Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/209

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SILVAE, III. iii. 31–56

A blessing on thy pious moans! I will bring solace for a grief so worthy, and unbidden pay thy sire, Etruscus, an offering of song. Do thou with lavish hand plunge Eastern incense in the flames, and the proud harvests of Cilicia and Araby; let the fire consume thy heritage of wealth; heap high the burning mass that shall waft duteous clouds to the bright sky. My gift is not for burning, but my record of thy grief shall endure through the years to come. For I too know what it is to mourn a father; I too have groaned prostrate before the pyre. That day bids me assuage thy loss by song; the lament I offer thee now was once my own.

No brilliant lineage indeed was thine,[1] serene old man, no descent traced down from distant ancestors, but high fortune made good thy birth and hid the blemish of thy parentage. For thy masters were not of common stock, but those to whom East and West are alike in thrall. No shame is that servitude to thee;[2] for what in heaven and earth remains unbound by the law of obedience? All things in turn are ruled and in turn hold sway. To its own monarch every land is subject: fortunate Rome lords it o’er monarchs’ crowns: ’tis her rulers’ duty to bridle Rome: o’er these in turn rises the sovereignty of heaven. But even deities have their laws: in thraldom is the swift choir of the stars, in thraldom is the wandering moon, not unbidden is the light whose path so oft returns. And, if only it be not a sin to compare the lowly with the highest, the

  1. ↑ Statius now addresses the father. At l. 85 he again speaks of him in the 3rd person, but returns to the 2nd person at l. 106.
  2. ↑ More familiar parallels to this idea are Soph. Ajax, 669 ff. and Hor. Od. iii. 1. 5.

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