Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/211

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SILVAE, III. iii. 57–78

Tirynthian also performed his dread covenant with the cruel king, nor did bondage shame the pipe of Phoebus.[1]

But neither wert thou sent to Latium from barbarous shores: Smyrna was thy native soil, and thou didst drink the honoured[2] springs of Meles and of Hermus’ stream, where Lydian Bacchus bathes and tricks his horns anew in the golden silt.[3] Thereafter a prosperous career was thine, and divers offices in due succession increased thy dignity: it was thy privilege ever to walk near divinities, ever to be close to Caesar’s person[4] and to share the holy secrets of the gods. The palace of Tiberius first was opened to thee while early manhood scarce changed as yet thy boyish countenance; here—since thy varied gifts surpassed thy years—freedom came to thee unsought; nor did the next heir,[5] though fierce and Fury-haunted, banish thee. In his train didst thou go, frail as thou wert, even to the frozen North, and endure the tyrant terrible in word and look and cruel to his subjects, as those who tame the dread rage of beasts and command them, though they have tasted blood, to let go the hand thrust down their jaws, and to live without need of prey. But Claudius for thy merit raised thee to highest office in his old age,[6] ere he was summoned to the starry vault, and gave thee over to the keeping of his nephew’s late-born

  1. ↑ Hercules served King Eurystheus of Argos, Apollo was shepherd (hence “fistula”) to Admetus, king of Thessaly.
  2. ↑ Because Homer was born on its banks.
  3. ↑ The Dionysus of the Indian legends has a bull’s horns; the same Oriental figure appears in Theb. iv. 389, “Hermi de fontibus aureus exis.”
  4. ↑ “latus” is often used in this sense; cf. the Papal legate “a latere.”
  5. ↑ Caligula. The next line seems to be a reference to the expedition to Britain, which ended so ridiculously (Suet. Cal. 46).
  6. ↑ This seems the most satisfactory meaning that can be got for “longo”; others are “long-reigning,” for which “longus exul” of Theb. ii. 114, is not a very good parallel, and “the long series of descendants,” which could only refer to the Flavians. Nero succeeded at the age of seventeen. He was the son of Claudius’s niece Agrippina.

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