Reading Travel (Statius’ Silvae 3.2)

Abstract This chapter is the longest in the collection and the most ambitious; it makes a fitting conclusion to the volume. It offers a close examination of Statius’ Silvae 3.2, a propempticon for Maecius Celer. Using earlier Latin farewell poems as intellectual background, in particular Horace’s third ode, Putnam illustrates the poet’s originality. In particular he points out that Silvae 3.2 is a highly complex poem that employs a variety of genres, such as lyric and epic, and especially the Aeneid, as Statius crafts a meditation on a series of curricula vitae that illuminate Celer’s own voyage. Various themes, moreover, such as the dangers of seafaring, the violence of Roman imperialism, Egyptian tourism, the neutralization of a bloodied historic, and literary past are skillfully woven together in a double, courageous journey, the literal journey of Celer to his military post in Syria, and the metaphorical journey of Statius to the challenging conclusion of his epic poem.