168 RUURD R. NAUTA
nos otia uitae
solamur cantu uentosaque gaudia famae
quaerimus. en egomet somnum et geniale secutus
litus, ubi Ausonio se condidit hospita portu
Parthenope, tenues ignauo pollice chordas
pulso Maroneique sedens in margine templi
sumo animum et magni tumulis adcanto magistri
I solace a leisured life with song and seek the fickle joys of fame. Look!
Pursuing sleep and the genial shore where stranger Parthenope found
refuge in Ausonian haven [i.e. Naples], I idly strike the slender strings;
sitting on the verge of Maro’s shrine, I take heart and sing at the tomb
of the great master. (tr. SB)The inspiration provided by Virgil of course refers to the writing of
epic, but perhaps it is possible to discern an exceptional allusion to the
Silvae themselves in the phrase tenues ignauo pollice chordas, be-
cause the adjective tenuis regularly denotes slighter poetry, and is
twice used in the Silvae to characterise the poem in hand.^75 Statius
would then mean more or less what he says in his prefaces: that the
Silvae are a kind of prelude to his epic poetry, to which he turns as
soon as he has “taken heart”.^76 Elsewhere in the poems of the Silvae
(as distinguished from the prefaces) Statius never refers to the Silvae
themselves, even though an appeal to earlier success in the same kind
of poetry might seem to confer more authority than the invocation of
experience in epic.^77 The reason for this reticence cannot lie simply in
the ‘slight’ character of the Silvae that Statius stresses in the prefaces,
because the poems he offers to his addressees are considered to be
valuable gifts (not the less valuable for being the product of brilliant
improvisation), and sometimes explicitly claim immortality for them-
75 See Silv. 1 .4.36 tenuiore lyra (of 1.4. itself), 4.7.9 carmen tenuare (of 4.7. itself)
(cf. also 5.3.98 uires tenuare, of comedy). The juxtaposition with ignauo strengthens
this impression: that adjective is used in a poetological context by Ovid at Am. 1.15.1
to contrast poetry, but more specifically love poetry, with the active life, and at Am.
2.18.3 to contrast love elegy with epic.
76 Cf. 1.ep.8–9, 4.ep.29.
77 There is one partial exception: when Statius urges Atedius Melior to listen to his
consolation, he claims to have earlier consoled fathers, mothers and children (2.1.30–
2). This presumably refers to occasional poems, but cannot refer to poems included in
the Silvae: there are no consolations to fathers or mothers, whereas the one consola-
tion to a son (3.3) is later. In 3.3 Statius mentions that he too has mourned a father
(39–42), as he also does at 2.1.33–4. This may imply that (a version of) 5.3 was circu-
lating, but again the reference cannot be to the Silvae as published by Statius, because
5.3 was only included in the Silvae after Statius’ death.