Ad Salsillum. English translation. Back to Latin text. Open Latin text in new window.

Introduction. Milton titled this collection of Latin and Greek verses, "Sylvarum," or "of the woods," indicating the variety of metrical forms included, even a variety of languages, since two are in Greek. The metrical forms employed here include iambics, hexameters and various kinds of Horatian modes, including alcaic stanzas. Milton arranged the poems in a roughly chronological order according to their dates of composition, probably to emphasize his progress as a poet from his earliest attempts to his more mature poems.

Milton made two two-month visits to Rome, one in October and November 1638 and a return visit in January and February 1639. This poem was probably composed, and first read aloud, at a Roman academy during Milton's first visit to Rome. Giovanni Salzilli was a well-known member at the time of the Academici Fantastici in Rome, though his reputation as a Roman poet has not survived. This poem responds to some commendatory verses by Salzilli in which he flatteringly ranks Milton above Homer, Virgil, and Tasso. In his introduction to these flattering testimonials, which he printed at the front of his Latin poems in both the 1645 and 1673 editions of Poems, Milton acknowledges that they are conventionally exaggerated. Milton's poem avoids such over-the-top exaggeration, praises Salzilli elegantly with Roman topoi, and expresses wishes for his future health.

The translation follows that of Walter MacKellar with a few changes based on consulting The Columbia Milton and Merritt Y. Hughes.

SCAZONS. Literally, lines in a halting meter. A scazontic meter consists here of substituting a spondee (a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables) or trochee (a metrical foot consisting of a long followed by a short syllable) for the iamb (a metrical foot consisting of a short followed by a long syllable) at the end of an iambic line and sometimes elsewhere in a line.

limping gait of Vulcan. In the Iliad 1.588-95, Homer refers to Hepaestos, or Vulan, as the famous limping god, and retells the story of how he became lame. Milton tells a variation of the story, calling him Mulciber, in Paradise Lost 1.738-46.

Dëiopea. According to Virgil's Aeneid 1.65-75, Juno promised to give the nymph Deiopea to Aeolus (the wind) as a reward for helping to destroy Aeneas's fleet.

he prefers it. Milton printed, along with his Latin poetry in both the 1645 and 1673 editions of Poems, commendatory verses by Giovanni Salzilli in which Salzilli flatteringly ranks Milton above Homer, Virgil, and Tasso. In his introduction to these flattering testimonials, Milton acknowledges that they are conventionally exaggerated.

lately left. Milton left England for an extended tour of Europe in April 1638. He made two two-month visits to Rome, one in October and November 1638 and a return visit in January and February 1639. This poem was probably composed, and first read aloud, at a Roman academy during Milton's first visit to Rome.

Lesbian strain. Lesbian notes would be verses or songs composed in the manner of Alcaeus and Sappho, both natives of Lesbos.

Hebe's sister. Hebe, goddess of youth; Milton refers to her in L'Allegro 29 and A Mask 290.

Paean. Apollo, or Phoebus, was often called Paean as the god of healing, as in Ovid's Metamorphoses 14.720.

the death of Python. Ovid tells the story of Apollo's victory over Python in Metamorphoses 1.438-522.

Faunus. An ancient Italian rural deity whose attributes in classical Roman times were identified with those of the Greek god Pan . Faunus was originally worshiped throughout the countryside as a bestower of fruitfulness on fields and flocks. He eventually became primarily a woodland deity, the sounds of the forest being regarded as his voice. He appears in Virgil's Aeneid 7.47-48.

Evander. According to Pausanius's Description of Greece 8.43, Evander, son of Hermes and and Arcadian nymph, arrived in Italy about sixty years before the Trojan War and founded Pallantium on the banks of the Tiber. Livy's History of Rome 1.5 says he introduced to Italy the worship of Pan, Demeter, Poseidon, and Heracles. Virgil's Aeneid 8.51 also mentions him as present when Aeneas, having fled Troy, arrived in Italy.

Numa. According to Livy's History of Rome 1.18-21, Numa was the second of the legendary kings of Rome. See also Ovid's account of Numa and Egeria in Metamorphoses 15.482-92.

curving Portumnus. Portunus, mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid 5.241, was the god of the harbors, invoked by Romans praying for safe return from a voyage. A Temple to Portunus stood in a harbor on the Tiber.