Cabiria is a 1914 Italian silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218--202 BC). It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mt. Etna, heinous religious rituals in Carthage, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio maneuvering in North Africa. Apart from being a classic on its own terms, the film is also notable for being the first film in which the long-running film character Maciste makes his debut. According to Martin Scorsese,in this work Pastrone invented the epic movie and deserves credit for many of the innovations often attributed to D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Among those were the first use of the moving camera, thus freeing the narrative film from "static gaze".
The historical background and characters in the story are taken from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita (written ca. 27--25 BC). In addition, the script of Cabiria was partially based on Gustave Flaubert's 1862 novel Salammbo and Emilio Salgari's 1908 novel Cartagine in fiamme (Carthage in Flames).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabiria

Nel 1914 Giovanni Pastrone poté così dirigere il più grande colossal della storia del cinema: Cabiria. Ambientato nella Cartagine del III secolo, il film aveva una durata di circa tre ore e per girarlo furono impiegate centinaia di comparse, effetti speciali, scenografie mastodontiche, perfino degli elefanti. Buona parte di questi effetti speciali, tra cui l’eruzione dell’Etna, furono realizzati da Segundo de Chomón a cui fu affidata la direzione della fotografia. La sceneggiatura venne invece firmata da Gabriele D’Annunzio.
http://www.brevestoriadelcinema.org/storia-del-cinema/03-gli-anni-dieci-e-la-grande-guerra/03-1-litalia-il-genere-epico-storico-le-dive/