author
Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus
A Roman senator and poet from the first century AD, he is remembered for the Punica, a vast epic on the Second Punic War and the longest surviving poem in classical Latin. His life joined politics, public speaking, and a late turn toward literature in a way that still feels striking today.
1 Audiobook
Punicorum Libri Septemdecim
by Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus
About the author
Born around AD 26, Silius Italicus built a notable public career before becoming best known as a writer. Ancient and modern reference works describe him as a Roman senator, orator, and later consul in AD 68, during the turbulent year of Nero’s death.
His surviving masterpiece is the Punica, a 17-book epic about the war between Rome and Carthage. At more than 12,000 lines, it is generally described as the longest surviving poem in Latin literature, and it helped secure his place among the major poets of Rome’s Silver Age.
After public service, he appears to have spent his later years in a more literary and reflective life, with a strong admiration for earlier Roman writers such as Virgil and Cicero. That mix of political experience and poetic ambition gives his work an unusual scale: Punica is not just a war story, but a grand Roman vision of history, memory, and endurance.