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ack into mythical time. The Barca family heritage is woven into the foundation stories
of Carthage and Rome with their ancestry traced back to Belus, said to be a companion
of Queen Dido, thus Hannibal‟s family ties justify Juno‟s selection of him as a tool for
her ambitions (Pun. 1.72-80; 1.38-9). There are a number of recognised allusions to
Virgil‟s Aeneid in this opening section of the Punica 106 but the relationship between
Belus and Dido is different between the two texts because in the Aeneid, Belus is her
father (Aen. 1.621; 1.729-30). It is possible that the „fantastical‟ 107 nature of the Barca
family lineage and its connection to the story of Aeneas and Dido has links to an earlier
epic, Naevius‟ Bellum Poenicum (fr. 5-7; 21-23). 108
Silius Italicus reserves his treatment of the First Punic War until Punica 6 which is
framed by two forms of memory of that war, one verbal and one visual (Pun. 6.118-551;
6.653-697). The two memories are paralleled in the sense that they each focus on a son
(Serranus; Hannibal) being reminded of his father (Regulus; Hamilcar) being taken
prisoner in the First Punic War; they are contrasted in the sense that the Roman son,
Serranus, is reminded of Regulus‟ reputation for glory whereas the Carthaginian son,
Hannibal, is reminded of his father‟s shame. Paradoxically, where Hannibal is fired by
the sight of his father‟s shame to continue warfare, Serranus is begged by his mother
Marcia not to be inspired by his father‟s glory (Pun. 6.584-7).
The first of the two is the Roman recollection, related through Marus, a retired
servant of Regulus, as he tends the badly wounded Serranus who miraculously managed
to reach Marus‟ home from the battlefield at Lake Trasimene. Marus attempts to restore
Serranus‟ spirits by recounting a fantastic tale of how Serranus‟ father, Regulus, held his
army together and threw the first spear to kill a man-eating snake in Africa (Pun. 6.118-
551). Marus assures Serranus that his father‟s glory derived, not from killing the
serpent, or from the battlefield (because he was defeated by Xanthippus) but from how,
after being captured, Regulus foiled Carthaginian intentions to use him for prisoner
exchange (Pun. 6.299-333; 346). Regulus‟ celebrated refusal to take part in the
exchange (Pun. 6.466-489) resulted in his death by torture 109 at Carthage (Pun. 6.539-
544).
106 Especially Aen. 1.441-493, see discussion in Ahl, Davis and Pomeroy, 1986, 2496; Spaltenstein, 1986,
15; and Wilson, 1993, 219: „Juno‟s legendary favouritism toward Carthage is drawn from Virgil (Aen.
4.625).‟
107 Spaltenstein, 1986, 14. Wilson, 1993, 219: „Silius personal literary universe has its own rules.‟
108 Ahl, Davis and Pomeroy, 1986, 2494; Gian Biagio Conte, 1994, 45; Goldberg, 1995, 43, 54.
109 Augoustakis, 2006, 157 reads Regulus‟ death by the iron maiden as retribution for transgressing nature
by killing the serpent.
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