Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/169

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SILVAE, II. vii. 24–54

Happy land—too happy alas !—and blest, that on the verge of Ocean’s waves beholdest Hyperion slope downward to his setting, and hearest the hiss of plunging wheels; even thou, Baetica, whose dripping olive-presses vie with Athens, that is fertile for Tritonis: thou canst account mankind in debt to thee for Lucan![1] This is more than to have given Seneca to the world, or to have borne the sweet-tongued Gallio. Let Baetis, more renowned than Grecian Meles,[2] flow backward and be exalted to the stars; Mantua, dare not to challenge Baetis!

Straightway, while yet a new-born babe he crawled and with earliest accents sweetly whimpered, Calliope took him to her loving bosom. Then first did she lay aside her grief and cease her long lament for Orpheus, and said: “O boy, consecrate to poesy, soon destined to outmatch the bards of old, thou shalt move no rivers or wild herds or Thracian ash-trees with thy music, but with eloquent song shalt draw after thee the seven hills and Martian Tiber and the learned knights and purple Senate. Let others follow the tracks that poets’ wheels have worn, the night of Phrygia’s overthrow, Ulysses’ slow returning path, Minerva’s daring vessel:[3] thou, dear to Latium and mindful of thy race, more boldly dost unsheathe a Roman epic. And first, while in tender youth, thou

  1. ↑ Lucan was born at Corduba, as was also the philosopher Seneca, his uncle. Gallio was a rhetorician, brother of the younger Seneca, and the adopted son of Junius Gallio.
  2. ↑ The river near Homer’s birthplace, Smyrna; hence he is sometimes called Melesigenes. Luean was born at Corduba in Baetica. “Tritonis” = Pallas.
  3. ↑ i.e.. Iliad, Odyssey, Argonautica.

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