The Poetry of Statius

58 HARM-JAN VAN DAM

In this way, when the ships equipped with cannons, bringing the harvest

of the East to Dutch ports, unfurl their sails on the Atlantic Ocean, a lit-

tle skiff profits from the same south-east winds, and ventures to be seen

in the same waters

Here Grotius alludes to two passages from Statius. In the first Domi-
tian’s minister Abascantus is compared to the emperor, and by impli-
cation the poet to the mighty patron.

sic, ubi magna nouum Phario de litore puppis

soluit iter iamque innumeros utrimque rudentes

lataque ueliferi porrexit brachia mali

inuasitque uias, in eodem angusta phaselos

aequore et immensi partem sibi uindicat austri.

(Silvae 5.1.242–6)

So, when a great ship has started a new voyage from Pharian shore and

already stretched countless ropes on either side and the broad arms of

her sail-bearing mast, and launched out upon her way, a narrow pinnace

on the same sea claims part of the measureless South Wind for herself

The second passage refers to Statius’ mighty patron, the praefectus
urbi Rutilius Gallicus, who recovered from illness (but died before the
poem was published).

immensae ueluti conexa carinae

cumba minor, cum saeuit hiems, pro parte furentis

parua receptat aquas et eodem uoluitur austro

(Silvae 1.4.120–2)

as a little skiff attached to a great ship, when the storms blow high,

takes in her small share of the raging waters and tosses in the same

south wind.

The choice of this (original) comparison for imitation, adapted to the
modern times of the Dutch seaborne Empire, was especially apt for
someone who, like the humble poet Statius with respect to the power-
ful (and deceased) praefectus urbi, tried to carve out a place for him-
self among new patrons.^44 The poem was an immediate hit. Grotius’
friend the learned Gerard Vossius praised it abundantly, and compared
it, inevitably, to Statius.^45 However, it is Statius and his Silvae trans-

44 On the comparison, see Gibson 2006a, 166–7. Gronovius ends the dedication of
his Diatribe in Statii Silvas to Grotius’ cousin Graswinckel with the first passage.
45 Grotius Correspondence no 691, ca. 12.IX.1621 (p. 134) “Quod amoenissimo
Sylvae tuae vireto animum oculosque meos pascere suaviter volueris quantas possim