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three pairs of lovers with space

GLAUCIAS AND MELIOR, AD 90

 

Glaucias was a freed boy in Rome who died in AD 90, around the time of his twelfth birthday, in the home of his lover[1] and former master, where he had also been born. His lover was Atedius Melior, an elderly, well-reputed and wealthy patron of the poets who lived in quiet elegance in a house on the Caelian hill. Happily two poets, Statius and Martial, wrote verse to console him in his terrible grief over his loss. That of Statius, who was evidently also a friend of Melior and had known Glaucias well, besides offering some fascinating insights into childhood in early imperial Rome, gives a deeply moving portrait of love between a Roman man and his kept boy, a deep love almost certainly more common than popular modern prejudices would allow.[2] The footnotes to this article, all by this website, will endeavour to bring out the importance of Glaucias and Melior’s story for our understanding.

 

Papirius Statius, Silvae II

Book Two of the Silvae (occasional verse) of the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius (ca. AD 45 - ca. 96) was published in about 93, but the poem presented here was apparently written in 90 for delivery at Glaucias’s funeral pyre. It was thus intended both as consolation when memory of the boy was still fresh in the minds of his lover and the poet, and as a commemoration.

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. The English and Latin are presented in succession rather than side-by-side out of respect for the long lines of verse.

[Preface i-xii]: Statius to his Friend Melior: Greeting!

Not only our friendship wherein I take such pleasure, my excellent Melior, who are as faultless in your literary judgement as in every phase of life, but also the actual circumstances of the poems I am presenting to you are responsible for the whole of this book of mine being directed towards you, even without an introductory letter. For its first subject is our beloved Glaucias, whose charming infancy—a charm so often bestowed on the unfortunate—is lost to you now; I loved him when I took him in my arms at your house. While that wound was yet fresh, I wrote as you know a poem of consolation, with such dispatch that I felt my promptness owed an apology to your feelings. Nor am I boasting of it now to you who know, but warning others not to criticize too sharply a poem written in distress and sent to one in sorrow, seeing that sympathy must be timely or else superfluous. […]

Glaucias in arms d3


Statius Meliori Suo Salutem

Et familiaritas nostra qua gaudeo, Melior, vir optime nec minus in
iudicio litterarum quam in omni vitae colore tersissime, et ipsa
opusculorum quae tibi trado condicio sic posita est ut totus hic ad
te liber meus etiam sine epistula spectet. primum enim habet
[5] Glauciam nostrum, cuius gratissimam infantiam et qualem
plerumque infelices sortiuntur apud te complexus amabam iam
non tibi. huius amissi recens vulnus, ut scis, epicedio prosecutus
sum adeo festinanter ut excusandam habuerim affectibus tuis
celeritatem. nec nunc eam apud te iacto qui nosti, sed et ceteris
[10] indico, ne quis asperiore lima carmen examinet et a confuso
scriptum et dolenti datum, cum paene supervacua sint tarda
solacia. […]

 

1. Glaucias, the Favourite of Atedius Melior

MELIOR, how shall I find prelude for my words of solace at your
foster-son’s untimely death? How can I sing unfeelingly, before the pyre,
ere the funeral fire has sunk?[3] The veins are still torn; the lamentable
wound gapes wide; the perilous avenue of the great gash lies open.

And now while I compose you but words and song for salve, [5]
you have more a mind for beating your breast; you cry aloud
in sorrow, turning with deaf ears in loathing from the lute.
Untimely is my song. Sooner would lonely tigress
or lioness robbed of her whelps give heed to me.
Not though the song of the three Siren sisters should float hither; [10]
not though the lyre to which beast and wild wood hearkened were mine,
not even so could the madness of your grief be charmed away.[4] An agony
of sorrow fills your soul; at a touch your heart moans and sobs.

Rome. Caelian Hill by Andre Caron nbkg             
The Caelian Hill (where Glaucias and Melior lived, in Rome) by André Caron

Have your fill of bitterness! No man says you nay. With free
vent assuage the fever and the pain. Is the passion of weeping sated [15]
at last? At last for very weariness do you scorn not
my kindly entreaties, but brook my song? Even as I speak,
see, my eyes are wet, tears fall and blot the page;
for indeed I, like you, have paid mournful tribute of the wonted rites,
have seen the cruel doom that all Rome beheld, and have followed [20]
the child’s bier to the funeral fire. I have seen the cruel incense of the gods
below heaped high, and the ghost that wailed above his own pyre.
I have seen you outdoing fathers in your sighs and mothers in beating
of the breast,—clasping the fagots and ready to swallow the fire. Scarce could I,
your fellow mourner, hold you back, and angered you by my endeavour. [25]
Now, alas, the fillets that deck the Poet’s brow put off,—
a prophet of sorrow, I change my strains and beat my breast
with you. Assuage your grief, and suffer me, I pray, to have part in your tears
and lot in your mourning, if such is my desert, if a share in the sorrow
of your heart has been mine. My voice has been heard by fathers [30]
when the bolt fell. My song has found solace for mothers
and loyal sons weeping beside their dead,—
I too, sorrowing and outworn for my own loss, have bewailed,
O Nature, what a father! I do not sternly debar you from grief;
nay, but let me mingle my tears with yours, and sorrow with you. [35]

Long while, beloved boy, have I sought for a worthy prelude
to thy praises, an avenue to thy dirge, in vain.
Now it was thy youth hovering on the threshold of life,
and now thy beauty that ravished my thoughts: now thy modesty
so early ripe, now thy shamefaced honour beyond thy tender years. [40]
Gone is that clear countenance bright with the flush of health.
Gone those starlike eyes,—eyes beamed from heaven;
perished the sedate modesty, the low forehead,
the crown of natural tresses and wavy line of comely
curls. Lost are the lips, tattling with fond complaints, [45]
and kisses balmy as spring blossoms, when he hung, Melior, in your embrace.
Lost the laughter and the tears, the speaking voice, sweet
as honeycomb from Hybla, of a melody to charm the serpent’s
hiss or to win abject service even from stern step-dames.
I am adding nought to the true sum of his worth. Alas, the milk-white [50]
throat, the arms that ever rested upon his master’s neck!
Where now is the near promise of his hastening youth?
The longed-for adornment of his cheeks? The beard that Melior
did often swear by? All, all has one disastrous day, one merciless
hour, given to the pyre: to us only the memory is left. [55]             

Who now Melior, when you are glad, will soothe your heart
with sweet converse? Who will solace your secret care and sadness?
When you are fired with bitter anger and wroth with your slaves, who will
assuage your passion and turn you aside from choleric heat to thoughts of him?
When you have sipped the wine and tasted the meat, who will snatch [60]
these dainties from your lips, and with pretty foray confound the feast?
Who will leap upon your bed at dawn and with whispering cries
banish sleep, stay you at your outgoing with close-knit embrace
and call back even the lictors to caress you again?
Who will meet you at your home-coming, leaping into your arms [65]
and to your kiss, and twining his little arms about your shoulders?
The sentinel is gone from your door, your home is left desolate:
forlorn is your chamber, sad and silent your board. 

Glaucias into Meliors arms d1            

What wonder, Glaucias, if thy devoted foster-father honours thee with
a costly funeral? In thee he found as it were a haven of rest in his old age; [70]
and now delight and now sweet torment, of thy giving, were his.
Thou wast not turned to and fro in the whirling of the slave cage:
thou wast not set amid Pharian5 wares, a child for sale.[5]
Thou hadst not, with parrot-jest and well-conned words of greeting
on thy lips, to seek, and scarce at last to win, a buyer by pranks of thine.[6] [75]
This was thy home, here thy birthplace; dear of old to thy master’s house
were thy father and mother; and to give thee joy they were set free,
lest thou shouldst weep for loss of family.[7] But as soon as thou wast born
it was thy master that with joy upraised thee, and as thy first cry
of greeting went up to the shining stars, his heart claimed thee: [80]
he clasped thee to his breast and accounted thee his very son.[8]
Suffer me, honoured parents; and thou, Nature, whose it is
to knit the first heart-ties throughout the world,
forbid not my words: it is not always nearness of blood
or descent from a common stock that makes us kin: [85]
often changelings and adopted children steal closer to our hearts
than our own people. Sons of our blood are ours perforce;
sons of our love it is a joy to choose. Thus it was that half-brute Chiron
outdid Peleus of Haemonia in loving-kindness to the boy Achilles.
The old man Peleus marched not with his son to do battle before Troy, [90]
but Phoenix was never sundered from his famed pupil.[9]
Evander was left to long afar off that Pallas might return
in triumph, while staunch Acoetes watched the fray.
And it was Dictys the seafarer who tended winged Perseus,
when his father, whose home was amid the shining stars, tarried afar.[10] [95]
Why should I rehearse the roll of foster-mothers that have outdone mothers
in their loyal love? Why tell how the babe Bacchus, when his mother
had been lured to her lightning-death, was safer leaping in Ino’s arms:
how Acca was still wearily bearing the sturdy Romulus when Ilia,
rescued from her father, reigned a queen beneath the Tuscan waves?[11] [100]
Ere now I have seen boughs upon stranger stock ingrafted
overtop their parent tree. Your own will and fancy had made you,
Melior, at the first his father, not yet his loyalty and grace:
but dear to you already were his lisping cries,
his childish tears, his wailing innocence. [105]             

As a flower, that at the first gale must fall,
in the velvet meadows lifts its head defiantly on high,
so ere his day in pride of look and bearing the boy had
outstripped his playmates and left his years far behind.
If he stood with limbs bent in the locking wrestle, [110]
you had thought him the son of a Spartan mother;
Apollo had forsaken Oebalides right eagerly for him, and eagerly
had Alcides bartered the love of Hylas for his.[12] If in Greek garb
he chanted the Attic lines of rare Menander,
Thalia had joyfully praised his tones and merrily [115]
ruffled his fair locks with rosy chaplet.14
Anon, if he sang old Homer’s lays,—travail of Troy
or hazard of lingering Ulysses,—forthwith even his father,
even his masters were astounded at his insight.  

Glaucias singing d8           


Be sure Fate laid her baleful hand upon his cradle, [120]
and Envy clasped and fondled the boy in her bosom.
The one caressed the long curls on his cheeks;
the other taught him that skill and breathed in him those words
we sigh for now. His years were but growing to the sum
of the labours of Hercules,[13]—the days of babyhood scarcely past,—[125]
when already his step was firm; his thews outswelled
his garments; the boyish dress seemed to shrink upon him.
And what robes, Glaucias, what raiment did not thy fond master
eagerly give thee! He would fasten the short cloaks across
the boyish chest and contract the web of the narrow mantle.  [130]
He never gave thee loose, shapeless folds, but ever suiting
the raiment to thy years, clad thee now in Phoenician purple,
now in grass-green tunic, now in gay glowing scarlet,
and rejoiced to make those hands shine with vivid gems;
and gifts and thronging attendants were there: [135]
thy winsome beauty lacked nought but the garb of liberty.[14]             

Such was the fortune of thy birth. Then on a sudden Fate raised her
hand in anger. Ah, goddess, why cruelly bare those fell talons against him?
Does not his beauty, does not the pathos of his youth touch your heart?
Procne, cruel though she was, could not have mangled him for her lord; [140]
Medea could not have persisted in her savage anger,
not though he had been the son of her Corinthian rival;
grim Athamas had turned from him his frenzied arrows;
yes, and despite his bitter hatred of Troy and of dead Hector, Ulysses had
wept when he was about to hurl him from the Phrygian battlements.[15] [145]             

The seventh day dawned and already his eyes were languid and chill,
already the Queen of the shades[16] set her hand upon the tress.
Yet at the last, even while the Fates strangled the tender life,
his dying eyes sought yours, his failing lips whispered
your name: for you he spent the last breath in his dying [150]
breast: on you, on you alone he thought and called:
moving for you his lips, leaving for you his accents,
and forbade your anguish and solaced your pain.
Yet we are grateful to the Fates that no lingering death consumed
his boyish beauty as he lay a-dying; that he went down perfect [155]
into the underworld, just as he was, with no blighting stain upon him.     

Glaucias dying d3      


Ask me not now of that burying; of the gifts lavished on
the flames; of the funeral fire that prodigal sorrow kindled.
Upon a flower-crowned mound the grim pyre was heaped.
Cilician saffron, and gifts of Indian balsam, [160]
perfumes of Arabia, of Egypt, and of Palestine steeped
thy locks for the fire.21 Nothing would Melior
in his profusion deny thee, but in loathing of his orphaned wealth
would fain burn all his substance; the jealous fire could not contain
such tribute, the flames were not large enough to consume it. [165] 

My heart was awed. Ah, Melior, once so tranquil, in what frenzy
at those last rites by the pyre I beheld you and was afraid!
Is this my gay companion, he of the gentle countenance?
Whence then this passion, those rending hands, that savage grief?
Stretched on the bare earth you shrink from the agony of life. [170]
Now fiercely you pluck at your robe and your heart;
now you kiss those loved eyes and snatch cold caresses.
There stood the father and there in tears the mother
of the dead, but his parents gazed in wonderment on you.
Why marvel, when all the people and all the host that went [175]
before over the Mulvian agger along the Flaminian road
were weeping for the innocent child who was given over to
the baleful fire, that for his youth and beauty deserved their lamentation.[17]
Such was Palaemon, when his mother flung herself upon him as he lay,
after tossing in the waves, cast up by the sea in the Isthmian haven: [180]
and such Opheltes when the greedy fire consumed him,
mangled by those fangs as he played in Lerna’s snake-haunted meadows.[18]             

But fear not. Dread no more menacing death.
Cerberus with triple jaws will not bark at him.
The Sisters with their flames and towering snakes will [185]
terrify him not. Nay, even the churlish mariner of the greedy skiff
will draw nearer to the barren banks and parched shore,
that the boy may without hazard step on board.[19] 

Glaucias w. Charon d4            

What message is this that with joyous wand Cyllene’s son[20] is signalling
to me? On a day so dark can there be aught of gladness? [190]
Many a time the boy had marked you twining fresh garlands
and clashing to your breast the bust of Blaesus:
he knew those features and the noble head erect.
So when among Ausonian nobles and the sons of Quirinus
he saw Blaesus pacing the banks of Lethe-water, [195]
he knew him for a friend;[21] and first in silence and with timid steps
walked by his side and plucked at the fringe of his robe: anon followed
more boldly, for as more boldly he plucked Blaesus spurned him not,
but thought him one of the sons of his house whom he knew not.
Soon when he learnt that the boy was the favourite[22] of Melior, [200]
the solace for his lost friend Blaesus, the darling of his peerless companion,
he raised him from the ground and twined him about his brawny shoulders,
and long while sought joyously with his own hands such presents
as Elysium[23] can soften to afford,—the fruitless boughs, the songless
birds it may be, and the wan flowers nipped in the bud. [205]
And did, not bid him forget you, but joined heart to heart
and shared in turn with you in the boy’s love.[24]  

Glaucias  Blaesus ghosts d1          


He is gone; this is the end. Heal then your wound,
uplift your grief-sunken head. All things you see have suffered
or must suffer death. Day and night pass away,—[210]
aye, and the stars also, nor is the solid earth saved by her massy fabric.
The nations bow to death; who can stay to weep the passing
of a frail and strengthless people? War and ocean claim their victims,
love and madness deal doom, aye, and fell desire.
Why bewail disease? Winter’s freezing breath, [215]
the fierce heat of the baleful Dogstar,[25] and wan
Autumn, from whose jaws proceed forth storms.
All that is born must die. Death will claim us,—yes, claim us all;
for countless shades Aeacus shakes the urn.[26]             

But he whom we weep is happy; he has out-soared gods [220]
and men, danger and hazard, and the pitfalls of our blind life;
he is secure from fate. ‘Twas not his lot to shrink from—or to pray for—
death, not yet to deserve to die. We are a restless people
and evil-starred; for we know not whence our death is to come,
nor how our life shall close; from what star the thunder threatens, [225]
what cloud shall sound our knell. Doth this thought not move thee?
Yet thou shalt be moved and with a good grace. Come, Glaucias,
come hither from the gloomy threshold. Thy prayers alone can win
every boon; for neither Charon nor the comrade of that baleful monster[27]
restrains the souls of the innocent. Thou must soften his heart; [230]
thou must stay his streaming tears; thou must make glad
for him the nights with thy sweet accents and living looks.
Tell him thou art not dead; and still commend to his kindness—
thou canst—thy hapless parents and thy sister forlorn.

Glaucias Atedii Meloris Delicatus

Spain. Merida. Natl. M. of Roman Art. Funerary bust of Roman boy ca. AD 50 nbkg
Funerary bust of a Roman boy, ca. AD 50 (National Museum of Roman art, Merida, Spain)

[1] Quod tibi praerepti, Melior, solamen alumni
improbus ante rogos et adhuc vivente favilla
ordiar? abruptis etiam nunc flebile venis
vulnus hiat, magnaeque patet via lubrica plagae,
[5] cum iam egomet cantus et verba medentia saevus            
consero, tu planctus lamentaque fortia mavis
odistique chelyn surdaque averteris aure.
intempesta cano: citius me tigris abactis
fetibus orbatique velint audire leones.
[10] nec si tergeminum Sicula de virgine carmen            
affluat aut silvis chelys intellecta ferisque,
mulceat insanos gemitus. stat pectore demens
luctus et admoto latrant praecordia tactu.

Nemo vetat: satiare malis aegrumque dolorem
[15] libertate doma. iam flendi expleta voluptas,            
iamque preces fessus non indignaris amicas?
iamne canam? lacrimis en et mea carmine in ipso
ora natant tristesque cadunt in verba liturae.
ipse etenim tecum nigrae sollemnia pompae
[20] spectatumque Vrbi scelus et puerile feretrum            
produxi; saevos damnati turis acervos
plorantemque animam supra sua funera vidi;
teque patrum gemitus superantem et brachia matrum
complexumque rogos ignemque haurire parantem
[25] vix tenui similis comes offendique tenendo.            
et nunc heu vittis et frontis honore soluto
infaustus vates versa mea pectora tecum
plango lyra: ~et diu~ comitem sociumque doloris,
si merui luctusque tui consortia sensi,
[30] iam lenis patiare precor: me fulmine in ipso            
audivere patres; ego iuxta busta profusis
matribus atque piis cecini solatia natis,
et mihi, cum proprios gemerem defectus ad ignes
(quem, Natura!) patrem. nec te lugere severus
[35] arceo, sed confer gemitus pariterque fleamus.               

Iamdudum dignos aditus laudumque tuarum,
o merito dilecte puer, primordia quaerens
distrahor. hinc anni stantes in limine vitae,
hinc me forma rapit, rapit inde modestia praecox
[40] et pudor et tenero probitas maturior aevo.            
o ubi purpureo suffusus sanguine candor
sidereique orbes radiataque lumina caelo
et castigatae collecta modestia frontis
ingenuique super crines mollisque decorae
[45] margo comae? blandis ubinam ora arguta querelis            
osculaque impliciti vernos redolentia flores,
et mixtae risu lacrimae penitusque loquentis
Hyblaeis vox mixta favis? cui sibila serpens
poneret et saevae vellent servire novercae.
[50] nil veris adfingo bonis. heu lactea colla,            
brachiaque et numquam domini sine pondere cervix!
o ubi venturae spes non longinqua iuventae,
atque genis optatus honos iurataque multum
barba tibi? cuncta in cineres gravis intulit hora
[55] hostilisque dies: nobis meminisse relictum.            
quis tua colloquiis hilaris mulcebit amatis
pectora, quis curas mentisque arcana remittet?
accensum quis bile fera famulisque tumentem
leniet ardentique in se deflectet ab ira?
[60] inceptas quis ab ore dapes libataque vina            
auferet et dulci turbabit cuncta rapina?
quis matutinos abrumpet murmure somnos
impositus stratis, abitusque morabitur artis
nexibus, atque ipso revocabit ad oscula poste?
[65] obvius intranti rursus quis in ora manusque            
prosiliet brevibusque umeros circumdabit ulnis?
muta domus, fateor, desolatique penates,
et situs in thalamis et maesta silentia mensis!

Quid mirum, tanto si te pius altor honorat
[70] funere? tu domino requies portusque senectae,            
tu modo deliciae, dulces modo pectore curae.
non te barbaricae versabat turbo catastae,
nec mixtus Phariis venalis mercibus infans
compositosque sales meditataque verba locutus
[75] quaesisti lascivus erum tardeque parasti.            
hic domus, hinc ortus, dominique penatibus olim
carus uterque parens atque in tua gaudia liber,
ne quererere genus. raptum sed protinus alvo
sustulit exsultans ac prima lucida voce
[80] astra salutantem dominus sibi mente dicavit,            
amplexusque sinu tulit et genuisse putavit.
fas mihi sanctorum venia dixisse parentum,
tuque oro, Natura, sinas, cui prima per orbem
iura animis sancire datum: non omnia sanguis
[85] proximus aut serie generis demissa propago            
alligat; interius nova saepe adscitaque serpunt
pignora conexis. natos genuisse necesse est,
elegisse iuvat. tenero sic blandus Achilli
semifer Haemonium vincebat Pelea Chiron.
[90] nec senior Peleus natum comitatus in arma            
Troica, sed claro Phoenix haerebat alumno.
optabat longe reditus Pallantis ovantis
Evander, fidus pugnas spectabat Acoetes.
cumque procul nitidis genitor cessaret ab astris,
[95] fluctivagus volucrem comebat Persea Dictys.            
quid referam altricum victas pietate parentes?
quid te post cineres deceptaque funera matris
tutius Inoo reptantem pectore, Bacche?
iam secura patris Tuscis regnabat in undis
[100] Ilia, portantem lassabat Romulus Accam.            
vidi ego transertos alieno in robore ramos
altius ire suis. et te iam fecerat illi
mens animusque patrem, necdum moresve decorve:
tu tamen et vinctas etiam nunc murmure voces
[105] vagitumque rudem fletusque infantis amabas.  

Rome in the time of Julius Caesar. View from the Caelian Hill. engraved by Henry de Montaut  dtl
Rome in the time of Julius Caesar. View from the Caelian Hill [where Glaucias and Melior lived]. Engraving by Henry de Montaut

Ille, velut primos exspiraturus ad austros
mollibus in pratis alte flos improbus exstat,
sic tener ante diem vultu gressuque superbo
vicerat aequales multumque reliquerat annos.
[110] sive catenatis curvatus membra palaestris           
staret, Amyclaea conceptum matre putares;
Oebaliden illo praeceps mutaret Apollo,
Alcides pensaret Hylan: seu gratus amictu
Attica facundi decurreret orsa Menandri,
[115] laudaret gavisa sonum crinemque decorum           
fregisset rosea lasciva Thalia corona;
Maeonium sive ille senem Troiaeque labores
diceret aut casus tarde remeantis Vlixis,
ipse pater sensus, ipsi stupuere magistri.   

[120] Scilicet infausta Lachesis cunabula dextra           
attigit, et gremio puerum complexa fovebat
Invidia: illa genas et adultum comere crinem,
et monstrare artes et verba infigere, quae nunc
plangimus. Herculeos annis aequare labores
[125] coeperat adsurgens, sed adhuc infantia iuxta;           
iam tamen et validi gressus mensuraque maior
cultibus et visae puero decrescere vestes,
cum tibi quas vestes, quae non gestamina mitis
festinabat erus? brevibus constringere laenis
[130] pectora et angusta telas artare lacerna;           
enormes non ille sinus, sed semper ad annos
texta legens modo puniceo velabat amictu,
nunc herbas imitante sinu, nunc dulce rubenti
murice, nunc vivis digitos incendere gemmis
[135] gaudebat; non turba comes, non munera cessant:          
sola verecundo deerat praetexta decori.   

Haec fortuna domus. subitas inimica levavit
Parca manus. quo, diva, feros gravis exseris ungues?
non te forma movet, non te lacrimabilis aetas?
[140] hunc nec saeva viro potuisset carpere Procne,           
nec fera crudeles Colchis durasset in iras,
editus Aeolia nec si foret iste Creusa;
torvus ab hoc Athamas insanos flecteret arcus;
hunc quamquam Hectoreos cineres Troiamque perosus
[145] turribus e Phrygiis flesset missurus Vlixes.            

Septima lux, et iam frigentia lumina torpent,
iam complexa manu crinem tenet infera Iuno.
ille tamen Parcis fragiles urgentibus annos
te vultu moriente videt linguaque cadente
[150] murmurat; in te omnes vacui iam pectoris efflat           
reliquias, solum meminit solumque vocantem
exaudit, tibique ora movet, tibi verba relinquit,
et prohibet gemitus consolaturque dolentem.
gratum est, Fata, tamen quod non mors lenta iacentis
[155] exedit puerile decus, manesque subivit            
integer et nullo temeratus corpora damno,
qualis erat.   

Quid ego exsequias et prodiga flammis
dona loquor maestoque ardentia funera luxu?
quod tibi purpureo tristis rogus aggere crevit,
[160] quod Cilicum flores, quod munera graminis Indi,            
quodque Arabes Phariique Palaestinique liquores
arsuram lavere comam? cupit omnia ferre
prodigus et totos Melior succendere census,
desertas exosus opes; sed non capit ignis
[165] invidus, atque artae desunt in munera flammae.   

Sicily Agrigentum. Mourning scene f. a Roman childs marble sarcophagus 2nd AD
Mourning scene on the sarcophagus of a Roman child, 2nd century AD (Agrigentum, Scily)

Horror habet sensus. qualem te funere summo
atque rogum iuxta, Melior placidissime quondam,
extimui! tune ille hilaris comisque videri?
unde animi saevaeque manus et barbarus horror,
[170] dum modo fusus humi lucem aversaris iniquam,           
nunc torvus pariter vestes et pectora rumpis
dilectosque premis visus et frigida lambis
oscula? erant illic genitor materque iacentis
maesta, sed attoniti te spectavere parentes.
[175] quid mirum? plebs cuncta nefas et praevia flerunt           
agmina, Flaminio quae limite Molvius agger
transvehit, immeritus flammis dum tristibus infans
traditur et gemitum formaque aevoque meretur:
talis in Isthmiacos prolatus ab aequore portus
[180] naufragus imposita iacuit sub matre Palaemon;           
sic et in anguiferae ludentem gramine Lernae
rescissum squamis avidus bibit anguis Ophelten.   

Pone metus letique minas desiste vereri:
illum nec terno latrabit Cerberus ore,
[185] nulla soror flammis, nulla adsurgentibus hydris           
terrebit; quin ipse avidae trux navita cumbae
interius steriles ripas et adusta subibit
litora, ne puero dura ascendisse facultas.   

Litovchenko Alexander Dmitrievich. Charon carries souls across the river Styx 1861
Charon carries souls across the river Styx by Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko, 1861

Quid mihi gaudenti proles Cyllenia virga
[190] nuntiat? estne aliquid tam saevo in tempore laetum?           
noverat effigies generosique ardua Blaesi
ora puer, dum saepe domi nova serta ligantem
te videt et similes tergentem pectore ceras.
hunc ubi Lethaei lustrantem gurgitis oras
[195] Ausonios inter proceres seriemque Quirini           
adgnovit, timide primum vestigia iungit
accessu tacito summosque lacessit amictus,
inde magis sequitur; neque enim magis ille trahentem
spernit et ignota credit de stirpe nepotum.
[200] mox ubi delicias et rari pignus amici            
sensit et amissi puerum solacia Blaesi,
tollit humo magnaque ligat cervice diuque
ipse manu gaudens vehit et, quae munera mollis
Elysii, steriles ramos mutasque volucres
[205] porgit et optunso pallentes germine flores.            
nec prohibet meminisse tui, sed pectora blandus
miscet et alternum pueri partitur amorem.   

Elysian Repast. Drawing of bas relief in Louvre
Elysian Repast (drawing of a bas-relief in the Louvre)

Hic finis rapto. quin tu iam vulnera sedas
et tollis mersum luctu caput? omnia functa
[210] aut moritura vides: obeunt noctesque diesque           
astraque, nec solidis prodest sua machina terris.
nam populus mortale genus, plebisque caducae
quis fleat interitus? hos bella, hos aequora poscunt;
his amor exitio, furor his et saeva cupido,
[215] ut sileam morbos; hos ora rigentia Brumae,           
illos implacido letalis Sirius igni,
hos manet imbrifero pallens Autumnus hiatu.
quicquid init ortus, finem timet. ibimus omnes,
ibimus: immensis urnam quatit Aeacus umbris.   

[220] Ast hic quem gemimus, felix hominesque deosque            
et dubios casus et caecae lubrica vitae
effugit, immunis fatis. non ille rogavit,
non timuit meruitve mori: nos anxia plebes,
nos miseri; quibus unde dies suprema, quis aevi
[225] exitus incertum, quibus instet fulmen ab astris,           
quae nubes fatale sonet. nil flecteris istis?
sed flectere libens. ades huc emissus ab atro
limine, cui soli cuncta impetrare facultas,
Glaucia! (insontes animas nec portitor arcet,
[230] nec durae comes ille ferae) tu pectora mulce,           
tu prohibe manare genas noctesque beatas
dulcibus alloquiis et vivis vultibus imple
et periisse nega, desolatamque sororem,
qui potes, et miseros perge insinuare parentes.

 

Martial, Epigrams VI

The sixth of the twelve books of epigrams by M. Valerius Martialis (AD 38/41-102/4), a Roman poet from Tarragonese Spain, was published in Rome in December 91. The translation is by D. R. Shackleton Bailey for the Loeb Classical Library volumes 95, published by the Harvard University Press in 1993.

28

Melior’s well-known freedman, at whose passing all Rome sorrowed[28], brief darling of his dear patron, Glaucias lies buried beneath this marble sepulchre beside the Flaminian Way; pure in manners, unblemished in modesty, nimble of wit, fortunate in good looks. The boy was scarce adding a single year to twelve harvests just completed.[29] Passer-by who weeps for such a tale, may you have nothing to weep for. Libertus Melioris ille notus,
tota qui cecidit dolente Roma,
cari deliciae breves patroni,
hoc sub marmore Glaucias humatus
iuncto Flaminiae iacet sepulchro:
castus moribus, integer pudore,
velox ingenio, decore felix.
bis senis modo messibus peractis
vix unum puer applicabat annum.
qui fles talia, nil fleas, viator.

 

29

A boy, not of the common household run, no slave-mart’s nursling, but worthy of his master’s pure affection, Glaucia was already Melior’s freedman before he could appreciate his patron’s bounty. This was accorded to his manners and person.[30] Who more winsome than he, who fairer with face like Apollo’s? For the unduly blessed life is brief and old age comes rarely. Whatever you love, pray that it not please too much.  Non de plebe domus nec avarae verna catastae,
     sed domini sancto dignus amore puer,
munera cum posset nondum sentire patroni,
     Glaucia libertus iam Melioris erat.
moribus hoc formaeque datum: quis blandior illo,
     aut quis Apollineo pulchrior ore fuit?
immodicis brevis est aetas et rara senectus.
     quidquid ames, cupias non placuisse nimis.

 

Glaucias funeral procession d1 

 

[1] Melior being Glaucias’s lover is a point of such importance, though denied by some moderns who cannot stomach it (most especially because of the paternal feelings Statius attributes to Melior), that the most compelling evidence for it is presented in the following quote from Austin Busch, in his article “Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, ‘Siluae’ 2.1” in The Classical World, Vol. 107, No. 1, Fall 2013, pp. 67-97, to which the reader sufficiently interested in the truth is referred for a fuller exposition of the evidence (as also for the omitted supporting sources for what is quoted here).

It would have come as no surprise to Statius’ original readers that Melior’s relationship with Glaucias had a sexual component. Craig Williams has established that a master’s sexual use of his male and female slaves was assumed in early and later ancient Rome and that no stigma necessarily attached to masters who used slave boys for sex. Statius clearly presents Glaucias as Melior’s slave. He repeatedly calls Melior Glaucias’ master, using the Latin words dominus (51, 70, 80) and erus (129). He also calls Glaucias Melior’s puer, the Latin word for boy, which can mean “slave” (37, 121, 127, 188, 192,201,207). In addition he presents Glaucias as a uerna, a homegrown slave as opposed to one purchased at market (72-78). Statius’ servile representation of Glaucias is particularly impressive in light of the fact that the boy apparently had been freed, as Martial’s poems on the occasion of his death reveal (6.28, 29). Statius not only neglects to mention Glaucias’ liberation, but persistently reminds his readers that Glaucias was Melior’s slave. Given Statius’ persistent depiction of Glaucias as Melior’s slave boy, one would be on firm enough ground assuming that Melior used Glaucias for sex, even were the poem silent on the matter. But this epicedium presents positive evidence that Melior and Glaucias had a sexual relationship, once again in the ways in which it refers to the boy. The titular ascription identifies Glaucias as Melior’s puer delicatus, an unambiguous phrase referring to a slave boy used for sex. If it was supplied by a scribe rather than by Statius himself, then it represents an early reader’s interpretation of the relationship the poem depicts rather than Statius’ own assessment of it, but that interpretation would be more than plausible since the poem itself calls Glaucias Melior’s deliciae (71, 200), a term of endearment meaning something like “darling” that was often used for slave boys who sexually serviced their masters, as when the freedman Trimalchio recalls his enslaved youth in the Satyricon:

[…] (75.11) For fourteen years I was my master’s deliciae. What the master orders brings no disgrace, though I satisfied my mistress as well. You know what I mean: I don’t say it outright because I’m not one for bragging.

The most significant evidence in support of Melior and Glaucias' sexual relationship comes in the poem’s laudatici section (36-136), which commemorates Glaucias in ways that resonate as erotic in the context of Roman mythology and Ovidian erotic lyric. Most obviously, Statius likens Melior and Glaucias to well-known mythological pederastic couples: Apollo and Hyacinthus (112), Hercules and Hylas (113), Achilles and Chiron (87-88). Invocations of erotic lyric are somewhat more subtle, relying on the reader’s recognition of poetic echoes and allusions. For instance, Statius asks Melior, now that Glaucias is gone, […] “Who will steal from your mouth the food you have begun to eat and the wine you have tasted, throwing all into confusion with his sweet robbery?” 60-61. These lines, as Van Dam observes, give an idealized erotic turn to “the comic situation of the slave robbing his master,” for drinking from the same cup and eating one another’s food are conventional signs of mutual affection in Roman love poetry. The passage parallels a number of passages from Ovidian lyric, [examples given, together with much further evidence.]

[2] By this is meant not so much the extreme prejudice of the last half-century against all Greek love, as the general popular caricature of ancient Romans as extremely cruel and exploitative in general, and especially so where their slaves were concerned. There have been many fine historical novels set in Rome by writers familiar with the historical reality, Steven Saylor or Robert Harris for example, who present a far more nuanced view, but they seem to make a limited impression on the popular view which is better represented by cinema, television and chance remarks in the books of historically-ignorant writers. Even highly-educated writers on Greek love, who of all people ought to know better, have succumbed to it. Thus, for example, Parker Rossman titles the section on Roman history in his Sexual Experience Between Men and Boys (1976) “Roman Sex Exploitation” and says “Roman pederasty must be evaluated in the context of the brutal excesses of Roman sexual culture as a whole. [..] Romans exploited everything as brutally as they wished.” He makes a number of lurid and baseless claims such as that Romans amused the crowd with “sexual abuse of children by animals for entertainment”, and that “upper-class boys were seduced by their slaves.”
     How often there was genuine love between Roman men and their kept boys can only be guessed at from surviving anecdotes. Certainly Statius was not the only Roman shattered by his boy’s death. Another of Statius’s long poems, Silvae II 6, is dedicated to consoling a Roman friend grieving over the death of his beloved slave-boy, a 14-year-old. This website is becoming exhaustive in its coverage of the sources for the relationships between Romans and their kept boys, and yet the sole act of cruelty recorded was the notoriously brutal emperor Nero’s castration of the boy Sporus, apparently prior to or immediately upon beginning their affair, whilst acts of special indulgence to boy favourites are frequently recounted for otherwise ruthless men.

[3] Here Statius proclaims his poem’s dramatic setting as an epicedium, delivered at the funeral pyre.

[4] The Sirens were mythical creatures, half-woman and half-bird, famous for their beguiling song, while the music of the mythical poet Orpheus had the power to charm animals and trees. Statius is thus saying Melio’s grief is so intense that even those most famed in legend for their magical musical gifts could not charm it away.

[5] Pharos was Alexandria’s famous lighthouse, one of the seven wonders, past which most of Egypt’s exports passed, so Pharian wares means Egyptian merchandise.
     Statius says exactly the same thing about his own boy in his lament for him, Silvae V 5, that he was not a bought Egyptian slave-boy. He means more generally that they were not bought catamites. Egyptian pueri delicati (slave-boys bought for sexual and social pleasure, often naked and shown off to one’s social circle and generally pampered rather than used for menial tasks) had a uniquely high reputation for giving pleasure, whether through native disposition or through effective training before sale. Probably they were unusually uninhibited as well as skilled in bed; in his epigram IV 42 about the sort of boy he would most like to have, Martial, clearly a  connoisseur of boys, says “First, let this boy be born in the land of Nile; no country knows better how to give naughty ways.” A contrast with Statius’s boy is offered by the freedman Trimalchio in  Petronius’s Satyricon 31 ii and 75 x-xi, who reveals that he had indeed been bought, and had served both his master and his mistress sexually. The ostentatiously rich Trimalchio also had Alexandrian catamites in his service, implying that they were extremely luxurious possessions.

[6] Here it is implied that an Egyptian slave-boy on sale as a prospective puer delicatus (which any slave-boy would be, if he was attractive enough, as this would make him far more expensive) would have been trained in witty repartee and endearing pranks. Martial, Epigrams XI praises Egyptian wit. Pueri delicati had a reputation as chatterboxes (see Dio Cassius, Roman History XLVIII 44 iii and LXVII 15 iii for other examples), which was presumably encouraged.
     It is also apparent from what Statius says here that slave-boys on sale tried hard to make themselves appealing to prospective buyers. Presumably they were under pressure to from their sellers, but one can imagine that a boy catching sight of a possible buyer who appeared unusually kind and rich would have been frantic to secure a future with him. In any case, there is surely a suggestion of insincerity about a slave-boy’s wiles to make himself appealing, which Glaucias was, in contrast, happily innocent of.

[7] As will be seen, Martial also thought it important to mention in his short verse that Glaucias “was already Melior’s freedman before he could appreciate his patron’s bounty” and presumably thus well before Melior became his lover. Usually, one does not know whether pueri delicati had been freed, but is notable that Sporus, the loved boy of the Emperors Nero, was also a freedmen by the time he was the emperor's established beloved, and Domitian's Earinus was freed aged around 17, which was still unusually young. Often the freeing of deserving slaves was left to be arranged in a master’s will, but a will could of course be suppressed, so the lovers of these boys may have been anxious to secure their freedom earlier. Could it also be that they also wanted their boys to feel as free as freedmen ever could be while giving their love? One is struck in Melior’s case by the additional information here given by Statius that he had not only freed Glaucias before becoming his lover, but his parents also, thus severing a means by which Glaucias could still have been controlled as a chattel. While it must be stressed that the freedom granted was not absolute, because freedmen were considered to be under considerable obligation to their former masters, it was still very important.

[8] But why did Melior do this? If he did not have his own children (and his sexual interest boys is not, in a Roman context, the slightest grounds for making an assumption that he was not happily married), why not adopt the son of a close relation? Why give so much to the young child of a slave? As will be seen, Martial makes clear that Glaucias was not a random choice, but that he was freed on account of “his manners and person.” Surely, it is much too much of a coincidence that a little boy especially chosen on these grounds for extraordinary favour should end up being in pubescence his patron’s beautiful loved-boy without there having been a plan to this effect?
     Does it not appear highly probable that Melior and very likely other connoisseurs of boys kept an eye out for slave-boys born in their households or on their country estates and accorded a special upbringing to those who promised to be beauties, raising them as prospective lovers rather than labourers, freeing them, perhaps educating them and earning their gratitude and loyalty with a view to making them idyllic lovers when they reached or approached puberty, precisely as happened in this case? We have no idea how common it may have been for puer delicati to be acquired in this manner rather than by purchase, but in Silvae V 5, Statius laments the death of a boy younger than Glaucias, not his son but  whom he loved himself, without making clear the kind of love and protests that he too was not a bought Egyptian slave trained to please. Is this boy not most likely to have been acquired and indulged under the same circumstances as Glaucias, but died in infancy before his hoped-for eventual relationship with Statius came to fruition? In which case, what may be importantly revealed here is an unsurprising class of rich Roman men who thought it much better to raise their intended pueri delicati from infancy in Rome and in accordance with their own Roman customs and values rather than to buy them later as slaves.

[9] The centaur Chiron raised and educated the famous hero Achilles from infancy and hence outdid Achilles’s real father, Peleus. Similarly, in the Iliad, it is Achilles’s old tutor Phoenix, not Peleus, who accompanies him to Troy and acts like a father to him.

[10] Acoetes who bestowed genuine care on Pallas as opposed to the latter’s father, Evander (who only cared about the glory his son might bring), and Dictys caring for Perseus more than his own father home amid the shining fathers (ie. Zeus) are given as further examples from mythology of the love of foster-fathers.

[11] Ino (with the god Bacchus) and Acca (with Romulus, the founder-to-be of Rome) are given as examples of “foster-mothers that have outdone mothers in their loyal love”, though, since Statius admits that Bacchus’s mother (Semele) had been killed, the imputation against her love seems unfair. Acca is important here as she bore the physical and metaphorical burden of Rome’s future.

[12] Oebalides is a name sometimes used for Hyakinthos, a boy who belonged to the family of Oibalos King of Sparta and was loved by the god Apollo. Alcides is a name often used in Latin for the mythological hero Hercules, who loved a boy called Hylas. Statius is thus saying that Glaucias was so attractive that these extremely elevated beings would have abandoned their famous loved-boys if they had seen him. The clear comparisons made with two of the most famous pederastic love affairs in mythology leave no doubt Statius was proclaiming Melior’s love for Glaucus to be proudly of this kind and he saw no conflict between that love and the love he has just described as given by substitute fathers.

[13] Hercules famously performed twelve labours, so Glaucias had not yet completed his twelfth year. He apparently thus died aged eleven, according to Statius, though Martial says he had just reached twelve. It is just about possible to stretch Statius’s meaning to refer to his age at a moment just before his death, and imagine him having gone on his twelfth birthday by the time of his death, which would reconcile the difference.  Both statements are in any case rare and therefore valuable testimony as to the age of the loved boy in ancient Rome. Whether he was eleven or twelve, there seems to be no other boy stated to be quite so young mentioned in the surviving literature of antiquity as already a man’s established eromenos. We are given no idea how long Melior had been his lover as opposed to simply his foster-father, However much younger he may have been when this began, far too little is known about ancient boys’ ages to be sure it was unusual. Twelve is the age attested by several Greek sources as that at which boys became sexually interesting to men, but Roman pueri delicati were loved under different conditions and may have started younger.

[14] Though Glaucias could wear purple, the one thing he could not wear was the praetexta, the purple-bordered tunic worn by boys of free birth.

[15] In Greek mythology, Prokne and Medea killed their own sons in order to avenge themselves on their husbands (in the latter case, because he betrothed himself to a Corinthian), Athamas went mad and killed his son. If their boy victims had been Glaucias, his beauty and youth would have deterred them. Similarly, Ulysses (the Latin for Odysseus) would have had to weep before hurling Glaucias from the Phrygian battlements (ie. Troy) if he had been the little boy Astyanax, whom he did this to out of hatred for Troy and Astyanax’s dead father Hector. None of these people were as cruel as the Fate who ordained Glaucias’s death.

[16] Proserpina, wife of Pluto, god of the underworld.

[17] The Flaminian Way was the main road leaving Rome towards the north and passed over the Tiber at the Mulvian Bridge. Roman law forbade cremations and burials within the city walls, so tombs lined the roads without.
       Allowing for exaggeration, but remembering also that the poems of Statius and Martial were published and neither poet would want to look ridiculous, it is clear from that neither they nor Melior himself saw anything remotely embarrassing about his making such an expensive and public show of his grief over a freed slave of twelve or less, and clear from the weeping of others that their implied love relationship attracted widespread sympathy and respect in Rome. It could not be further from being something shameful to mention.

[18] Palaemon (as Melikertes was called after his death and divination) and Pheltes were boys killed in Greek mythology and greatly honoured, the Isthmian and Nemean games being founded in their respective honour.

[19] With line 183, Statius begins his formal consolation of Melior, starting by recounting Glaucias’s friendly reception in the Underworld, where he has nothing to fear from Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the Underworld, the fearsome Fates (“the Sisters”) or Charon, the boatman who ferries the dead over the river Styx to the Underworld.

[20] Cyllene’s son is the god Mercury, born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, who led the souls of the dead to the Underworld.

[21] Melior had evidently honoured his deceased friend Blaesus with busts in his home with which Glaucias would have been familiar, hence he can easily recognise him among the Ausonian (=Italian) nobles ans sons of Quirinus (=Romans) imagined crowded together in the Underworld.

[22] Delicias, the word translated here as “favourite”, is shorthand for puer delicia, and means a boy kept for love-making rather than for menial service.

[23] Elysium was the most pleasant art of the Underworld, reserved for the blessed among the dead.

[24] In these verses, Statius has been consoling Melior by assuring him that his old friend Blaesus, whom he has honoured, will now be taking Glaucias under his wing.

[25] Sirius, the Dogstar, which blazed at the hottest time of year and was widely regarded as bringing plague, was a negative symbol of the summer.

[26] Roman literature usually accorded Aeacus the role of shaking the urn containing the lots that determined the fates of souls.

[27] Charon has already been mentioned as the one who ferried the dead across the river Styx to the Underworld, as has Cerberus, “that baleful monster”, who guarded it with his three fierce heads.

[28] Allowing for exaggeration, but remembering also that Martial’s poems were published and he would want to look ridiculous, it is clear from his claim that “all Rome sorrowed” that the love depicted, that between an elderly man and a freed slave of twelve or less, attracted widespread sympathy and respect in Rome. Again, it could not be further from being something shameful to mention.

[29] As already seen and commented on, Statius, Silvae II 1 124-5 rather implied Glaucias had not yet reached twelve, but his meaning can be stretched to arrive at a consensus that he had just reached twelve. Both statements are in any case rare and therefore valuable testimony as to the age of the loved boy in ancient Rome. We are given no idea how long Melior had been his lover as opposed to simply his foster-father, so cannot say how young he was when this began.

[30] Martial thus makes it clear (which Statius did not) that though Glaucias was freed when he was too young to “appreciate his patron’s bounty”, so an infant, he was nevetheless freed for his personal qualities of “manners and person.” In other words, Melior found him special.

 

 

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