164 RUURD R. NAUTA
visit),^60 but he now adds that he could also have found relaxation and
cool air at his own country house at Alba Longa, which had recently
been equipped with running water through the favour of the emperor
(61–4). This autobiographical detail does not come unprepared-for in
the context,^61 but is still striking, as it is only mentioned here in the
first three books of the Silvae. Speaking of one’s own life is a sign of
familiarity, and as such it is presumably intended here. In the rest of
the poem, too, Statius gives the impression that he is close not only to
Pollius himself, but also to his wife Polla and even their grandchil-
dren,^62 an impression that is confirmed in the preface to Book 3, ad-
dressed to “sweetest Pollius” (3.ep. 1 Polli dulcissime), as well as in a
later poem to Pollius son-in-law Julius Menecrates (4.8).
Statius’ address to his wife
Pollius also plays a role in the final poem of Book 3, in which Statius
exhorts his wife to accompany him on his move back to his native
Naples (3.5): Pollius’ Surrentine villa is mentioned as one of the at-
tractions of the Bay (102), and in the preface to the book Statius flat-
teringly tells Pollius that he does not so much plan to retire to his fa-
therland as to him (3.ep.23–5). Statius there also explains to Pollius
that the poem is a sermo, “conversation” (3.ep.21–3), and indeed there
are none of the usual ‘poetical’ trappings: apostrophes, invocations to
the gods, or fictions of lyre-playing; the poem represents not song, but
speech.^63 Addressing his wife enables Statius to talk of himself, and
the poem has often been seen as a sphragis, a ‘seal poem’, giving
60 The time of year is the same: the picnic described at 52–88 took place on August
13 (52–60, 68), whereas the Neapolitan Games, from which Statius was returning
when he was invited by Pollius (2.2.6–8), were held at the beginning of August; see
van Dam 1984, 197. But the visit narrated in 3.1 may also have taken place a year or
two years after that described in 2.2.
61 Mention of Statius’ stay away from home follows naturally from the preceding
sentence omnisque pudicis / Itala terra focis Hecateidas excolit idus (59–60). More-
over, Alba is associatively connected with nearby Aricia and Nemi, which have just
been mentioned (56–7).
62 Polla: 87, 158–62, 178–9; grandchildren: 46–8, 87, 143, 175–9.
63 Not writing, although Henderson 2007, 262 and Augoustakis and Newlands
2007, 121 speak of the poem’s “epistolarity” and “epistolary form”. There is no
“physical distance between husband and wife” (121); on the contrary, close proximity
is established from the beginning, with Statius noticing his wife’s worries by day and
“in the nights we share” (1–2).