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eferences are found within speeches from the historiographical tradition where they
outnumber references to contemporary events such as the siege of Saguntum. 86
Genre allows Silius Italicus to take a very different approach and the motivating
factor for Juno to select Hannibal as her tool to block Rome‟s progress to world
domination 87 in Punica 1 is taken back into the mythical past. Recollections of the First
Punic War are placed in certain speeches in the Punica and these are shown to allude in
various ways to the different tradition in each of Polybius and Livy. In addition there are
two recollections of the First Punic War in Punica 6 which take a substantially different
form to those elsewhere, and the second of these serves a specific motivational purpose
for Hannibal.
Fides and Hannibal’s childhood oath
One of the great virtues in Roman culture was fides (trust, faith, credence, belief); it was
assessed in both personal and public terms from an early date, and a temple to fides
publica was founded on the Capitol in 257. 88 The summary that prefaces Aulus Gellius‟
Attic Nights, 6.18.1-9 stresses the sanctity of an oath in Roman culture, a creed which is
repeated in the opening sentence for the first chapter: iusiurandum apud Romanos
inviolate sancteque habitum servatum est - an oath was regarded and kept by the
Romans as something inviolable and sacred (Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 6.18.1). The
concept of personal fides presents a problem for portrayals of Hannibal in relation to the
well-known anecdote about the 9-year old Hannibal swearing an oath of enmity to the
Romans at an altar in Carthage under the guidance of his father, Hamilcar Barca, before
accompanying Hamilcar to Spain. Hannibal was true to his oath throughout his life and
therefore in danger of being portrayed as living up to a Roman ideal; Silius Italicus
alludes to this point when Hannibal‟s personal fides and pietas are acknowledged by
Hamilcar‟s shade to Scipio (Pun. 13.749).
86 The siege of Saguntum appears, of course, as a subject within the narratives and Polybius concludes his
discussion of causes of the war with the remark that if the siege of Saguntum was the cause, then Carthage
was to blame (Hist. 3.30). Silius Italicus places great emphasis on the siege of Saguntum precipitating the
war by devoting much of Punica 1 and Punica 2 to its coverage, a high proportion of text relative to the
overall length of the Punica. See Dominik, 2003 for an interpretation of the Punica comparing Saguntum
with Rome and to read Punica 1 and 2 as introductory, represented as an epic within an epic.
87 Dominik, 2003, 473.
88 Cicero, De natura deorum, 2.61. Wiseman, 2004,153. Fears, 1981, 863 and n152; also 827-948 for
cults to virtues generally; 843, n 67 for summary of scholarship on fides as a concept. Pomeroy, 1989a,
123, n28 cites numismatic evidence for importance of fides in Flavian Rome.
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