• The siege of Jerusalem under Titus, surnamed the “Delight of Mankind,” took place in the year 70. Statius, who is here speaking, was born at Naples in the reign of Claudius, and had already become famous “under the name that most endures and honors,” that is, as a poet. His works are the Silvae , or miscellaneous poems; the Thebaid , an epic in twelve books; and the Achilleid , left unfinished. He wrote also a tragedy, Agave , which is lost. Juvenal says of him, Satire VII , Dryden’s Tr. :⁠— “All Rome is pleased when Statius will rehearse, And longing crowds expect the promised verse; His lofty numbers with so great a gust They hear, and swallow with such eager lust: But while the common suffrage crowned his cause, And broke the benches with their loud applause, His Muse had starved, had not a piece unread, And by a player bought, supplied her bread.” Dante shows his admiration of him by placing him here. ↩