My interest in Statius' Siluae began many years ago when, as an undergraduate at St Andrews University, Scotland, I attended a series of brilliant lectures on these poems taught by Chris Carter. He conveyed to me his excitement about the novelty of the Siluae, their bold experimentation with language and poetic convention. Later, at the start of graduate school at UC Berkeley, the medieval scholar Alain Renoir ordered me to start my studies by reading Statius, who was not at that time of first order of importance for classicists. However, a positive shift in interest in this Flavian poet has taken place, and in this edition I have been able to take advantage of the important textual and literary critical work done on the Siluae in recent decades. In keeping with the aims of the series, I have tried to explain the cultural context of the seven poems of book 2 as well as elucidate Statius' text. It is my hope that this edition will make Statius' Siluae more accessible by contributing to an appreciation of their innovations in style, theme and genre; and by helping elucidate Roman culture in the age of Domitian and Statius' sophisticated engagement with it. Statius, who was born and raised in Naples, wrote the Siluae shortly after the eruption of Vesuvius; his Siluae provide rare, important social testimony to the culture of which the art and artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum give us tantalising glimpses.