A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

902 STATIUS. STATIUS.
4. STATIUS, a tribune of the soldiers in the tian. Dodwell fixes upon A. D. 61 and A. D. 96,
reign of Nero. (Tac. Ann. xv. 60.) as the epoch of his birth and of his death, but
STA'TIUS ACHILLES. [ACHILLES TA- these conclusions are drawn from very uncertain
TIUS.] premises. Those dates, which can be ascertained
STA'TIUS A'LBIUS OPPIA'NICUS. [OP- with precision, will be noted as we review his
PIANICUS.] productions in succession.
STA'TIUS ANNAEUS, a friend of the phi- The extant works of Statius are:losopher Seneca, and well skilled in the art of me- I. Silvarum Libri V., a collection of thirty-two
dicine, provided Seneca with hemlock in order to occasional poems, many of them of considerable
hasten his death, when the blood did not flow in length, divided into five books. To each book is
sufficient abundance from his veins; but the poison prefixed a dedication in prose, addressed to sometook no effect. (Tac. Ann. xv. 64.) friend. The metre chiefly employed is the heroic
STA'TIUS CAECI'LIUS. [CAECILIUS.] hexameter, but four of the pieces (i. 6, ii. 7, iv. 3,
STA'TIUS, DOMI'TIUS, tribune of the sol- 9), are in Phalaecian hendecasyllabics, one (iv. 5)
diers in the reign of Nero, was deprived of his in the Alcaic, and one (iv. 7) in the Sapphic
office on the detection of Piso's conspiracy. (Tac. stanza. The first book was written about A. D. 90
Ann. xv. 71.) (i. 4. 91), the third after the commencement of A.D.
STA'TIUS GE'LLIUS, a general of the Sam- 94 (iii. 3. 171), the first piece in the fourth book
nites, was defeated by the Romans and taken was composed expressly to celebrate the kalends
prisoner in B. C. 305. (Liv. ix. 44.) of January, A. D. 95, when Domitian entered upon
STA'TIUS ME'TIUS, held Casilinum for his 17th consulship, and the fifth book appears to
Hannibal in B. c. 214. (Liv. xxiv. 19.) have been brought to a close in the following
STA'TIUS MURCUS. [MURcus. ] year.
STA'TIUS, P. PAPI'NIUS, a distinguished II. Tlhebaidos Libri XIL, an heroic poem in
grammarian, who, after having carried off the palm twelve books, embodying the ancient legends with
in several public literary contests, opened a school regard to the expedition of the Seven against
at Naples, about the year A. D. 39, according to Thebes. It occupied the author for twelve years
the calculations of Dodwell. He subsequently re- (xii. 811), and was not finished until after the
moved to Rome, and at one period acted as the Dacian war, which commenced in A. D. 86 (i. 20),
preceptor of Domitian, who held him in high ho- but had been published before the completion of
nour, and presented him with various marks of the first book of the Silvae (Silv. i.: prooelim.; cormp.
favour. He was the author of many works in iii. 2. 143, iv. 4. 86, &c.).
prose and verse, of which no trace remains, and III. Achlilleidos Libri IL., an heroic poem
died probably in A. D. 86. By his wife Agellina, breaking off abruptly. According to the original
who survived him, he had a son plan, it would have comprised a complete history
P. PAPINIUS STATIUS, the celebrated poet. of the exploits of Achilles, but was probably never
Our information with regard to his personal his- finished. It was commenced after the completion
tory is miserably defective. He is named by no of the Thebais (Achill. i. 10), and is alluded to in
ancient author, except Juvenal, so that any know- the last book of the Silvae (v. 2. 163, v. 5. 37).
ledge we possess of his family or career has been In some manuscripts this fragment is comprised
gleaned from incidental notices in his own writings, within a single book, in others is divicded into five.
and many of these are couched in very ambiguous Statius may justly claim the praise of standing
language. It appears that under the skilful tuition in the foremost rank among the heroic poets of the
of his father he speedily rose to fame, and became Silver Age, and when we remember how few of the
peculiarly renowned for the brilliancy of his ex- extant specimens of the Roman muse belong to
temporaneous effusions, sothat he gained the prize this department, we do not feel surprised that
three times in the Alban contests (see Sueton. Dante and Scaliger should have assigned to him a
Dom. 4); but having, after a long career of popu- place immediately after Virgil, provided always
larity, been vanquished in the quinquennial games we regard them as separated by a wide impassable
(Suet.Dom. 1. c.) he retired to Naples, the place of gulph. While by no means deficient in dignity,
his nativity, along with his wife Claudia whom he and not unfrequently essaying lofty flights, he is
married in early life, to whom he was tenderly in a great measure free from extravagance and
attached, and whose virtues he frequently corn- pompous pretensions; but, on the other hand, ill
memorates. From the well-known lines of Ju- no portion of his works do we find the impress of
venal, s. vii. 82, - high natural talent and imposing power. Those
Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicae passages which have been most frequently quoted,
Thebaidos, laetam fecit quum Statius Urbem and most generally admired, display a great comPromisitque diem: tanta dulcedine captos mand of graceful and appropriate language, a liveAfficit ille animos, tantaque libidine vulgi liness of imagination which occasionally oversteps
Auditur, sed, quum fregit subsellia versu, the limits of correct taste, brilliant imagery, picEsurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agavem,- tures designed with artistic skill, and glowing with
the richest colours, a skilful development of chawe should infer that Statius, in his earlier years at racter, and a complete knowledge of the mechanism
least, was forced to struggle with poverty, but he of verse; but they are not vivified and lighted up
appears to have profited by the patronage of Do- by a single spark of true inspiration. The rules of
mitian (Silv. iv. 2), whom in common with Martial art are observed with undeviating accuracy, and
and other contemporary bards he addresses in the most intricate combinations are formed without
strains of the most fulsome adulation. The tale the introduction of a disturbing element; but there
that the emperor, in a fit of passion, stabbed him is a total absence of that simple energy which is
with a stilus, seems to be as completely destitute the surest mark of true genius.
of foundation as the notion that he was a Chris- The pieces which form the Silvae, although