page_title: Silvae
section_title: Critical responses to the Silvae
hierarchical_section_title: Silvae / Critical responses to the Silvae
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Emperor Domitian depicted as Augustus, most likely recut from Nero. From the Vatican Museums, Rome.
context_page_description: The Silvae is a collection of Latin occasional poetry in hexameters, hendecasyllables, and lyric meters by Publius Papinius Statius. There are 32 poems in the collection, divided into five books. Each book contains a prose preface which introduces and dedicates the book. The subjects of the poetry are varied and provide scholars with a wealth of information on Domitian's Rome and Statius' life.
  The Silvae were rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in the Library of Reichenau Abbey around 1417, along with the Punica of Silius.
context_section_description: Like scholarship on the Thebaid, critical attitudes to the Silvae were decidedly negative in the late 19th and early 20th century when Statius' relationship to Domitian and his court caused him to fall out of favor with critics and readers, but in recent times, Statius has been reevaluated and his Silvae have been involved in his rehabilitation.
caption: A Roman sculpture of Domitian from the Vatican Museum.
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