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Felicitas at Surrentum (Statius, Silvae II. 2)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. G. M. Nisbet
R. G. M. Nisbet
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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Extract

The Surrentinum of Pollius Felix encouraged Statius to play on the meaning of felicity. The villa's prospect extended to Naples and Limon (near Pausilypum), where an inscription of A.D. 65 already attests the name of the family. Nereids climbed the rocks to steal the fortunate proprietor's grapes, and Satyrs tumbled in the sea in the eagerness of their pursuit. A local Siren flew up to hear songs better than her own (112 f.),

hic ubi Pierias exercet Pollius artes,

seu volvit monitus quos dat Gargettius auctor,

seu nostram quatit ille chelyn, seu dissona nectit

carmina, sive minax ultorem stringit iambon.

In other words Pollius was a poet (cf. 39 f.; III. I. 66 f.), who wrote hexameters, elegiacs, and iambi; that is why Statius refers to his eloquentia and facundia, for Schanz-Hosius are wrong to include so private a person among the orators. In particular he seems to have composed didactic verse on Epicurean subjects. In a context referring to the Siren and immediately after a mention of Pierian arts, volvit monitus (co-ordinate with quatit, nectit, stringit) surely refers to something more than an interest in philosophy (thus Vollmer's commentary) or an avoidance of public life (J. H. Mozley's Loeb edition).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 68 , November 1978 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright ©R. G. M. Nisbet 1978. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 See Mingazzini, P. and Pfister, F., Forma Italiae, Regio I, vol. II, Surrentum (1946), 54Google Scholar f., 132 f. with tav. i and xviii; the scale of the villa was probably less than supposed byyBeloch, J., Campanien2 (1890), 269 f.Google Scholar (with p1. X).

2 Silv. II. 2. 81 f.; III. 1. 149.

3 ILS 5798: ‘Macrinus… hic ambulavit a villa Polli Felicis, quae est Epilimones, usque ad emissarium Paconianum, Nerva et Vestino cos.’; Mommsen, , Hermes XVIII (1883), 158Google Scholar f.; J. H. D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples (1970), 221 f.

4 For this use of chelys cf. I. 3. 102; v. 5. 33; Theb. 1. 33.

5 11 praef.; III praef.; III. 1. 65; so 1. 3. 1 of the equally versatile Vopiscus (1. 3. 99 f.).

6 Geschichte der röm. Lit. II4, 839, n. 5.

7 For the Epicurean traditions of the area cf. D'Arms, op. cit. (n. 3), 56 f.

8 For γαληνισμός cf. Epicur., Ep. Her. 37, 83, fr. 413, 425, 429 (Usener); W. Schmid, RAC V, 722. For similar correspondences between external and internal storms cf. Vessey, D., Statius and the Thebaid (1973), 93 fGoogle Scholar.

9 For the quies of Pollius cf. III praef.

10 122: ‘Troica et Euphratae supra diademata felix’.

11 III. 938: ‘cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis …?’; Epicur. fr. 499 ( = Cic., Tusc. V. 118); Sent. Vat. 47.

12 140: ‘securos portus’; Epicur. fr. 544: Ἐπίκουρος τἀγαθὸν ἐν τῷ βαθυτάτῳ τῆς ἡσυχίας ὤστερ ἐν ἀκλύστῳ λιμένι καὶ κωφῷ τιθέμενος; Virg., Catal. 5. 8 f.: ‘nos ad beatos vela mittimus portus, magni petentes docta dicta Sironis’.

13 139: ‘illo alii rursus iactantur in alto’.

14 Lucr. II. 2: ‘e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem’; II. 9 f.

15 Lucr. II. 7 f.: ‘sed nil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere edita doctrina sapientum templa serena’; Hor., Serm. II. 6. 16; Carm. II. 6. 21 f.; Ciris 14.

16 Epicurus spoke of the dissipation of life by wrong attitudes to time (cf. below, n. 100); see Sent. Vat. 14: ὁ δὲ βίος μελλησμῷ παραπόλλυται (contrast Hor., Carm. in. 29. 41 f.); Cic., Fin. I. 62–3 (with J. S. Reid's parallels).

17 II. 2. 133 f. Pollius had abandoned not poetry but politics: for text and interpretation cf. Håkanson, L., Statius' Silvae (1969), 64 fGoogle Scholar. (pulchrique); better E. Courtney, BICS XVIII (1971), 95 (rectique).

18 III. 1. 87, 159, 179; iv. 8. 13 f.

19 The exceptions are Priscilla, whose death is the actual subject of V. 1, and Statius' mother, who is mentioned without being named in the epicedium on his father (v. 3. 240 f.).

20 Something of the same attitude to marriage may be observed behind the satire at Lucr. IV. 1278 f. Bailey comments ad loc.: ‘perhaps, too, there is the thought that long custom of living together approaches to the Epicurean conception of friendship’.

21 In spite of the dislocation in the MS, there can be no doubt that these lines precede 143 f., i.e. they refer to Polla; cf. Housman, CR XX (1906), 42 f. = Collected Papers II, 646 f.

22 Crinagoras is more candid (A. Pl. 40). For Proculeius cf. Juv. 7. 94, where he is linked with Maecenas.

23 II. 2. 10 and III. 1. 87, nitidae; 11. 2. 10, gratia; III. 1. 179, placidae (cf. u. 2. 148 f.); IV. 8. 13 f., benigno … sinu; 11. 2. 144, pudicae; II. 2. 152, divitias.

24 So III. 1. 32 (of Pollius): ‘sed felix simplexque domus’.

25 Cf. also 11. 7. 62, castae.

26 As is made clear by P. White, HSCPh LXXIX (1975), 280 f.

27 consuleremus of the MS is meaningless; F. Skutsch's coleremus is excellent in sense (cf. White, op. cit.) and rhythm.

28 Buchheit, V., Philologus cv (1961), 90Google Scholar ff.

29 Cf. the use of rex at Silv. III. 2. 92 f.; Hor., Epist. 1. 7. 37 (to Maecenas); White, op. cit, 285.

30 RE XXI, 1407 f., 1419 f.

31 For the dating of the poems cf. Vollmer, op. cit., 6 f.; H. Frère and H. J. Izaac (Budé edition), vol. 1, xxii f.

32 D'Arms, J. H., JRS LXIV (1974), 111,Google Scholar mentioning as a possible father Cn. Pollius Cn. 1. Victor, an Augustalis at Puteoli in 56 (CIL X. 1574).

33 D'Arms, op. cit. (n. 3), 125 f.

34 Sen., Contr. 11 praef. 3: ‘hoc unum concupiscentem, nihil concupiscere’; Tac., Ann. XVI. 17. 3: ‘petitione honorum abstinuerat per ambitionem praeposteram’.

35 Tac., Ann. XIV. 53. 5: ‘equestri et provinciali loco ortus’ (the great Seneca).

36 Cf. Mart. VII. 23. 3 f.: ‘tu, Polla, maritum saepe colas et se sentiat ille coli’.

37 RAC III, 1017 f.; Humbert, M., Le remariage à Rome (1972), 59 fGoogle Scholar.

38 Humbert, op. cit.; Wiseman, T. P., Catullan Questions (1969), 58 fGoogle Scholar.

39 For the ‘humanistic idea’ of Roman marriage cf. Schulz, F., Classical Roman Law (1951), 103 fGoogle Scholar.

40 Humbert, op. cit., 102 f., 108 f., 122.

41 Cf. RE 1, 2228; W. B. Anderson's Loeb edition ad loc.

42 Carm. 9.226 f., 22 § 6; Bitschofsky, R., De L. Sollii Apollinaris Sidonii studiis Statianis (1881)Google Scholar.

43 Cf. Markland on Stat., Silv. 11 praef.: ‘quod si verum sit … Lucanum et Pollium eandem uxorem habuisse, omnis erroris liberator Sidonius’. For the importance of Markland's Silvae see now C. Collard, PCPhS XXII (1976), 1 f.

44 Pers., prol. 4: ‘pallidamque Pirenen’; Juv. 7. 97 with Mayor's note. In Lucan's case Sidonius would be thinking of the Adlocutio ad Pollam (see next paragraph).

45 Carm. 23. 160 f.; 9. 232 f.; 9. 271 f.

46 Lucan fr. 10 (Morel) = Mart. X. 64. 6: ‘si nec pedicor, Cotta, quid hic facio?’

47 Stat., Silv. 11 7. 62 f.: ‘hinc castae titulum decusque Pollae iucunda dabis adlocutione’.

48 Vita Vaccae (cf. Silv. 11. 7. 22); M. J. McGann, RFIC XCIX (1971), 63 f. and TAPhA CV (1975), 213 f. against Ahl, F. M., Lucan (1976), 335 fGoogle Scholar.

49 The Pisonian conspiracy that brought Lucan to his death centred round Piso's villa at Baiae; cf. Tac., Ann. XV. 52. 1; F. M. Ahl, TAPhA CII (1971), 22 f.

50 Juv. 7. 79 f.: ‘iaceat Lucanus in hortis marmoreis’; Tac., Ann. XVI. 17. 4.

51 See especially Sen., Cont. IX 3. 12–13; Bornecque, H., Les déclamations et les déclamateurs d'après Sénèque le père (1902), 152 f.Google Scholar; S. G. P. Small, YCS XII (1951), 75 f.

52 111. praef. 10; Bornecque, op. cit., 186 f.; Griffin, M. T., Seneca (1976), 45Google Scholar.

53 Small, op. cit., 73, citing CIL II. 1562, 3283, 5493.

54 Ville de Mirmont, H. de la, Annales de la faculé des lettres de Bordeaux, Bulletin Hispanique XII (1910), 1Google Scholar f.; XIV (1912), 11 f.; XV (1913), 154 f., 237 f., 384 f.; M. Griffin, JRS LXII (1972), 12.

55 The ‘sweet Gallio’ born at Corduba (Star., Silv. 11. 7. 30) is the elder Seneca's son; cf. A. Vassileiou, RPh XLVI (1972), 40 f. (citing Sen., NQ IV. praef. 11).

56 His teacher Cestius Pius came from Smyrna (Hier., Chron. ad ol. 191. 4), in spite of his Latin name.

57 S. F. Bonner, AJP LXXXVII (1966), 257 f.; for the tragedies of Seneca see his Roman Declamation (1949), 160 fGoogle Scholar.

58 Fronto, p. 151 (van den Hout): ‘Annaee, quis finis erit?’

59 Stat., Silv. 11. 2. 95 f.; ‘macte animo quod Graia probas, quod Graia frequentas arva’. He had a villa at the Greek city of Tarentum (110 f.).

60 Reitzenstein, RE 11, 712; Small, op. cit. (n. 51), 77 f.; Del Re, R., Maia VII (1955), 184Google Scholar f.; Gow-Page, , Garland of Philip II, p. 106Google Scholar. It is no objection that Argentaria was rich (Silv. II. 7. 86) while Argentarius said he was poor (A.P. IX. 229. 3 = Gow-Page, 1. 1429). Epigrammatists since Leonidas had laid claim to poverty, and in any case on our theory there was a generation intervening.

61 Small, op. cit. (n. 51), 69 f.; Gow-Page, op. cit., 1, xlv f.

62 Cichorius, C., Römische Studien (1922), 361 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Cont. IX. 3. 12–13: he swore ‘per manes praeceptoris mei Cesti’ while Cestius was still alive.

64 Small, op. cit. (n. 51), 95 f.; A.P. v. 104, 105, 116; IX. 554; A. Pl. 241 = Gow-Page, 11. 1323 f., 1329 f., 1345 f., 1485 f., 1503 f.

65 Small, op. cit. (n. 51), 87; Del Re, op. cit. (n. 60), 193. Note especially A.P. IX. 229. 5 f. = Gow-Page, 11. 1431 f. (the flagon is presented as an aged hetaera): αἴθ᾿ ὄφελες καὶ ἄμικτος ἀνύμφευψός τε παρείης ἄφθορος ὡς κούρη πρὸς πόσιν ἐρχομένη.

66 A.P. V. 63. For the apparent pun on Latin sic ( = ‘yes’) cf. Keydell, R., Hermes LXXX (1952), 497Google Scholar f. (rejected by Gow-Page, 1. 1311).

67 A.P. IX. 161 = Gow-Page, 11. 1369 f.

68 A.P. XI. 320 = Gow-Page, 11. 1491 f.

69 Sen., Cont. IX. 2. 22; Small, op. cit. (n. 51), 77, 112; cf. Bonner, Roman Declamation, 65.

70 The phrase is used by S. F. Bonner, AJP LXXXVII (1966), 264 f.

71 A.P. v. 16 = Gow-Page, 11. 1301 f.

72 For similar puns cf. Philodemus, A.P. v. 107. 8 ( = Gow-Page, 1. 3195) and x. 21. 8 ( = Gow-Page, 1. 353).

73 The point is noted somewhat tentatively by Del Re, op. cit. (n. 60), 185.

74 The verb is also found at Mutianus, , Chrysost. Hom. 28, p. 420Google Scholar (information derived from the Thesaurus by Dr. N. M. Horsfall).

75 For another pun cf. perhaps Silv. 11. 7. 81 (above, p. 3), where ‘nec solum dabo carminum nitorem’ may imply ‘sed etiam Argentariae‘.

76 Cf. 11. 7. 30: ‘Lucanum potes imputare terris’.

77 11. 2. 150 f., cited above, p. 2.

78 See M. T. Griffin, op. cit. (n. 52), 319, n. 5.

79 promere, Madvig; comere, cod., edd.

80 See J. M. C. Toynbee PBSR XVI (1948), 36 with pl. x, fig. 29; Animals in Roman Life and Art (1973), 96 fGoogle Scholar. For dare terga cf. Ov., Fast, 11. 445 f.: ‘terga … percutienda dabant’; Thes. L. L. v. i, 1668. 58 f.

81 For one over-elaborate attempt see Cancik, H., Untersuchungen zur lyrischen Kunst des P. Papiniu Statius, Spudasmata XIII (1965), 19Google Scholar f.

82 Theog. 215 with West's note.

83 A similar contrast may be implicit at Suid. 11. 584. 12 f. (cited by Vollmer): τὰ τρία μῆλα, ὄ ἐστι τὰς τρεῖς ἀρετάς, τὸ μὴ ὀργίζεσθαι, τὸ μὴ φιλαργυρεῖν, καὶ τὸ μὴ φιληδονεῖν. So also the Byzantine poet Meliteniotes, εἰς τὴν σωφροσύνην, 2072 f., cited by A. R. Littlewood, HSCPh LXXII (1967), 170.

84 For other confusions in this MS of r and s and of t and c see H. Frère's 1943 edition, xxx and xxxvi.

85 Thes. L. L. VIII, 993. 80 f.; usually ‘fortune’ or something similar is mentioned in the context. For an absolute use cf. Sen., Epist. 104. 22: ‘animum indurari et adversus minas erigere’; yet that passage is Stoic, and the heroics are addressed to a man.

86 Cf. Hor., Carm. III. 3. 3. f.: ‘non vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida’; Epictet. 1. 29.5.

87 Cic., Off. 1. 90. Cf. Silv. III. 5. 11: ‘dic tamen unde alia mihi fronte et nubila vultus’, where alia, the Aldine's conjecture for alta, is rightly supported by Håkanson, op. cit. (n. 17), 95.

88 11. 7. 107 f., discussed by Buchheit, V., Hermes LXXXVIII (1960), 231Google Scholar f.

89 11. 7. 118 f.; cf. Octavia 619 f.; Suet., Ner. 34.4.

90 Silv. 111. 5. 49: ‘fecerunt maenada planctus’; Philostr., Imag. 11. 9; cf. also the Bacchic symbols on the Vatican sarcophagus illustrated at Roscher, Lex. in. 3170. For the Euripidean source see n. 93 below.

91 For parallels see Vollmer, ad loc.; add Thuc. 11. 43. 3: ἄγραφος μνήμη παρ᾿ ἑκάστῳ τῆς γνώμης μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἔργου ἐνδιαιτᾶται; Lucan IX. 71 f.: ‘non imis haeret imago visceribus?’ (Cornelia to Pompey).

92 Pease on Cic., Nat. Dear. 1. 43; W. Schmid, RAC v, 746 f.

93 Presumably the source of Hygin. 104; Ov., Her. 13. 152 f.; Rem. 723 f.; see further Mayer, M., Hermes xx (1885), 101Google Scholar f.; RE XXIII, 934 f.; more sceptically H. Jacobson, Ovid's Heroides (1974), 195 f. Euripides' reservations about the passionate Laodamia (Mayer 114) are echoed by the middle-aged Wordsworth, Laodamia 74 f.: ‘the gods approve The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul’.

94 For similar likenesses of the dead cf. Eur., Alc. 348 f.; E. K. Borthwick, CPh LXIV (1969), 173 f. They were used even by the Epicureans; cf. Plin., NH xxxv. 5: ‘Epicuri voltus per cubicula gestant’; Origen, Cels. VII. 66; DeWitt, N. W., Epicurus and his Philosophy (1954), 100 fGoogle Scholar.

95 V. Buchheit, who accepts the punctuation (op. cit., 239), cites Priap. 8. 1: ‘matronae procul hinc abite castae’; Mart. XI. 6. 6: ‘pallentes procul hinc abite curae’.

96 As Mr. C. W. Macleod points out.

97 Sen., Epist. 64. 9; Plin., Epist. III. 7. 8 (Silius and Virgil); Juv. 5. 37: ‘Brutorum et Cassi natalibus’, with Mayor's note; RE VII, 1137 f., RAC IX, 219 f.

98 Vita 18; Cic., Fin. II. 101.

99 v. 176, 324, 1212 (admittedly all referring to the creation of the world).

100 Sen., Epist. 99. 25; Rist, J. M., Epicurus (1972), 136Google Scholar. The Epicureans used memory very selectively to keep life from disintegrating into a series of moments; cf. Epicur. fr. 138: ἀντιπαρετάττετο δὲ πᾶσι τούτοις (the pain of his deathhed) τὸ κατὰ ψυχὴν χαῖρον ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν γεγονότων ἤμῖν διαλογισμῶν μνήμῃ; 213: ἡδὺ ἡ φίλου μνήμη τεθνηκότος; 436–7; Ep. Men. 122; Sent. Vat. 17, 55: θεραπευτέον τὰς συμφορὰς τῇ τῶν ἀπολλυμὲνων χἀριτι; Cic., Fin. 11. 104–6; Plut., Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, 1097 f: τῆ μετὰ δακρύων ἰδιοτρόπῳ ᾑδονῇ (I owe this reference to Mrs. P. G. Fowler).

101 Sen., Epist. 63. 5 (citing the Stoic Attalus): ‘sic amicorum defunctorum memoria iucunda est quomodo poma quaedam sunt suaviter aspera’.

102 Philodemus, περὶ Έπικούρου, p. 70 Vogliano (Epicuri et Epicureorum scripta, 1928): εὐωχεῑσθαι; A.-J. Festugière, Épicure et ses dieux (1946), 33 f. ( = 22 in English edition); W. Schmid, RAC v, 748 f.

103 For the influence of declamation on Seneca's style cf. Norden, E., Die Antike Kunstprosa2 (1909) 1, 295 f.Google Scholar (citing Argentarius), 309 f.

104 Cf. Morel, Frag. Poet, Lat., p. 134 ( = Schol. Vallae on Juv. 4. 94).

105 Silv. III. 5. 40 f.; IV. 4. 70: ‘vergimur in senium’; v. 2. 158 f.

106 Cf. Juv. 7. 83 f.: ‘laetam cum fecit Statius urbem promisitque diem’.

107 Origen, Cels. 11. 76.