User:Modussiccandi/silv
Synopsis
[edit]Book 1
[edit]The first book of the Silvae is dedicated to Lucius Arruntius Stella, a magistrate and writer of elegies. Poem 1.1 commemorates the unveiling of a large equestrian statue of the emperor Domitian on the Roman Forum. 1.2 celebrates the wedding of Stella to the Neapolitan window Violentilla. Manilius Vospiscus, a wealthy friend of the emperor, is the addressee of 1.3, containing an extensive description of his villa on the river Anio. In 1.4, Statius expresses his relief at the news that Rutilius Gallicus, once the urban prefect of Rome, had recovered from an illness. 1.5 praises the ingenious architecture of the baths of Claudius Etruscus, the son of the influential freedman Tiberius Claudius Narcissus. The book concludes with an account of a public banquet given by Domitian on the calends of December.
Book 2
[edit]Atedius Melior, an elderly and wealthy patron of the poet, is the dedicatee of the second book. In poem 2.1, Statius laments the death of Glaucias, a male favourite of Melior who died prematurely. 2.2 resumes the theme of the villa poem by describing the estate of Pollius Felix, a prominent magistrate in the Gulf of Naples living in Surrentum. 2.3 contains a birthday poem for Melior, in which the poet recounts an aetiological myth about a tree on his patron's estate. There follow two short poems about Melior's pet parrot (2.4) and a tame lion (2.5). Poem 2.6 consoles the wealthy Flavius Ursus about the death of his slave Philetus. In 2.7, Statius celebrates the life of the dead poet Lucan with a birthday poem addressed to Lucan's widow Polla Argentaria.
Book 3
[edit]Statius dedicated the third book to Pollius Felix, who had been the recipient of poem 2.2. The first poem of the book commemorates the magnificent renovation of a shrine to Hercules on Pollius' estate at Surrentum, which Pollius commissioned after it sheltered him and his friends from the rain. 3.2 bids farewell to the senator Maecius Celer as he departs for a military assignment in Syria. 3.3 offers consolation to Claudius Etruscus, to whom poem 1.5 was addressed, about the death of his father. The penultimate poem describes the dedication of a lock of hair by Flavius Earinus, a young lover of the emperor, to the temple of Asclepius at Pergamum. In 3.5, Statius addresses his wife Claudia and asks her to retire with him to his native town of Naples.
Book 4
[edit]Dedicated to Marcus Vitorius Marcellus, a senator and friend of the poet, the fourth book begins with a group of three poems about the emperor Domitian. 4.1 celebrates Domitian's seventeenth consulship in AD 95. In 4.2, Statius gives thanks to the emperor for inviting him to a banquet in his palace. 4.3 closes the Domitianic cycle with a poem on the construction of the Via Domitiana in southern Italy. 4.4 takes the form of a private letter to Marcellus, the book's dedicatee. 4.5 is the collection's first lyric poem: an ode to Septimius Severus, an equestrian and amateur poet from North Africa. 4.6 is set at the house of the art connoisseur Novius Vindex, where Statius admired a miniature of Hercules. The only other lyric poem (4.7) addresses Gaius Vibius Maximus, an equestrian based in Dalmatia asking him to return to Rome. 4.8 congratulates Julius Menecrates, the son-in-law of Pollius Felix, on the birth of his son. The final poem of the book is a jocular piece dedicated to the senator Plotius Grypus on the occasion of the Saturnalia.