To clarify, the surviving work of Abronius Silo is actually preserved as one single, continuous two-line fragment. Rather than a completely separate piece, the "other" part is the preceding line that builds up to the phrase about Hector. [1, 2]
- Latin:
"Ite agite, Danai, magnum paeana canentes,
ite triumphantes: belli mora concidit Hector." - English Translation:
"Come now, Greeks, singing a great paean,
[1, 2, 3]
go in triumph: Hector, the delay of the war, has fallen."
Literary Nuance
In his commentary, Seneca the Elder uses this exact fragment to show how Roman authors borrowed from one another. He notes that while Silo adapted his teacher's prose into this poetry, Virgil later took Silo's famous phrase ("belli mora") and improved upon it in the Aeneid (11.288-290) to describe both Hector and Aeneas holding back the Greeks. [1]
If you are researching ancient literary history, I can provide the exact lines from Virgil's Aeneid that adapted Silo's phrase, or explain how Seneca viewed plagiarism differently than we do today. Which direction would you like to explore?


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