P. Papinius Statius
The Neapolitan epic poet
c. 45 AD – c. 96 AD
Publius Papinius Statius was born around 45 AD in Naples, the son of a schoolteacher and poet. He won prizes at literary festivals, gained the patronage of the emperor Domitian, and wrote two epic poems — the Thebaid and the (unfinished) Achilleid — as well as the Silvae, a collection of occasional poems.
The Thebaid, in twelve books, tells the story of the war between Eteocles and Polynices for the throne of Thebes. It is a poem of extraordinary darkness and baroque beauty, deeply indebted to Virgil but with a sensibility closer to Lucan's pessimism. Dante placed Statius in Purgatory and made him a secret Christian convert — a tribute to the moral seriousness of his verse.
The Silvae — thirty-two short poems on various occasions (births, deaths, weddings, buildings, gifts) — are some of the most charming and technically accomplished occasional verse in Latin.
Book III of the Silvae. Poems to patrons, consolations, and a remarkable piece on the Via Domitiana — infrastructure as poetry.
Continuation of the Thebaid (alternate edition or second half of a split text).
Books I–VI of the Thebaid. The quarrel of the brothers, the march of the Seven against Thebes, and the first clashes of the war.
Books VII–XII of the Thebaid. The war reaches its climax — single combat between the brothers, the intervention of Theseus, and the burial of the dead...