STATIUS IN THE SILVAE 161
ing the Muse Calliope as a mythological spokesperson), and although
he also consoles Polla, he does not stress his amicitia with her. If this
Polla is indeed the same as the wife of Pollius Felix, with whom Sta-
tius shows himself elsewhere to be on familiar terms,^51 this is some-
what surprising, but as in the case of Abascantus, we may speculate
that too much stress on amicitia might suggest that the praises uttered
in the poem stemmed from social obligation rather than—as the poet
must wish them to appear—from his own generous impulse.
The descriptive poems
Of the poems written for the emperor, three contain large-scale de-
scription of a work of art or architecture: 1.1 of the colossal equestrian
statue of Domitian in the Forum, 4.2 of the new palace on the Pala-
tine, and 4.3 of the Via Domitiana. Of the non-imperial poems also, a
fair proportion put description centre-stage: 1.3 on the villa of Manil-
ius Vopiscus in Tibur (modern Tivoli), 1.5 on the baths of Claudius
Etruscus, 2.3 on a tree in the garden of the house of Atedius Melior,
2.2 and 3.1 on the villa of Pollius Felix at Surrentum (modern Sor-
rento) and a temple of Hercules on its grounds, and 4.6 (which will be
discussed together with other poems from Book 4) on a statuette of
Hercules owned by Novius Vindex. Description however is never the
sole content of the poems: it is always put in relation to the ad-
dressee—who is praised through his possessions or constructions—,
but also in relation to Statius himself, who, here as elsewhere, needs to
motivate his utterance. In the descriptive Silvae there is no ‘occasion’
in the sense of a ritualised event like a wedding or a funeral, but there
is one in the broader sense that it is always a visit of the poet that pro-
vides the occasion for the poem.^52 This visit may be more or less
el aborately narrated, but it inevitably involves Statius in speaking of
himself.
In the poem on the villa of Manilius Vopiscus in Tibur (1.3), Sta-
tius casts his admiring description as grateful memory of the day he
had been invited (13 memoranda dies). In his mind’s eye, Statius re-
51 On the identification see Nisbet 1978. On Pollius Felix and his wife Polla see
below, 162–4.
52 Of the imperial poems just mentioned, only 4.2 originated in a visit, while 1.1
and 4.3 are composed from another perspective (above, 144–50).