1. Caecilius Statius, see CAECILIUS.

2. Publius Papinius Statius (c. AD 45–c.96), Roman poet, born at Naples, the son of a grammaticus or schoolmaster and teacher of literature, who was himself a poet and encouraged the literary aptitude of his son. In Rome he recited his poems to large audiences and won a contest held by the emperor Domitian. His (extant) epic in twelve books, the Thebaid, was published in 90 or 91 after twelve years' toil; it tells the story of the quarrel between Oedipus' sons Eteoclēs and Polyneicēs. Soon afterwards Statius began to issue the Silvae. In (probably) 94 he failed to win the Capitoline poetry competition and was deeply disappointed. About this time he retired to Naples, where he began the composition of an epic, the Achilleid, broken off in book 2 by the poet's death, apparently before the murder of Domitian in September 96.

Statius married Claudia, a widow with one daughter, and was deeply attached to her. He had no children of his own; his sorrow at the death of an adopted son is expressed in the last poem of the Silvae. He associated with prominent men, including Domitian himself, whom he flattered obsequiously. His lost works include the libretto for a pantomime Agavē, on the story of Pentheus, and an epic De bello Germanico (‘on the German war’) on Domitian's campaigns. His poetry strikes many as generally overworked; it is full of literary and rhetorical devices, allusive, and in a highly artificial language; the Silvae, being simpler, more spontaneous, and less polished, have for many readers a greater appeal, but the Thebaid has attractions for those with a taste for hyperbole and the macabre, and there are episodes of drama and pathos.

Statius was much admired in the Middle Ages; regarded by Dante as a Christian, he appears in Cantos 21 and 22 of the Purgatorio where his spirit meets that of Virgil, appropriately enough in view of Statius' reverence for the earlier poet. Statius is made to explain how he was led to Christianity by certain passages in Virgil. The English poets Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray both translated portions of the Thebaid.

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