Chapter VI: Statius

Statius and his father—Dates of publication—Lost
works—Friends—His times—The _Thebaid_ and its twelve
books—Mythology—Sources—Influence of Antimachus and
Virgil—_Achilleid_—His epic fame—_Siluae_—Qualities of his
occasional poems—Style—Artificiality and conceits—Compounds and
Similes—Metre.

P. Papinius Statius,[1369] a Neapolitan whose miscellaneous poems reflect many aspects of Rome in the Flavian age, is, even if judged solely by his posthumous influence, a considerable figure in the annals of epic. For his life our main source of information lies in his own _Siluae_. The date of his birth is a matter of inference, and the tendency is now to place it earlier than once was common. A passage formerly taken to mean that he was on the threshold of life at his father’s death does not really bear that sense,[1370] and, while a reference to his own old age (_senium_)[1371] in the _Siluae_ need not be literally pressed, it is most likely that these poems were written in mature years. For several reasons his birth-date cannot be put later than A.D. 45. His native town was Naples (_mea Parthenope_, _Silv._ I. ii. 260-261), a meeting-place of Greek and Roman culture, where his father, a man of good family, was a celebrated teacher. The lament (_epicedion_) on his death (_Silv._ V. iii.) tells how his father possessed poetic skill, had won victorious contests in poetry, kept a popular school, turned out pupils successful in after life, trained his son’s taste, and encouraged the epic on Thebes. The elder Statius’s affection for his wife, the poet’s mother, was only one of many endearing qualities which explain the depth of the younger man’s grief in bereavement. Before his father’s death Statius had begun to make a mark. He had won the prize for poetry at the Neapolitan _Augustalia_. At Rome he made money by such a libretto as that on _Agaue_ supplied to the actor Paris,[1372] and his _recitationes_ from his works attracted good audiences.[1373] Statius senior certainly did not die till after the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, because a passage in the _Siluae_ (V. iii. 205) shows that he contemplated a poem on it, as he had already celebrated the destruction in 69 of the temples on the Capitol. The passage reads as if he did not long survive the eruption; and yet, since he encouraged his son’s work on the _Thebaid_ (_Silv._ V. iii. 233), he must have lived an appreciable time beyond its inception in A.D. 80. However that may be, he was no longer alive at the time of Statius’s memorable triumph in the Alban competition instituted by Domitian, and the earliest date assignable to this success with a poem on the emperor’s exploits is 89.

Meanwhile (apart from recitations) none of Statius’s extant work had been published; but he had long been elaborating his epic on the seven champions against Thebes. That poem, the _Thebaid_, was issued in twelve books shortly before[1374] the publication of the first book of the _Siluae_, which can be dated A.D. 92. Certain passages,[1375] it is true, in the _Siluae_ refer to the author as still at work on the _Thebaid_; but they must be assumed to have been written, though not published, before 92. The poet’s farewell to a task of twelve years bears interesting testimony to his speculation on its claim to lasting renown, his complimentary attitude to Domitian, his knowledge that his own writings were being already studied, and above all his worshipful reverence for Virgil, the inspirer of his epic style:

Shalt thou, my lay of Thebes, my wakeful toil
For twice six years, shalt thou far off endure,
And, when thy maker is no more, be read?
E’en now, be sure, fame hath made fair the way
For thee, and seeks to show thy novelty
To men unborn. E’en now our noble Prince
Grants thee acquaintance; now Italian youths
Learn thee by heart amain. Live on, I pray!
Yet vie not thou with Virgil’s god-sent strain—
Follow afar: his every step adore.[1376]

Attracted from the subject of Thebes to “the tale of Troy divine,” he was yet to attempt another epic; but, for an interval, he was free to collect some of his miscellaneous poems, and the first book of the _Siluae_ was issued in the same year, as is inferred from its prefatory reference to the death of Rutilius Gallicus, prefect of Rome, whose recovery from illness is the theme of the fourth poem. This book, dedicated to the poet Stella, whose marriage is celebrated in the second poem, was followed during the poet’s lifetime by II, III and IV, all addressed to different friends. Book IV can be definitely dated, as its opening piece celebrates Domitian’s seventeenth consulate: the book is assigned to the summer of A.D. 95. It is a fair surmise that Book II had been published in 93 and Book III in 94. Book V may have been posthumously issued; for its preface to Abascantus bears solely on the first poem, and the fifth is incomplete.

Statius writes as if his attempted epic on Achilles had to yield place to the idea of an Italian subject—the wars of Domitian.[1377] He had begun his _Achilleid_ in 95,[1378] and although it had not gone far beyond a single book, he gave public readings from it.[1379] But the final interruption came with his death. The presumption is that Statius did not outlive Domitian, whose assassination occurred in 96.

The lost works of Statius are the pantomime _Agaue_ from the tragic Theban story of Pentheus; the epic on the German campaign of Domitian, of which four hexameters survive;[1380] and an epistle concerning the _Thebaid_ sent to Vibius Maximus, the recipient of Statius’s Sapphics (_Silv._ IV. vii.), and an epitomator of Livy.[1381] From the ode to him and the allusion in the preface of _Siluae_, Book IV, we realize that Statius admired his literary power and felt gratitude for his inspiring encouragement while the _Thebaid_ was being written.

Statius’s love for his native Naples is obvious in his works. It was thither that he repaired towards the end of his life, mortified by his defeat in the Capitoline contest of 94, though sustained by the sympathy of his wife Claudia. But he had lived much in Rome and at the Alban villa which he owed to the emperor. His circle of friends was representative of the age. It included Domitian himself, whom he flattered far more than was justified by the grant of a special water-supply or by invitations to dinner. It included also men prominent in public life like the prefect Rutilius, imperial secretaries like Claudius Etruscus and Abascantus, or men who combined literary tastes with national service, like the poet Arruntius Stella who rose to the consulship, and the historian Vibius Maximus who under Trajan became governor of Egypt. It is plain that Statius and Martial belonged to the same social grade; for Etruscus, Stella, and Lucan’s widow Polla appear in the works of both; and among other friends in common were Atedius Melior and Novius Vindex. But neither poet names the other, and the silence may be due to dislike.

The age was a tranquil one, favourable to aesthetic refinement rather than powerful creation; and Statius is its perfect counterpart in his quiet learning, power of polished expression, appreciation of beautiful scenes and beautiful works of art. We can discern his warmth of heart in the love he bears his father and his wife, and in his sorrow over the death of the little boy whom he adopted; for his marriage to Claudia, a widow with a daughter, proved childless. Very appropriately he contrasts a busy man of affairs with himself, a poet idly touching his lyre, but filled with a scholar’s veneration for Virgil:

Thy talents are alive; thy spirit, girt
For mighty tasks, can face both foul and fair.
But I, a singer whiling easeful hours,
Quest after reputation’s airy joys:
And, lo! I woo the dreamful happy shore,
Where, newly landed in Ausonia,
Parthenope found haven; there I touch
With idle thumb my slender-stringéd lyre,
And seated by the marge of Virgil’s shrine
Take heart to hymn my mighty master’s grave.[1382]

We may rest assured that, while courtier-like he felt compelled to feign a celestial rapture in being a guest at Domitian’s table[1383] and to suggest that it outshone the Homeric banquet of King Alcinous or the Virgilian banquet of Queen Dido, still his secret preference must have been for some such feast of reason and flow of soul as he was safe to find when he dined with his poet-friend Vindex.[1384] At the board of that cultured connoisseur, gifted with unerring judgement of art-treasures, the menu—unlike that of Trimalchio in Petronius—did not consist of freakish whets to the appetite (_ludibria uentris_), but was in keeping with the literary talk and cheery jests which made a midwinter night fly[1385]—a night to mark with pearls (_nox et Erythraeae Thetidos signanda lapillis_). In these social surroundings we can best understand the personality of Statius.

One might feel a temptation to dismiss the _Thebaid_ with a summary as brief as the twelve bald hexameters in the _Codex Toletanus_; but that would convey a beggarly impression of a narrative nearly 10,000[1386] lines long, in which, despite dull tracts, there are vigorous incidents and great moments. If Statius had studied the construction and proportions of his story more exactly, if he had condensed some and rigidly excised others of his episodes, the _Thebaid_ would have gained in unity and attractiveness, while his readers and his reputation might have been increased by the reappearance as separate poems of the best among the banished portions. The following analysis may serve to confirm this.