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apida iam subdita peste
virgulta atque altis surgunt e cornibus ignes.
hic vero ut, gliscente malo et quassantibus aegra
armentis capita, adiutae pinguescere flammae
coepere, et vincens fumos erumpere vertex.
136
Pun. 7.351-5
The brushwood was quickly kindled, and the fire rose high from the
horns of the cattle. But when the mischief spread and the beasts tossed
their tortured heads, the flames, so helped, grew thicker, and their crest
burst upwards through the smoke and conquered it.
Duff, 1996, 361
Like Livy, Silius describes the oxen panicking and shaking their heads. Livy uses an
ablative absolute to suggest that the hillside then caught fire:
Quo repente discursu haud secus quam silvis montisbusque accensis
omnia circa virgulta ardere visa; capitumque irrita quassatio excitans
flammam hominum passim discurrentium speciem praebebat.
Livy, 22.17.3
As they suddenly rushed this way and that, all the bushes far and near
seemed to be burning, as if the woods and mountains had been set on
fire; and when they shook their heads they only fanned the blaze and
made it look as men were running about in all directions.
Foster, 1949, 257.
Silius is explicit. In the Punica, the sparks from the faggots actually do start wildfires.
Soon the whole hillside is ablaze and nothing can stop it:
per iuga, per valles errat Vulcania pestis,
nusquam stante malo; vicinaque litora fungent.
Pun. 7.360-1
Nothing can check the destroying fire, it runs from place to place over
hill and valley; and the sea not far away reflects it.
Duff, 1996, 361.
Depending on the weather conditions, it is a plausible scenario, and Frontinus, who may
have known Silius Italicus, relates a similar version of events. He wrote that Hannibal
released the oxen with the intention that they would run amok and send sparks flying to
set the hillside alight. Frontinus relates that the Romans guarding the pass at first
suspect a prodigy until scouts return with the facts. They inform Fabius who suspects a
trick and remains within his camp while the Carthaginians escape through the
unguarded pass (Frontinus, Strat. 1.5.28).