From Republic to Empire challenges the longheld view that Silius Italicus Punica is a nostalgic epic and argues that it is instead centrally concerned with and fundamentally shaped by the contemporary Flavian world in which it was composed. The epic documents how Romes Republic took its first steps toward becoming an Empire during the Second Punic War and identifies the leader Scipio Africanus as the critical impetus behind this development his rise to prominence in the wars later stages brings about a change in Romes powerstructure a shift toward oneman rule Scipios rule that prefigures and paves the way for the political arrangement under which the poet himself lived the Principate. In portraying Scipio as a good king and a virtuous princeps Silius furthermore offers the emperor of his own day Domitian a leadershipideal to aspire to and emulate.