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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SOU-STE |
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STATIUS, PUBLIUS PAPINIUS (c. A.D. 45-96) , Latin poet, was born at Naples. He was, to a great extent, devoted by birth and training to the profession of a poet. The Statii were of Graeco-Campanian origin, and were of gentle extraction, though impoverished, and the family records were 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. 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, U. 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. Of events in the life of Statius we know little. From his boyhood he was victorious in poetic contestsmany times at his native city Naples, thrice at Alba, where he received the golden crown from the hand of the emperor Domitian. But at the great Capitoline competition (probably on its third celebration in 94 A.D.) 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; he may have felt that a word from Domitian would have won for him the envied garland, and that the word ought to have been given. In the preface to book iv. of the Silvae there is mention of detractors who hated our poet's 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. He appears to have relished thoroughly the role of court-poet. The statement sometimes made that the elder Statius had been the emperor's teacher, and had received manyfavours from him, so that the son inherited a debt of gratitude, seems to have no solid foundation. Statius lauds the emperor, not to discharge a debt, but rather 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. 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
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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
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such as only come from the true poet. There are oftentimes traits of an almost modern domesticity in these verses, and Statius, the child-less, 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 (SiIv. v. I), is full of interest
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The epic poems of Statius are less interesting because cast in a coumuoner 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
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The editio princeps of the epics is dated 1470, of the Silvae 1472. Notable editions since have been those of Bernartius (Antwerp, 1595), Gronovius (1653) and Barth (1664). Recent
Cambridge (1728), deserves special attention. A translation of the Silvae with introduction and notes was published by D. A. Slater in 1908 (OxfordLibrary of Translations). A critical edition of the Thebais and Achilleis was begun by O. Muller (1870) but not completed. The condition of the text of the Silvae is one of the most curious facts in the history of ancient literature. Poggio discovered a MS. at St Gallen and brought it into Italy. This MS. has disappeared, but from it are derived all our existing MSS., except one of the birth-day ode to Lucan, now at Florence, and of the loth century. Politian collated Poggio's MS. with the editio princeps, and the collation has come down to us, and is the principal basis of the text. The MSS. of the epics are numerous, as was to be expected from their great popularity in the middle ages, to which Dante is witness (see Purg. xxi., where an interview with the shade of Statius is described at some length). (J. S. R.) End of Article: STATIUS, PUBLIUS PAPINIUS (c. A.D. 45-96) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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