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Hannibal‟s suicide becomes an independent act of defiance, chosen by him in
preference to death at the hands of some other person. Hannibal is thus depicted taking
the most honourable option available to him under the circumstances.
Silius Italicus takes a different approach. He summarises Hannibal‟s later life in the
form of a prediction by the Sibyl to Scipio at the conclusion of Scipio‟s visit to the
underworld. It is a shameful and ignominious end:
„ne metue,‟ exclamat vates, „non vita sequetur
invoilata virum: patria non ossa quiescent.
namque ubi fractus opum magnae certamine pugnae
pertulerit vinci turpemque orare salutem,
rursus bella volet Macetum instaurare sub armis.
damnatusque doli, desertis coniuge fida
et dulci nato, linquet Carthaginis arces
atque una profugus lustrabit caerula puppe,
hinc Cilicis Tauri saxosa cacumina viset.
pro! quanto levius mortalibus aegra subire
servitia atque hiemes aestusque fugamque fretumque
atque famem, quam posse mori! post Itala bella
Assyrio famulus regi falsusque cupiti
Ausoniae motus, dubio petet aequora velo,
donec, Prusiacas delatus segniter oras,
altera servitia imbelli patietur in aevo
et latebram munus regni. perstantibus inde
Aeneadis reddique sibi poscentibus hostem,
pocula furtivo rapiet properata veneno
ac tandem terras longa formidine solvet.‟
209
Pun. 13.874-893
„Fear not,‟cried the priestess: „no life of untroubled prosperity shall be
his; his bones shall not rest in his native land. For all his strength will
be broken in a great battle; he will suffer defeat and stoop to beg for
his life; and then he will try to wage a fresh war with the armies of
Macedon. Condemned as a traitor, he will leave his faithful wife and
darling son behind him, abandon Carthage, and flee across the sea
with a single ship. Next he will visit the rocky heights of Mount
Taurus in Cilicia. Ah, how much easier men find it to bear cold and
heat and hunger, bitter slavery and exile, and the perils of the sea,
rather than face death! After the war in Italy he will serve a Syrian
king, and, cheated of his hope to make war against Rome, he will put
to sea with no certain destination, and at last drift idly to the land of
Prusias, where, too old to fight any more, he will suffer a second
slavery and find a hiding-place by the king‟s favour. At last, when
Rome persists in demanding the surrender of her foe, in hasty stealth
he will swallow a draught of poison, and free the world at last from a
long enduring dread.‟
Duff, 1989, 269; 271.