Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/31

ingenious suggestions in “The Altar of Mercy” (Collected Literary Essays, 1913). Besides this there isa conjecture of Prof. Slater: Statius, as we know from Silv. iv. 4. 53, was in the habit of frequenting the tomb of Virgil outside Naples; he suggests that this fact, together with the well-known tradition of St. Paul’s visit to that spot, may have given rise to a story of the meeting of the two, and of Statius’s conversion to Christianity as the result.^[1]

It is quite possible, however, that Dante originated the idea for his own purposes; this was the opinion of Benvenuto, the commentator on Dante (quoted by Vernon, Readings on the Purgatorio, ii. 188), and there seems to be no earlier tradition, When Dante and Virgil meet Statius, he is in the Circle of Avarice, where he has been 500 years, having previously spent 300 in the Ante-Purgatory, and 400 in the Circle of Sloth. The latter punishment was due, as he explains, to his unreadiness to declare himself a Christian, the former to his prodigality (by which, apparently, Dante accounts for his poverty, see Juvenal vii. 82). Statius enlightens Dante on two matters, first, the natural causes of winds and earthquakes (C. 21, cf. Theb. vii. 809 sq.), and second, the nature of the soul when separated from the body (C. 25). This latter knowledge depended to some extent on revealed truth, for which Statius needs to be a Christian. If it be asked why Statius was chosen, the answer may be (i.) that he was highly esteemed in the Middle Ages, (ii.) that his Epic contains similar discussions, though certainly none so long (augury, iii. 482, 551,