History Literature / Punica

* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Carthage citizens led by Mago are described as marching barefoot.

** The poem doesn't describe the battles clearly, focusing more on the individual duels that happen on it, but the most detailed one, that of Cannae, is completely different from real life. This fictitious version of Cannae sees Hannibal putting the Africans on the left under a fictitious character named Nealces, the Hispanics in the right under Mago, and the Gauls with a single elephant in the center, and he later turns the tide by bringing many elephants as reinforcements. To begin with, there was no elephants in the historical Battle of Cannae.

* AngryBlackMan: The Ethiopians and Nubians with poisoned javelins who fight for Hannibal.

* AdaptationalBadass: Many historical characters who were originally generals and strategists are turned here into frontline butchers, the most ludicrous examples being Hannibal and Fabius.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: Lucius Aemilius Paulus is portrayed as BEING unambiguously on the side of Fabius about the right strategy against Hannibal, while in real life he was only beGrudgingly with him and ultimately supported the approach that became the massacre of Cannae.

** While Hannibal is described as cruel and a bit of a BloodKnight, the text also admits at some points that his only real crime is having been born in the opposite side of the war, and his service to Carthage is constantly compared to Scipio' and Fabius' to Rome.

** The mentioned Rhyndacus leads a force from the Celtiberian city of Uxama, which is then described in the text as having "Sarmatian walls." While it is unclear what did he mean by this, he seems to imply Sarmatians had somehow something to do with ancient Celtiberians. As in the previous, however, this might be a reference to ancient folklore connecting the Spanish Iberia with the Persian lad also called Iberia.

** The poem doesn't describe the battles clearly, focusing more on the individual duels that happen on it, but the most detailed one, that of Cannae, is completely different from real life. This fictitious version of Cannae sees Hannibal putting the Africans on the left under a fictitious character named Nealces, the Spaniards in the right under Mago, and the Gauls with a single elephant in the center, and he later turns the tide by bringing many elephants as reinforcements. To begin with, there was no elephants in the historical battle of Cannae.

* TheDragon: Sychaeus, Hannibal's son in law and Hasdrubal the Fair's son, though only for a short time given that he is killed.

* GenerationXerox: A Roman officer named Valerius Corvinus is said to be a descendant from the historical Valerius Corvinus who fought against the Gauls.

* HumanPincushion: Hannibal's Lusitanians throw so many javelins at Roman officer Mamercus at Trebia that he ends up butchered. Flaminius and Paulus later gets the same treatment.

* MadeOfIron: The African giant Otris is hit with an arrow in his eye of all things in Trebia, yet he remains alive and functional enough to try to run away.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted, as there are an Asturian mercenary named Cydnus in Hannibal's army and a Carthaginian soldier of unidentified nationality and the same name in Syracuse. There is also a lieutenant named Nealces with Hannibal and an incestuous soldier of the same name.

* ShaggyDogStory: A Roman hostage of Carthage named Satricus escapes from their camp, takes weapons of a corpse whom he doesn't know is of his son, and is killed by his other son believing he was a looting Punic. The latter takes his life and writes a message with his blood to tell Varro to avoid battle in Cannae, as his father said, but the message is illegible by then.

* AdaptationalIntelligence: Lucius Aemilius Paulus is portrayed as unambiguously on the side of Fabius about the right strategy against Hannibal, while in real life he was only berudgingly with him and ultimately supported the approach that became the massacre of Cannae.
* AdaptationExpansion: Hannibal's army in real life was your typical period Carthaginian force, meaning it was probably composed by Punic officers along with several bodies of Numidians, Libyans, Mauritanians and a handful of tribes of Spaniards and Gauls, complete with horses and elephants. Its portrayal in the ''Punica'', however, receives a massive upgrade of diversity, is amazingly well equipped and led by many national heroes, and contains not only the aforementioned, but also troops of all kinds and almost every nationality considered minimally exotic at the time: Nubians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Phoenicians and peoples from just every corner of Hispania, and it includes even warrior women and war chariots.

** While Hannibal is described as cruel and a bit of a BloodKnight, the text also admits at some points that his only real crime is having been born in the opposite side of the war, and his service to Carthage is constantly compared to Scipio's and Fabius' to Rome.

** Silius often slaps names of rivers on characters who were supposed to inhabit its nearby lands, like Sicoris, Tagus (in which this is lampshaded), Bagradas and Rhone. However, some of his choices are strange. For example, there are two Spanish chieftains named Cydnus and Rhyndacus, which are names of Middle-Eastern rivers.
** The mentioned Rhyndacus leads a force from the Celtiberian city of Uxama, which is then described in the text as having "Sarmatian walls." While it is unclear what did he mean by this, he seems to imply Sarmatians had somehow something to do with ancient Celtiberians.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Every general has at least a moment in which he intervenes personally and kicks much ass in a battle. Killing named warriors of the opposite side is an usual way to establish he is a man among men.

** The text adheres to the probably apocryphal Roman tradition that Carthage callously executed their own general, Xanthippus, after he had successfully defended Africa for them in the First Punic War. However, Xanthippus's sons are shown fighting in the Carthaginian side without any ill feeling. This contradiction is never explained, and if they were unaware of their father's fate or some similar HandWave, it is not stated.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: A trait of the Carthaginian side, done presumably in order to make it more exotical and bizarre to the conservative Romans. Hannibal's army contains women and people of all skin tones, in marked contrast to the white male Roman army.

* HitAndRunTactics: Cleadas, a Sidonian in Hannibal army's, uses the Parthian shot.

* ScaryBlackMan: Tunger the Mauritanian, who rides a black war chariot with black horses that scares everybody. (Somewhat subverted because being a Mauritanian would mean he was dark-skinned, not solid black.) Ironically, he gets scared himself of Cato's attack and is killed by him.

* DarkActionGirl: Asbyte, Hannibal's female lieutenant. She is almost sympathetic to the reader when she is chased by the brutal Mopsus.

* AdaptationExpansion: Hannibal's army in real life was your typical period Carthaginian force, meaning it was probably composed by Punic officers along with several bodies of Numidians, Libyans, Mauritanians and a handful of tribes of Spaniards and Gauls, complete with horses and elephants. Its portrayal in the ''Punica'', however, is massively diverse, amazingly well equipped and led by many national heroes, and it contains not only the aforementioned, but also troops of all kinds and almost every nationality considered minimally exotic at the time: Nubians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Phoenicians and peoples from just every corner of Hispania, and it includes even warrior women and war chariots.

* AntiVillain: While Hannibal is described as cruel and a bit of a BloodKnight, the text also admits at some points that his only real crime is having been born in the opposite side of the war, and his service to Carthage is constantly compared to Scipio's and Fabius' to Rome.

* BadassGrandpa: Mainly Fabius, who butchers many people in the frontlines despite being in his sixties, but also Labicus, who fought in the First Punic War and dueled Hamilcar before dying by Hannibal's hand in the poem. The Punic side has a couple in Carthalo, who dies in Saguntum.

The ''Punica'' is Silius Italicus's only surviving work, possibly the first great HistoricalFiction about the UsefulNotes/PunicWars. It is a Latin EpicPoem in seventeen books, the longest ever found in that language, and serves as a sequel of sorts to Literature/TheAeneid.

* AdaptationalBadass: Hannibal's army in real life was your typical period Carthaginian force, meaning it was probably composed by Punic officers and several bodies of Numidians, Libyans, Mauritanians and a handful of tribes of Spaniards and Gauls, complete with horses and elephants. Its portrayal in the ''Punica'', however, is massively diverse, amazingly well equipped and led by many national heroes, and it contains not only the aforementioned, but also troops of all kinds and almost every nationality considered minimally exotic at the time: Nubians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Lebanese and peoples from just every corner of Hispania, and it includes even warrior women and war chariots.

* AmazonBrigade: Asbyte, Hannibal's Libyan princess, leads a contingent of horsewomen and female war charioteers.

* AntiVillain: While Hannibal is described as ruthless, the text also leaves clear that his only real crime is having been born in the opposite side of the war, and his service to Carthage is constantly compared to Scipio's and Fabius' to Rome.

** The poem doesn't describe the battles clearly, focusing more on the individual duels that happen on it, but the most detailed one, that of Cannae, is completely different from real life. This fictitious version of Cannae sees Hannibal putting the Africans on the left under a fictitious character named Nealces, the Spaniards in the right under Mago, and the Gauls with a single elephant in the center and later turns the tide by bringing many elephants as reinforcements. To being with, there was no elephants in the historical battle of Cannae.

* BadassPreacher: Bogus, a Carthaginian diviner that also fights. He scores an important death on Ticinus before being felled by the Roman consul at Trebia.

* BloodKnight: Celts are portrayed this way, as in general in Roman media.
* TheBrute: The Punic side has a few almost superhuman giants who lay waste before being killed by some hero. This includes the Africans Otris and Maraxes, the Syracusan Poliphemus and the Cantabrian Larus.

** The text adheres to the probably apocryphal Roman tradition that Carthage callously executed their own general, Xanthippus, after he had successfully defended Africa for them in the First Punic War. However, Xanthippus's sons are shown fighting in the Carthaginian side without any ill feeling. This contradiction is never explained, and if they were unaware of their father's fate, as one could imagine, it is not stated.
** The poem also identifies wrongly the falarica as a large ballista, but later describes it properly as a handheld javelin.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: A trait of the Carthaginian side, done presumably in order to make it more exotical and bizarre to the conservative Romans. Hannibal's army contains women, blacks and people of all skin tones, in marked contrast to the white male Roman army.

* HitAndRunTactics: Cleadas, a Sidonian in Hannibal army's, uses the Parthain shot.

* InformedAbility: Arauricus the Turdetanian is introduced as a great warrior, but in his only battle appearance, he flees from the Roman Viriasius in Trebia and is killed by him.
* KidHero: The battle of Syracuse presents Podetus, a prepubescent prodigy captain who was also apparently a great athlete. However, he is killed by a rogue spear, and even the text pities him.

* NobleDemon: Hannibal is portrayed as cruel, but also honorable and loyal to his allies, as well as an adept of the stoic philosophy (a big deal for Silius, a fellow stoic), at least until Capua affects him.

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Fabius does this through his famed Fabian tactics, which involve denying pitched battles while at the samme time using guerrilla. It makes Hannibal run low of supplies and his mercenaries become impatient.

* NamesTheSame: Cydnus, as there are an Asturian mercenary of that name in Hannibal's army and a Carthaginian soldier of unidentified nationality in Syracuse. There is also a lieutenant named Nealces with Hannibal and an incestuous soldier of the same name.

* ObstructiveaBureaucrat: Hanno the Great, who refuses to send Hannibal reinforcements or supplies out of political rivalry.

* PeltsOfBarbarism: An interestingly heroic example is Alius, an Italian fighter who wears a bear skin and boar fangs in his helmets. He is such a good warrior that it takes both Mago and Maharbal to gang up on him to kill him.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Silius doesn't hide the fact that he is naturally telling a pro-Roman story, so he tends to paint things in the most heroic light possible for Rome and the most villainous one for Carthage. The work also features loads and loads of the RuleOfCool and AdaptationExpansion expected in an EpicPoem, though in this case we cannot safely attest how much Silius is embellishing, tweaking or just plain making up, given that many ancient chronicles and books about the Second Punic Wars which he might have used for research have not survived.

* ContinuitySnarl: The text adheres to the probably apocryphal Roman tradition that Carthage callously executed their own general, Xanthippus, after he had successfully defended Africa for them in the First Punic War. However, Xanthippus's sons are shown fighting in the Carthaginian side without any ill feeling. This contradiction is never explained, and if they were unaware of their father's fate, as one could imagine, it is not stated.

* HeroicSacrifice: The Roman Tadius is impaled by a weaponized elephant tusk in Cannae, but he blinds both of its eyes with his last breath.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Tiburna, widow of the Saguntine chief Murrus, does a verbal variation of this in the city.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Silius doesn't hide the fact that he is naturally telling a pro-Roman story, so he tends to paint things in the most heroic light possible for Rome and the most villainous one for Carthage. The work also features loads and loads of the RuleOfCool and AdaptationExpansion expected in an EpicPoem, though in this case we cannot safely attest how much Silius is embellishing, tweaking or just plain making up, given that many ancient chronicles and books about the Second Punic Wars which he might have used for research have not survived.