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It is with the final word at the close of the passage that Silius Italicus draws the
strongest connection between Murrus‟ name and the wall, „mur.‟ Murrus, mortally
wounded by the wall of his city, struggles up the broken wall, but, like that section of
wall, he too is broken and destroyed (Pun. 1.494-520).
Caicus is the name of the first man in both the Aeneid and the Punica to make contact
with the enemy. 462 In the Aeneid, 9.35-61, the Trojan Caicus was on the wall watching
for the enemy, and, being „sharp-eyed,‟ he was the first to see the enemy approach.
Virgil does not follow up on the fate of his Caicus, but the Trojan had sharper eyes than
his literary successor in the Punica. The first man killed by Hannibal is Caicus, pierced
by Hannibal‟s javelin as he stood on the walls. He fell down the exterior side of the wall
(physically difficult to achieve, given the momentum of the javelin), and in so doing
returned the spear to its owner, a moment of irony in itself (Pun. 1.304-309). Therefore,
although Caicus was watching, he did not see the javelin coming, hence the play on the
word Caecus, „blind.‟
When one of Hannibal‟s female warriors, Asbyte, hurled her weapons, an archer,
Mopsus, responded. He aimed for Asbyte but killed her bodyguard, Harpe, with an
arrow through the mouth (Pun. 2.114-120). Harpies were birds with women‟s faces who
stole food; their bodies were protected from attack by feathers, leaving the face as their
weak spot (Aen. 3.220-1). Therefore it is appropriate that Harpe, whose name recalls
that of the mythical creature, is killed by an arrow through her mouth.
For the last example, taken from Punica 4, a Roman, Allius, is killed by two javelins,
one thrown by Mago the other by Maharbal. The points of the two javelins meet at the
centre of his heart:
haud secus acer
hinc atque hinc iaculo devolvitur Allius acto.
it stridens per utrumque latus Maurusia taxus;
obvia tum medio sonuerunt spicula corde,
incertumque fuit, letum cui cederet hastae.
236
Pun. 4.565-9
Even so brave Allius was overthrown by the javelins that came from
both his foes. The Moorish yew-wood passed hissing through both his
sides, the points met and clashed in the centre of his heart, and it was
doubtful which of the two spears could claim his death.
Duff, 1996, 211.
462 Spaltenstein, 1986, 52 argues that certain episodes in the Punica can be read in terms of continuations
of episodes from the Aeneid. Also Barnes, 1995, 287.