150 RUURD R. NAUTA
in the text of the poem itself (7).^22 Because Statius was neither a sena-
tor nor (presumably) a knight, the invitation was indeed a singular
honour, granted to Statius individually, and this obliged him to recip-
rocate not only as a representative subject, but also as an individual.
Poems honouring non-imperial addresseesWhen addressing others than the emperor, the role of subject is not
available, and Statius must employ another role to give his utterance
legitimacy. In most cases this will be the role of amicus, which means
that Statius writes from the position of one who has a personal rela-
tionship with the addresssee. At the same time, Statius is always the
social inferior of his addressee, and the amicitia between them is of a
type that sociologists call ‘patronage’.^23 The non-imperial poem in
which amicitia is least in evidence is at the same time the one that is
closest to the imperial poems, Silvae 3.4 on the locks of Domitian’s
favourite Earinus. In the preface to Book 3 Statius writes: “Earinus ...
knows how long I have delayed complying with his wish, when he
asked me write a dedication in verse for his hairs, which he was send-
ing ... to Asclepius in Pergamum [which appears from the poem to
have been Earinus’ birthplace]” (3.ep.16–20). Statius’ words seem to
imply that the poem was written after the ceremony, but in the poem
itself he assumes a quasi-ceremonial role, apostrophising the hairs,
Asclepius, Pergamum and Earinus himself. But there is no sense of a
personal relationship, and the commission mentioned in the preface
shows that Statius did not in any case write on his own initiative. The
only feature suggestive of amicitia is that in the fictive situation Sta-
tius has to be thought of as being present at the ceremony, which was
typically one to be celebrated in the company of one’s amici.^24 This
use of an occasion where amici gathered connects the poem for Eari-
nus with those for non-imperial addressees, where it is always such an
occasion which provides the real or fictive context of utterance. In the
imperial poems Statius could only react to monuments and festivities,
22 Moreover, the title categorises the poem as an eucharisticon, but most scholars
believe the titles to have been added by a later hand.
23 On amicitia and patronage cf. Nauta 2002a, 14–26.
24 See Juv. 3.186–9. Similarly Petr. 73.6, on the first cutting of the beard (which in
Earinus’ case would have accompanied the first cutting of the hair if he had not been a
eunuch: 78–82).