Elizabeth
Kennedy KLAASSEN What's missing from Hannibal's
shield?
Almost thirty years ago, D. Vessey (AJP 1975) interpreted
Hannibal's shield for its importance within Silius' Punica
and against the Vergilian narrative in Aeneid 1 and 4.
Since then the scholarship on ecphrasis (D. Fowler JRS 1991; R.
Thomas HSCP 1983) and on imitation in Flavian epic has been
considerable (P. Hardie, The Epic Successors of Virgil,
1993 and M. Helzle, Der Stil ist der Mensch, 1996), but a
rigorous examination of Silius' imitation of the shield of Aeneas
from Aeneid 8 remains to be done.
Hannibal has been recognized as a ëreverse' Aeneas in the
Punica (M. von Albrecht, Silius Italicus 1964), not
least because of such epic replays as Hannibal's shield, which
imitates Vergil's ecphrasis of Aeneas' shield. The differences are
particularly striking: Hannibal's shield was made by humans,
Aeneas' by gods; Hannibal's shield depicts the past, Aeneas' the
future. One of the resulting differences is that Hannibal, who
receives the shield, can also be featured on it, whereas Aeneas
carries the shield, but it features Augustus. As Hannibal, the
recipient of the shield, is portrayed as a ëreverse' Aeneas,
so Hannibal, as the one featured on the shield, is similarly
portrayed as a ëreverse' Augustus. Parallel reading of the
descriptions of the shields produces interesting juxtapositions,
but the omissions are the most noteworthy. Silius' ecphrasis is
half the length of Vergil's. One can argue that Hannibal's siege
of Saguntum is an abbreviated parallel to Augustus at the battle
of Actium on Aeneas' shield, but Hannibal's shield has no obvious
parallel for Augustus' triumph and the procession of conquered
peoples, which is the culmination of Aeneas' shield and of Roman
history to Vergil's time. Hannibal's shield is missing the
prophetic element, including praise of the poet's ruler through a
description of a triumph.
The parallel in the Punica for Augustus' triumph and
the procession of conquered peoples is Scipio's triumphal
procession into Rome. This scene is the culmination and end of
Silius' epic, which encompasses the second Punic war from its
beginnings until this triumph. Its parallel to the final scenes of
Aeneas' shield is in keeping with the portrayal of Scipio, not
Hannibal, as the true Aeneas figure of the Punica. Scipio's
triumph makes him parallel to Augustus with his triumph. Moreover,
as the scene of Augustus' triumph on Aeneas' shield recalls
Jupiter's prophecy to Venus in Aeneid 1, so Scipio's
triumph recalls Silius' scene of Jupiter's prophecy to Venus in
Punica 3 (557-629, especially 584-629). In this prophecy
Jupiter foretells the success of Scipio, but its culmination is
the achievements of the Flavian dynasty, above all of Domitian. By
echoing Jupiter's prophecy of Domitian in the scene of Scipio's
triumph, Silius can allusively celebrate Domitian at the end of
his epic. Both Scipio's triumph in Punica 17 and Jupiter's
prophecy in Punica 3 also echo Anchises' prophecy of
Augustus in Aeneid 6 (788-805). Scipio is the hero of the
Punica and parallel to Aeneas, but Silius presents Domitian
as the parallel to Augustus in the Aeneid and as the
culmination of Roman history to Silius' time.
This
paper will begin with a comparison of the passages with the
shields of Hannibal and Aeneas, briefly considering other
Vergilian ecphrases as intertexts for Hannibal's shield,
especially the temple to Juno at Carthage from Aeneid 1,
which also reflects the past and was made by mortal hands. I will
then recount the verbal echoes and explore the implications of the
parallels for Augustus' triumph in Punica 3 and 17: Silius
allows his audience to draw a parallel between the Roman hero
Scipio and the emperor Domitian, as Vergil similarly allows a
parallel between his hero and his ruler, Aeneas and Augustus.
Abstracts Index