P. Papinius Statius Silvae Book II. A Commentary.

The five books of the Silvae bring together the occasional verses which Statius wrote in addition to his two epics. In these short descriptive poems Statius elaborates features taken from various genres into an original whole, in which description and eulogy play important roles. The main themes of the poems of his second book are consolation after bereavement and the contrast between nature and culture.
The present work contains a general introduction, a text of Silvae II, a bibliography, and an index, together with a verse-by-verse commentary on the poems of this second book.
This is the first commentary on a book of the Silvae since Vollmer's commentary on the whole of the Silvae of 1898. Emphasis is here placed on interpretation and moreover chiefly on the literary and stylistic aspects of the poems, which, compared with the epic poetry of Statius and his contemporaries, have hitherto received relatively little attention.

Publius Papinius Statius (circa 45-96 A.D) was born in Naples. He was a prize-winning poet who won the poetry prize at the Augustalia and three times at the Alban Games. His reputation remained high until well into the Middle Ages. He featured both in Chaucer's House of Fame (as "Stace") and in Dante's Divine Comedy, where he is called "il dolce poeta". Bill Shepherd was born in 1935 and educated at Cambridge. Before retiring he worked in industry. His excellent classical credentials were established by his critically acclaimed translations, Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes, and Propertius: The Poems, both published as Penguin Classics. Anvil has published three collections of his verse: Sun, Oak, Almond, I (1970), Evidences (1980), and Self-Love (1983). Anthony Howell was born in 1945. A former dancer with the Royal Ballet, he is respected as a performance artist. He founded the Theatre of Mistakes in the 1970s; touring successfully in France, the UK and the US. He has published eleven collections of poetry, several with Anvil, as well as a novel, and an edition of The Selected Poems of Nicholas Lafitte.