Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/241

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

BOOK IV


Statius to his Friend Marcellus: Greeting!

I have found a volume, my dearest Marcellus, that I can dedicate to your loyal friendship. I believe that no work of mine has opened without an invocation of the godhead of our mighty Prince; but this book has three <such poems>, . . . and it is only the fourth that does you honour.[1] In the first I have paid homage to the seventeenth consulship of our lord Germanicus; in the second I have returned thanks for the privilege of attending his most august banquet; in the third I express my admiration of the Domitian Road, whereby he has ended the serious waste of time caused by the sandy track. To him it is due that you will the sooner receive my letter which I am sending from Naples in this volume. Then follows an Ode to Septimius Severus, who is, as you know, one of the most distinguished young men of equestrian rank, and not only a school-companion of yours, but, even apart from that claim on me, one of my closest friends. As for the Hercules-statuette of our friend Vindex, I can make you responsible for that also, for he has deserved well

  1. ↑ This seems to be the general sense.

203

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.