152 RUURD R. NAUTA
luce mihi, quis nocte timor, dum postibus haerens
adsiduus nunc aure uigil, nunc lumine cuncta
aucupor
Amid so many gatherings of Fathers and people what room for anxious
prayers of mine? Yet I call the stars on high and you, Thymbraean, fa-
ther of poets [Apollo], to witness how I spent every day and night in
terror, ever clinging to the doorway, watchful to pick up every hint now
with eye, now with ear (tr. SB)^26Statius is concerned to explain what room, or more literally what
place (locus) there is for him, from what position he may speak. In
spite of Gallicus’ importance to the City of Rome, it is not sufficient
to be a loyal subject, and for that reason Statius suggests that he has a
personal relationship with his addressee, visiting his house and being
greatly concerned for his welfare. But apparently he is not let into the
house, and if he is an amicus at all, he is clearly a client, whose typical
habitat is precisely the vestibule of a great house, where he is waiting
for admission.^27 But he is also a poet, who has Apollo, the pater ua-
tum, testify for him. The same combination of being a client and being
a poet recurs at the end of the poem (127–31):
qua nunc tibi pauper acerra
digna litem? nec si uacuet Meuania ualles
aut praestent niueos Clitumna noualia tauros
sufficiam. sed saepe deis hos inter honores
caespes et exiguo placuerunt farra salino.
Poor man that I am, how find a censer to make worthy offering on your
behalf? Not though Mevania make void her vales or Clitumnus’ acres
supply their snowy bulls would I have enough. Yet often among such
tributes has a sod of earth with meal and tiny saltcellar found favour
with the gods. (tr. SB)Statius’ calling himself pauper defines him as a client with respect to
Gallicus, but the contrast of the sacrifice of a great number of bulls
with that of incense, meal and salt is at home in meta-poetical texts in
which the poet contrasts the capacities of others to praise in the grand
style with his own more modest contribution.^28 Statius is again assert-
26 “tr. SB” here as elsewhere indicates that the translation is taken from Shackleton
Bailey 2003.
27 Cf. Juv. 1.132, with Courtney’s commentary.
28 See esp. Hor. Carm. 4.2.53–60 (ten bulls and cows vs. a single calf); [Tib.]
3.7.14–5 (a bull vs. salt); Prop. 2.10.24 (unspecified vs. incense); Ov. Tr. 2.73–6 (one