Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/915

STATOR. evidently thrown off in haste, and probably re- garded by their author as' trifles of comparatively little importance, produce a much more pleasing effect than either the Thebaid or the Achilleid, in which the original strength of expression seems to have been worn away by repeated polishing, and the native freedom of the verse to have been shackled and cramped by a laborious process of correction. The Editio Princeps of the Silvae is a quarto volume, without date and without name of place or printer, not later probably than 1470. The Silvae will be found also in the editions of Catul- lus, Tibullus, and Propertius, which appeared in 1472, 1475, and 1481, and in the edition of Catullus of 1473. The text was revised and pub- lished with a commentary by Domitius Calderinus, in a volume containing also remarks upon Ovid and Propertius, fol. Rom. Arnold Pannartz, 1475. The best editions are those of Markland, whose critical notes evince remarkable sagacity, 4to. Lond. 1728, and of Sillig, 4to. Drosd. 1827, which is a reprint of Markland, with some ad- ditional matter. The Editio Princeps of the Thebais and Achil- leis is a folio volume, without date and without name of place or printer, but belonging probably to the year 1470. Besides this there are a consider- able number of editions of these poems, either together or separately, printed in the 15th century, a sure indication of the estimation in which they were held. The Editio Princeps of the collected works is a falio volume, without date, and without name of place or printer. It contains the commentary of Calderinus on the Silvae, and must therefore liave been published after the year 1475. No really good edition of Statins has yet appeared. That of Ifurd, which was a work of great promise, was never carried beyond the first volume, which con- tains the Silvae only, 8vo. Leips. 1817. The best for all practical purposes is that which forms one of the series of Latin Classics by Lemaire. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1825—1830. The first five books of the Thebaid were trans- lated into English verse by Thomas Stephens, 8vo. Lond. 1648, and the whole poem by W. L. Lewis, 2 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1767 and 1773. The trans- lation of the first book by Pope will be found in all editions of his works. The Achilleid was translated into English verse by Howard. 8vo. Lond. 166'0. Of translations into other languages, the only one of any note is the version into Italian of the Thebaid by Cardinal Bentivoglio, 4to. Rom. 1729, and 8vo. Milan, 1821. [W. R.j STA'TIUS PRISCUS. [Priscus.] STA'TIUS PRO'XIMUS. [Proximus.] STA'TIUS QUADRA'TUS. [Quadratus.] STA'TIUS SEBC)'SUS. [Sebosus.] STA'TIUS TRE'BIUS delivered Compsa, a town of the Hirpini, to Hannibal after the battle of Cannae, b. c. 216. ( Liv. xxiii. 1.) STA'TIUS VALENS wrote the life of the emperor Trajan. (Lamprid. Alex. Sever. 48.) STATOR, a Roman surname of Jupiter, de- scribing him as staying the Romans in their flight from an enemy, and generally as preserving the ex- isting order of things, (Liv. i. 12, x. 37 ; Cic CatA. 13; Flor. i. 1 ; Senec. De Bene/, iv. 7 ; Plin. H. N. ii. 53 ; August. De Civ. Dei, iii. 1 3.) [L. S.] 1 STAURACIUS. .903 STATO^IUS, a centurion in the army of P. and Cn. Scipio in Spain, in b. c. 213, was sent by these generals as an ambassador to Syphax, the king of the Numidians, with whom he remained in order to train foot-soldiers in the Roman tactics (Liv. xxiv. 48, xxx. 28). He appears to be the same as the L. Statorius, who afterwards accom- panied C. Laelius, when he went on an embassy to Syphax. (Frontin. i. 1. § 3). STATO'RIUS VICTOR, a rhetorician men^ tioned by the elder Seneca, was, like him, a native of Corduba (Cordova) in Spain. (Senec. Suas. 2.) STAURA'CIUS (5Toupa/fJos), Emperor of Constantinople, son of the Emperor Nicephorus T. [NicEPHORUs I.], first the colleague of his father, and after his death for a short time sole emperor. He was solemnly crowned as emperor in the month of December a. d. 803 in the second year of his father's reign in the ambo or pulpit of the great Church (St. Sophia) at Constantinople, by the hand of the patriarch Tarasius : being alto- gether unfitted, according to Theophanes, either in personal appearance, bodily strength, or judg- ment, for such a dignity. Possibly this unfitness arose from his youth, for it was not until Dec. 807, four years after his coronation, that Stauracius was married. His bride was Theophano, an Athenian lady, kinswoman of the late Empress Irene [Irene], who was selected by Nicephorus for his son after a careful search among the unmarried ladies of the empire, notwithstanding she was already betrothed to a husband, with whom, though not fully married to him, her union had been con- summated. The choice of so contaminated a partner dishonoured the unhappy prince to whom she was given as a wife, and the unbridled lust of Nicephorus cast additional contempt on his son by the seduction about the time of the marriage of two young ladies more beautiful than Theophano, and who had been selected as competitors with her for the hand of the young emperor. In May A.D. 811 Stauracius left Constantinople with his father to take the field against the Bulgarians at the head of an army, the number of which struck terror into the heart of the Bulgarian king and induced him to sue for peace, which was refused. The first encounters, which were favourable to the Greeks, appear to have been directed bj-^ Stauracius, for his father ascribed them to his skill and good fortune. The Bulgarians again sued for peace and again their suit was rejected. In the following fatal battle, in which Nicephorus was killed and the Greek army almost annihilated, Stauracius received a wound in or near the spine, under the torture of which he escaped with diflSculty to Adrianople. Here he was proclaimed autocrator,sole emperor, by the oflicers who surrounded him, and this announcement was received by those who had escaped with him from the slaughter with a delight which evidenced his personal popularity. Michael the Curopalata, who had married Procopia, daughter of Nicephorus, and who had also escaped from the slaughter, but unwounded, was solicited by some of his friends to assume the purple ; but he declined, pro- fessedly out of regard to the oaths of fealty which he had taken to Nicephorus and Stauracius, perhaps from a conviction that the attempt would not suc> ceed. Stauracius was conveyed in a litter to Con- stantinople, where he was exhorted by the patriarch Nicephorus [Nicephorus, Byzantine writers, 3m 4