Odia fraterna, fraternae acies: i gemelli gladiatori in Silio Italico (Pun. 16, 527-548)

In Punica 16, inside the large episode of the Scipionic games, two twin gladiators die in a duel while they are fighting for regnum. A close reading of the lines 527-548 shows a clear intertextual relationship between Silius and several historical (Livy), philosophical (Seneca) and poetic (Virgil, Seneca, again, Lucan, Statius) sources. At the same time, the fratricidal duel foreshadows, as the selected and oriented lexical choises demonstrate, the situation of the civil wars. On the other side, must be considered that the tragic end of the fight declares its countertendency with regards to the cheerful atmosphere of the games. Scipio’s feast cannot avoid bloody implications. Exegetical and inter(intra)textual remarks, and lexical analysis (e. g. on the word sceptrum, referred to the fighing twins and Scipio himself), can generate an interesting “link hopping”, whose result is that the Silian characterization of Scpio, which is and remains the charismatic and predestinated hero, also anticipatse political leanings and individualistic behaviours subsequent to the second Punic war, and even reflects some bad tastes and feelings of the Domitian era.