Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, Siluae 2.1

Statius, Siluae 2.1 represents Melior’s relationship with the boy Glaucias as both paternal and erotic, at once commemorating the man’s love for his recently deceased alumnus and giving voice to anxiety that some readers, for a variety of reasons, may have felt about the profoundly intimate relationship he enjoyed with his slave and deliciae. Statius subtly likens their relationship to treatment of slave boys that Domitianic moral legislation innovatively rendered illicit, problematizing masters’ removal of child slaves from their parents’ care for sexual use. Siluae, book 2 in fact contains a number of consolatory poems that raise questions about the treatment of slaves.