Ricerc@Sapienza

Like Horace at Tibur, but Worry-Free
In silv. I 3, in order to describe the villa of Manilius Vopiscus at Tibur, Statius makes use of a particular compositional technique, typical of the Silvae, by pressing to the fore and developing certain themes and recurrent motifs through repetitions with variations. A preeminent function of these repetitions is to evoke Horatian memories that become ever clearer as the poem progresses. Within this interpretive frame, various exegetic and textual problems of the poem are discussed (in particular ll. 23, 42, 103, 104 and 109).