42 KATHLEEN M. COLEMAN
be read like this, in fact, in Statius’ poem.^50 The similarity with
Frontinus’ account of the Anio Novus is neat: this channel also used
to be turbidus, and now bears an inscription recording Trajan as its
nouus auctor:
haec tam felix proprietas aquae omnibus dotibus aequatura Marciam,
copia uero superatura, ueniet in locum deformis illius ac turbidae,
NOVVM AVCTOREM IMPERATOREM CAESAREM NERVAM
TRAIANVM AVGVSTVM praescribente titulo.
(Fron. Aq. 2.93)
This water has such a special character that in all its qualities it will
match the Marcia, while in quantity it will actually surpass it. It will re-
place its predecessor, which looked nasty and was full of impurities,
and an inscription will announce its “NEW FOUNDER, THE
EMPEROR CAESAR NERVA TRAJAN AUGUSTUS”.On the arch of the bridge above the central pier is exactly where one
would expect to find an inscription, as in a drawing that Julius Fried-
laender made in 1846 of Mommsen inspecting the bridge at modern
Castel di Sangro (ancient Aufidena) in Samnium (fig. 1), where the
inscription that Mommsen is after is displayed in exactly that spot.^51
Where the horse is standing in the sketch is where, mutatis mutandis,
Statius wants us to imagine the personification of the Volturnus, de-
livering the message inscribed above his head: Statius’ spokespersons
enact the epigraphic role.
To sum up: are there any stones in Statius’ forest? The answer may
be supplied by evoking rural New England, which is noteworthy for
the degree of re-forestation that has overtaken the painful efforts by
the early settlers to clear the woods away and mark out fields and
pastures. The stone walls with which they demarcated and controlled
the landscape are still there, somewhat crumbling but still visible
among the vigorous trees and bushes that are now growing back
again. In Statius’ woods, the undergrowth is running riot over the
stonework, but the contours of the stones are still there, and under-
neath the verbal luxuriance of his poetic forest we can occasionally
discern an inscribed stone supporting everything that is growing over
it. Statius’ epideictic training, and his patrons’ expectation that he
50 Smolenaars 2006, 231 (attributing the latter interpretation, however, to Vollmer,
instead of Barth, whose suggestion is refuted by him: Vollmer 1898, 457).
51 The inscription in Friedlaender’s sketch has not been identified: for the difficul-
ties, see the caption to the frontispiece at Bodel 2001, xvi.