Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/267

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SILVAE, IV. iii. 158—iv. 11

in all thy wealth of noble deeds thou shalt mount and again refuse the chariots of war[1]: so long as the Trojan fire[2] shall abide and the Tarpeian Father thunder in his reborn shrine, yea, until under thy governance of the earth this road grows older than the Appian’s years.”

IV. A LETTER TO VITORIUS MARCELLUS


Vitorius Marcellus was of equestrian family, but became Praetor, and was also given charge of the Via Latina; for other details see 4 Praef., ll. 9, 41 ff. and 65 of this poem.


Haste at no laggard speed, my letter, o’er the Euboean plains[3]; set out upon thy road where the famous Appia branches sideward,[4] and a solid mound is planted on the yielding sands. And when swiftly travelling thou hast reached the towers of Romulus, seek forthwith the right bank of yellow Tiber, where the Lydian shore straitens narrowly the naval basin,[5] and suburban pleasure-gardens fringe the water. There shalt thou see Marcellus, peerless both in valour and in looks, and thou shalt know him by the mark of his lofty stature. First pay thy greeting in the accustomed manner, then remember to deliver this verse-embodied message:

  1. ↑ Apparently a reference to Domitian’s supposed magnanimity in refusing triumphs, cf. iii. 3. 168 n.
  2. ↑ The fire brought from Troy and kept in the temple of Vesta.
  3. ↑ The plains of Campania, so-called from the town of Cumae, originally colonized by Chalcis in Euboea.
  4. ↑ This (leftward) bend of the Appian Way to the sea is the same as that referred to in the note at the beginning of the last poem, where the road is mentioned as striking inland (to one travelling from Rome) at Sinuessa.
  5. ↑ The “stagnum navale” was a lake excavated by Augustus at the foot of the Janiculum for the purpose of naval displays and sham fights; it was about 50 acres in extent, and surrounded by pleasure gardens. “Lydia ripa” probably means the rising ground on the right bank, i.e. the Etruscan side of the river. The Etruscans were supposed to have come originally from Lydia: cf. Virg. Aen. ii. 781 “Lydius fluvius,” of the Tiber.

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