 Statius' development of allegory helped establish the importance of that technique in Medieval poetry.In the Renaissance, the "Silvae," thanks to Poliziano, helped inspire an entire genre of collections of miscellaneous, occasional poetry called "Sylvae" which remained popular throughout the period, inspiring works by Hugo Grotius and John Dryden.Dante mentions Statius in "De vulgari eloquentia" along with Ovid, Virgil, and Lucan as one of the four "regulati poetae" (ii, vi, 7).