Statius and Virgil

At the end of the Thebaid, Statius enjoins his epic ''not to compete with the divine Aeneid but rather to follow at a distance and always revere its footprints''. The nature of the Thebaid''s interaction with the Aeneid is, however, a matter of debate. This 2007 book argues that the Thebaid reworks themes, scenes, and ideas from Virgil in order to show that the Aeneid''s representation of monarchy...