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Ambiguities of War: A Narratological Commentary on Silius Italicusâ Battle of Ticinus (Sil. 4.1-479)
Series: - Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume: 463
- Brill's Narratological Commentaries on Ancient Texts, Volume: 463
Author:
This Narratological Commentary on Siliusâ Battle of Ticinus lays bare the narrative form of the text by addressing numerous narratological aspects, including plot-development, focalization, space, and intertextuality. The book also focuses on the phenomenon of ambiguity with its dynamic processes of (un-)strategic production, perception, and resolution. Ambiguity is a central feature of the Punica because of the epicâs constant oscillation between fact and fiction: it treats the changing fortunes of war and the tension between Rome and Carthage, which Silius translates into a moment of poetical equilibrium by his paradoxical problematization of triumph in defeat and defeat through triumph.
Elisabeth Schedel, Dr. phil. (2020), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, is lecturer of Latin literature. She has recently published a chapter on the potential and limitations of narratological close-readings of epic fragments (in Reitz/Finkmann, Structures of Epic Poetry I, Brill, 2019).
Introduction
1 Premises, Objectives, Goals
2 Approaches and Methods
3 Ambiguity
4 The Structure of Book 4
5 Conceptual Structure: How to Use This Commentary
Commentary
1 Scene 1: 1â55 Ausonia before the Outbreak of the Battles
2 Summary of 56â479: The Battle of Ticinus
3 Scene 2: 56â142 The First Encounter of the Armies
4 Scene 3: 143â188 The Attack of the Boians
5 Scene 4: 189â247 The Roman Counterattack
6 Scene 5: 248â310 Single Combat between the Consul and Crixus
7 Scene 6: 311â354 The Attack of the Carthaginians
8 Scene 7: 355â400 The Combat between Two Sets of Triplets
9 Scene 8: 401â479 The Consul Scipio in Trouble and his Rescue
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
All interested in Siliusâ historical epic Punica, especially in the battle of Ticinus (Sil. 4.1-479). And anyone concerned with theoretical, especially narratological approaches to ancient texts and questions of ambiguity.