Quotes from work
Punica

Silius Italicus Original title Punica (Latin)

The Punica is a Latin epic poem in seventeen books in dactylic hexameter written by Silius Italicus comprising some twelve thousand lines . It is the longest surviving Latin poem from antiquity. Its theme is the Second Punic War and the conflict between the two great generals Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. The poem was re-discovered in either 1416 or 1417 by the Italian humanist and scholar Poggio Bracciolini.


Silius Italicus photo

“Like a trembling hind pursued by a Hyrcanian tigress, or like a pigeon that checks her flight when she sees a hawk in the sky, or like a hare that dives into the thicket at sight of the eagle hovering with outstretched wings in the cloudless sky.”
...ceu tigride cerva Hyrcana cum pressa tremit, vel territa pennas colligit accipitrem cernens in nube columba, aut dumis subit, albenti si sensit in aethra librantem nisus aquilam, lepus.

Book V, lines 280–284
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Inaction is safety in peril.”
Aegris nil mouisse salus rebus.

Book VII, lines 395–396
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“She gave way under the sudden weight, the sea rushed in, and the Io sank beneath the wave. Shields and helmets float on the water, images of tutelary gods and javelins with useless points.”
Subito cum pondere victus, insiliente mari, summergitur alveus undis. scuta virum cristaeque et inerti spicula ferro tutelaeque deum fluitant.

Book XIV, lines 540–543
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Mantua, the home of the Muses, raised to the skies by immortal verse, and a match for the lyre of Homer.”
Mantua, Musarum domus atque ad sidera cantu evecta Aonio et Smyrnaeis aemula plectris.

Book VIII, lines 593–594
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Doubt not a woman's hardihood; no danger is too great for wedded love to face.”
Crede vigori femineo. Castum haud superat labor ullus amorem.

Book III, lines 112–113
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Manhood is tested by trial, and valour climbs unterrified the rocky path and difficult ascent that leads to glory.”
Explorant adversa viros, perque aspera duro nititur ad laudem virtus interrita clivo.

Book IV, lines 603–604
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“The higher they climbed in their struggle to reach the top, the harder grew their toil. When one height had been mastered, a second opens and springs up before their aching sight.”
Quoque magis subiere iugo atque euadere nisi erexere gradum, crescit labor. ardua supra sese aperit fessis et nascitur altera moles.

Book III, line 528–530
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“And Poverty, an unsightly plague that leads men to crime; Error, with staggering gait, and Discord that delights to confound sea with sky.”
Et deforme malum ac sceleri proclivis Egestas Errorque infido gressu, et Discordia gaudens permiscere fretum caelo.

Book XIII, lines 585–587
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Virtue is indeed its own noblest reward; yet the dead find it sweet, when the fame of their lives is remembered among the living and oblivion does not swallow up their praises.”
Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces; dulce tamen venit ad manis, cum gratia vitae durat apud superos nec edunt oblivia laudem.

Book XIII, lines 663–665
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Love never abandons hope.”
Non umquam spem ponit amor.

Book VIII, line 85
Punica

Silius Italicus photo

“Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs”
Pax optima rerum quas homini novisse datum est, pax una triumphis innumeris potior, pax custodire salutem et civis aequare potens revocetur in arcis tandem Sidonias, et fama fugetur ab urbe perfidiae, Phoenissa, tua.

Book XI, lines 592–597<!--; spoken by Hanno.-->
Punica
Context: Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs; peace has power to guard our lives and secure equality among fellow-citizens. Let us then after so long recall peace to the city of Carthage, and banish the reproach of treachery from Dido's city.