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English Summary: In his historical epic 'Punica', Silius Italicus describes one of the crucial events in Roman history, the Second Punic War. Before the Romans eventually succeeded in winning an intense battle against the Carthaginians, which paved the way to them becoming a world power, their very existence had been threatened. An event firmly rooted in the collective memory and representative of the crisis, was the Carthaginian commander's approach towards Rome's city walls: 'Hannibal ad portas'. This commentary for the first time analyzes in detail the extraordinary way in which Silius describes the events surrounding this seminal episode in Roman history in verses 507-752 of his twelfth book. German Description: In seinem historischen Epos 'Punica' prasentiert Silius Italicus mit dem Zweiten Punischen Krieg ein entscheidendes Stadium romischer Vergangenheit: Bevor die Romer den harten Kampf gegen die Karthager letztlich siegreich beenden konnten und so ihren Weg zur Weltmacht ebneten, erlebten sie eine grosstmogliche Gefahrdung der eigenen Existenz. Ein fest im kollektiven Gedachtnis verankertes Ereignis, das reprasentativ fur diese Krise steht, ist die drohende Annaherung des karthagischen Heerfuhrers an Roms Stadtmauern: 'Hannibal ad portas'. Der vorliegende Kommentar analysiert erstmals im Detail, wie aussergewohnlich Silius diese wegweisende Episode romischer Geschichte in den Versen 507-752 seines zwolften Buchs in Szene setzt. Vor der historiographischen Tradition, in kreativer Auseinandersetzung mit dem epischen Kontinuum und in stetem Dialog mit dem eigenen Text konnte er die Geschehnisse vor der Stadt publikumswirksam erweitern und nach den narrativen Gestaltungsmustern des Epos neu pragen.

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The commentary itself offers everything a reader could be looking for in Silius' text by means of useful introductory notes, as well as philological discussion of textual issues and literary analysis. Unlike many modern English commentaries, Kortmann uses footnotes to relegate some materials of secondary importance to the understanding of the lemmata (though admittedly many important points can also be found in these footnotes). It is noteworthy that Kortmann makes full use of prior editions and commentaries, such as Ernesti (1792) and Ruperti (1795-8), as well as Spaltentstein (1990), in addition to the various reviews and additional textual notes published since Delz's edition (e.g. n. 539 corrects the typographic error lenitur in Delz to leniter). This reader was persuaded by several of Kortmann's proposed emendations (as, for instance, in 631 with ense or the adoption of Lefebvre's 1781 venturam caeli rabiem at 669). . . . All three indices are bound to be of use to the reader who will be using this commentary and will be navigating back and forth through several passages.Overall, this is a very good edition to be consulted by students and scholars of Flavian epic and of Silius in particular for the decades to come.--Antony Augoustakis, University of Illinois, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 7/20/2019

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