Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/353

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SILVAE, V. iii. 119–140

chose thee to lay by the purple garb^[1] given in honour of thy birth and the proud gold from off thy breast. Straightway at thy appearing the Aonian sisters favourably smiled, and Apollo even then my friend dipped thy boyish lyre and steeped thy lips in the sacred stream. Nor is thy country’s glory single, and the undecided contest of two lands leaves the place of thy origin in doubt. Grecian Hyele,^[2] where the drowsy steersman fell from the poop and passed a distressful vigil in the waves,—Hyele, made their own by Latian settlers, claims thee on the score of birth; but then mightier <Parthenope> proves thee hers by thy life’s long course—even so different cities with as many birth-places divide Maeonides^[3] among themselves, and prove their case every one; yet is he not the true scion of all, but the vast pride of a false claim puffs up the vanquished. There, while thou didst begin thy lays and offer thy greeting to life, straightway wert thou hurried into the contests of thy native festival that men can scarce sustain, so eager wert thou for praise and bold of wit. The Euboean folk stood amazed at thy youthful verse, and parents showed thee to their sons. Thereafter was thy voice frequent in combat, and at no solemn feast inglorious: not so often did green Therapnae applaud Castor’s victory upon the round course, or Pollux triumphant in the boxing-match. But if to

↑ There: is no justification for changing “ponere” to “sumere”; the ceremony clearly is the laying aside of the “toga praetexta” and the golden “bulla,” emblems of childhood; the fact that this ceremony was performed with great pomp is given as a proof of the statement “non tibi deformes,” etc. Possibly “ex tantis” (out of so many, “tanti” often = “tot,” iv. 1. 33, iv. 8. 14) should be read for “expensis.” “stirpis honore datos” does not refer to the grant of the laticlave, for this took place only with the assumption of the “toga virilis,” but simply to the fact that he was a freeborn citizen.
↑ Velia, on the Lucanian coast; the reference is to Palinurus (Virg. Aen. vi. 366).
↑ Homer.

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[1] There: is no justification for changing “ponere” to “sumere”; the ceremony clearly is the laying aside of the “toga praetexta” and the golden “bulla,” emblems of childhood; the fact that this ceremony was performed with great pomp is given as a proof of the statement “non tibi deformes,” etc. Possibly “ex tantis” (out of so many, “tanti” often = “tot,” iv. 1. 33, iv. 8. 14) should be read for “expensis.” “stirpis honore datos” does not refer to the grant of the laticlave, for this took place only with the assumption of the “toga virilis,” but simply to the fact that he was a freeborn citizen.

[2] Velia, on the Lucanian coast; the reference is to Palinurus (Virg. Aen. vi. 366).

[3] Homer.

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