Silius Italicus quotes

Silius Italicus was a Roman senator, orator, and epic poet, best known for his poem "Punica." His work is the longest surviving epic poem in Latin literature, chronicling the Second Punic War. He is remembered for his literary achievements and influence on later Roman writers. Here are 37 of his quotes:

Groundless superstition ill becomes an army; Valour is the only deity that rules in the warrior's breast.

Silius Italicus

Virtue herself is her own fairest reward.

Silius Italicus

Take the word of experience, I speak the truth: inaction is safest in danger.

Silius Italicus

Where two take counsel there is no lack of plans.

Silius Italicus

Inaction is safety in peril.

Silius Italicus

He was ever first to undertake hardship.

Silius Italicus

He had the folly to believe that to be feared is glory.

Silius Italicus

Altars seldom smoke in prosperous times.

Silius Italicus

Love never abandons hope.

Silius Italicus

Huge as the snakes that armed the Giants when they stormed heaven, or as the hydra that wearied Hercules by the waters of Lerna, or as Juno's snake that guarded the boughs with golden foliage.

Silius Italicus

When Hannibal's eyes were sated with the picture of all that valour, he saw next a marvellous sight-the sea suddenly flung upon the land with the mass of the rising deep, and no encircling shores, and the fields inundated by the invading waters. For, where Nereus rolls forth from his blue caverns and churns up the waters of Neptune from the bottom, the sea rushes forward in flood, and Ocean, opening his hidden springs, rushes on with furious waves. Then the water, as if stirred to the depths by the fierce trident, strives to cover the land with the swollen sea. But soon the water turns and glides back with ebbing tide; and then the ships, robbed of the sea, are stranded, and the sailors, lying on their benches, await the waters' return. It is the Moon that stirs this realm of wandering Cymothoe and troubles the deep; the Moon, driving her chariot through the sky, draws the sea this way and that, and Tethys follows with ebb and flow.

Silius Italicus

The appearance of [Virtue] was far different: her hair, seeking no borrowed charm from ordered locks, grew freely above her forehead; her eyes were steady; in face and gait she was more like a man; she showed a cheerful modesty; and her tall stature was set off by the snow-white robe she wore.

Silius Italicus

And their manliness is slowly sapped and weakened by the seductive poison of indolence.

Silius Italicus

Like a trembling hind pursued by a Hyrcanian tigress, or like a pigeon that checks her flight when she sees a hawk in the sky, or like a hare that dives into the thicket at sight of the eagle hovering with outstretched wings in the cloudless sky.

Silius Italicus

She gave way under the sudden weight, the sea rushed in, and the Io sank beneath the wave. Shields and helmets float on the water, images of tutelary gods and javelins with useless points.

Silius Italicus

Mantua, the home of the Muses, raised to the skies by immortal verse, and a match for the lyre of Homer.

Silius Italicus

Manhood is tested by trial, and valour climbs unterrified the rocky path and difficult ascent that leads to glory.

Silius Italicus

The higher they climbed in their struggle to reach the top, the harder grew their toil. When one height had been mastered, a second opens and springs up before their aching sight.

Silius Italicus

Virtue is indeed its own noblest reward; yet the dead find it sweet, when the fame of their lives is remembered among the living and oblivion does not swallow up their praises.

Silius Italicus

Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs.

Silius Italicus

He took his way to the abode of sacred Loyalty, seeking to discover her hidden purpose. It chanced that the goddess, who loves solitude, was then in a distant region of heaven, pondering in her heart the high concerns of the gods. Then he who gave peace to Nemea accosted her thus with reverence: "Goddess more ancient than Jupiter, glory of gods and men, without whom neither sea nor land finds peace, sister of Justice..."

Silius Italicus

Men leave arms and legs behind, severed by the frost, and the cruel cold cuts off the limbs already broken.

Silius Italicus