-old babe the seeds of rages like his own." But Silius might have been forgiven for a thousand more weaknesses than he has if in but a few things he had shown strength. The grandest scenes in the history before him fail to lift him up; his treatment, for example, of Hannibal's Alpine passage falls immensely below Lucan's vigorous delineation of Cato's far less stirring See also:march across the See also:African deserts. But in the very weaknesses of Silius we may discern merit. He at least does not try to conceal defects of substance by contorted rhetorical conceits and feebly forcible exaggerations. In his ideal of what Latin expression should be he comes near to his contemporary See also:Quintilian, and resolutely holds aloof from the See also:tenor of his age. Perhaps his want of success with the men of his time was not wholly due to his faults. His self-See also:control rarely fails him; it stands the test of the horrors of war, and of See also:Venus working her will on Hannibal at See also:Capua. Only a few passages here and there betray the true See also:silver Latin extravagance. In the avoidance of rhetorical artifice and epigrammatic See also:antithesis Silius stands in marked contrast to Lucan, yet at times he can write with point. Regarded merely as a poet he may not deserve high praise; but, as he is a unique specimen and probably the best of a once numerous class, the preservation of his poem among the remains of Latin Literature is a fortunate See also:accident.

The poem was discovered in a MS., possibly at See also:

Constance, by Poggio, in 1416 or 1417; from this now lost MS. all existing See also:MSS., which belong entirely to the 15th century, are derived. A valuable MS. of the 8th or 9th century, found at See also:Cologne by L. Carrion in the latter See also:part of the 16th century, disappeared soon after its discovery. Two editiones principes appeared at Rome in 1471; the See also:principal See also:editions since have been those of See also:Heinsius (1600), See also:Drakenborch (1717), See also:Ernesti (See also:Leipzig, 1791) and L. See also:Bauer (1890). The Punica is included in the second edition of the Corpus poetarum Latinorum. A useful variorum edition is that of Lemaire (See also:Paris, 1823). See also:Recent See also:writing on Silius is generally in the form of See also:separate articles or small See also:pamphlets; but see H. E. See also:Butler, See also:Post-Augustan See also:Poetry (1909), See also:chap. x. (J. S.

End of Article: SILIUS 1TALICUS

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