THE EQUINE CUCKOO 81
The hierarchical element is subtle, but surely clear enough: the great
Julian basilica is like a lowly guardsman protecting the sacred pres-
ence of the Flavian emperor. Similarly, while Statius does say that the
statue is large enough to look into surrounding spaces—into other
squares, that is, which are set off by porticoes and temples of their
own—, it is not to the Velia and the upper Via Sacra that he draws our
attention; rather, it is to the Forum of Caesar:
cedat equus Latiae qui contra templa Diones
Caesarei stat sede fori, quem traderis ausus
Pellaeo, Lysippe, duci (mox Caesaris ora
mirata ceruice tulit); uix lumine fesso
explores quam longus in hunc despectus ab illo.
quis rudis usque adeo qui non, ut uiderit ambos,
tantum dicat equos quantum distare regentes?
(Silv. 1.1.84–90)
Let that horse yield that stands in the Forum of Caesar facing Latian
Dione’s temple, which you, Lysippus (for so they say), dared make for
the Pellaean general. After that it bore upon its marvelling back the im-
age of Caesar—scarcely could you with wearied eyes discover how far
the downward view from this rider to that. Who could be so much a
boor that, when he had seen both, he would not declare the horses as far
different from each other as their riders?It is tempting to declare that the point of the panegyric barely needs
el aboration for our present purposes, and perhaps we might do so if it
were not that even so careful and thorough a scholar as Robin Dar-
wall-Smith can, as it seems, be misled by Statius’ phrasing: “Older
equestrian statues in the vicinity are upstaged,’ he tells us, ‘such as the
statue of Caesar nearby” (Darwall-Smith 1996, 232). In fact, Statius
says nothing of other statues in the plural, and speaks only of this sin-
gle rival, a horse that once bore Alexander and now bears Caesar.
Domitian’s horse surpasses it in size and no doubt in beauty too: as a
ruler, Domitian also eclipses both. It must, however, be emphasized
again that Statius is, here at least, apparently not interested in drawing
the standard Flavian comparison with Nero. The comparison is not
with the last representative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but with its
founder. Indeed, although there is not space here to pursue the idea
with any great vigour, it seems that the association of Caesar with
Alexander may perhaps also be intended to contribute to the subtle
process by which it is hinted that even the greatest of the Julio-
Claudians are in some measure inferior to the Flavians. Alexander,