The Thebais of Publius Papinius Statius was finished at Naples, the native town of its author, and dedicated to the Emperor Domitian. This was between the years A.D. 86 and go, but there is much difficulty about the precise fixing of these dates. He is alluded to, perhaps satirised, by Juvenal, in the following lines :—
Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicae
Thebaidos, laetam fecit cum Statius urbem,
Promisitque diem; tanta dulcedine captos
Afficit ille animos, tantaque libidine vulgi
Auditur ; sed, cum fregit subsellia versu,
Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agaven. Sat. vii. 82.