STATIUS IN THE SILVAE 169
selves.^78 Rather, by presenting each individual poem not as an instance
of something he has composed earlier, but as an interruption of his
daily work as an epic poet, Statius makes each occasion seem unique
and special.^79 So it is perhaps not accidental that we find a (possible,
and in any case muted) reference to the Silvae themselves precisely in
a poem that is exceptionally non-occasional.
A further similar reference may be detected somewhat later on in
the poem, when Statius again draws a contrast between his addressee
and himself (69–70):
nos facta aliena canendo
uergimus in senium: propriis tu pulcher in armis
ipse canenda geres
I drift into old age singing other men’s deeds, whereas you, handsome
in your own arms, shall yourself perform acts deserving praise (tr. SB)Although facta canere is typical of epic, the praise of Marcellus in the
preceding and following lines may also suggest the Silvae themselves.
However that may be, Statius characterises himself as a poet in the
same manner as he did in the poem to his wife: like Virgil, he writes
poetry in Campanian otium, but unlike Virgil, who did so audax ...
iuuenta, he is getting old. But this does not prevent him from embark-
ing on new poetic projects: at the end of the letter he asks Marcellus
whether he should undertake an epic on the emperor or be content
with the Achilleid.^80 His identity remains that of a uates (101).
Whereas Silvae 4.4 draws part of its inspiration from the Epistles of
Horace, Silvae 4.5, to Septimius Severus, and 4.7, to Vibius Maximus,
recall Horace’s lyric production, the one poem being in alcaics, the
other in sapphics. As lyric odes, they employ the fiction of being sung
to the accompaniment of the lyre, but nevertheless they are also to be
thought of as letters, the ode to Vibius Maximus because the ad-
dressee dwells in Dalmatia, the ode to Septimius Severus because it
employs an epistolary formula of greeting (3–4 Seuerum ... saluto)
78 Gifts: apart from the passages from the prefaces listed in n. 32, see 1.4.31–4,
2.3.62–3 (parua ... / dona, sed ingenti forsan uictura sub aeuo). For consolations
compared to funerary monuments see above, 159, with n. 44.
79 For extensive discussion of the concept of ‘occasion’ and of the Silvae as occa-
sional poetry see now Rühl 2006, 81–212.
80 This is of course to be interpreted as a recusatio of an epic on the emperor; the
self-portrayal as old helps to suggest that Statius is not strong enough (cf. 97–8) for
such an undertaking; cf. Nauta 2006, 33.