Campania and the Punica

This chapter defines the geographical limits of Roman Campania before engaging with the poetic blend, symbolism, and prolepsis with which Silius constructs his fictional and mythological digressions and his conjunctions of people and places. The confrontation of his protagonists, Scipio and Hannibal, is anticipated first in Hannibal’s visit to the temple in Liternum, prominently adorned with images of Roman victory in the First Punic War, and secondly by Scipio’s charismatic leadership of Italian contingents from remote parts of Campania. The contrast of the epic’s protagonists continues against the backdrop of Campania to which Hannibal returns as the triumphant victor of Cannae in Book 11. The geography of Campania is again interwoven into Silius’ epic narrative, for Capua’s treacherous defection will receive stern retribution at the end of the Campanian sequence in Book 13.