The Battle of Cannae represents a conflict of mighty powers and a crushing defeat, notoriously the worst in Rome's history. Dawn on August 2, 216 BC, saw the ar

Once stigmatized as 'the worst epic ever written', Silius Italicus' Punica is now the focus of a resurgence of critical interest and wide-ranging positive reapp

The first full study of corpse mistreatment and funeral violation in Greco-Roman epic poetry, illuminating many major texts.

Only recently have scholars turned their attention to Silius Italicus' Punica, a poem the reputation of which was eclipsed by the emergence of Virgil’s Aeneid