STATIUS, DOMITIAN AND ACKNOWLEDGING PATERNITY 189
that the Sun had given his son in Ovid). This is all the more significant
because in this perspective, the moral function of this myth must al-
ready have been consolidated for some time: the invitation to modera-
tion was already associated with the model of Phaethon in Horace
(Carm. 4.11.25–31), and subsequently it often returns, after Ovid (Tr.
3.4.25ff.), especially in the moral considerations of Seneca’s tragedies
(Med. 599ff.; Her. O. 678ff.).^42 But this allegorical function of the
character probably dates back to Greek culture, and must have been
rooted in the political reading of Phaethon as the model of the bad
ruler; a reading which does not appear to be attested before the impe-
rial age, but probably has far more ancient origins.
But there is a second aspect to consider, which is more important
for us in the discussion on succession. In Statius’ text – unlike his
model Lucan – together with the other heavenly gods who are prepar-
ing the apotheosis of Domitian, there is Phoebus-Apollo, who crowns
the head of the new god with a halo of light (which obviously repre-
sents, in the encomiastic symbology, the sign that the apotheosis has
taken place). The arc of light (radiantem ... arcum) that is placed on
the head of the new god has been variously interpreted, but has mainly
been seen as a possible touch of irony at Domitian’s expense: either
referring to his mania (documented by his biographers) for building
‘arches’ in Rome, or as a reference to the emperor’s obsession with
his problem of baldness.^43 I do not think that this is at stake here, but
that we should read the passage in quite another key. Apollo crowning
Domitian’s head with the nimbus – the halo of rays that emperors
normally wore on their heads (cf. Plin. Pan. 52.1) as a sign of their
solar divinity^44 – recalls the gesture of Ovid’s Sun who prepares
Phaethon for his disastrous ride across the skies:
tum pater ora sui sacro medicamine nati
contigit et rapidae fecit patientia flammae
inposuitque comae radios.^45
(Ov. Met. 2.122ff.)
Then on his son’s young face the father smeared a magic salve to shield
him from the heat, and set the flashing sunbeams on his head.^4642 Cf. Chevallier 1982, 401f. and Duret 1988, 142f.
43 Cf. Ahl 1986, 2820 and Dominik 1994, 175.
44 On the nimbus cf. Bergmann 1998, passim; it will become (since the end of the
III century C.E.) a standard feature of imperial iconography: cf. Alföldi 1999, 49.
45 The same image in Nonnus, Dion. 38.291f.