virtus: Grotius quotes Hierocles: 'God hath not upon earth a place more truly his than the pure heart,' and the Pythian oracle: 'I joy in reverent mortals even as in Olympus.' Superos…ultra: Why further do we seek the gods? Iuppiter…moveris: All that you see, and all your feelings, that is Jupiter.—Haskins. Cf. Seneca, De Beneftciis, 4. 8: Quocumque te flexeris, ibi ilium videbis occurrentem tibi: nihil ab illo vacat, opus suum ipse implet. 22. Servata fide: true to his word. 23. populis: dative, to the multitude, i.e. of Orientals waiting to consult the oracle.
4. 10. Fortuna fuit: i.e. was due to fortune rather than to virtue. Fortuna is predicate nominative. 14. quam…Iugurthae: i.e. than to win the victories of Marius.
5. This noble portrait is that of an ideal Stoic. Roman life had been deeply imbued with this philosophy, which had passed beyond the limits of the schools to become at once a religious creed and a practical code of morals for everyday use. See Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 171. 2. servare…tenere: to hold fast the mean, to observe the due limit. These and the following phrases are Stoic formulae. 4. Cf. Seneca, Epistula 95 (15.3). 52-53, where he says 'we are members of a great body.' 'Let this line be both in our hearts and on our lips:
"Human I am,
And every human interest is mine."'
See the entire passage. 12. sibi nata: selfish.
VIII. STATIUS.
40-95 A.D.
Statius, whose father before him was a poet, was born at Naples. His works consist of the Thebais, an epic in imitation of the Aeneid and having for its subject the story of the Seven against Thebes; the Achilleis, intended to celebrate the deeds of Achilles, but never completed; and the Silvae, a collection of thirty-one miscellaneous poems, of which our selection is one.
For Reference: Fr. Vollmer, Silvae, Leipzig, 1898.
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.