Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/359

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SILVAE, V. iii. 185–209

And now of that company one perchance gives laws to Eastern races, another quells Iberian tribes, another at Zeugma[1] sets bounds to the Achaemenian Persian; these curb the rich peoples of Asia, those the lands of Pontus, these by peaceable authority declare pure justice in the courts, those hold loyal watch and ward in camps; thou art the source of their renown. In moulding youthful minds neither Nestor nor Phoenix, guide of his untamed foster-child, had striven with thee, nor Chiron, who with far different strains subdued the heart of Aeacides, fain to hear the bugles and the blast of horns.[2]

Whilst thus thou wert busy, of a sudden civil Strife[3] raised her torch on the Tarpeian mount, and stirred Phlegraean combats.[4] The Capitol glows with impious fire, and Latian cohorts showed the fury of the Gauls. Scarce had the flame abated, still burnt that funeral pyre of gods, when thou undismayed, eagerly forestalling the brands themselves, didst chant with pious voice a solace for the shrines destroyed and lament the captured thunderbolts. The Roman chieftains and Caesar, heaven’s avenger, marvel, and from the midst of the blaze the Sire of the gods gives sign of favour. And already was it thy purpose to bewail in pious chant the conflagration of Vesuvius, and expend thy tears on the ruin of thy native land, when the Father caught up the mountain from the earth and lifted it to the skies, then hurled it far and wide upon the hapless cities.[5]

I too, when I knocked at the groves of song and

  1. ↑ See note on iii. 2. 137.
  2. ↑ Both Phoenix and Chiron acted as tutor to Achilles.
  3. ↑ The fighting in Rome between the Vitellian and Flavian troops, A.D. 69.
  4. ↑ Such as when the gods fought against the giants in the plains of Phlegra, cf. i. 1. 79 “bella Lovis.” The Senones were a Gallic tribe.
  5. ↑ Statius’s father had written a poem on the fighting on the Capitol in 69, and was planning one on the eruption of Vesuvius in 79.

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