The genre of the « Punica » is over-determined by tradition and hemmed in by conventions.
Silius treads a careful line between fidelity to the epic tradition and innovation within it.
Compared with other writers of Latin epic, Silius avoids the technique of intertextual « quotation ».
He prefers alternative means - in particular, the coincidence of situation and detail (the story of Falernus at 7, 166-211 alludes to Ovid, met. 3, 664 ff., met. 8, 624 ff., and fast. 5, 495 ff. ; the story of Solimus at 9, 90-177 was inspired by Ovid, met. 4, 55 ff. and 7, 690 ff.).
Most of the time Silius has multiple intertexts in mind, prose as well as verse.
Silius is post-Ovidian in his aesthetics.
His engagement with Vergil is not direct and uncontaminated.
The complexity enhances the interest of this, the most intertextual of poems.
