Statius is the Latin poet whom the mountain makes tremble. In canto XXI, the earthquake and the souls' praise are the sign that he, after more than five hundred years in punishment, has felt his will free to climb. He appears behind Dante and Virgil, speaks before being seen and wishes peace, as Christ did to the two on the road, according to Luke, and from then on he accompanies them.
He introduces himself by date and by glory: he had the name that lasts longest and is most honored, famous, but still without faith. He sang of Thebes and then of the great Achilles, but fell on the road with the second load. The flame that warmed his ardor came from the Aeneid, which was for him a mother and a nurse. Dante, at Virgil's request, reveals who is accompanying him, and Statius bows to embrace the master's feet; Virgil stops him, reminding him that both are shades.
In canto XXII he tells that he was not miserly but prodigal, and that a line of Virgil corrected him. The master's verses on the age that is renewed, which he read as a prophecy of Christ, led him to faith, and he compares them to a light that someone carries behind himself. He became a Christian who kept his faith closed off, out of fear, and sloth cost him more than four centuries. In canto XXV, at Virgil's request, he explains how the soul is formed and why the shade, without a body, still speaks, laughs and weeps. He is the third walker and the explainer of what Virgil's reason no longer reaches.