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Εὐξύινρνο δ᾽ ὑπέκεηλελ, ὀηζάκελνο δόινλ εἶλαη.
Homer, Odyssey, 10.232
Only Eurylochus remaining behind, because he suspected a trick.
Murray, 1919.
Perhaps Silius Italicus, like Paton, read Polybius making an analogy to Homeric epic,
because there is distinct heroic imagery in the Flavian poet‟s recreation of Hannibal‟s
escape preparations, except that it surrounds Hannibal and his companions, not Fabius.
Silius Italicus condenses the time-scale. It is already night when Hannibal conceives
his idea about how to escape through the pass. Hannibal puts on his lion-skin that he
usually sleeps on and goes to wake his brother:
Nam membra cubili
erigit et fulvi circumdat pelle leonis,
qua super instratos proiectus gramine campi
presserat ante toros. Tunc ad tentoria fratris
fert gressus vicina citos; nec degener ille
belligeri ritus, taurino membra iacebat
effultus tergo et mulcebat tristia somno.
135
Pun. 7.287-293
Rising from his bed, he put on the tawny lion-skin which had served
him as bedding when he lay stretched on the grassy sward. Then he
went in haste to his brother‟s tent which was pitched near his own.
Mago, 326 too, was no effeminate soldier: his limbs rested on an oxhide,
as he lay there soothing trouble with sleep.
Duff, 1996, 359.
The lion-skin connects Hannibal with Hercules and Silius continues the heroic theme
through his description of the scene. Hannibal‟s brother, Mago, sleeps with his spear
planted in the ground next to him with helmet hanging from the spear-point; shield and
other weapons lie close by, his war-horse kept saddled, even at night. Another soldier,
Maraxes, uses his shield as a pillow and is surrounded by blood-dripping spoils while he
sleeps (Pun. 7.200-327). Others do not sleep but work on honing their weapons, while
yet another, Acherras, attends to one of the horses (Pun. 7.337-40).
Hannibal‟s orders are carried out in the dark and in silence. Once the dry brushwood
and faggots are tied to the oxen, it burns easily:
326 Duff, 1996, 357 translates fratris to Mago. Cf. Polybius and Livy who both name Hasdrubal in this
incident, not Mago (Hist. 3.92.4; Livy, 22.16.9).