That one should disdain hardships: the teachings of a Roman Stoic

Abstract

culture. Ennius chronicled the arrival of Rome as a force in the ancient world, while Virgil, writing at the start of the golden age of literature, produced a national epic for the Rome that had conquered the ancient world. The references to Carthage and Hannibal in each of these epic works are testament to how the Carthaginian commander goes directly to the heart of Rome’s construction of a national and cultural identity. The Romans acknowledge that they became who they did, masters of the world, because of Hannibal and what he brought out in them.