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After a period of neglect, Ovid's elegiac poem on the Roman
calendar has been the focus of much recent scholarship. In her
comprehensive and scholarly study of the final book, Joy Littlewood
analyzes Ovid's account of the origins of the festivals of June,
demonstrating that Book 6 is effectively a commemoration of Roman
War, and elegantly provides a framing bracket to balance the
opening celebration of Peace in Book 1. She explores the subtle
interweaving of pietas and virtus in Roman religion and its
relationship to Augustan ideology, the depth and accuracy of Ovid's
antiquarianism, and his audacious expansion of generic boundaries.
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps represents a momentous event in the
beginning of the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE). The third book of
Silius Italicus' Punica reimagines this courageous feat, retracing
the journey of Hannibal and his army from the temple of
Hercules/Melqart in Gades, across the Pyrenees, the Rhone, and the
Alpine peaks into northern Italy. Significant stages in the journey
are marked by prophecies: the gods reveal to Hannibal in a dream
his future destruction of Italy through a dream with a giant snake;
Jupiter unveils to his daughter Venus the future of the Roman
empire through the Flavians and Domitian himself; the oracle of
Hammon in the African desert prophesies the Roman defeat at Cannae.
The Flavian poet builds his narrative around several key episodes
that programmatically set the tone for the whole poem: separation
from family, a futuristic distinction between African and Iberian
troops in the catalogue, the transgressive nature of Hannibal's
struggle with nature and the divine. The commentary explores each
scene in the context of the poetic, philosophical, and
historiographic background, with reference also to material
culture. The philological and stylistic exegeses aim to reveal the
linguistic complexities which colour this fascinating Flavian
reconstruction of the topos of 'the epic hero's journey'. The Latin
text is presented alongside an English translation and supplemented
with maps and images to support understanding the broad historical
context of Silius' poem.
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Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
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R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
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