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ARMS AND ARMOUR: AN EMENDATION TO STATIUS, SILVAE 4.4.66

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2019

Adalberto Magnavacca
Adalberto Magnavacca*
Affiliation:
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
*
[email protected]
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Extract

In Silv. 4.4 Statius pays homage to Vitorius Marcellus, the young dedicatee of the poem (for this small but meaningful detail, see Stat. Silv. 4.4.45 iuuenes … annos; 4.4.74 iuuenemque … parentem), praising his skills as an orator (4.4.39–45) and foreseeing a brilliant military career for him (4.4.61–4). The last point is highlighted in a brief portrait of Marcellus as a perfect foot soldier and horseman (4.4.64–9):

      … nec enim tibi sola potentis
      eloquii uirtus: sunt membra accommoda bellis    65
      quique grauem tarde subeant thoraca lacerti.
      seu campo pedes ire pares, est agmina supra
      nutaturus apex, seu frena sonantia flectes,
      seruiet asper equus.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 925 - 927
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019

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Footnotes

My heartfelt thanks go to Gianpiero Rosati and Francesco Grotto for their comments on a first draft of this note. For other helpful suggestions, I am deeply indebted to Bruce Gibson and the anonymous referee.

References

1 On the dedicatee, see Grotto, F., ‘Egregius formaque animisque. Un Marcello “virgiliano” in Stazio, Silvae IV 4’, Maia 70 (2018), 312–19Google Scholar, at 312.

2 I reproduce below the text and the translation by Bailey, D.R. Shackleton, Statius. Silvae (Cambridge, MA, 2015 2, with corrections by C.A. Parrott)Google Scholar, who prints exactly the reading of the Madrid manuscript, Bibl. Nat. 3678 (M), dated to 1417 or 1418.

3 See Coleman, K.M., Statius. Silvae IV (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar; Courtney, E., P. Papini Stati Silvae (Oxford, 1992; repr. with corrections)Google Scholar; Liberman, G., Stace. Silves (Paris, 2010)Google Scholar.

4 See Barth, C. von, P. Papinii Statii quae extant (Zwickau, 1664), 1.2.386Google Scholar (Ad P. Papinii Statii Silvarum Libros Animadversiones). The relevant point against this conjecture was raised by Liberman (n. 3), 347. I list here the occurrences of haud used with reference to an adverb: haud aliter recurs six times (Theb. 3.45, 3.140, 6.880, 12.66; Silv. 3.3.179, 5.2.121), haud citius and haud minus once (respectively Theb. 10.674 and 7.725), haud procul six times (Theb. 6.368, 7.441, 8.575, 12.246, 12.409; Achil. 1.150) and haud umquam six times (Theb. 5.273, 7.153, 9.795, 10.149; Silv. 5.2.107, 5.4.13). In his discussion of line 66, Barth proposed also intarde, but this form is not attested elsewhere.

5 Conjecture mentioned in the apparatus criticus of Coleman's edition (n. 3): this proposal was preceded by subeant arte of Müller, O., Quaestiones Statianae (Berlin, 1861), 30Google Scholar. Both conjectures are perhaps too radical, since they require a change in the word order and the restoration of the word corrupted in tarde: as we will see, a more plausible solution can be found.

6 See the apparatus criticus by Courtney (n. 3); the two proposals have been criticized by Watt, W.S., ‘Notes on Latin poetry. Ovid, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Statius, Martial, Rutilius, and fragmentary Latin poets’, BICS 42 (1997–8), 145–58Google Scholar, at 154–5.

7 At the suggestion of the referee, I list the most relevant examples of golden lines occurring in the Silvae: 1.1.34, 1.1.51, 1.3.33, 1.4.114, 2.1.114, 2.2.82, 2.2.89, 3.1.113, 3.2.2, 3.2.38, 3.2.141, 3.3.2, 3.3.24, 3.3.130, 3.3.150, 3.3.189, 3.4.83, 3.5.66, 3.5.80, 3.5.97, 4.1.1, 4.4.14, 4.4.92, 4.6.79, 4.8.51, 5.1.93, 5.1.244, 5.2.3–4, 5.2.24, 5.3.95, 5.3.112. Among these instances, the case represented by Stat. Silv. 3.5.66 candida seu molli diducit bracchia motu is very similar to the line discussed here and can be a good parallel in order to support the proposed reconstruction.

8 For bibliographical references, see Markland, J., P. Papinii Statii libri quinque Silvarum (Dresden and London, 1827 2), 321–2Google Scholar; Otto, A., ‘Zur Kritik von Statius’ Silvae’, RhM 42 (1887), 531–46Google Scholar, at 539; and Phillimore, J.S., P. Papini Stati Silvae (Oxford, 1918 2)Google Scholar in the critical apparatus of his edition. The last two conjectures quoted here are printed respectively in Coleman (n. 3), 24 (not in the main text but in the critical apparatus) and Watt (n. 6), 154–5. For the sake of completeness, I mention also tardi, printed for the first time in Manutius, A.P. (ed.), Statii Syluarum libri quinque Thebaidos libri duodecim Achilleidos duo (Venice, 1502)Google Scholar: this proposal, however, has already been criticized by Markland (this note).

9 The adjective would enhance ‘the arms to be compressed’ owing to the muscles rippling beneath the skin, but this expression sounds too bombastic and humorous in this situation.

10 See again Liberman (n. 3), 347–8.

11 On this passage, see the illuminating commentaries of Kenney, E.J., Ovid. Heroides XVI–XXI (Cambridge, 1996), 151Google Scholar and Rosati, G., P. Ovidii Nasonis Heroidum Epistulae XVIII–XIX. Leander Heroni. Hero Leandro (Florence, 1996), 79–80Google Scholar.

12 Note that these parallels gain even more significance if we note that membra in line 65 is the Latin word for Greek μέλη.