2. The Achilleis, also dedicated to Domitian, is an incomplete epic, consisting of one Book and part of a second. It was later than the Thebaid, for Statius was working at it in A.D. 95: Silv. iv. 4, 93,
‘Nunc vacuos crines alio subit infula nexu:
Troia quidem magnusque mihi temptatur Achilles.’
The poem was intended to cover the whole career of Achilles, including his retreat in Scyros before the Trojan War, and his exploits after the death of Hector, which did not enter into the plan of the Iliad: cf. l. 3,
‘Quamquam acta viri multum inclita cantu
Maeonio, sed plura vacant: nos ire per omnem
(sic amor est) heroa velis.’
3. The Silvae, which represent the poet in his less serious mood, are occasional poems on miscellaneous subjects, published in five separate Books. Cf. 1, praef. ‘Diu multumque dubitavi ... an hos libellos, ... cum singuli de sinu meo prodierint, congregates ipse dimitterem.’ Many of them were thrown off in haste at the command of the Emperor or the request of friends: cf. such expressions as ‘stili facilitas’ (ii. praef.), ‘libellorum temeritas,’ ‘hanc audaciam stili nostri’ (iii. praef.). Of the poems in Book i. he says, ‘nullum ex illis biduo longius tractum, quaedam et in singulis diebus effusa’ (i. praef.). Each of the Books is introduced by a prose preface.
None of the Silvae appeared before A.D. 92; for Rutilius Gallicus, for whom i. 4 was written, died in that year, and the poem was not published till after his death (i. praef.). Book v. was probably a posthumous work: there is no proper preface, and the third and fifth poems are incomplete.
Hexameter verse is employed for all the Silvae except six. Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza.
4. The only other poem of which there is distinct evidence is the pantomime Agave, written not later than A.D. 84, the year in which the player Paris was put to death (Juv. Sat. 7, 86, quoted above).