Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

FLAVIAN EPIC
or to learn that Juno preserved Hannibal from death at Scipio's hands
(i7-523fF.), just as she had saved Turnus in Aeneid 10. No less tedious than such
contrivances is Silius' penchant for obscure information, for catalogues and for
encyclopaedic doctrina.
His chief errors, however, were inherent in the extent and nature of his
theme. In the first book, Hannibal commences the war by his treacherous attack
on Saguntum; in the seventeenth we reach Scipio's victorious return to Rome
after Zama. Seventeen years of military campaigning would have taxed the
acumen of a greater poet than Silius. Of the six great battles of the war, four —
Ticinus, Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae — occurred in close chronological
proximity. Silius has the first three in Books 4 and 5 — a surfeit of carnage.
Cannae is delayed until Book 9; it is not until Book 12 that Hannibal reaches
the walls of Rome. The battle of the Metaurus is described in 15, Zama in 17.
Needless to say, all six engagements are set-pieces treated in accordance with
Homeric and Virgilian norms. Between them, Silius had perforce to intersperse
details of strategic manoeuvring with highly-elaborated digressions.
Typical of these is the story of Bacchus and Falernus (7.162—211). The pretext
for introducing it is that the triumphant Hannibal, faced by Fabius' delaying
tactics, was ravaging Campania and burning the vines growing in the
Falernian region round Mount Massicus. Silius invents an aetiology to show the
reason for the proverbial excellence of Falernian wine. The story is uncomplicated.
In primeval times the aged Falernus farmed this area. One day, Bacchus
— his divinity for a time hidden — came to Falernus' house and was entertained
by him with a simple repast. Overjoyed by the hospitality he received, the god
revealed himself, miraculously bestowing on his host the gift of wine and
ordaining that for evermore the region should bear the name of Falernus, and
be renowned for its vineyards.
In inserting such a myth, Silius recalled the story of Hercules and Cacus in
Aeneid 8.i8