It is difficult to do justice to the contribution made to the field of Classics by P., Professor Emeritus of Classics at Brown University. Even to select titles from his vast and rich bibliography as an illustration is a difficult task. Therefore, I will restrict myself to books. Newlands appropriately calls P. ‘the foremost Virgilian scholar of our times’ (p. v). The several works on Virgil’s poetry confirm Newland’s assertion. P. has devoted particular attention to his epic in three monographs: The Poetry of the Aeneid (1965), Virgil’s Aeneid. Interpretation and Influence (1995), Virgil’s Epic Designs. Ekphrasis in the Aeneid (1998). In between these studies, he produced one each on the Bucolics and the Georgics, respectively Virgil’s Pastoral Art (1970) and Virgil’s Poem of the Earth. Studies in the Georgics (1979). P.’s research on Horace’s lyric poetry also has a place of honour. I am referring to the outstanding Artifices of Eternity. Horace’s Fourth Book of Odes (1986) and the enduring Horace’s Carmen Saeculare. Ritual Magic and the Poet’s Art (2000). His commentary on Tibullus (1973) and his Essays on Latin Lyric, Elegy, and Epic (1982) should be mentioned as well.

Like the latter volume, The Poetic World of Statius’ Silvae collects texts previously published as journal articles, in this case six studies that appeared in Illinois Classical Studies between 2016 and 2022. Its publication emphasises the significance of P.’s contribution to the study of Statius, and this volume is therefore, unquestionably, a most welcome addition to the bibliography on Statius’ poetry, which has flourished in recent decades. Moreover, it is edited by two of the most distinguished experts on Flavian poetry, Augoustakis and Newlands. The former edited the chapters, the latter wrote the introduction. They dedicate the volume to P. on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.

Each chapter focuses on one poem, ‘in the form of penetrating critical commentary’ (p. 1), offering both a close reading and a broader reflection on Statius’ poetic art. The book avoids the tendency to overemphasise the poems relating to Domitian; only one chapter deals with a poem on the emperor, namely the imperial banquet to which Statius was invited (Silvae 4.2). P. addresses fundamental questions raised by the Silvae. He takes us through Statius’ reading of Latin poetry, from the Republican poets to his contemporaries, illuminating the creation of a literary canon between the ages of Virgil and Statius. What emerges, as Newlands puts it, is a literary matrix of impressive range (p. 1). It encompasses Lucretius, Catullus, Seneca, Lucan, Virgil, Horace and the elegists. The Augustans, especially Virgil, take pride of place. And P.’s expertise as a Virgil scholar gives him a privileged vantage point from which to approach the issue of Statius’ engagement with Augustan poetry. Moreover, P.’s broad and deep knowledge of Latin poetry allows him to brilliantly discuss Statius’ complex work with multiple allusions and multiple genres as he endeavours to create a new language for poetry, appropriate for a ‘new Augustan age’ (p. 2). Readers are thus offered a penetrating reflection on Statius’ innovation and, I would emphasise, his imagination.

The chapters are not organised chronologically. The editors have chosen an order that ‘invites thematic interplay and intellectual engagement’ (p. 3). As Newlands notes, it is impossible to give an adequate résumé of P.’s studies. Therefore, this review privileges the aspects emphasised by the author as the main issues to be discussed. P. frequently underscores Statius’ focus on the themes of life and death, the passage of time, permanence and immortality, eroticism and sensuality. The first chapter, ‘A Stream and Two Villas (Statius’ Silvae 1.3)’, offers a close reading of the poem on the villa of Manilius Vopiscus. P. intends to ‘survey the quality of the poem itself as a creative unity’ (p. 11). This is achieved by an exploration of particular themes, patterns of expression, wordplay and allusion. Special significance is granted to the poem’s sensuality in its relation to ‘doubling, concord, and reciprocity’ (p. 11) and to Statius’ use of synaesthesia. The following essay is titled ‘The Garden of Atedius Melior: A Change for the Better (Statius’ Silvae 2.3)’. Here P. examines how the forging of a myth around a tree in Melior’s garden on the Caelian Hill turns into a eulogy. The myth of Pan’s pursuit of the nymph Pholoe brings up the themes of eroticism and the violence of desire, which in turn will be seen to contrast with the peacefulness of the garden setting. The setting allows Statius to address the evolution of civilisation, particularly the site where Rome would grow. The third chapter focuses on one of the most magnificent poems of the Silvae. In ‘A Labour of Love (Statius’ Silvae 3.1)’ P. analyses Hercules’ conversion into an ‘aesthetic civilizer’ (p. 89), the humanity of the couple Pollius and Polla, and finds readers ‘enjoy[ing] a paean to the harnessing of extraordinary energy for the betterment of the earth and its denizens’ (p. 89). P. recognises in Silvae 3.1 a series of broader motifs that are pervasive in the poems studied in the volume, such as the passage of time, mortality and eternity, eroticism. As for ‘Atedius Melior’s Parrot (Statius’ Silvae 2.4)’, which rests on the well-known motif of the death of a pet, the relationship with Ovid’s elegy on the death of Corinna’s parrot deserves particular attention. P.’s focus in this chapter is on the originality of Statius’ poem, the power of his imagination and the poet’s engagement with several genres. The study of Silvae 4.2, ‘Domitian’s Banquet (Statius’ Silvae 4.2)’, is divided into sections that analyse the poem’s opening, the space of its setting, the host of the banquet and the poem’s conclusion. P. delves into Statius’ work via Dido’s banquet at the end of the first book of the Aeneid, while calling attention to and elucidating the meaning of a wide range of other allusions (including to other Virgilian poems, such as the first Eclogue). He finds in Silvae 4.2 a ‘celebratory poetic mix’ (p. 189), encompassing epic, lyric and hymn. The last chapter, ‘Reading Travel (Statius’ Silvae 3.2)’, discusses the poem addressed to Maecius Celer. P. considers it ‘the most elaborate example of a propemptikon, a poem of farewell, that we have preserved from classical literature’ (p. 215). He studies the peculiarity of Statius’ treatment of the traditional topics of the propemptikon. This aim entails a reading of the poet’s predecessors, among them Catullus, Horace and Virgil. P. considers the last the most relevant and presents readers with the significance of a ‘series of emotional journeys’ (p. 216) in the Aeneid for the Statian poem. The pervasive ‘overtones of epic’ (p. 217) are combined with a wealth of other allusions – some even bring us back to Virgil, such as Horace’s ode 1.3, a farewell to the poet, and 2.17, addressed to Maecenas – among which the elegists are particularly well represented.

The volume is rounded off by a bibliography, a general index and an index locorum.

As Newlands rightly states in the introduction, this volume is a ‘fitting tribute of a brilliant Latin literary critic to a brilliant Latin poet’ (p. 10). Not to be missed.