Thebais
Rome
S
Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius)
Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius)
c. 45 CE–c. 96 CE · Rome
Statius (Publius Papinius Statius; c. 45 – c. 96 CE) was a Roman poet of the Flavian period, active chiefly at Rome under the emperor Domitian. Born at Naples to a father who was himself a schoolmaster and poet, he competed in public poetry competitions and moved in imperial literary circles. His principal work is the Thebaid, a twelve-book epic on the war of the Seven against Thebes, composed over roughly a decade; he also left the unfinished epic Achilleid and the Silvae, a collection of occasional poems. The Thebaid exerted lasting influence on later Latin epic and on medieval and Renaissance literature, including Dante, who casts Statius as a character in the Purgatorio.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→
✦
Stop 1 of 1
RomeרומאItaly
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Rome
# Rome In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, Rome lay within the Papal States, the territorial domain of the Catholic Church, though its temporal glory as an empire had long faded. The city sprawled across its famous hills along the Tiber River, a landscape of crumbling ancient monuments, medieval fortifications, and Romanesque churches that dominated the skyline. The Jewish community of Rome was among Europe's most ancient, tracing roots to the second century BCE, and it flourished in a precarious but resilient position under papal authority; while confined to restricted quarters and subject to discriminatory laws, Roman Jews maintained a sophisticated intellectual and commercial life, with Hebrew scholarship and biblical commentary flourishing despite—or perhaps because of—the community's isolation. The Jewish quarter itself, densely packed and vibrant, became a center of learning where skilled scribes copied manuscripts and rabbinical discussions drew on centuries of local tradition. What made Rome extraordinary for Torah study was not merely its learned scholars but the tangible presence of antiquity itself: the community lived amid the ruins of pagan temples and Roman law, giving their interpretations of Jewish law a unique resonance, as if they were rebuilding Jewish civilization in the very streets where Roman power had once reigned supreme.
In Rome at the same time
Celsus, Valerius Maximus, Phaedrus, Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus, Curtius Rufus, Quintus
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
✦
Sages whose lives overlapped with Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius)’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Celsus, Valerius Maximus, Phaedrus, Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus, Curtius Rufus, Quintus, Pliny, the Elder, Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius, Petronius Arbiter, Musonius Rufus, Persius, Quintilian, Titus, Lucan, Martial, Valerius Flaccus, Gaius, Plutarch, Domitian
The world in their lifetime
✦
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Statius, P. Papinius (Publius Papinius)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.