Epic

Punicorum Libri Septemdecim

by Silius Italicus

The longest poem to survive in Latin: seventeen books on Hannibal’s war with Rome, from Saguntum to Zama. Silius Italicus was a consul who retired to write it, owned the site of Virgil’s tomb and kept his birthday. Pliny said he wrote with more care than talent.

The librarian

Read it in the Library After Dark Or read it as plain text

Reading time

About 5 hr 55 min

Where to find it

The Latin Reading Room

Edition

Project Gutenberg, eBook #27219. In the public domain in the United States.