The Punica as a novel

Colby Quarterly, 1994

Decleva Caizzi Decleva Caizzi, F. (), Antisthenis Fragmenta (testi e documenti per lo studio dell'antichita, XIII), Milan.

Quintilian famously declared that historia. .. est. .. proxima poetis (Inst. 10.1.31), and, by definition, the converse is equally true, especially in the genre (or, better, subgenre?) of historical epic, a classic example of W. Kroll's concept of 'Kreuzung der Gattungen'. In the volume under review Augoustakis and Fucecchi gather together an admirably wide-ranging collection of studies on where Silius Italicus and his Punica fit in the rich, if incompletely preserved, tradition of Roman (or, perhaps more specifically, Latin) historical epic. Accordingly, in their introduction, the editors offer a survey of the origins and development of historical epic during the Republic (from Naevius and Ennius to Cicero), of the genre's transformation during the Augustan Age (in the hands of Virgil and Ovid) and of its revival under Nero and the Flavians (through Lucan and Silius Italicus). The editors reflect at various points on 'a permanent internal dialectic of the historical epos between' thematically complex poems about the civil wars of the Late Republic and (seemingly) more obviously panegyrical poems about Rome's foreign wars, especially those of the recent past (p. 5). Ultimately, as an exploration of this 'peculiar, internal dialectic', 'the principal aim of th[e] volume is to study Silius Italicus' poem as an important step in the development of the Roman historical epic tradition. The Punica [is] analyzed as a transitional composition between the beginnings of Roman literature in the Republican age (Naevius and Ennius) and Claudian's panegyrical epic in late antiquity' (p. 7). Part 1, 'The Historical Epic Tradition', delves more deeply into the core issue of genre. In 'Silius Italicus and the Conventions of Historical Epic at Rome', rather than undertaking a study of allusion and intertextuality, G. Manuwald focuses on 'the appropriation of what may be defined as generic features of the literary form of historical epic in Rome and the approach to presenting historical events in epic style' (p. 21). By reviewing the evidence for Silius' engagement with Naevius, Ennius, Virgil and Lucan, as well as Livy, Manuwald arrives at the conclusion that, in form and function, as well as in its strategic use of the past to reflect on the present, the Punica is, indeed, 'a typical Roman historical epic' (pp. 31, 33). Likewise, in 'Silius Italicus between Epos and Historiography' P. Esposito offers a survey of epic and historiography in Rome before embarking on a detailed intertextual study of the narrative of the fall of Saguntum in Punica 2.457-707 (for which, see also N. Bernstein's commentary). Esposito observes that Silius grounds his narrative in Livy but also transcends his historical 'source' through a complex dialogue with various scenes in Lucan's Bellum civile: historical epic emerges as the product of a heady mixture of historiography with a strong infusion of rhetoric. Part 2, 'Rethinking Roman "Mythical History"', broadens and deepens the investigation by looking beyond historical epic to mythological epic and, in particular, the uniquely Roman conflation of the two in 'mythical history' (for which, see also Chapter 4 of C.E. Muntz, Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic [2017]). In 'Silius Ciceronianus: Regulus as a Reflection of Cicero in Punica 6' T. Baier reexamines Silius' engagement with the existing tradition on Regulus and his devotio of sorts during the First Punic War, especially with Cicero, De officiis 3.97-115: on Baier's reading,

Within the multiform field of ancient narrative fiction, a group of anonymous works may be distinguished, all of which were composed during the first centuries of the Roman Empire and share a series of common generic traits. These texts are (according to the titles used in present-day literary-historical research): the Life of Aesop, the Alexander Romance, the later Lives of Homer (including the Contest of Homer and Hesiod), the Story of Apollonius King of Tyre, and the brief Life of Secundus, the Silent Philosopher. All these works are characterised by a linear biographical narration and an open textual tradition, comprising many different redactions and versions in parallel circulation. The central hero and biographee is a kaleidoscopic personality, combining metis and linguistic proficiency with various other roles from the traditional narrative repertoire. All the texts under discussion also operate as multi-collective repositories of all kinds of narrative and gnomic genres (animal fables, novellas, anecdotes, travel legends, fictional epistles, riddles and conundrums, occasional epigrams, wise sayings and commandments, proverbs), which are intercalated into the narrative on various occasions. Above all, the main feature of these texts is their quasi-popular (λαϊκότροπη, “in the folk/popular manner”) aesthetic: the plot and characters are formed on the basis of traditional legends and folktale patterns, while the manner of narration is founded on the techniques of folk storytelling. In the academic year 2022-2023, I am teaching a postgraduate seminar on these works. I upload here a select bibliography of editions, commentaries, and important studies for each one of them, which I have prepared for the needs of the seminar and its participants. I have also added to the aforementioned works the so-called "Book of Syntipas", that great epigone of "Ahiqar" in the medieval period, which shares a number of common features with the "open" biographical romances of late antiquity. In the course of the seminar, we aspire to comparatively investigate the common traits of these works. We will also endeavour to highlight leading motifs and themes which occupy a significant place in poetic texture of the texts under discussion, from the manipulation of time, space, and narrative suspense to eroticism, intellectual contests, travel adventures, and the sagacious attitude towards death. The participants will perhaps come to realise that the sagacity of popularised storytelling is a reflection of the tragic experience in the mirror of the collective imaginary.

Structures of Epic Poetry, Reitz and Finkmann (eds.), De Gruyter, 2019

The Ancient Novel and the Frontiers of Genre, ed. Marília P. Futre Pinheiro, Gareth Schmeling, Edmund P. Cueva, 2014

Despite the fact that postmodern aesthetics deny the existence or validity of genres, the tendency nowadays is to assume that there was in Antiquity a homogeneous group of works of narrative prose fiction that, despite their differences, displayed a serious of recurrent, iterative, thematic, and formal characteristics, which allows us to label them novels. The papers assembled in this volume include extended prose narratives of all kind and thereby widen and enrich the scope of the canon. The essays explore a wide variety of texts, crossed genres, and hybrid forms, which transgress the boundaries of the so-called ancient novel, providing an excellent insight into different kinds of narrative prose in antiquity.

REVISTA DE LETRAS-JUÇARA, 2022

This article aims to discuss about the relationship between history and novel in the context of Antiquity. To do this, two prose narratives were chosen: Ephemeris Belli Troiani (Journal of the Trojan War), dating from the 4 th century AD, and De Excidio Troiae Historia (History of the Fall of Troy), dating from the 5 th century AD. Ephemeris and De Excidio retell the Trojan War from a perspective of two soldiers and establish intertextuality with Homer and the entire classical collection of the Trojan myth. These two similar works develop a process of transforming what was considered myth into historical fact. They do it through demythologization and historicization, it is, making the divine presence and heroic power fading out and putting elements from historical discourse in the rhetoric of their narrative. This narrative structure has led some authors to assume the possibility of characterizing the two works as "historical fictions" or even "historical novels". In this paper, this possibility will analyzed in order to problematize the criteria of distinction between historical and fictional narratives and the issues about crystalized model of the genres. In conclusion, the description of the two works reveals the approximation to the historical novel and, despite the distance in the time, could be both considered a type among the many specimens of this literary genre.

Mnemosyne, 2013

In a1 995 article entitled 'Figure dell'intertestualità nell'epica romana',A lessan-dro Barchiesi flagged, as sites in the epic genre likelytoadmit intertextual references ,certain modalities of discourse associated with ideas of transmission and interpretation, such as " il fato, la fama, la memoria elaprofezia " .¹ Such discur-sive strategies we find in one of the textsw hich is in the background of the Ar-gonautica of Valerius Flaccus:Catullus' carmen 64.Thisepyllion had considerable influenceo nR oman literature because of the wayi nw hich its author connected fama and fatum. He presents the crossing of the sea ventured by the sailors of the Argo as ad aring act performed by sons of gods, whose exceptional fama he salutes,² and he places their expedition at the centre of his reflections on fatum,n ot onlyt hat of the members of the crew,b ut of humanity as a whole. In his view,t he history of mankind had trulyb egun at the end of the GoldenA ge,the turning point at which he locates this first military venture between Europe and Asia,w hich would inaugurate the Ageo fH eroes. Without treatingi nd etail his rewritingo ft he Hesiodic myth of the Ages, Io nlyr ecall that Catullus highlights,b yu sing ekphrasis and prophecy, the dark underbelly of the exploits of other heroes,n amelyT heseus and Achilles (breach of faith, vengeance, death, grief, and familial ruin). At the end of his text,C atullus givesanegative description of the present state of humanityw hich alludes to the contemporary situation at Rome. Abandonedbythe gods because of their im-pietas,mortals are engaged on apath of self-destruction which Catullus depicts in the colours of the Iron Age.³ Ac enturyl ater,the influenceo fC atullus is perceptible in the work of Seneca: the chorus of the Medea puts forward an equally negative reading of the evolution of human history.⁴ It wasi mpossible for Vale-rius Flaccus,when he chose to write an epic on the Argonautica,n ot to situate  Barchiesi 1995, 51.  Catul. 64.22‒24: On imis optato saeclorum temporen ati / heroes,s alvete, deum genus, ob ona matrum / progenies, salvete iterum… ('Oy ou whow ereb orn at at ime in the ages so much desired , heroes, hail! Race of the gods,ogreat progenyo fy our mothers,h ail as econd time!').