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went to Rome, where he lived till the year 94, writing poetry and declaiming extracts from his Thebaid before crowded audiences. He was awarded a prize in the annual poetical contest held by Domitian in honour of Minerva at his residence near Alba, but to his great disappointment, when he competed at the important Capitoline “Agon” in Rome, he met with failure. In Rome he married his wife Claudia, a widow with one daughter. The poet himself was childless, and adopted a slave-boy born in his own house, whose early death he mourns with real sorrow in his last, unfinished poem. About 94 he returned in broken health to Naples, where he died, probably in 95 or 96.

Although one may take Juvenal’s word for it that Statius, in spite of the large crowds his recitations drew, made no money out of poetry, one need not assume that he lived in poverty and was forced to write libretti for the stage in order to make a living;^[1] there is nothing in his own writings that implies it, while from the mention of his father’s estate at Alba one would gather that he was .at least moderately well off. The poet, at any rate, seems to have lived on terms of familiarity with the wealthy Pollius Felix and others, and his wife was the personal friend of Priscilla, whose husband Abascantus was secretary of state. It seems doubtful whether he formed part of any circle or group of poets; his patrons were those of Martial, Atedius Melior, for instance, and Pollius Felix, but neither writer ever mentions the other, whence some have thought that there was a coolness between the two. This is not unlikely, for from what we know of the two men we should conclude that they