Prayer to Mars

Imilce, Hannibal's wife, prays for her husband, who has marched on Rome.

The choice of deity is the whole of it. Mars is the progenitor of the Romans, father of Romulus; a Carthaginian woman asks the forefather of the enemy to preserve the man advancing against them. Silius is fond of such reversals: in the seventh book the Roman matrons carry a gift in just the same way to Juno, the patroness of Carthage (juno-006). Both sides try to pull over the other's god, and both are refused.

Nefasque averte — avert the impiety. Her husband's death is called not a misfortune but a sacrilege: from where she stands it is exactly that, and the word is chosen so the matter will look justiciable by gods rather than merely bitter.

Caput inviolabile Teucris — a head inviolable to the Teucrians. Inviolabilis belongs to the language of holy things: what cannot be touched without committing a crime. Imilce asks not for protection but for a particular legal status: let her husband be to the Romans what a temple is.