DUST, WATER AND SWEAT: THE STATIAN PUER 203
paign: clad in a pure white garment, his glowing features beautified
precisely by the dust of battle:
Hic stetit Arctoi formosus puluere belli
purpureum fundens Caesar ab ore iubar;
hic lauru redimita comas et candida cultu
Roma salutauit uoce manuque ducem.
(Mart. 8.65.3–6)
Here stood Caesar, beauteous with the dust of northern warfare, pouring
brilliant radiance from his countenance. Here Rome, her hair wreathed
with laurel and clothed in white, saluted her Leader with voice and
hand. (tr. Shackleton Bailey 1993)The young hero is brought back to the tragic reality of war by Am-
phion, who is the first to confront him and ridicules his puerile con-
ceit:
Quonam usque moram lucrabere fati,
o multum meritos puer orbature parentes?
quin etiam menti tumor atque audacia gliscit,
congressus dum nemo tuos pugnamque minorem
dignatur bellis, iramque relinqueris infra.
I, repete Arcadiam mixtusque aequalibus illic,
dum ferus hic uero desaeuit puluere Mauors,
proelia lude domi: quodsi te maesta sepulcri
fama mouet, dabimus, leto moriere uirorum!
(Theb. 9.779–87)
How long will you profit from fate’s delay, you boy who will leave
sorely bereft your worthy parents? Indeed, in your spirit the swelling
pride and rashness grow, while no one holds a duel with you or your
trivial fighting worthy of war, and you are left as one below the notice
of their wrath. Go, return to Arcadia, and mingling there with boys of
your own age, while here fierce Mars rages his fill in the real dust, play
battles at home: but if the sad glory of a tomb moves you, we shall
grant you one: you shall die by the doom that warriors die. (tr. Dewar
1991)The words of the Theban warrior address Parthenopaeus’ difficult
process of maturation and self-awareness. He significantly develops
the contrast between the dramatic truth of war, which is fought by
courageous and fierce men, and the child-hero’s playful pretence of
it.^26 Amphion actually stresses the opposition between ferus Mauors,
26 In this sense uirorum of 9.787 concludes Amphion’s speech, in sharp contrast
with the opening puer in 9.780.