STATIUS, DOMITIAN AND ACKNOWLEDGING PATERNITY 185
guised by a hyperbolic homage to Domitian; a homage that lends it-
self, however, to a certain ambiguity:
tuque, o Latiae decus addite famae
quem noua maturi subeuntem exorsa parentis
aeternum sibi Roma cupit (licet artior omnes
limes agat stellas et te plaga lucida caeli,
Pliadum Boreaeque et hiulci fulminis expers,
sollicitet, licet ignipedum frenator equorum
ipse tuis alte radiantem crinibus arcum
imprimat aut magni cedat tibi Iuppiter aequa
parte poli), maneas hominum contentus habenis,
undarum terraeque potens, et sidera dones.
(Stat. Theb.1.22–31)
And you, glory added to Latium’s fame, whom, as you take on your
aged father’s enterprises anew, Rome wishes hers for eternity (though a
narrower path move all the planets and a radiant tract of heaven invite
you, free of Pleiades and Boreas and forked lightning; though the cur-
ber of the fire-footed horses himself set his high-shining halo on your
locks or Jupiter yield you an equal portion of the broad sky) may you
remain content with the governance of mankind, potent over sea and
land, and waive the stars.The immediate model of this encomium to the emperor (which has its
ar chetype in the celebration of Octavian in the proem to the Georgics
(1.24–42)) is the famous dedication to Nero at the beginning of Lu-
can’s poem:
te, cum statione peracta
astra petes serus, praelati regia caeli
excipiet gaudente polo: seu sceptra tenere
seu te flammigeros Phoebi conscendere currus
telluremque nihil mutato sole timentem
igne uago lustrare iuuet, tibi numine ab omni
cedetur, iurisque tui natura relinquet
quis deus esse uelis, ubi regnum ponere mundi.
(Luc. 1.45–52)
When your watch on earth is over and you seek the stars at last, the ce-
lestial palace you prefer will welcome you, and the sky will be glad.
Whether you choose to wield Jove’s sceptre, or to mount the fiery char-
iot of Phoebus and circle earth with your moving flame – earth unterri-
fied by the transference of the sun; every god will give place to you,