The Silvae of Statius have been preserved in a fifteenth-century manuscript that has long been considered corrupt. In this careful, readable text, Courtney takes the view, held by Klotz alone among editors but strongly supported by recent discoveries of new material, that this manuscript was identical to that seen by Politician. The difficulties are compounded by the author's mannerist style, which most modern editors have often misinterpreted as a defense for corrupt readings. For this text Courtney has surveyed the scholarly literature on the Silvae in its entirety, and has often returned...

To understand fully the development of Latin poetry, one has to consider not only the prominent figures whose works survive in entirety, but also the writers known to us only in fragments, usually in quotations. The fragments of the non-dramatic poets have been collected by Baehrens, Morel, and B((;u))chner, but only a few have ever received a commentary. This book revises the texts, taking advantage of much earlier work now largely forgotten, and provides the necessary interpretive and illustrative material. By building up, wherever possible, a picture of each writer, Courtney places them in...