quaerebatque miser morienti lumine fratrem,
cum iuuenis subit et leto stimulatus acerbo
Pleminius saeuum mucronem ante ora coruscat
ac fratrem magno minitans clamore reposcit.
huic proles Barcae: ‘Germanum reddere uero 460
si placet, haud renuo. maneant modo foedera nostra:
Hasdrubalem reuocate umbris. egone aspera ponam
umquam in Romanos odia, aut mansuescere corda
nostra sinam, parcamque uiro quem terra crearit
Itala? tum manes inimico sede repellat 465
aeterna socioque abigat me frater Auerno.’
sic ait et clipei propulsum pondere toto,
lubrica qua tellus lapsantis sanguine fratris
fallebat nisus, prosternit et occupat ense.
extendit labens palmas, Heriumque iacentem 470
amplexus, iuncta leniuit morte dolores.
tum Libys inuadit mixtae certamina turbae
conuertitque ruens per longum hostilia terga,
ut cum fulminibus permixta tonitrua mundum
terrificant, summique labat domus alta parentis: 475
omne hominum terris trepidat genus, ipsaque ob ora
lux atrox micat, et praesens astare uiritim
creditur intento perculsis Iuppiter igne.
Parte alia, ceu sola forent discrimina campo
quo mis
aspera pugna nouas uaria sub imagine leti
dat formas. hic ense iacet prostratus adacto,
hic saxo perfracta gemit lacrimabilis ossa,
ast hos, turpe, pauor fusos proiecit in ora,
horum aduersa dedit Gradiuo pectora uirtus. 485
ipse super strages ductor Rhoeteius instat,
qualis apud gelidum currus quatit altior Hebrum
et Geticas soluit feruenti sanguine Mauors
laetus caede niues, glaciemque Aquilonibus actam
perrumpit stridens sub pondere belliger axis. 490
iamque ardore truci lustrans fortissima quaeque
nomina obit ferro. claris spectata per orbem
stragibus occumbit late inter tela iuuentus:
qui muros rapuere tuos miserasque nefandi
principium belli fecere, Sagunte, ruinas, 495
qui sacros, Trasimenne, lacus, Phaethontia quique
polluerant tabo stagna, ac fiducia tanta
quos tulit, ut superum regi soliumque domosque
irent direptum: mactantur comminus uno
exitio, redduntque animas, temerata fereba
qui secreta deum et primo reserasse negatas
gressibus humanis Alpis. formidinis huius
plena acies propere retro exanimata ruebat:
haud secus ac tectis urbis Vulcania pestis
cum sese infudit, rapidusque incendia flatus 505
uentilat et uolucris spargit per culmina flammas,
attonitum erumpit subita formidine uulgus,
lateque ut capta passim trepidatur in urbe.
Verum ubi cunctari taedet dispersa uirorum
proelia sectantem et leuiori Marte teneri, 510
omnes in causam belli auctoremque malorum
uertere iam uires tandem placet. Hannibal unus
dum restet, non, si muris Carthaginis ignis
subdatur caesique cadant exercitus omnis,
profectum Latio. contra, si concidat unus, 515
nequiquam fore Agenoreis cuncta arma uirosque.
illum igitur lustrans circumfert lumina campo
rimaturque ducem. iuuat in certamina summa
ferre gradum, cuperetque uiro concurrere, tota
spectante Ausonia. celsus clamore feroci 520
prouocat increpitans hostem et noua proelia poscit.
Quas postquam audiuit uoces conterrita Iuno,
ne Libyci ducis impauidas ferrentur ad aures,
effigiem informat Latiam propereque coruscis
attollit cristis, addit clipeumque iubasque 525
Romulei ducis atque umeris imponit honorem
fulgentis saguli, dat gressum habitusque cientis
proelia et audacis adicit sine corpore motus.
tum par effigies fallacis imagine uana
cornipedis moderanda cito per deuia passu 530
belligerae datur ad speciem certaminis umbrae.
sic Poeni ducis ante oculos exultat et ultro
Scipio Iunoni simulatus tela coruscat.
at, uiso laetus rectore ante ora Latino
et tandem propius sperans ingentia, Poenus 535
quadrupedi citus imponit uelocia membra
et iacit aduersam properati turbinis hastam.
dat terga et campo fugiens uolat ales imago
tramittitque acies. tum uero, ut uictor et alti
iam compos uoti, ferrata calce cruentat 540
cornipedem et largas Poenus quatit asper habenas:
‘Quo fugis, oblitus nostris te cedere regnis?
nulla tibi Libyca latebra est, o Scipio, terra.’
haec ait et stricto sequitur mucrone uolantem,
donec longinquo frustratum duxit in arua 545
diuersa spatio procul a certamine pugnae.
tum fallax subito simulacrum in nubila cessit.
fulmineus ductor ‘Quisnam se numine caeco
composuit nobis’ inquit ‘deus? aut latet idem
cur monstro? tantumne obstat mea gloria diuis? 550
sed non auelles umquam, quicumque secundus
caelicolum stas Ausoniae, non artibus hostem
eripies uerum nobis.’ frena inde citati
conuertit furibundus equi campumque petebat,
cum subito occultae pestis conlapsa tremore 555
cornipedis moles ruit atque efflauit anhelo
pectore Iunonis curis in nubila uitam.
tum uero impatiens ‘Vestra est haec altera, uestra
fraus,’ inquit ‘superi: non fallitis. aequore mersum
texissent scopuli, pelagusque hausisset et undae! 560
anne huic seruabar leto? mea signa secuti,
quis pugnae auspicium dedimus, caeduntur, et absens
accipio gemitus uocesque ac uerba uocantum
Hannibalem. quis nostra satis delicta piabit
Tartareus torrens?’ simul haec fundebat et una 565
spectabat dextram ac leti feruebat amore.
Tunc Iuno, miserata uirum, pastoris in ora
uertitur ac siluis subito procedit opacis
atque his adloquitur uersantem ingloria fata:
‘Quaenam te siluis accedere causa subegit 570
armatum nostris? num dura ad proelia tendis,
magnus ubi Ausoniae reliquos domat Hannibal armis?
si uelox gaudes ire et compendia grata
sunt tibi, uicino in medios te tramite ducam.’
adnuit atque onerat promissis pectora largis 575
pastoris patresque docet Carthaginis altae
magna repensuros, nec se leuiora daturum.
praecipitem et uasto superantem proxima saltu
circumagit Iuno ac fallens regione uiarum
non gratam inuito seruat celata salutem. 580
Interea Cadmea manus, deserta pauensque,
non ullum Hannibalem, nusquam certamina cernit
saeui nota ducis. pars ferro occumbere credunt,
pars damnasse aciem et diuis cessisse sinistris.
ingruit Ausonius uersosque agit aequore toto 585
rector. iamque ipsae trepidant Carthaginis arces:
impletur terrore uago cuncta Africa pulsis
agminibus, uolucrique fuga sine Marte ruentes
tendunt attonitos extrema ad litora cursus
ac Tartessiacas profugi sparguntur in oras; 590
pars Batti petiere domos, pars flumina Lagi.
sic ubi, ui caeca tandem deuictus, ad astra
euomuit pastos per saecula Vesbius ignis
et pelago et terris fusa est Vulcania pestis,
uidere Eoi, monstrum admirabile, Seres 595
lanigeros cinere Ausonio canescere lucos.
At fessum tumulo tandem regina propinquo
sistit Iuno ducem, facies unde omnis et atrae
apparent admota oculis uestigia pugnae.
qualem Gargani campum Trebiaeque paludem 600
et Tyrrhena uada et Phet
strage uiru
prostratis facies aperitur dira maniplis.
tunc superas Iuno sedes turbata reuisit.
iamque propinquabant hostes tumuloque subibant, 605
cum secum Poenus: ‘Caelum licet omne soluta
in caput hoc compage ruat terraeque dehiscant,
non ullo Cannas abolebis, Iuppiter, aeuo,
decedesque prius regnis, quam nomina gentes
aut facta Hannibalis sileant. nec deinde relinquo 610
securam te, Roma, mei, patriaeque superstes
ad spes armorum uiuam tibi. nam modo pugna
praecellis, resident hostes: mihi satque superque
ut me Dardaniae matres atque Itala tellus,
dum uiuam, expectent nec pacem pectore norint.’ 615
sic rapitur paucis fugientum mixtus, et altos
inde petit retro montis tutasque latebras.
Hic finis bello. reserantur protinus arces
Ausonio iam sponte duci. iura improba adempta
armaque, et incisae leges, opibusque superbis 620
uis fracta, et posuit gestatas belua turris.
excelsae tum saeua rates spectacula Poenis
flammiferam accepere facem, subitaque procella
arserunt maria, atque expauit lumina Nereus.
Mansuri compos decoris per saecula rector, 625
deuictae referens primus cognomina terrae,
securus sceptri, repetit per caerula Romam
et patria inuehitur sublimi tecta triumpho.
ante Syphax feretro residens captiua premebat
lumina, et auratae seruabant colla catenae, 630
hic Hannon clarique genus Phoenissa iuuenta
et Macetum primi atque incocti corpora Mauri,
tum Nomades notusque sacro, cum lustrat harenas,
Hammoni Garamas et semper naufraga Syrtis.
mox uictas tendens Carthago ad sidera palmas 635
ibat et effigies orae iam lenis Hiberae,
terrarum finis Gades ac laudibus olim
terminus Herculeis Calpe Baetesque lauare
solis equos dulci consuetus fluminis unda,
frondosumque apicem subigens ad sidera mater 640
bellorum fera Pyrene nec mitis Hiberus,
cum simul inlidit ponto, quos attulit, amnes.
sed non ulla magis mentesque oculosque tenebat,
quam uisa Hannibalis campis fugientis imago.
ipse astans curru atque auro decoratus et ostro 645
Martia praebebat spectanda Quiritibus ora,
qualis odoratis descendens Liber ab Indis
egit pampineos frenata tigride currus;
aut cum Phlegraeis, confecta mole Gigantum,
incessit campis tangens Tirynthius astra. 650
salue, inuicte parens, non concessure Quirino
laudibus ac meritis non concessure Camillo:
nec uero, cum te memorat de stirpe deorum,
prolem Tarpei mentitur Roma Tonantis.
Biographical Pieces
Ruins at Aphrodisias, ancient Caria, modern day western Anatolia, Turkey — Silius became proconsul of Asia in c. AD 77, as attested by an inscription in Aphrodisias, describing his activities in maintaining the institutions of the city.
LETTER TO CANINIUS RUFUS by Pliny the Younger
BOOK 3. VII.
Translated by John B. Firth
News has just come that Silius Italicus has starved himself to death at his villa near Naples. Ill-health was the cause assigned. He had an incurable corn, which made him weary of life and resolved him to face death with a determination that nothing could shake, yet to his last day he was prosperous and happy, save that he lost the younger of his two children. The elder and the better of the two still survives him in prosperous circumstances and of consular rank. During Nero’s reign Silius had injured his reputation, for it was thought that he voluntarily informed against people, but he had conducted himself with prudence and courtesy as one of the friends of Vitellius; he had returned from his governorship of Asia covered with glory, and he had succeeded in obliterating the stains on his character, caused by his activity in his young days, by the admirable use he made of his retirement. He ranked among the leading men of the State, though he held no official position and excited no man’s envy. People paid their respects to him and courted his society, and, though he spent much of his time on his couch, his room was always full of company who were no mere chance callers, and he passed his days in learned and scholarly conversation, when he was not busy composing. He wrote verses which show abundant pains rather than genius, and sometimes he submitted them to general criticism by having them read in public.
At last he retired from the city, prompted thereto by his great age, and settled in Campania, nor did he stir from the spot, even at the accession of the new Emperor. A Caesar deserves great credit for allowing a subject such liberty, and Italicus deserves the same for venturing to avail himself of it. He was such a keen virtuoso that he got the reputation of always itching to buy new things. He owned a number of villas in the same neighbourhood, and used to neglect his old ones through his passion for his recent purchases. In each he had any quantity of books, statues and busts, which he not only kept by him but even treated with a sort of veneration, especially the busts of Virgil, whose birthday he kept up far more scrupulously than he did his own, principally at Naples, where he used to approach the poet’s monument as though it were a temple. In these peaceful surroundings he completed his seventy-fifth year, his health being delicate rather than weak, and just as he was the last consul appointed by Nero, so too in him died the sole survivor of all the consuls appointed by that Emperor. It is also a curious fact that, besides his being the last of Nero’s consuls, it was in his term of office that Nero perished. When I think of this, I feel a sort of compassion for the frailty of humanity. For what is so circumscribed and so short as even the longest human life? Does it not seem to you as if Nero were alive only the other day? Yet of all those who held the consulship during his reign not one survives at the present moment.
But, after all, what is there remarkable in that? Not so long ago Lucius Piso, the father of the Piso who was must shamefully put to death in Africa by Valerius Festus, used to say that he did not see a single soul in the Senate of all those whom he had called upon to speak during his consulship. Within such narrow limits are the powers of living of even the mightiest throng confined that it seems to me the royal tears are not only excusable but even praiseworthy. For the story goes that when Xerxes cast his eyes over his enormous host, he wept to think of the fate that in such brief space would lay so many thousands low. But that is all the more reason why we should apply all the fleeting, rushing moments at our disposal, if not to great achievements — for these may be destined for other hands than ours — at least to study, and why, as long life is denied us, we should leave behind us some memorial that we have lived. I know that you need no spurring on, yet the affection I have for you prompts me even to spur a willing horse, just as you do with me. Well, it is a noble contention when friends exhort one another to work and sharpen one another’s desires to win an immortal name. Farewell.
EPIGRAMS CONCERNING SILIUS ITALICUS by Martial
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker
XIV
SILIUS, the pride of the Castalian Sisters, who with your mighty tones crush the perjuries of barbaric frenzy, and compel Hannibal’s false wiles and the faithless Carthaginians to yield to the great Africani, awhile lay aside your mien austere, what time December, idling amid alluring hazard, rings on thi
s side and on that with risky dice-box, and tropa sports with the licentious knuckle-bone. Lend thy leisure to my Muse, and read with a smooth, not frowning brow, poems steeped in wanton quips. So belike tender Catullus ventured to send his Sparrow to great Maro.
LXIV
ALTHOUGH you are not born of the stern Fabian race, nor are such a one as Curius’ wife, taken in labour while she was carrying his midday meal to him at the plough, brought forth under a shaggy oak, but the son of a father shorn in front of a mirror and of a harlot mother, and though your own wife might well call you wife, you take upon yourself to amend my poems that Fame knows well, and to carp at my happy triflings — these triflings, I say, to which the chief men of state and courts of law do not disdain to turn an attentive ear; these which the bookcases of immortal Silius think worthy of them, and Regulus with eloquent tongue repeats so often, and Sura commends, he who views hard by the struggles of the mighty Circus, Sura, the neighbour of Aventine Diana; these which our lord, though he bears so vast a weight of empire, does not disdain twice and thrice to unroll, Caesar himself. But you have more understanding, Minerva sharpened your mind to a keener point, and subtle Athens shaped your intellect! May I hang if there is not fuller flavour in that heart which, together with protruding guts, and huge hoof, and gory lights, decayed and a terror to the nose, the unfeeling butcher carries from street to street. You dare besides to write against me your paltry verses, which no one will know of, and to spoil your wretched paper. But if the heat of my wrath sets a brand upon you, that will remain and cling to you and be read all over the town, and Cinnamus, for all his cunning skill, will not efface the marks. Nay, take pity on yourself, and do not, lost man, tempt with your rabid tooth the foaming snout of a live bear. He may be gentle and lick your fingers and your hands, yet if pain, and wrath, and righteous anger compel him, he will be a bear. Weary out your fangs on an empty hide, and look out for some flesh to gnaw that cannot reply.
LXIII
YOU WHO read the undying works of immortal Silius, poems worthy of the Latin gown, think you the Muses’ retreats only have delighted the bard, and Bacchic chaplets on poetic locks? Buskined Maro’s sacred art he essayed not ere he had wrought to the full great Cicero’s work ; the stately spear of the Hundred Court admires him still, of him many a client speaks in grateful tone. When, with the twice six axes, he had ruled the mighty year hallowed by the freedom of the world regained, his veteran years he gave in their turn to the Muses and to Phoebus, and, instead of his own forum, courts Helicon now.
Complete Works of Silius Italicus Page 76