Friday 4 March 2011

Rutilius' Return 3: at Portus (1.165-204)

His hymn in praise of Rome ended, and still in tears, Rutilius leaves for Portus. His friend Rufius (Antonius Agrypnius) Volusianus accompanies him longer than any other before himself returning to Rome. Once at Portus, he waits for the weather to calm, while looking back at the serene skies above the eternal city.


The basin of Trajan's harbour at Portus, over half a kilometre wide.

After these words, we begin our journey. Friends accompany us. Eyes without tears cannot say “farewell.” And now, as the others go back to Rome, Rufius sticks to me as I leave, the living glory of Albinus his father. He derives his name from the ancient line of Volusus, and recalls the Rutulian kings, as witnessed by Vergil. To his eloquent tongue the palace was entrusted: in the flush of youth he had the honour of speaking in the emperor’s name. Previously as a lad he had ruled the Punic people as proconsul: he was an object equally of fear and of love to the Tyrians. Energy and dedication have promised him the highest rods of office: if it is right to trust in merit, he will be consul. At last I sadly compelled him unwillingly to walk back: divided in body, one mind still holds us. [1.178]

Then at last I stroll to the ships, where with two-horned brow divided Tiber cuts to the right. The channel on the left is avoided for its inaccessible sands: only the glory of receiving Aeneas remains. And now Phoebus had lengthened the span of the nighttime hours in the paler sky of the Scorpion’s Claws. We hesitate to try the salt sea and sit in port, and there is no shame enduring leisure when delays are thrust on us, while the westering Pleiades rage on the faithless gulf and while the anger of the gusty season falls. It gives pleasure to look back often at the nearby city and follow its mountains with diminishing sight, where our guiding eyes enjoy the pleasing region, while they think that they can see what they desire. And it’s not from telltale smoke that I recognize the place that holds the ruling citadel and the capital of the world – although Homer commends the signs of light smoke, whenever it rises to the stars from the beloved earth – but a brighter tract of sky and a serene zone signals the bright peaks of the seven hills. There are perpetual suns, and the very day that Rome makes for itself seems to be clearer. Often my astonished ears resound with the circus games; enthusiastic applause announces dull theatres. Familiar voices return from the resounding air – either because they come or because invented by love. [1.204]

6 comments:

Joop van Waarden said...

It's nice to come across your blog. Best wishes for your project!
Line 173 'puer' can scarcely be right, one would say; have there been suggestions? Perhaps you might want to translate populos as 'people' rather than 'peoples'?
Joop van Waarden

Gavin Kelly said...

Thank you very much, Joop, for your good wishes and for your interesting comment. I have changed teh translation as you suggest. 'Puer' in 1,173 is an odd thing to say of a Proconsul of Africa. And yet I think it must be right: I can't see an easy emendation, and in any case Rutilius' description of his friend Caecina Decius Acinatius Albinus, Prefect of Rome in 414 (1.470 vitae flore puer, sed gravitate senex). Doblhofer's commentary gives various comparanda, including the 19-year-old Octavian being called puer. I think there was a tendency for Roman aristocrats to hold their first offices increasingly early in the fourth century (Petronius Maximus was Urban Prefect probably in his early 20s, having already been a tribunus and notarius and Comes sacrarum largitionum). But it does occur to me that you cannot both believe that Volusianus was born ca. 375 (as Chastagnol does) and that he was Proconsul of Africa when he corresponded with Augustine in 411/412 (as many people seem to). I suspect that both of these dates are wrong.

Joop van Waarden said...

Great. I didn't know. But now I see, correctly in OLD Cic. Fam. 12.25.4 puer ... egregius praesidium ... summae rei publicae comparavit. Are politics (and/or the military) the idiosyncratic context to this use of 'puer'? ''The young hero'? Is there an underlying cult of youthful vigour (Hellenistic? Alexander?) which counterbalances the usual Roman respect for seniority?

Gavin Kelly said...

Things for me to think about... I have found another example of an exceptionally young and aristocratic Proconsul of Africa: Anicius Probinus, the son of Sex. Claudius Petronius Probus, who held the consulship along with his older brother as a teenager in 395 and was panegyrized in Claudian's first Latin poem, held the proconsulship of Africa in 397.

Joop van Waarden said...

This would seem to have been quite a topic those years: Anthemius mag.mil. and patricius 454, consul 455, in Sidon. Paneg. 2.208 conscenditque senum puer ipse curulem (is his estimated date of birth in DIR right? 'perhaps ca. 420' seems to early in view of this). His father Procopius was also precocious: ibid. 75 iuveni, 76 primis in annis, 77 consilium non ferre senis. Now, is this panegyrical licence, historical reality, or both? For one thing, too many precocious careers don't seem very probable to me as there was a lot of competition for high office, and experienced heavyweights are likely to have won the ratrace most of the time.

Joop van Waarden said...

Puer keeps intriguing me. When used in 2.208 it reminds the audience of l49 alacer puer et venator, Achilles outdone by Anthemius. So here we have this mythical paragon of youthful prowess, and, indeed, neither Alexander nor Augustus are far away (121).