Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/279

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SILVAE, IV. v. 29–56

Did Leptis that loses itself in the distant Syrtes beget you? soon shall she bear Indian harvests, and despoil the perfumed Sabaeans of their rare cinnamon. Who would not think that my sweet Septimius had crawled an infant on all the hills of Rome? Who would not say that he had drunk, his weaning done, of Juturna’s fountain[1]? Nor is your prowess to be wondered at: straightway, still ignorant of Africa and its shallows, you entered the havens of Ausonia, and sailed, an adopted child, on Tuscan waters. Then, still a lad, you grew to manhood among the sons of the Senate, content with the glory of the narrow purple,[2] but with patrician soul seeking unmeasured labours. Neither your speech nor your dress is Punic,[3] yours is no stranger’s mind: Italian are you, Italian! Yet in our city and among the knights of Rome are men who might well be foster-sons of Libya.[4] Pleasing too is your voice in the strident courts, but your eloquence is never venal; your sword sleeps in its scabbard, save when your friends bid you draw it. But oftener do you enjoy the quiet country, now in your father’s home on Veientine soil, now on the leafy heights of Hernica, now in ancient Cures. Here will you plan more

  1. ↑ A spring in Rome.
  2. ↑ The angusticlave, or two narrow purple stripes down the front of the tunic, was the mark of knighthood (see Preface to Book IV.), but young sons of knights were sometimes granted the right of wearing the laticlave, one broad purple stripe; one may perhaps gather that this right was not granted in the case of Septimius. His soul, however, was truly noble (“patricia indole”).
  3. ↑ From which one may gather that Roman families living in Africa sometimes showed traces of Carthaginian speech; Vollmer, however, takes this as meaning “your word is true,” not characterized by “punica fides,” as in l. 48.
  4. ↑ i.e., so untrustworthy are they. It could also be rendered: “Yes in the City . . . Libya has sons who would adorn her.”

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