Quid restat profugis? Exile and power in Silius Italicus’ Punica
This dissertation argues that the epic poet Silius Italicus leverages exile and displacement as markers for the importance of the edges of imperial space. Writing roughly a century after Vergil, empire for Silius is no longer something that needs to be established by a morally excellent outsider like pius Aeneas. Rather, the Roman center has become a place of corruption, a city that forces its morally outstanding citizens to become outsiders, exiles. By creating new Romanized space and incorporating new peoples, the edges define most clearly the benefit of empire. Theories of space and Postcolonialism are therefore important touchstones for the argumentation of this project. By examining the principal exilic figures of the poem (especially Scipio Africanus, Hannibal, Camillus, and Livius Salinator), the Punica is revealed to be a poem intent on focalizing the dynamics of power through exiles. Empire, therefore, is once again reified (just as in Vergil’s Aeneid) not just through deciding who belongs where, but more importantly who does not belong where. In service of this analysis, the texts of other poets and prose authors who informed Silius’ writing is also brought to bear, including Livy, Ovid, and Statius.
Silius Italicus, Punica, Exile, Postcolonialism, Epic, Flavian
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign