Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/273

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

SILVAE, IV. iv. 66–90

thews that with difficulty[1] put on the heavy corselet; should’st thou prepare to go on foot, thy helmet’s peak will nod high above the ranks; should’st thou bend the jingling reins, the mettlesome charger will do thy bidding. We, singing the deeds of others, fall into old age: thou resplendent in thy armour shalt perform actions meet for song, and set a noble pattern before the youthful Geta,[2] of whom already his warrior grandsire is demanding worthy feats and grants him to know the triumphs of his house. Up, then, be doing, and overtake thy sire, though he be a man and thou but a lad, happy alike in thy mother’s lineage and thy father’s prowess. Already blissful Glory nourishes thee, and fondles thee in her robe of Tyrian dye, and delights to promise thee all the curule chairs.”

Such, Marcellus, is the song I am singing thee on the Chalcidic strand, where Vesuvius hurls forth broken rage, outpouring fire that would rival Trinacrian flames. Marvellous, but true! Will future ages believe, when once more crops are growing, and these wastes are green again, that cities and peoples lie beneath, and that their ancestral lands have perished by alike fate? And still that peak threatens ruin. Far be that fate from thy Teate, nor may such madness seize the Marrucinian hills!

If now perchance you ask what my muse is attempting, my Thebaid having completed her Sidonian[3] toils has at last furled her sails in the wished-for haven, and on the ridges of Parnassus and in the

  1. ↑ “tarde,” apparently because his frame is so robust; the idea can be paralleled from the Thebaid, e.g. i. 489.
  2. ↑ His son was called Vitorius Hosidius Geta after his mother, who was of the Hosidii, a senatorial family.
  3. ↑ i.e., Theban, from the descent of the Thebans from Cadmus.

235

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.