First-century Latin poet from Neapolis (Naples), whose father was not only a celebrated teacher of Greek and Latin but also a frequent victor in poetry contests. Statius wrote mainly epic poems, which may be somewhat mannered but are nonetheless the fruit of persistent effort and display his very real poetic skill. The Thebaid, a work in 12 books which is preserved in its entirety, is a long epic presenting the mythological material of the Theban cycle, and especially the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. A fragment of the Achilleid, an epic on the life of Achilles, also survives, and his collection of occasional poems in various meters, the Silvae (5 books), is equally deserving of mention. In the Divine Comedy Dante places Statius among the four greatest Latin poets, with Ovid, Virgil and Lucian.