Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/123

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SILVAE, II. i. 98–124

laid thy mother in ashes nestled more securely in Ino’s bosom?[1] And when Ilia, fearing her sire no more, reigned a queen in Tuscan waters,[2] Romulus was burdening Acca’s arms. I have seen myself shoots grafted on another tree grow higher than their own. And already had thy will and purpose, Melior, made thee his sire, though not yet his charm and goodness; nevertheless thou didst love the words even now mingled with his utterance, and his rude infant cries and tears.

He, like a flower that is doomed to perish at the first breath of the South wind, yet with reckless daring lifts high its head in the lush meadow, young as he was had early surpassed his peers in pride of step and countenance, and had far outstripped his years. Did he stand with limbs bent in the locked wrestling-bout, you would have deemed him born of an Amyclaean mother[3]; Apollo would soon have exchanged for him the son of Oebalus,[4] Alcides had bartered Hylas; if in Grecian dress he declaimed the Attic speech of fluent Menander, Thalia would have rejoiced and praised his accents, and in wanton mood have disordered his comely locks with a rosy garland; or if he recited the old Maeonian and the toils of Troy, or the mishaps and slow returning of Ulysses, his very father, his very teachers were amazed at his understanding. Truly did Lachesis[5] touch his cradle with ill-omened hand, and Envy clasped the babe and held him in her bosom: the one fondled his cheeks and luxuriant curls, the other taught him his skill and inspired those words over which we now make moan. His rising years, though

  1. ↑ She was the sister of Semele, the mother of Bacchus.
  2. ↑ Ilia (see note on i. 2. 192) was drowned in the Anio by her father Amulius, but became the wife of the river-god. Acca was the nurse of Romulus.
  3. ↑ i.e., Spartan, the Spartan youths being famed for their wrestling.
  4. ↑ i.e., Narcissus.
  5. ↑ One of the Fates.

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