Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/331

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SILVAE, V. ii. 46–68

carry out his great commands. Already the barbarian land itself knew the hero well; his was the second crest in battle, his helm stood nearest to his chief’s. So were the Phrygians dismayed,[1] and though it was the arms of Nemea they saw, and Cleonae’s bow that drove their ranks in rout, ay, though Alcides fought, yet feared they Telamon also. Learn, boy—for no stranger needst thou seek to teach thee the fair love of valour; let kindred renown inflame thee: others may seek a pattern in Decius or the returning of Camillus[2]—learn thou the lesson of thy sire,[3] in what might he entered Thule that sets a barrier to western waves,[4] where Hyperion is ever weary, and bore the commands of Caesar, how powerfully he governed the thousand cities of lordly Asia in the allotted year, yet with justice tempering authority. Drink in with ready ear these stories, for these let thy kinsmen strive to win thy love, these precepts let thy comrades and thy father’s friends repeat.

And now thou art planning a journey to other lands, and art preparing to be gone with no sluggish stride; not yet have the signs of vigorous manhood crept about thy cheeks, blameless still is the tenour of thy life. Nor is thy father with thee: a cruel fate has taken him, he is dead, leaving two children without a guardian. He did not even take off the purple of boyhood from thy youthful arms, or put the white raiment about thy shoulders.[5] Whom hath not unrestrained youth corrupted, and the too hasty freedom

  1. ↑ The Trojans feared Telamon, father of Ajax, as well as Hercules (slayer of the Nemean lion near Cleonae). The reference is to the previous sack of Troy, in which Hercules took part.
  2. ↑ Decius devoted himself to death for Rome; Camillus returned from exile to defeat the Gauls.
  3. ↑ He was legatus in Britain 70–71.
  4. ↑ lit. “that says no to,” “opposes,” cf. iii. 1. 124 “saxa negantia ferro,” also Theb. ii. 668. Thule was regarded rather as in the extreme W. than in the N.
  5. ↑ The change from the purple-bordered toga of childhood to the white toga of manhood is referred to.

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