Publius Papinius Statius, (c. AD 45-96) was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory section of Dante Alighieri epic poem The Divine Comedy. For alternate uses, see Number 45. ... For other uses, see number 96. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... In reference to Roman literature, the Silver age covers the first two centuries A.D. directly after the Golden age (which was the first century B.C., and the start of the first century A.D.) Literature from the Silver age has traditionally, perhaps unfairly, been considered inferior to that... Location within Italy Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region. ... In Roman Catholic theology, Purgatory is a process of purification after the particular judgment and before entry into Heaven. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, in Michelinos fresco. ...

He was born to a family of Graeco-Campanian origin, impoverished, but not without political distinctions. The poet's father taught with marked success at Naples and Rome, and from boyhood to age he proved himself a champion in the poetic tournaments which formed an important part of the amusements of the early empire. The younger Statius declares that his father was in his time equal to any literary task, whether in prose or verse. He mentioned Mevania, and may have spent time there, or been impressed by the confrontation of Vitellius and Vespasian in 69. Probably, the poet inherited a modest competence and was not under the necessity of begging his bread from wealthy patrons. He certainly wrote poems to order (as Silvae, i.1, 2, ii.7, and iii.4), but there is no indication that the material return for them was important to him, in spite of an allusion in Juvenal's seventh satire. Greece, officially called the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία), is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. ... Campania is a region of Southern Italy, bordering on Lazio to the north-west, Molise to the north, Puglia to the north-east, Basilicata to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,546,807 almost 4,000,000 1... Mevania (modern Bevagna), an ancient Roman town and municipium of (Umbria), in the Augustan Regio VI. It lay on the western branch of the Via Flaminia, 13 km (8 mi) WSW of Forum Flaminii where the branches rejoin. ... Aulus Vitellius Germanicus (September 24 AD 15–December 22, 69) was Roman Emperor from April 17 69 to December 22 of the same year, one of the emperors in the Year of the four emperors. He was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who had been consul and governor of Syria... Emperor Vespasian Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (November 18, CE 9 – June 23, 79), originally known as Titus Flavius Vespasianus and best known as Vespasian, was the emperor of Rome from 69 to 79. ... ... Note: This article is about the Roman poet, who is the most famous person by this name. ...

Little is known of the events in his life. From his boyhood he was victorious in poetic contests many times at his native Naples, thrice at Alba, where he received the golden crown from the hand of the emperor Domitian. Look up Alba in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The name Alba may refer to — the ancient and modern Gaelic name (pronounced Al-a-pah) for Scotland. ... Titus Flavius Domitianus (24 October 51 – 18 September 96), commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman emperor of the gens Flavia. ...

At the great Capitoline competition, probably on its third celebration in 94 AD, Statius failed to win the coveted chaplet of oak leaves. No doubt the extraordinary popularity of his Thebais had led him to regard himself as the supreme poet of the age, and when he could not sustain this reputation in the face of rivals from all parts of the empire he accepted the judges' verdict as a sign that his day was past, and retired to Naples, the home of his ancestors and of his own young years. We still possess the poem he addressed to his wife on this occasion (Silv. iii.5). There are hints in this poem which naturally lead to the surmise that Statius was suffering from a loss of the emperor's favour. In the preface to book iv. of the Silvae there is mention of detractors who hated his style, and these may have succeeded in inducing a new fashion in poetry at court. Such an eclipse, if it happened, must have cut Statius to the heart. The Capitoline Hill (Capitolinus Mons), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the famous seven hills of Rome, the site of a temple for the Capitoline Triad: the gods Jupiter, his wife Juno and their daughter Minerva. ... For other uses, see number 94. ...

He appears to have relished thoroughly the role of court-poet. Statius lauds the emperor, not to discharge a debt, but to create an obligation. His flattery is as far removed from the gentle propitiatory tone of Quintilian as it is from the coarse and crawling humiliation of Martial. It is in the large extravagant style of a nature in itself healthy and generous, which has accepted the theme and left scruples behind. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. ... Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), Latin epigrammatist, was born in one of the years AD 38–41, for, in book x. ...

In one of his prefatory epistles Statius declares that he never allowed any work of his to go forth without invoking the godhead of the divine emperor. Statius had taken the full measure of Domitian's gross taste, and, presenting him with the rodomontade which he loved, puts conscience and sincerity out of view, lest some uneasy twinge should mar his master's enjoyment. But in one poem, that in which the poet pays his due for an invitation to the Imperial table, we have sincerity enough. Statius clearly feels all the raptures he expresses. He longs for the power of him who told the tale of Dido's banquet, and for the voice of him who sang the, feast of Alcinous, that he may give forth utterance worthy of the lofty theme. The poet seemed, he says, to dine with great Jove himself and to receive nectar from Ganymede the cupbearer (an odious reference to the imperial favourite Eurinus). Tabarin was the street name assumed by the most famous of the Parisian street charlatans, Anthoine Girard (c. ... In Greek and Roman sources Elissa or Dido appears as the founder and first Queen of Carthage in Tunisia. ... In Greek mythology, Alcinous (also transliterated as Alkínoös) was a son of Nausithous and father of Nausicaa and Laodamas with Arete. ... In Roman mythology, Jupiter (sometimes shortened to Jove) held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon. ... In Greek mythology, Ganymede (Greek: Γανυμήδης, Ganumêdês)) was a divine hero whose homeland was the Troad. ...

All his life hitherto has been barren and profitless. Now only has he begun to live in truth. The palace struck on the poet's fancy like the very hall of heaven; nay, Jove himself marvels at its beauty, but is glad that the emperor should possess such an earthly habitation; he will thus feel less desire to seek his destined abode among the immortals in the skies. Yet even so gorgeous a palace is all too mean for his greatness and too small for his vast presence. "But it is himself, himself, that my eager eye has alone time to scan. He is like a resting Mars or Bacchus or Alcides." Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter). ... Bacchus is the name of: the Roman god Bacchus, known to the Greeks as Dionysus the Christian martyr Saint Bacchus, companion to Saint Sergius the asteroid 2063 Bacchus the Bacchus grape variety, grown predominantly in Germany the painting Bacchus by Leonardo da Vinci the comic book Bacchus by Eddie Campbell... Hercules and Cacus, by Baccio Bandinelli, 1525 - 1534. ...

Martial and Statius were no doubt supreme among the imperial flatterers. Each was the other's only serious rival. It is therefore not surprising that neither should breathe the other's name. Even if we could by any stretch excuse the bearing of Statius towards Domitian, he could never be forgiven the poem entitled "The Hair of Flavius Earinus," Domitian's Ganymede (Shy. ~ 4), a poem than which it would be hard to find a more repulsive example of real poetical talent defiled for personal ends. Everything points to the conclusion that Statius did not survive his emperor — that he died, in fact, a short time after leaving Rome to settle in Naples. Apart from the emperor and his minions, the friendships of Statius with men of high station seem to have been maintained on fairly equal terms. He was clearly the poet of society in his day as well as the poet of the court. Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), Latin epigrammatist, was born in one of the years AD 38–41, for, in book x. ...

As poet, Statius unquestionably shines in many respects when compared with most other post-Augustans. He was born with exceptional talent, and his poetic expression is, with all its faults, richer on the whole and less forced, more buoyant and more felicitous, than is to be found generally in the Silver Age of Latin poetry. Statius is at his best in his occasional verses, the Silvae, which have a character of their own, and in their best parts a charm of their own. The title was proper to verses of rapid workmanship, on everyday themes.

Statius prided himself on his powers of improvisation, and he seems to have been quite equal to the feat, which Horace describes, of dictating two hundred lines in an hour while standing on one leg. The improvisatore was in high honour among the later Greeks, as Cicero's speech for the poet Archias indicates; and the poetic contests common in the early empire did much to stimulate ability of the kind. It is to their velocity that the poems owe their comparative freshness and freedom, along with their loose texture and their inequality. There are thirty-two poems, divided into five books, each with a dedicatory epistle. Of nearly four thousand lines which the books contain, more than five-sixths are hexameters. Four of the pieces (containing about 450 lines) are written in the hendecasyllabic metre, the "tiny metre of Catullus," and there is one Alcaic and one Sapphic ode. Improvisation is the act of making something up as you go along. ... Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin. ... Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... The Sapphic stanza is a poetic form spanning 4 lines. ...

Silvae

The subjects of the Silvae vary widely. Five poems are devoted to flattery of the emperor and his favourites; but of these enough has already been said. Six are lamentations for deaths, or consolations to survivors. Statius seems to have felt a special pride in this class of his productions; and certainly, notwithstanding the excessive and conventional employment of pretty mythological pictures, with other affectations, he sounds notes of pathos such as only come from the true poet. Pathos (from paschein, the Greek word meaning to suffer) is an appeal to anothers pride or character in general. ...

There are often traits of an almost modern domesticity in these verses, and Statius, the childless, has here and there touched on the charm of childhood in lines for a parallel to which, among the ancients, we must go, strange to say, to his rival Martial. One of the epicedia, that on Priscilla the wife of Abascantus, Domitian's freedman, is full of interest for the picture it presents of the official activity of a high officer of state.

Another group of the Silvae give picturesque descriptions of the villas and gardens of the poet's friends. In these we have a more vivid representation than elsewhere of the surroundings amid which the grandees of the early empire lived when they took up their abode in the country.

As to the rest of the Silvae, the congratulatory addresses to friends are graceful but commonplace, nor do the jocose pieces call for special mention.

In the Kalendae decembres we have a striking description of the gifts and amusements provided by the emperor for the Roman population on the occasion of the Saturnalia. In his attempt at an epithalamium (Silv. i.2) Statius is forced and unhappy. Saturnalia (from the god Saturn) was the name the Romans gave to their holiday marking the Winter Solstice. ... Epithalamium (from Greek; epi- upon, and thalamium nuptial chamber) specifically refers to a form of poem that is written for the bride. ...

His birthday ode in Lucan's honour has, along with the accustomed exaggeration, many powerful lines, and shows, high appreciation of preceding Latin poets. Some phrases, such as "the untaught muse of high-souled Ennius" and "the lofty passion of sage Lucretius," are familiar words with all scholars. The ode ends with a great picture of Lucan's spirit rising after death on wings of fame to regions whither only powerful souls can ascend, scornfully surveying earth and smiling at the tomb, or reclining in Elysium and singing a noble strain to the Pompeys and the Catos and all the "Pharsalian host," or with proud tread exploring Tartarus and listening to the wailings of the guilty, and gazing at Nero, pale with agony as his mother's avenging torch glitters before his eyes. It is singular to observe how thoroughly Nero had been struck out of the imperial succession as recognized at court, so that the "bald Nero" took no umbrage when his flatterer-in‑chief profanely dealt with his predecessor's name. There is also a town named Lucan in Ireland Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (November 3, AD 39 - April 30, 65), better known in English as Lucan, was a Roman poet, and is one of the outstanding figures of the Silver Latin period. ... Quintus Ennius (239 - 169 BC) was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. ... Titus Lucretius Carus (c. ... the nickname of the city of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England, the nickname of its principal football club, Portsmouth F.C., and the name of a city in France: Pompey, Lorraine. ... Cato can refer to several different things. ... In Greek mythology, Tartarus, or Tartaros, is both a deity and a place in the underworld - even lower than Hades. ... Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (15 December 37–9 June 68), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called (50–54 AD) Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. ...

Epic poems

The epic poems of Statius are less interesting because cast in a commoner mould, but they deserve study in many respects. They are the product of long elaboration.

The Thebais, which the poet says took twelve years to compose, is in twelve books, and has for its theme the old "tale of Thebes" — the deadly strife of the Theban brothers. There is also preserved a fragment of an Achilleis, consisting of one book and part of another. In the weary length of these epics there are many flowers of pathos and many little finished gem-pictures, but the trammels of tradition, the fashionable taste and the narrow bars of education check continually the poet's flight. Not merely were the materials for his epics prescribed to him by rigid custom, but also to a great extent the method by which they were to be treated. All he could do was to sound the old notes with a distinctive timbre of his own. The gods must needs wage their wonted epic strife, and the men, their puppets, must dance at their nod; there most needs be heavenly messengers, portents, dreams, miracles, single combats, similes, Homeric and Virgilian echoes, and all the other paraphernalia of the conventional epic. Two important places in antiquity were called Thebes: Thebes, Greece – Thebes of the Seven Gates; one-time capital of Boeotia. ... The Oath of the Seven Chiefs, an 1897 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church Seven Against Thebes is a play by Aeschylus concerning the battle between Eteocles and the army of Thebes and Polynices and his supporters, traditional Theban enemies. ... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... For other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). ...

But Statius treats his subjects with a boldness and freedom which contrast pleasingly with the timid traditionalism of Silius Italicus and the stiff scholasticism of Gaius Valerius Flaccus. The vocabulary of Statius is conspicuously rich, and he shows audacity, often successful, in the use of words and metaphors. At the same time he carried certain literary tricks to an aggravating pitch, in particular the excessive use of alliteration, and the misuse of mythological allusion. The best-known persons and places are described by epithets or periphrases derived from some very remote connection with mythology, so that many passages are as dark as Heraclitus. Silius Italicus, in full Titus Catius Silius Italicus (AD 25 or 26 - 101), was a Latin epic poet. ... Gaius Valerius Flaccus (late 1st century AD) was a Roman poet, who flourished under the emperors Vespasian and Titus. ... In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope where a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ... Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as The Obscure, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...