Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus

Born in the 1st century CE, this Roman writer is generally known as Silius Italicus. Ancient sources and modern reference works describe him as a senator, advocate, and consul before he devoted himself more fully to literary life.

His surviving work, the Punica, tells the story of the war between Rome and Carthage, especially the struggle with Hannibal. At roughly 17 books and more than 12,000 lines, it is widely described as the longest surviving poem in Latin, which gives it a special place in Roman literature.

Later accounts portray him as an admirer of earlier Latin poets, especially Virgil, and as a wealthy man who spent his later years in cultured retirement. Exact details of his life are limited and sometimes vary across sources, but he is consistently remembered as one of the major epic poets of the Silver Age of Latin literature.