Publius papinius statius biography of michael

The Life of Statius

Statius the Man

        Publius Papinius Statius was born in Naples around the year 45 A.D.  Very little is recorded about his life and most of what is known is gleaned from his own writings.  So little was known about Statius, that during the Middle Ages he was confused with a rhetorician from Toulouse named Lucius Ursulus Statius, and was mistakenly named Papinius Sursulus Statius.  The confusion was cleared up when the Silvae, a collection of Statius' poems all but unknown from around the end of the sixth century, was rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in 1417.

  It is from the Silvae that a biography of Statius could be constructed.

        Statius was happily married to a lady named Claudia, but had no children of his own.  He adopted a son who apparently died young.

  His wife had a daughter from a previous marriage, and Statius writes affection