Silius Italicus, Punica 2 ─ Edited With an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Silius Italicus' Punica, a Latin epic poem on the second Punic war written at the end of the first century CE, is both the longest Latin poem remaining from antiquity and the only surviving work of its author.

This volume represents the first full-length scholarly commentary in any language on Book 2 of the seventeen-book epic, synchronous with a recent resurgence in scholarly interest in this work, and includes an extensive introduction to the poem's historical and literary contexts, along with the full Latin text, English translation, apparatus criticus, and detailed line-by-line commentary. While the commentary addresses a broad range of textual, linguistic, and literary topics, the introduction pays particular attention to Silius' adaptation of prior literary tradition, especially the earlier Latin epics of Virgil, Ovid, and Lucan, situating him in his historical and literary context. The text and apparatus criticus have been updated since the publication of Josef Delz's Teubner edition of the Punica in 1987 to include a much more comprehensive account of recent emendations; the result is a keenly focused and cutting-edge critical edition that will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of Silius Italicus and the Punica for years to come.

Neil W. Bernstein is Professor in the Department of Classics and World Religions at Ohio University, where he teaches courses in Latin language and literature. He is the author of two previous books-- Ethics, Identity, and Community in Later Roman Declamation and In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic--and his research interests include Roman literature, classical reception, and digital humanities.