| Summary: | The description of the Romans' siege and recapture of Capua in Silius Italicus' Punica develops the city's role as, at different times and to differing extents, a parallel, antitype, surrogate, and rival to Rome, as well as to the other cities, such as Saguntum, Troy, and Alba, which stand in a similarly complex relationship to Rome and to each other. This article explores these issues, through a close reading of the siege narrative and careful attention to its intertextual resonances, as well as Silius' development of a poetics of unfulfillment, his use of counterfactual history, and his treatment of themes of moral decline, civil war, and political power.
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