Exemplary epic
Subtitle: Silius Italicus' Punica
By: Ben Tipping
Series: Oxford classical monographs; Oxford classical monographs
Publisher: Oxford University Press; OUP Oxford
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 245
ISBN-13: 9780199550111
Subjects: Punica; Vice in literature; Virtues in literature; Ethics; Example; Ethics in literature; History
Description: The force of example was a distinctive determiner of Roman identity. In this study of the representation of certain central characters in Silius Italicus' 'Punica', Ben Tipping considers the virtues & vices they embody, their status as exemplars, & the process by which Silius as epic poet heroizes, demonizes, & establishes models.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-217) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Exordium. Epic ; Example; title: Perspective and paradigm. Myth and history ; Virtue and vice ; Civil wars and Caesars ; Scipio and Domitian; title: Hannibal. Worse than Punic ; Improba virtus ; Various villainy ;  Intertextual instability ; Better than Roman; title: Fabius Maximus Cunctator. Great restraint ; One and many ; Republican monarchy ; Delaying dynamism; title: Scipio Africanus Maior. Dual citizenship ; Superheroism ; Espirit de corps ; Immortal yearnings ; Power and glory ; Triumph and after; title: Upending. Competition ; Conclusion.