Publius Papinius Statius, Silvae

Adam Marshall (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by Sophia Papaioannou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication 92 - 96

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Publication/ performance; Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The

Silvae

were composed and published in the final decade of the first century CE under the emperor Domitian. The collection consists of 32 occasional poems organised into five books and written predominantly in the dactylic hexameter meter, although some lyric meters are also represented, particularly in Book 4, the book of greatest metrical variety (thus 1.6, 2.7, 4.3 and 4.9 are written in hendecasyllables, 4.5 is in Alcaics and 4.7 is in Sapphics). While it was once widely accepted that Books 1-3 were published as a single unit in AD 94 (along the lines of Horace,

Odes

1-3 or Ovid,

Epistulae ex Ponto

1-3 which were each published as a single set), convincing arguments have been made for separate publication of each book. If this is correct, Books 1-3 would have been published in 92,…

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1441 words

Citation: Marshall, Adam . "Silvae". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 November 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34670, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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