Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/357

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SILVAE, V. iii. 165–184

slighted, and the maiden who from Sorrento’s height watches the Tyrrhenian deep, and the hill above the nearer bay[1] marked by the trumpet and the oar,[2] those too whom Cyme sent, once a stranger to her Ausonian home,[3] and the haven of Dicarchus and Baiae’s shore, where pants the fire deep-mingled with the midmost waves and the smothered conflagrations keep their dwellings? So from every side came the folk to Avernus’ rocks and the dark grotto of the Sibyl, to ask their questions, while she sang of the wrath of heaven and the doings of the Fates, no vain prophet even though she foiled Apollo.[4] Soon dost thou educate the Roman youth and the chieftains that shall be, and firmly leadest them in the footsteps of their sires. Under thy care grew the Dardanian overseer of the hidden fire,[5] who conceals the mysterious theft of Diomede, and from thee while a boy did he learn the rite: thou didst approve the Salii, and teach them their weapons’ use and show to the augurs the sure foreknowledge of the air; thou didst tell to whom belongs the privilege of unfolding the Chalcidic oracle, and why the hair of the Phrygian flamen is concealed; and the girt-up Luperci sorely feared thy blows.[6]

  1. ↑ Pompeii, of which Venus was patron goddess, Herculaneum, Surrentum with the promontory of Minerva, Cape Misenum.
  2. ↑ Of Misenus.
  3. ↑ Slater: “that welcomed long ago the Ausonian Lar,” i.e. Aeneas.
  4. ↑ By refusing his love after he had granted whatever she chose to ask (i.e., as many years as there were grains in a handful of dust).
  5. ↑ The reference is to the “pontifices,” under whose supervision was the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, and the Palladium that Diomede stole from Troy.
  6. ↑ The “pontifices” had charge of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, and the Palladium taken from Troy by Diomede and Ulysses; the Salii were priests of Mars, the augurs had supervision of the auspices, and the XVviri of the Sibylline books; the priests of the Phrygian Cybele (like other flamens, who are therefore included) had to wear the “apex,” a small sacrificial cap. The Luperci ran through the city half-naked, striking women with goatskin thongs to cause fertility; here they are girt up to receive, not to inflict stripes!

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