CONSOLATION ON THE LOSS OF A LOVED SLAVE-BOY
BY STATIUS, CA. AD 92
The poem presented here was written by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius (ca. AD 45 - ca. 96) to console an otherwise unknown Flavius Ursus on the death of his fourteen-year-old puer delicatus (slave-boy beloved) Philetos.
It was published, with a preface mentioning it, in Book Two of his Silvae (occasional verse) in about 93, though it may have been written a little earlier.
The translation is by D. A. Slater, M.A. for The Silvae of Statius published by The Clarendon Press, Oxford in 1908 except for the title and the Preface, neither of which did he translate. These are by J. H. Mozley, M. A. for the Loeb Classical Library volume 206, published by William Heinemann in London in 1928, while the footnotes are this websites. The English and Latin are presented in succession rather than side-by-side out of respect for the long lines of verse.
[Preface xx-xxiii:] Statius to his Friend Melior: Greeting!
Briefly describing the contents of Book Two:
Then there is the consolatory piece I wrote on the loss of his slave-boy for our friend Ursus, a youth of blameless life and an accomplished poet, who wastes no time in idleness; I was glad to include it in this book, quite apart from the debt I owe to him, for he will credit you with the honour he derives therefrom.
ad Ursum quoque
[20] nostrum, iuvenem candidissimum et sine iactura desidiae
doctissimum, scriptam de amisso puero consolationem super ea
quae ipsi debeo huic libro libenter inserui, quia honorem eius tibi
laturus accepto est.

6: A Poem of Consolation to Flavius Ursus on the Death of a Favourite Slave
OVER-HARSH is he who sets bounds to sorrow and a limit
to lamentation. It is sad for a father to kindle (alas!) the funeral fire
of his children in their prime and of his sons growing to manhood;
hard for a husband to be robbed of his wife, and left to bewail
the partner of his couch. Bitter it is to sigh for a sister or to weep [5]
a brother lost. Yet men of other blood than ours steal
into our hearts, so that a lighter wound touches us more nearly than
a greater grief. ‘Tis for a slave, Ursus, that you mourn, a slave
since thus with blind hands Fortune confounds the name
and discerns not the heart. Yet he was loyal; and for [10]
his loving faith he deserved the tears we are shedding.[1] Nobler than
an unbroken pedigree was the freedom of his soul. Check not your tears.
Be not ashamed. If so cruel a lot is decreed, let your sorrow
on this day know no curb. You are a man: and for a man,—alas, I am
but kindling the fire of grief,—a man after your own heart you weep. [15]
Fain was he to serve you: no bitterness was in him; he welcomed the yoke,
and of himself ruled himself sternly. Who shall chide your sorrow
over such a grave? The Parthian sighs for his charger slain
in battle, the Molossian for his trusty hound.[2] Even birds have
had their pyre and a deer his dirge from Maro.[3] [20]
What if he was at heart no slave? I have seen him with my eyes and marked
his bearing; how he brooked you only for his lord; but prouder than his bearing was
the pride upon his brow; high character was plain to read on his boyish countenance.
Right glad had been the mothers of Greece and eager they of Latium
to have borne such a son. Less noble was proud Theseus, [25]
whom the subtle maid of Crete with careful clew won back;
and less comely the shepherd Paris, when, to behold his Spartan love,
he launched the reluctant pine-barks upon the wave.[4] Think not
that I am deceiving you: the wonted freedom of poetry leads not my song astray.[5]I saw him, and see him still, a fairer shape than Achilles when Thetis [30]
hid him on the maiden-haunted shore, that he might beware of battle;
or Troilus, when the lance from the hand of Achilles overtook him
as he sped round the walled town of merciless Phoebus.[6]How fair thou wast! Comelier far than all youths or men;
surpassed only by thy lord. His beauty alone [35]
outshone thee, as the moon outshines the lesser
lights, or as Hesperus[7] dims the stars of heaven.
It was not womanish fairness that was on thy brow, not softness of beauty
on thy countenance,—as on theirs whose limbs uncharactered
by the forbidden knife proclaim them outcasts from manhood,—but boy [40]
though thou wast, thou hadst a man’s comeliness:[8] not overbold thy glance,
but mild thine eye, yet earnest and bright: so looked Parthenopaeus,[9]when his helmet was doffed. Simple thy comely wavy locks:
thy chin unbearded, but golden with the bloom
of youth. Such are the striplings whom the river Eurotas [45]
rears by Leda’s wave, and in such guise and so innocent the boys
who come to Elis and approve their boyhood to Jove.[10]The honour (whence was it?) of a stainless soul, untroubled calm of heart,
a wisdom riper than thy years—all these were thine. In song—
wherein perchance I may have power—oftentimes he would rally [50]
his master—who was fain to listen—and help him with high and zealous
counsel. Your sadness and your gladness, Ursus, he shared;
nor ever followed his own bent, but to your looks formed his own;
worthy to surpass in renown that Haemonian Pylades and the loyalty
of Theseus.[11] Nay, let the limit of his praise be the bound [55]
that his rank allows; not more faithfully did sad-hearted Eumaeus
await the return of lingering Ulysses.[12]

What god was it, what chance that chose out a wound
so fell? Whence did the Fates find such skill to harm ?
How much more bravely, Ursus, had you borne loss of wealth [60]
and rich substance; whether in smoking avalanche
the rich fields of the Locrians had belched forth Vesuvian fire,
or the rivers had overwhelmed the Pollentine glades,
or Lucanian Acir or headstrong Tiber had hurled his deep waters
on his right bank, with unruffled brow you would have borne [65]
the will of heaven.[13] Aye, or if nurturing Crete and Cyrene and whatsoever
lands there be from which Fortune returns to you with her bosom full
of plenty,[14]—if all had refused the promised harvest. But baleful Envy,
skilled to wound, saw the weak point in your heart and the sure
avenue of pain. But now he was at the turning point [70]
of manhood, and peerless in beauty assayed to add yet
three years more to his three Olympiads,[15]when grim-visaged Nemesis[16] set her stern glance upon him;
and first she made his thews stronger and his eyes brighter,
and bade him bear his head higher than of old. [75]
Alas, deadly was her favour to the hapless youth. She tormented
her own heart with the sight and, taking to her embrace Treachery and Death,
she cast her toils on him as he lay, and with taloned hands mercilessly tore
that brow serene.[17] Hardly was the morning star at the fifth rising
saddling his dripping steeds, when already, Philetos[18], the bitter shore [80]
of pitiless Charon and pitiless Acheron were before thine eyes.[19]With what an agony of grief thy master called thee back! Not thy mother,
had she lived, nor thy father could more passionately have bruised
and disfigured their limbs: and surely thy brother who saw thy burial
blushed to be outdone. Yet not on a slave’s pyre was [85]
thy body burnt. Fragrance of frankincense and saffron
of Cilicia the flame consumed: cinnamon from the Phoenix’
nest,[20] balm that distils from Assyrian simples,
and thy master’s tears: these only thine ashes drank,
those the pyre greedily consumed. The Setian wine[21] [90]
that drowned the grey embers, the polished onyx that took
thy bones to its heart, was not so precious to thy poor shade
as those tears. But do even your tears help the dead? Why, Ursus,
do we yield to sorrow ? Why do you hug your loss and wilfully cherish
the wound? Where is the eloquence that men haled to the judgement seat [95]
know so well? Why torture the loved shade with so savage a grief?
Though he be a matchless soul and worthy to be mourned,
thou hast paid the debt. He is entering among the blest,
and at peace in Elysium; there perchance he finds father and mother
ennobled now; or in the sweet stillness of Lethe [100]
the fountain-fairies of Avernus mingle, it may be, and sport with him,
and Proserpine with sidelong glances marks their play.[22]
Peace, I pray you, to your lament. The Fates will find for you, or he himself
mayhap will give, another Philetos[23], and joyously will bestow on him the same heart
and the same mien, and teach him to win your love by his likeness to the lost. [105]
Consolatio ad Flavium ursum de admission pueri delicati

Saeve nimis, lacrimis quisquis discrimina ponis
lugendique modos. miserum est primaeva parenti
pignera surgentesque (nefas!) accendere natos;
durum et deserti praerepta coniuge partem
[5] conclamare tori, maesta et lamenta sororum
et fratrum gemitus; alte haec tamen at procul intrat
altius in sensus, maioraque vulnera vincit
plaga minor. famulum (quia rerum nomina caeca
sic miscet Fortuna manu nec pectora novit),
[10] sed famulum gemis, Vrse, pium, sed amore fideque
has meritum lacrimas, cui maior stemmate iuncto
libertas ex mente fuit. ne comprime fletus,
ne pudeat; rumpat frenos dolor iste diesque,
si tam dura placent, hominem gemis (heu mihi! subdo
[15] ipse faces), hominem, Vrse, tuum, cui dulce volenti
servitium, cui triste nihil, qui sponte sibique
imperiosus erat. quisnam haec in funera missos
castiget luctus? gemit inter bella peremptum
Parthus equum, fidosque canes flevere Molossi,
[20] et volucres habuere rogum cervusque Maronem.
quid, si nec famulus? vidi ipse habitusque notavi
te tantum cupientis erum, sed maior in ore
spiritus et tenero manifesti in sanguine mores.
optarent multum Graiae cuperentque Latinae
[25] sic peperisse nurus. non talem Cressa superbum
callida sollicito revocavit Thesea filo,
nec Paris Oebalios talis visurus amores
rusticus invitas deiecit in aequora pinus.
non fallo aut cantus assueta licentia ducit:
[30] vidi et adhuc video, qualem nec bella caventem
litore virgineo Thetis occultavit Achillen,
nec circum saevi fugientem moenia Phoebi
Troilon Haemoniae deprendit lancea dextrae.
qualis eras! procul en cunctis puerisque virisque
[35] pulchrior et tantum domino minor! illius unus
ante decor, quantum praecedit clara minores
luna faces quantumque alios premit Hesperos ignes.
non tibi femineum vultu decus oraque supra
mollis honos, qualis dubiae post crimina formae
[40] de sexu transire iubent: torva atque virilis
gratia; nec petulans acies, blandique severo
igne oculi, qualis bellis iam casside, visu
Parthenopaeus erat; simplexque horrore decoro
crinis, et obsessae nondum primoque micantes
[45] flore genae: talem Ledaeo gurgite pubem
educat Eurotas, teneri sic integer aevi
Elin adit primosque Iovi puer approbat annos.
nam pudor unde notae, mentis tranquillaque morum
temperies teneroque animus maturior aevo
[50] carmine quo pandisse queam? saepe ille volentem
castigabat erum studioque altisque iuvabat
consiliis; tecum tristisque hilarisque nec umquam
ille suus, vultumque tuo sumebat ab ore:
dignus et Haemonium Pyladen praecedere fama
[55] Cecropiamque fidem. sed laudum terminus esto,
quem fortuna sinit: non mente fidelior aegra
speravit tardi reditus Eumaeus Vlixis.

Quis deus aut quisnam tam tristia vulnera casus
eligit? unde manus Fatis tam certa nocendi?
[60] o quam divitiis censuque exutus opimo
fortior, Vrse, fores! si vel fumante ruina
ructassent dites Vesuvina incendia Locroe,
seu Pollentinos mersissent flumina saltus,
seu Lucanus Acir seu Thybridis impetus altas
[65] in dextrum torsisset aquas, paterere serena
fronte deos; sive alma fidem messisque negasset
Cretaque Cyreneque et qua tibi cumque beato
larga redit Fortuna sinu. sed gnara dolorum
Invidia infelix animi vitalia vidit
[70] laedendique vias.
Vitae modo carcer adultae:
nectere temptabat iuvenum pulcherrimus ille
cum tribus Eleis unam trieterida lustris.
attendit torvo tristis Rhamnusia vultu,
ac primum implevitque toros oculisque nitorem
[75] addidit ac solito sublimius ora levavit,
heu! misero letale favens: seseque videndo
torsit et invidia, mortemque amplexa iacenti
iniecit nexus carpsitque immitis adunca
ora verenda manu. quinta vix Phosphoros ora
[80] rorantem sternebat equum: iam litora duri
saeva, Philete, senis durumque Acheronta videbas,
quo domini clamate sono! non saevius atros
nigrasset planctu genetrix sibi saeva lacertos,
nec pater; et certe qui vidit funera frater
[85] erubuit vinci. sed nec servilis adempto
ignis: odoriferos exhausit flamma Sabaeos
et Cilicum messes Phariaeque exempta volucri
cinnama et Assyrio manantes gramine sucos,
et domini fletus: hos tantum hausere favillae,
[90] hos bibit usque rogus; nec quod tibi Setia canos
restinxit cineres, gremio nec lubricus ossa
quod vallavit onyx, miseris acceptius umbris
quam gemitus.
Sed et ipse iuvat: quid terga dolori,
Vrse, damus? quid damna foves et pectore iniquo
[95] vulnus amas? ubi nota reis facundia raptis?
quid caram crucias tam saevis luctibus umbram?
eximius licet ille animi meritusque doleri:
solvisti. subit ille pios carpitque quietem
Elysiam clarosque illic fortasse parentes
[100] invenit; aut illi per amoena silentia Lethes
forsan Avernales adludunt undique mixtae
Naides, obliquoque notat Proserpina vultu.
Pone, precor, questus; alium tibi Fata Phileton,
forsan et ipse dabit, moresque habitusque decoros
[105] monstrabit gaudens similemque docebit amari.

[1] The reason for the “yet” in this sentence is that slaves were often depicted in Roman literature as lacking in loyalty. Philetos was loyal despite being a slave.
[2] Horses were especially highly esteemed by the Parthians as they were crucial to mounted archery, a Parthian military speciality. The powerful hounds of the Molossians (the inhabitants of Epiros) were considered the best.
[3] Birds having had their pyre means people have sometimes considered them worthy of cremation, an allusion to poem 4 in this book, where Statius mentions the cremation of his friend Melior’s parrot. The famous Roman poet P. Vergilius Maro lamented the killing of a deer in his Aeneid VII 483-502).
[4] Philetos’s nobility of character is compared favourably with the deceit of two mythological heroes, the Athenian Theseus, who shabbily let down Ariadne, a Cretan maid, and the Trojan Paris, whose abduction of his Spartan host’s wife Helen provokeded the launching of Greek warships against Troy.
[5] With this claim that he was not exercising poetic license in his praise of Philetos, Statius is humourously alluding to his extreme license in comparing a mere slave to great mythological princes.
[6] Philetos is compared favourably with two mythological youths famous for their beauty and early deaths: Achilles, who was easily disguised amongst the girls of Skyros by his mother Thetis in the hope of preventing his being taken to war with Troy, and Troilus, the youngest and most beautiful son of the Trojan King Priam, later killed in his chariot outside the walls of Troy by Achilles (it having been prophecied that Troy would not fall if he reached the age of twenty).
[7] Hesperus is the evening star.
[8] Philetos did not look soft like eunuchs, who were unnaturally made unmanly and flawed through their castration with the “forbidden knife” – forbidden because the emperor Domitian had recently outlawed castration. It would seem from Statius’s description of Philetos that Ursus’s taste ran to more masculine boys than was typical in Rome, though not in Greece (as the examples which follow show).
[9] The exceptionally beautiful Arcadian mythical hero Parthenopaios, whose name means “maiden-faced”, was one of the “Seven Against Thebes” and was described in detail by Statius in his Thebaid IX 844-876. He was apparently about the same age as Philetos, still “smooth-cheeked” and acknowledging himself (when dying) that he had been too young to go to war.
[10] Philetos is here further compared to the most masculine ideals of the boy. The river Eurotas ran through Sparta (of which Leda was a queen), so the striplings here are Spartan boys, famous for their toughness. This was in no wise incompatible with their accepting men as their lovers: the same Spartan lawgiver Lykourgos who ordained the tough upbringing of boys also laid down that they should be “introduced to the company of lovers” when they reached twelve (Plutarch, Life of Lykourgos XVII 1). The boys who come to Elis are those who come to compete in the Olympic games held there: there were separate competitions for men and for boys (in their early to mid-teens).
[11] Pylades and Theseus were mythical heroes famously loyal to their best friends, Orestes and Perithous respectively.
[12] Eumaeus was the swineherd of the mythical hero Odysseus (Latin: Ulysses) who remained loyal to his master during the twenty years he was away (Homer, Odyssey XV 403-92). Since, like Philetos, he was a slave (albeit, perhaps significantly, of royal birth), he suits Statius’s stated aim of ending his praise with an example of Philetos’s rank.
[13] Apparently Ursus had property or sources of revenue at Locri (imagined as somehow ravaged by the fires of Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in 79 was still a vivid memory), Pollentia in northern Italy, Acir(probably the river Aciris) in Lucania, and, unsurprisingly Rome (whose river, the Tiber, was liable to flood suddenly). Ursus could have borne the loss of wealth from damage to these easily compared with the loss of Philetos.
[14] Crete and Cyrene were a single Roman province. Evidently Ursus’s wealth extended to it.
[15] An Olympiad lasted four years, so three lasted twelve. Philetos was trying to add three years to that, implying that he had not quite reached fifteen.
[16] The grim goddess of Fate.
[17] It sounds as though unlike with the 12-year-old freed boy Glaucias, whose death was the subject of Statius’s first poem in this book, Philet’s physical beauty was destroyed by his mortal illness.
[18] The boy’s name is given here, for the first time of two, in the vocative case, as Philete. Philetos was a Greek name meaning “worthy of love”. The translator very confusingly hid his name by giving it both times in the translated form “Beloved.” “Philetos” has been restored instead. [Website footnote].
[19] Charon (pitiless because he spared no one) was the boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across the river Acheron (alternatively the Styx) to the Underworld.
[20] In other words from Egypt, to which Herodotos assigned the origins of the Phoenix, which built its nest from cinnamon.
[21] Setian was a fine Latian wine favoured by emperors, its use evidence of Ursus’s wealth.
[22] In this sentence Statius gives Ursus a reassuring depiction of Philetos in the Underworld, without mention of its horrors. Elysium is the most agreeable part, reserved for the Blessed. Lethe is the river of forgetfulness there. Lake Avernus in Campania is one of the entrances to the Underworld. Presumably the fountain-fairies there sport with Philetos because he is so good-looking and even Proserpine, Queen of the Underworld, gives him sidelong glances for the same reason.
[23] The boy’s name is given here, for the second and last time, in the accusative case, as Phileton. Philetos was a Greek name meaning “worthy of love”. The translator very confusingly hid his name by giving it both times in the translated form “Beloved.” “Philetos” has been restored instead.
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