Silvae

The unveiling of an equestrian statue of the Emperor,

WHAT ponderous mass is this that, magnified to twice the size by the giant surmounting figure, stands as if with the Roman Forum in its clasp? Has the work dropped down completed from the sky? or did the finishing of it in the foundries of Sicily leave the hands of Brontes and of Steropes wearied out? or have Athenian masters fashioned thee for us, Germanicus, in such guise as was thine when the Rhine, and the Dacian, panic-stricken in his mountain fastnesses, saw thee but yesterday curb thy charger? Go to now, let the legend of the elder days marvel at the immemorial fame of the Dardan horse, for the building of which the holy heights of Dindymus and of Ida shrank stripped of their leafy pines. This charger Troy could not have admitted, though her walls were rent in a breach; nor mingled crowd of boys and unwedded maidens, nor even Aeneas nor great Hector could have brought it in. Aye, and laden with death, with merciless Achaeans was the horse of Epeus; to this the gentleness of his rider lends winning graces. Sweet it is to see that countenance clouded with the scars of war, yet wearing promise of gentle peace.