Silvae

The Silvae is a collection of Latin occasional poetry in hexameters, hendecasyllables, and lyric meters by Publius Papinius Statius (c. 45 – c. 96 CE).

There are 32 poems in the collection, divided into five books. Each book contains a prose preface which introduces and dedicates the book. The subjects of the poetry are varied and provide scholars with a wealth of information on Domitian's Rome and Statius' life.

Quotations

The translations are by D. R. Shackleton Bailey, and are taken from vol. 206 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), unless otherwise noted.

Book I

• Quas inter vultu petulans Elegea propinquat.
  • Among them pert-faced Elegy draws near.
  • ii, line 7

• Hunc Galatea vigens ausa est incessere bello.
  • Him did Galatia dare to provoke to war in lusty pride.
  • iv, line 76 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

• Immensae veluti conexa carinae
  cumba minor, cum saevit hiems, pro parte furentis
  parva receptat aquas et eodem volvitur austro.
  • As a little skiff attached to a great ship, when the storm blows high, takes in her small share of the raging waters and tosses in the same south wind.
  • iv, line 120

Book II

• Nobis meminisse relictum.
  • To us is left a memory.
  • i, line 55

• Et dulces rapuit de collibus uvas.
  • And snatched sweet grapes from the hills.
  • ii, line 103

• Primaevam visu platanum, cui longa propago
  innumeraeque manus et iturus in aethera vertex.
  • Spying a young plane tree with long stem and countless branches and summit aspiring to heaven.
  • iii, line 39 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

A dignity that charms and virtue gay yet weighty.

• Tu cujus placido posuere in pectore sedem
  blandus honos hilarisque tamen cum pondere virtus,
  cui nec pigra quies nec iniqua potentia nec spes
  improba, sed medius per honesta et dulcia limes,
  incorrupte fidem nullosque experte tumultus
  et secrete, palam quod digeris ordine vitam,
  idem auri facilis contemptor et optimus idem
  comere divitias opibusque immittere lucem.
  • In your calm bosom have made their dwelling a dignity that charms and virtue gay yet weighty. Not for you lazy repose or unjust power or vaulting ambition, but a middle way leading through the Good and the Pleasant. Of stainless faith and a stranger to passion, private while ordering your life for all to see, a despiser too of gold yet none better at displaying your wealth to advantage and letting the light in upon your riches.
  • iii, line 64

• Magni quod Caesaris ora...
  unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis.
  • The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye.
  • v, line 27 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

Book III

• Silvaque quae fixam pelago Nesida coronat.
  • The wood that crowns the peak of Nesis set fast in ocean.
  • i, line 148 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

• Nempe benigna
  quam mihi sorte Venus iunctam florentibus annis
  servat et in senium.
  • You, whom Venus of her grace united to me in the springtime of my days, and in old age keeps mine.
  • v, line 22 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

• Bacchei vineta madentia Gauri.
  • The flowing vineyards of Bacchic Gaurus.
  • v, line 99

Book IV

• Steriles transmisimus annos:
  haec aevi mihi prima dies, hic limina vitae.
  • Barren are the years behind me. This is the first day of my span, here is the threshold of my life.
  • ii, line 12

• At nunc, quae solidum diem terebat,
  horarum via facta vix duarum.
  • But now the route that used to wear out a solid day barely takes two hours.
  • iii, line 36

Shall future progeny of men believe, when crops grow again and this desert shall once more be green, that cities and peoples are buried below and that an ancestral countryside vanished in a common doom?

• Mira fides! credetne virum ventura propago,
  cum segetes iterum, cum iam haec deserta virebunt,
  infra urbes populosque premi proavitaque tanto
  rura abiisse mari? necdum letale minari
  cessat apex.
  • Wonderful but true! Shall future progeny of men believe, when crops grow again and this desert shall once more be green, that cities and peoples are buried below and that an ancestral countryside vanished in a common doom? Nor does the summit yet cease its deadly thrust.
  • iv, line 81

Book V

• Qui bona fide deos colit amat et sacerdotes.
  • Whoever worships the gods in good faith, loves their priests too.
  • Preface, line 10

• Sic auferre rogis umbram conatur et ingens
  certamen cum Morte gerit, curasque fatigat
  artificum inque omni te quaerit amare metallo.
  Sed mortalis honos, agilis quem dextra laborat.
  • So does he strive to rescue your shade from the pyre and wages a mighty contest with Death, wearying the efforts of artists and seeking to love you in every material. But beauty created by toil of cunning hand is mortal.
  • i, line 7

• Nec frons triste rigens nimiusque in moribus horror
  sed simplex hilarisque fides et mixta pudori
  gratia.
  • Yet no stiff and frowning face was hers, no undue austerity in her manners, but gay and simple loyalty, charm blended with modesty.
  • i, line 64

...rash Sappho, who feared not Leucas but took the manly leap.

• Excidat illa dies aevo nec postera credant
  saecula. nos certe taceamus et obruta multa
  nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis.
  • May that day perish from Time's record, nor future generations believe it! Let us at least keep silence, and suffer the crimes of our own house to be buried deep in whelming darkness.
  • ii, line 88 (tr. J. H. Mozley)

• Exsere semirutos subito de pulvere vultus,
  Parthenope, crinemque adflato monte sepultum
  pone super tumulos et magni funus alumni.
  • Raise your half-buried countenance from the sudden shower of dust, Parthenope, and place your locks, singed by the mountains breath, on the tomb and body of your great foster son.
  • iii, line 104

• Stesichorusque ferox saltusque ingressa viriles
  non formidata temeraria Leucade Sappho.
  • And bold Stesichorus and rash Sappho, who feared not Leucas but took the manly leap.
  • iii, line 154

• Jamque et flere pio Vesuvina incendia cantu
  mens erat et gemitum patriis impendere damnis,
  cum pater exemptum terris ad sidera montem
  sustulit et late miseras deiecit in urbes.
  • And now it was your purpose to weep Vesuvius' flames in pious melody and spend your tears on the losses of your native place, what time the Father took the mountain from earth and lifted it to the stars only to plunge it down upon the hapless cities far and wide.
  • iii, line 205

• Crimine quo merui, juvenis placidissime divum,
  quove errore miser, donis ut solus egerem,
  Somne, tuis? tacet omne pecus volucresque feraeque
  et simulant fessos curvata cacumina somnos,
  nec trucibus fluviis idem sonus; occidit horror
  aequoris, et terris maria adclinata quiescunt.
  • For what cause, youthful Sleep, kindest of gods, or what error have I deserved, alas to lack your boon? All cattle are mute and birds and beasts, and the nodding tree-tops feign weary slumbers, and the raging rivers abate their roar; the ruffling of the waves subsides, the sea is still, leaning against the shore.
  • iv, line 1

External links

• Works related to Silvae on Wikisource
• Text from the Latin Library