Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/179

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SILVAE, III. i. 1–8

for his aged father. Next Earinus, freedman of our prince Germanicus—you know how long I have put off the Emperor’s expressed desire that I should write some verses in honour of his tresses, which he was sending to Asclepius at Pergamum together with a mirror and a jewelled box. Finally there is the piece in which I entreat my wife Claudia to retire with me to Naples. This, to tell the truth, is just talk, quite unreserved, from a husband to a wife, and that would persuade rather than delight. You will particularly favour this poem, since you will know that you above all are the object of my proposed retreat, and that my retirement is not so much to my own country as to yourself. Farewell.

I. THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES BUILT BY POLLIUS FELIX AT SURRENTUM


The poem describes how Pollius built a more worthy temple for Hercules in the neighbourhood of his villa; the god himself gave assistance, and the work was finished with miraculous speed. The piece ends with praise of Pollius, put into the mouth of the grateful deity.


Pollius renews thy interrupted rites, O lord of Tiryns,[1] and makes clear the causes of a year’s neglect, seeing that now thou art worshipped beneath a mightier dome, and no longer hast a beggarly home on the naked shore, a shanty where wandering mariners can lodge, but shining portals and towers upheld by Grecian marbles, as though purified by the brands of ennobling fire thou hadst a second time ascended heavenward from Oeta’s flames.[2] Scarce can sight or memory be trusted. Art thou verily that

  1. ↑ A common epithet of Hercules, who was reared at Tiryns, though born at Thebes.
  2. ↑ i.e., having the new temple is like being deified anew. Oeta was the scene of the burning of Hercules and his apotheosis.

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