Statius

Publius Papinius Statius (c. 45 – c. 96) was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature.

Sourced

The Thebaid

The translations are by D. R. Shackleton Bailey, and are taken from vol. 207 of the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).

• Tacitumque a principe vulgus
  dissidet, et, qui mos populis, venturus amatur.
  • The crowd is at silent odds with the prince. As is the way of a populace, the man of the future is the favourite.
  • Bk. 1, line 169

• Pessimus in dubiis augur, timor.
  • Fear (in times of doubt the worst of prophets) revolves many things.
  • Bk. 3, line 6

• Quid crastina volveret aetas
  scire nefas homini.
  • What the morrow's years might bring 'twas sin for man to know.
  • Bk. 3, line 562

• Primus in orbe deos fecit timor.
  • Fear first made gods in the world.
  • Bk. 3, line 661
  • These words also appear in a fragmentary poem attributed to Petronius.