 According to the epigrams of Martial cited above, the poem met with some success and was compared with the "Aeneid".Silius, as a poet of historical epic, had to make use of both historical sources and poetic models.Livy is considered his single most important historical source; however, Silius differs his work from Livy's by often embellishing themes which are only briefly treated in Livy and altering the focus of his narrative.