Nothing Ordinary Here by Noelle K. Zeiner;

Author:Noelle K. Zeiner;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2005-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Silvae 2.1: The Distinction of Paternal Pietas

Atedius Melior is the dedicatee of Book 2, but unlike Stella he was not a professional poet. Nevertheless, he was a literary man, whose taste Statius praises in the Preface: “The best man, and most refined, no less in his taste of literature than in his lifestyle,” (vir optime nec minus in iudicio litterarum quam in omni vitae colore tersissime, 2praef:1-3). Melior clearly appreciated Statius’ poetic ability, and their familiaritas (1) may explain why Statius devotes three poems to him (2.1, 2.3, 2.4), more than any other addressee in the Silvae, save Domitian.90 Silvae 2.1, an epicedion on the death of Melior’s puer, Glaucias, is the first and most serious poem of the three.91 I will focus on this first poem, addressing the other two at the end of the discussion as a point of comparison.

In +-SiLvae 2.1 Melior is described as a childless bachelor. Childlessness (orbitas) seems to have been a growing trend among Roman aristocrats92 for reasons that can only be conjectured. Garnsey and Sailer argue that, under the early Empire, Roman aristocratic men increasingly produced fewer children to avoid the added expense and trouble they incurred, in favor of individualistic accumulation of economic wealth. A Roman man could instead protect his posterity and fortune by testamentary adoption of an adult.93 While avoiding the expense and trouble involved in raising an infant, adoption of an older child or young adult allowed an otherwise childless man to acquire the benefits and advantages that children provided. These included the expectation that children would later support an aged parent and provide proper funerary rites upon their death;94 moreover, even an adopted child (with prior slave status) could carry on the family name and maintain its reputation and distinction to some extent.95 Finally, we cannot discount the important role that a child played in providing companionship for childless bachelors.

The shifting criteria for inclusion in the Roman senate, less exclusionary and dependent on heredity, may also explain an increase in orbitas.96 The concomitant increase in childlessness implies, therefore, that the production—and even possession—of children became rarer, and thus an increasing source of pride. This trend is supported by our sources which comment not only on the social ramifications of childlessness, but exhibit special praise for those who are parents. In Ep. 4.15, for example, Pliny explicitly praises Asinius Rufus for fulfilling his “civic duty” {functus est optimi civis officio, 3) by producing children amidst the popularity of orbitas?97 Elsewhere the Silvae also echo social views that seem to stigmatize childlessness (and its associated nuisances) and celebrate children.98 Two poems, significantly juxtaposed, congratulate addressees on the recent birth of a child (4.7; 4.8). Silvae 4.7 is a lyric ode to Vibius Maximus in which praise turns to gnomic reflections criticizing childlessness: “Childlessness must be avoided by every effort,” {orbitas omnifugienda nisu, 33); “when childlessness is buried, there is no weeping,” {orbitas nulla tumulata fletu, 37). The emphatic placement of orbitas is of course deliberate. Moreover, three (2.1, 2.6, 5.

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