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Silius Italicus, however, has the feast commencing in the evening as was
customary for the Capuans, and, in further contrast to the select few participants in
Livy, celebrations take place throughout the city:
iamque diem ad metas defessis Phoebus Olympo
impellebat equis fuscabat et Hesperos umbra
paulatim infusa properantem ad litora currum.
instituunt de more epulas festamque per urbem
regifice extructis celebrant convivia mensis.
146
Pun. 11.267-71
By now Phoebus was driving his weary steeds down the sky to their
goal, and Evening spread her gradual shade and darkened his car in its
course to the sea. The citizens made feast as was their custom; the city
kept holiday and banquets were held at tables piled high with regal
splendour.
Adapted from Duff, 1989, 121.
Furthermore Silius Italicus poetically reinterprets Livy‟s remark that the meal was not in
accord with military discipline. Those serving the feast in the Punica were organised in
terms of a military operation by being divided into companies and each assigned an
allotted task (Pun. 11.274-277).
Pacuvius Calavius‟ son shows some Roman spirit (given Pacuvius‟ marriage to
Claudia he would be the grandson of Appius Claudius) because he intends to assassinate
Hannibal and tells his father of the plan (Livy, 23.2.1-7; Pun. 11.332). In both texts, the
father dissuades his son but the scenes differ because Livy‟s intention is to illustrate the
son‟s misguided priorities for the Roman virtue of pietas. 344 The tension between pietas
due to a parent with that due to the state is acknowledged in the son‟s speech that closes
the episode in Livy‟s text. 345
Silius Italicus first applauds the bravery of the son‟s idea (Pun. 11.304-9) but the
father, Pacuvius, is even more terrified and weak than his Livian counterpart. He begs,
not orders, his son not to attack Hannibal (Pun. 11.329-331). His reasoning, however, is
not, as given by Livy, related to the son being an invited guest but based on a belief that
344 The son erroneously places his pietas to his father over his pietas to Rome when he obeys his father‟s
order not to attack Hannibal. Pacuvius Calavius points out the strength of Hannibal‟s bodyguard, but
insists that because Hannibal invited the son to the feast it was inappropriate for a guest to murder a host
(Livy 23.9.10-11).
345 ego quidem… quam patriae debeo pietatem exsolvam patri (Livy 23.9.11). See Moore, 1989, 60. Later
Livy gives two examples for the correct priorities for pietas, firstly, the boy‟s grandfather, Appius
Claudius, maintains the siege of Capua despite his family ties. Secondly, Fabius Maximus dismounts on
the orders of his son‟s lictor when his son, Quintus Fabius, is consul (Livy, 24.44.10).