Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/91

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SILVAE, I. iv. 54–78

and a strong mind’s mastery o’er the body and unsleeping dilig ence in thy Emperor’ s cause, a labour of love to thee. Hence came creeping deep into the weary limbs a treacherous quiet and dull forgetfulness of life.

Then the god who hard by the peaks of the Alpine ridge[1] sets his sacred name of Apollo upon the groves, turns to behold, long alas! neglectful of so precious a ward. Then cutting short delay: “Come with me on the instant, Epidaurian son,” he cries, “away, and gladly too! ’Tis in our power—the chance must be seized!—to restore to health a mighty hero. Let us advance and grasp the thread that e’en now the distaff stretches.[2] Fear no dread thunderbolt:[3] Jupiter will be the first to praise this skill of ours. For ’tis no plebeian life I save nor one unblest in its begetting. Briefly while we draw nigh his house will I unfold his story. Himself he gives pedigree to his line, and reflects thereon his own nobility; yet his origin is not obscure, but surpassed by the glory that follows it, and gladly gives place to its famous progeny. He too first excelled in the arts of peace: in eloquence brilliant and powerful; then loyal to his oath he served in East and West and under every sun, bearing the brunt of countless camps, nor was he suffered to relax his ardour in peaceful ease nor to ungird his sword. Him did Galatia dare to provoke to war in lusty pride—ay, and me also[4]—and for the space of nine harvests Pamphylia feared him, and the bold Pannonian and Armenia’s

  1. ↑ Probably Turin, the birthplace of Gallicus, is meant. Evidence for any culyt of Apollo there is exceedingly weak.
  2. ↑ i.e., because it is running out.
  3. ↑ Jupiter had slain Aesculapius for restoring the dead to life.
  4. ↑ Attack on Delphi by the Gauls, 279 B.C.

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