Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/107

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SILVAE, I. vi. 53–82

trained to the sword take their stand, daring, how recklessly, men’s battles! you would think Thermodon’s bands[1] were furiously fighting by Tanais or barbarous Phasis. Then comes a bold array of dwarfs, whose term of growth abruptly ended has bound them once for all into a knotted lump. They give and suffer wounds, and threaten death—with fists how tiny! Father Mars and Bloodstained Valour laugh, and cranes,[2] waiting to swoop on scattered booty, marvel at the fiercer pugilists.

Now as the shades of night draw on, what commotion attends the scattering of largess! Here enter maidens easily bought; here is recognized all that in theatres wins favour or applause for skill or beauty. Here a crowd of buxom Lydian girls are clapping hands, here tinkle the cymbals of Cadiz, there troops of Syrians are making uproar, there are theatre-folk and they who barter common sulphur for broken glass.[3]

Amid the tumult dense clouds of birds swoop suddenly down through the air, birds from holy Nile[4] and frost-bound Phasis, birds that Numidians capture ’neath the dripping South. Too few are there to seize them all, exultantly they grasp their fill and ever clutch fresh plunder. Countless voices are raised to heaven, acclaiming the Emperor’s festival; with

  1. ↑ i.e., Amazons.
  2. ↑ These dwarfs seem fiercer fighters than the old enemies of the cranes, viz. the Pygmies (Hom. Il. iii. 3).
  3. ↑ Rag-and-bone men plying the same trade are mentioned by Martial, i. 41. 4. For sulphur matches cf. also Martial, x. 3. 3.
  4. ↑ Flamingos (Nile), pheasants (Phasis), guinea-fowl (Numidia).

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