Author: SILIUS ITALICUS, Caius
Biography:
SILIUS ITALICUS, Caius (c. 26-c. 102 CE: OCD)
In 1828 “Caius Silius Italicus” was the standard form of the name of the author of the longest poem in Latin, the epic Punica that treats of the Second Punic War between Hannibal and the Romans, but today the name is given as Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus. Most of the available information about his life comes from a single letter of Pliny’s, with some additions from Martial (q.v.). He may have been born in Padua. The Punica was a project of his retirement after a successful career as a politician. He had been appointed consul in 68 by Nero; a senator under Vespasian, he was made proconsul of Asia about 77. He was married, with at least two sons. In retirement he lived in Campania, where he owned several villas, including one that contained the supposed tomb of Virgil (q.v.), whom he revered. When he developed a terminal disease, he starved himself to death. The manuscript of the Punica was not discovered until 1417; there was an English translation by Thomas Ross in the seventeenth century. But the poem was derivative and obviously imitative; Harvey calls it “dull and lifeless.” Henry William Tytler (q.v.) issued proposals for his verse translation in 1806 but failed to secure enough subscribers, and it appeared posthumously in Calcutta, possibly prepared for the press by his son John. (OCD 25 Feb. 2025; Harvey) HJ