‘Mantua Musarum domus, atque ad sidera cantu
evecta Aonio, et Smyrnaeis aemula plectris.’
Silius also follows Homer and Virgil in their mythology, bringing in supernatural motives in a way unsuitable to a historical subject, e.g. in xv. 20, where Scipio has, like Hercules, to choose between Voluptas and Virtus.
The example of Hannibal’s dream, iii. 163-182, will show these different points. The story of the dream is got from Livy xxi. 22, but, for iuvenis divina specie, Silius, like Virg. Aen. iv. 222 sqq. and 259 sqq. substitutes Mercury. Individual imitations in the passage are: l. 172, ‘Turpe duci totam somno consumere noctem,’ from Il. ii. 24, οὐ χρὴ παννύχιον εὕδειν βουληφόρον ἄνδρα; l. 168, ‘umentem noctis umbram’ is from Aen. iv. 7, ‘umentemque Aurora polo dimoverat umbram’; l. 174, ‘iam maria effusas cernes turbare carinas,’ from Aen. iv. 566, ‘iam mare turbari trabibus ... videbis’; l. 182, ‘altae moenia Romae’ is from Aen. i. 7; l. 181, ‘respexisse veto’ from Ecl. 8, 102, ‘nec respexeris.’
The Epitome of the Iliad (in 1075 hexameters), which passes under the name of Homerus Latinus, has been attributed to Silius. It is a close adaptation from the original.
STATIUS.
(1) LIFE.
P. Papinius Statius was born at Naples (Silv. i. 2, 260, ‘mea Parthenope’), probably about A.D. 60, for he speaks of himself as on the threshold of life at the time of his father’s death, about A.D. 80 (‘limine primo fatorum,’ Silv. v. 3, 72). The apparent discrepancy in Silv. iv. 4, 69 (written A.D. 94-5), ‘Nos facta aliena canendo vergimur in senium,’ may be explained by observing that ‘senium’ is very often used for premature age induced by study (cf. ‘insenuit,’ Hor. Ep. ii. 2, 82).
The father of Statius came of a distinguished but not wealthy family: Silv. v. 3, 116,
‘Non tibi deformes obscuri sanguinis ortus
nec sine luce genus, quamquam fortuna parentum
artior expensis.’
He taught first at Naples (ibid. l. 146) and then at Rome (l. 176); and died at the age of sixty-five (l. 252) soon after the eruption of Vesuvius, which he had intended to make the subject of a poem (l. 205). It was from his learned father (‘genitor perdocte,’ l. 3) that Statius derived his first impulse towards poetry, and to his training he acknowledges deep obligations (ll. 209-214).