166 RUURD R. NAUTA
stating that he is fessus, “weary” (12), and by relating how he has
recently been near-fatally ill (37–42). Moreover, for Virgil the Bay of
Naples was only a preferred retreat, whereas for Statius it is his patria,
determining his identity, with all that this implies in terms of bringing
Greek and Roman culture together.^68 So Statius in this poem asserts
three identities that all converge on otium: being a Neapolitan, being a
poet, and now being old. All three will be further developed in Book
4.
The poems in Book 4
Whether or not Statius planned on abandoning the Silvae after Book 3,
he did not do so, although Book 4 is in many ways a new departure.
As Alex Hardie has well remarked, the persona adopted by Statius in
Book 4, especially in the non-imperial poems, is significantly different
from that in the other books: rather than as a Greek epideictic poet,
Statius now presents himself in a more Roman guise, taking as his
models the personal poetry of Horace and in one case Catullus.^69 This
means that a larger proportion of the text of the poems is taken up by
Statius’ personal life, and that more autobiographical material is in-
cluded. Moreover, not all poems are motivated by a ceremony or a
visit, and some even dispense with the fiction of oral performance,
acknowledging the presence of writing or representing themselves a
spoken rather than sung.
These new features are all present in the first of the non-imperial
poems in the book, Silvae 4.4, a letter to Vitorius Marcellus. The letter
is not written on a specific occasion, other than that the summer sea-
son prompts Statius to urge his friend to take some rest. Moreover,
Statius’ words in the preface to Book 4 seem to imply that it was first
sent to Marcellus as part of the published book, without having been
privately offered beforehand.^70 The epistolary form is thematised from
the start, when Statius addresses the letter, instructing it to travel from
Nauta 2006, 36–7. But Statius’ father was audax/ ingenii in his Neapolitan youth
(5.3.135–6).
68 Cf. the explicit juxtapositions Latias Graias (45) and especially quam Romanus
honos et Graia licentia miscent (94).
69 Hardie 1983, 164–5; cf. also Nauta 2002a, 277–9.
70 4.ep.8–10: cuius [sc. of the Via Domitiana] beneficio tu quo
epistulam meam accipies, quam tibi in hoc libro a Neapoli scribo.