Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/41

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SILVAE


BOOK I


Statius to his Friend Stella: Greeting!

Long and seriously have I hesitated, my excellent Stella—distinguished as you are in your chosen branch of our common pursuit—about these pieces of mine, which were produced in the heat of the moment and by a kind of joyful glow of improvisation, whether I should collect them, after they have issued one by one from my bosom, and send them forth together. For why should I burden myself with the responsibility for this additional publication, when I am still apprehensive for my Thebaid, although it has left my hands? But we read the “Gnat,”[1] and deign to recognize even the Battle of the Frogs”[2]; nor is there any of the great poets who has not made prelude to his works in lighter vein. Again, was it not too late to keep these poems back, when others were already in the possession of those in whose honour they were written (yourself among them)? Yet with most people much of their claim to a lenient judgement must disappear, since they have lost their impromptu nature, the only charm that they possessed. For

  1. ↑ One of Virgil’s earliest works, probably to be identified with the extant poem of that name; see note on Silv. ii. 7. 74.
  2. ↑ Usually known as Batrachomyomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, popularly attributed to Homer, a burlesque of the warlike epic.

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