We’ve already heard about the huge step forward that Unity has made in the last year. Cambridge, Mass.This article was initially published in DP 06 : 2018. The Silvae of Statius: structure and theme. Statius’s Silvae and the Poetics of Empire. 1988: “Horace and Satius at Tibur: an interpretation of Silvae 1.3,” ICS 13.95-111. Reading rivers in Roman literature and culture.
“Criticisms and elucidations of the Silvae of Statius,” TAPA 114.327-41. Statius, Silvae II, 2, villa Surrentina,” AU 11.62-75. Only by experiencing the river that cuts through the middle of the city do visitors and residents understand the true nature of the city. The constructed landscape of the San Antonio River Walk serves a functional role as protection against flood, but it also creates a cultural identity. However, the felicitous occasion of the APA meeting in San Antonio sheds some light on the visual and psychological effect of a river. Vopiscus’ villa does not remain today, and Statius’ description is of little use in reconstruction (Newlands, 1988, 95).
Whether the Anio river or the straits of Euripus and Messina, the water that runs through the land paradoxically becomes integral to the landscape. Landscape thus offered Vopiscus the opportunity to experience the awe of nature in a highly controlled environment, an awe heightened by the invisibility of that control due to the seamless integration of the villa into a locus amoenus (Newlands, 2002, 130-2). Certain types of rivers are important to both landscape and poetic genre (Jones 54-64), and Statius is careful to emphasize the serenity of the river at this location, though it elsewhere rages on (20-3). Landscape is a means for the viewer to be assured his surroundings are “controlled and well ordered, productive and relaxed” (Cosgrove, 24). The banks upon which Vopiscus’ villa rest are viewed as united by the very river that formed them.
The significance of the river may be better understood best not from poetic reference, but through emphasis on the visual effect of the landscape itself. As the landscape surrounding Vopiscus’ villa can be symbolic for the owner’s moral quality (Newmyer Newlands, 1988), this contrast of division and unity draws into question the programmatic nature of this poem and Statius’ other villa poems. A more moderate approach sees in this poem an emphasis on duality (Newlands, 2002, 147) or unity as elements from the four corners of the globe blend together in the landscape (Cancik, 124-7). Leo and Shackleton Bailey moved a step further and emended the text so that the comparison becomes a contrast. The emphasis on unity has brought Courtney (330-1) to note that Statius was less than careful in comparing it to dangerous seaways. Statius, however, takes great care to emphasize that the river has laid aside its madness, submitted to human control of its own accord, and connected - not disconnected-the scene. Furthermore, the novelty of the genre, especially in light of moral condemnation of extravagant villas by Horace and Cicero, brings some level of tension to Statius’ endeavor to celebrate the magnificence of this villa. The villa, spanning both banks of the river, could be prone to floods and difficult to access. By considering the river as a feature that simultaneously divides and unites a landscape, we may better understand the role that the Anio plays in the aesthetic harmony of both the villa and the poem. Statius makes seemingly contradictory claims that the Anio river, which runs through the property, does not divide the scene (nec te mitissimus amnis / dividit, 24-25), and yet is similar to the dangerous Strait of Euripus. Statius’ description of his felicitous visit to the house of Manilius Vopiscus (Silvae 1.3) is the first extant Latin poem devoted exclusively to the description of a villa.
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