Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/133

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SILVAE, II. i. 231—ii. 10

soothe thou his heart and forbid his tears to flow; make his nights glad with thy sweet converse and thy living countenance. Tell him thou art not dead, and hasten to commend to him—for thou canst—thy unhappy parents and thy sister left forlorn.

II. THE VILLA OF POLLIUS FELIX AT SURRENTUM

The general arrangement of the poem follows the lines of i. 3; there is a description of the villa and its surroundings, followed by praise of its master, Pollius, and, in this case, of his wife Polla as well. Pollius Felix was a wealthy patron of Statius. The position of the villa can be determined with some degree of certainty as having been on the coast between the Capo di Sorrento and the Capo di Massa, on the heights of the Punta della Calcarella; just to the south the Marina di Puolo still preserves the name of Pollius, and must be the “unum litus” of ll. 15, 16; the temples of Neptune and Hercules lay somewhere below the villa. Considerable remains of Roman masonry still exist.

The building of the Temple of Hercules is described in Silv. iii. 1.

Between the walls that are known by the Sirens’ name and the cliff that is burdened by the shrine of Etruscan Minerva a lofty villa stands and gazes out upon the Dicarchean deep;^[1] there the ground is beloved of Bromius, and the grapes ripen on the high hills nor envy the Falernian wine-pressess. Hither was I glad to come after the four-yearly festival^[2] of my home,—when at last deep quiet had fallen and the dust lay white upon the course, and the athletes had turned them to Ambracian garlands,—drawn by the eloquence of gentle Pollius and bright Polla’s girlish charm to cross my native strait:

↑ The name of Surrentum was locally derived from that of the Sirens, probably through the fact that Parthenope, the old man of Naples, was also the name of one of the Sirens themselves; the islands to the south of the promontory are called Σειρηνούσσαι as early as Eratosthenes. The southernmost headland bore the name and temple of Minerva; Tyrrhene, perhaps from the “mare Tyrrhenum,” perhaps from a tradition of Etruscan power (cf. Steph. Byz. Συρέντιον πόλις Τυρρηνίας), Minerva herself being originally Etruscan. “The Dicarchean deep” is the bay of Naples, from Dicarchus or Diecarcheus, founder of Puteoli.
↑ The four-yearly festival of the Augustalia at Naples, instituted in A.D. 2; it consisted of musical and gymnastic contests. The Actian (“Ambracian” l. 8) games came a little later, beginning on September 2.

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[1] The name of Surrentum was locally derived from that of the Sirens, probably through the fact that Parthenope, the old man of Naples, was also the name of one of the Sirens themselves; the islands to the south of the promontory are called Σειρηνούσσαι as early as Eratosthenes. The southernmost headland bore the name and temple of Minerva; Tyrrhene, perhaps from the “mare Tyrrhenum,” perhaps from a tradition of Etruscan power (cf. Steph. Byz. Συρέντιον πόλις Τυρρηνίας), Minerva herself being originally Etruscan. “The Dicarchean deep” is the bay of Naples, from Dicarchus or Diecarcheus, founder of Puteoli.

[2] The four-yearly festival of the Augustalia at Naples, instituted in A.D. 2; it consisted of musical and gymnastic contests. The Actian (“Ambracian” l. 8) games came a little later, beginning on September 2.

[1]

[2]