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The Many Faces of Capua

This chapter focuses on the complex identity of Capua through its past and present associations with Troy, Rome, and Carthage. Whilst Capua’s defection to Hannibal provides the conqueror with the comforts and loyalty of home, the definition altera Carthago speaks primarily of perfidy but also of luxuria to his Roman enemies. This dichotomy is explored through a multiplicity of images and intertexts designed to evoke the banquets of Dido and Virrius. Capua’s past, her Trojan inheritance, raises the ambiguity of altera Troia, evoking the fall of Troy and, through Virgilian allusion, its renascence as Rome, whereas Capua’s perfidia sets her in contrast with another Trojan foundation, the city of Saguntum, which fell rather than betray her loyalty to Rome. Silius’ description of Capua’s decadent luxury is an admonition, grimly associating Rome’s imperial grandeur with the undercurrents of civil war, which are underlined by the kinship of Rome and Capua.