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1 results

  • 28 - Flavian epic

  • from PART V - EARLY PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 558-596

  • Summary

    Each of the three epic writers of the Flavian era, Valerius Flaccus, Papinius Statius, Silius Italicus sought to be Virgil's successor: a laudable but daring aspiration. All ancient poets were bound by the principle of imitatio. This implied not merely respect for the past but a desire to reach new and individual standards of excellence. Statius was rarely, if ever, subservient to those whom he would have named with pride as his models. Valerius also took pains to create his own interpretation of the Argonautic myth, reassigning to Jason a heroic status which the cynical Apollonius had eroded. Even Silius, the most patently dependent of the three, did not hesitate to modify the events of the Punic War to illuminate a wider philosophical perspective. The Punic War provided Silius with rich scope for discursiveness and for pedantic disquisition.