30 KATHLEEN M. COLEMAN
which gives him the opportunity to evoke Catullus with some (re-
spectfully) cheeky hendecasyllables in response.
Apart from these instances, however, the emphasis is on viva voce
communication. Occasionally, Statius cannot resist a conceit such as
his claim that, while he is composing his epicedion lamenting the
death of Melior’s pet slave Glaucias, his tears smudge the words as he
writes: lacrimis en et mea carmine in ipso / ora natant tristesque ca-
dunt in uerba liturae, “Look, my face is awash with tears in the midst
of my poem, and sad blots fall on my words” (Silv. 2.1.17–8); tristes
suggests a graceful acknowledgement of Ovid’s precedent in the Tris-
tia, where the pain of exile is twice said to have caused tears to
smudge the text.^29 But the overall atmosphere in the Silvae is of an
oral culture, the culture of Greek epideixis, in which extempore com-
position, recitation, progymnasmata, and other rhetorical exercises are
all delivered “live” without the intervening medium of writing.^30 Natu-
rally, the very concept of “publishing” such works in a collection that
will circulate in writing is at odds with the fiction that Statius is trying
to sustain. The prefaces to the individual books take pains to empha-
size the rapid composition of the original poems, and even where Sta-
tius does not specifically claim extempore delivery he still tends to
avoid mention of the process of writing, as in his reference to the
composition of the poem about Glaucias in the preface to Book 2:
huius amissi recens uulnus, ut scis, epicedio prosecutus sum adeo
festinanter ut excusandam habuerim affectibus tuis celeritatem, “As
you know, I followed up the fresh wound of his loss with a consola-
tion poem, with such speed that I should apologize to your feelings for
my rush” (Silv. 2 praef. 7–9).
I mention this relative dearth of references to writing, because it
may go part of the way to explain Statius’ silence about inscriptions in
the Silvae.^31 In this work, of all works of Latin poetry, one would ex-
pect to find them. The themes of statuary acquired, public officials
29 Ov. Tr. 1.1.13–4 (to his book) neue liturarum pudeat; qui uiderit illas, / de
lacrimis factas sentiat esse meis, 3.1.15–6 littera suffusas quod habet maculosa litu-
ras, / laesit opus lacrimis ipse poeta suum. Ovidian diction in this passage is noted by
van Dam 1984, 84; the observation of Statius’ marked use of tristes I owe to Bruce
Gibson.
30 On this topic cf. also Nauta in this volume, 154.
31 The Thebaid contains one celebrated reference, occurring in the predictable
context of a funeral (6.126–8): portant inferias arsuraque fercula primi / Graiorum,
titulisque pios testantur honores / gentis quisque suae.