STATIUS IN THE SILVAE 145
(99–100). A few lines later he speaks of the “sanctuaries that we dedi-
cate to you” (105), where the word “sanctuaries” (templa) doubtless
includes the present statue. The use of “we” here at the conclusion of
the poem harks back to the beginning, where Statius had asked
whether the statue had been fashioned by Domitian’s favourite deity
Minerva in order that “we” could see Domitian in the guise in which
he had recently appeared to the peoples he had conquered (5–7).^8 Sta-
ti us thus acts as the representative of a wider collectivity, implying
that what he says rests on a universal consensus. Of course what he
says does indeed rest, if not on an actual, at least on an officially as-
sumed consensus, and for that reason he can speak with confidence
and authority. A good example is his interpretation of the difference in
size between Domitian’s mount and that of Julius Caesar in the nearby
Forum Julium, which he takes as iconic of the relative merits of the
two riders (84–90). He also draws a similar comparison with another
horse: the Trojan Horse celebrated by fama prior, “earlier fame” or
“old tradition”,^9 and more particularly, as Statius’ allusions acknowl-
edge, by Virgil in the Aeneid (8–16). This points to another source of
Statius’ authority: his being a poet, and more particularly an epic poet.
Although the poem does not have an invocation to the Muses or
other inspiring deities (which presumably would create a conflict of
hierarchy between them and the Emperor),^10 it does present its poetic
credentials from the beginning. The speaker starts off with visions of
the world of the gods and apostrophes to Domitian (5) and fama (8),
thus establishing that this text is no poetic representation of ordinary
speech, but an instance of poetic speech.^11 Moreover, the literal
‘greatness’ of the theme, introduced in the first verse (“What mass,
doubled by the colossus placed upon it, ...?”), the reference to the
8 Statius also uses the first person plural in a more casual way at 24, when he
speaks of the deified emperors as “our gods”.
9 These are the translations of Shackleton Bailey 2003 and Nagle 2004, respec-
tively. Unattributed translations of quotations incorporated in the running text are my
own; translations of quotations set off from the text are from Shackleton Bailey 2003.
10 No other imperial poem in the Silvae has an invocation of inspiring deities,
except the Saturnalian 1.6, on which see below. In 5.1.13–5 Domitian is himself an
inspiring deity, alongside Apollo, in a poem for one of his most important freedmen.
On the emperor and the Muses in Statius see Rosati 2002.
11 Because there is no real ceremonial setting, the address to Domitian, no less than
that to fama, may be called ‘apostrophe’. On apostrophe as undermining the construc-
tion of poetry as the representation of ordinary speech, see the classic article by Culler
1981 (as well as Culler 1985, 38–41 and Culler 1997, 75–9).