Statius' Silvae and the Poetics of Empire

Carole Newlands is Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has published Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti (1995).

• 1. Introduction; 2. Embodying the statue: Silvae 1.1 and 4.6; 3. Engendering the house: Silvae 1.2 and 3.4; 4. Imperial pastoral: Vopiscus' villa in Silvae 1.3; 5. Dominating nature: Pollio's villa in Silvae 2.2; 6. Reading the Thebaid: Silvae 1.5; 7. The Emperor's Saturnalia: Silvae 1.6; 8. Dining with the emperor: Silvae 4.2; 9. Building the imperial highway: Silvae 4.3.

Review of the hardback: '… a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Flavian poetry … A sophisticated and relevant critique … an ambitious and learned project, characterised throughout by an alert eye for detail and inter- (and intra-) textual connections … A book-length study of Silvae had been badly needed for some time and this one is bound to give ample food for thought and promote important debates on the Flavian era and Flavian art.' Efi Spentzou, Royal Holloway, University of London