Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/251

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SILVAE, IV. ii. 11–34

the immortal wine proffered by an Ilian hand[1]! I have lived barren years, but this is my natal day, this day is the threshold of my life. Is it thou, O ruler of the nations and mighty sire of the conquered world, is it thou, O hope of men and care of the gods, whom I behold while I lie at meat? Is it granted me indeed to gaze at those features face to face, amid the feasting and the wine, and lawful not to rise up in thy presence?

An edifice august, huge, magnificent not with an hundred columns, but with as many as would support heaven and the gods, were Atlas eased of his burden. The neighbouring palace of the Thunderer[2] views it with awe, and the Powers rejoice that thou hast a like abode. Nor wouldst thou hasten to ascend to the great sky; so huge expands the pile, and the reach BF the far-flung hall more unhampered than a plain, embracing beneath its shelter a vast expanse of air, and only lesser than its lord; he fills the house, and gladdens it with his mighty spirit. Libyan mountain and gleaming Ilian stone are rivals there,[3] and much Syenite and Chian and the marble that vies with the grey-green sea; and Luna also, chosen but to bear the pillars’ weight. Far upward travels the view; scarce does the tired vision reach the summit, and you would deem it the golden ceiling of the sky. Here when Caesar has bidden the Roman chieftains and the ranks of knighthood[4] recline together at a thousand tables, Ceres herself with robe upgirt and

  1. ↑ Of Ganymede.
  2. ↑ The temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, or, perhaps, “magnum caelum,” i.e. Olympus (22). Some edd. take “nec properes” as “do not hasten.”
  3. ↑ See note on i. 2. 148. The quarries of Luna in Etruria supplied white marble only, despised in comparison with the coloured kinds.
  4. ↑ The “trabea” was a decorated robe worn by the knights on solemn occasions, also sometimes by the consuls, and originally by the kings.

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