Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/51

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SILVAE, I. i. 66–88

The guardian[1] of the spot himself, whose memorable name the hallowed chasm and famous pools preserve, hearing the ceaseless clash of bronze and the Forum echoing with vigorous blows, raises his grisly visage, venerable even in decay, and his head revered for the well-deserved oak-wreath. And first, affrighted at the huge form and flashing glance of a mightier steed, he thrice in dismay bowed his lofty neck beneath the lake; then, joyful at the sight of his prince: “Hail, offspring and sire of mighty deities,” he cries, “whose godhead I heard of from afar! Now is my lake blessed, now is it holy, since it has been granted me to know thee nigh at hand, and from my neighbouring seat to watch thy immortal brightness. Once only was I the author and winner of salvation for the folk of Romulus: thou dost win the wars of Jove and the battles of the Rhine,[2] thou dost quell the strife of citizens,[3] and in long warfare constrain the tardy mountain to submit. But if our age had borne thee, thou wouldest have ventured to plunge into the lake’s depths, though I dared not; but Rome would have held back thy rein.”

Let that steed[4] give place, whose statue stands in Caesar’s Forum, over against Dione’s shrine—thy daring work, ’tis said, Lysippus, for the Pellaean chief; thereafter on marvelling back he bore the effigy of Caesar—scarce could your straining sight discover how far the downward view from this monarch to that. Who is so boorish as to deny,

  1. ↑ i.e., Curtius who saved Rome by leaping into a chasm in the Forum; for his “devotion” see Livy, i. 12, vii. 6. The place was known as the “lacus Curtius.” As one who had saved the lives of citizens he wears the crown of oak-leaves, the “corona civica.”
  2. ↑ i.e., of the Dacians, as frequently.
  3. ↑ i.e., in the fighting on the Capitol which took place after Vespasian’s accession.
  4. ↑ An equestrian statue of Julius Caesar in the Forum Julium opposite the temple of Venus Genetrix, called “Latia” here as being the mother of Aeneas, and so of the Roman race. Both forum and temple were built by Caesar out of his Gallic spoils. Probably Caesar’s head was substituted for Alexander’s; the practice was common at Rome, cf. Suet. Caligula, 22.

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