Dr Vessey examines Thebaid as an elaborate and sustained allegory of the emotions - a study in the extremes of human behaviour.

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 Roman poet P. Papinius Statius (ca. 45-96) is the author of two epics (the "Thebaid" and the unfinished "Achilleid") and a large corpus of occasional verse

Written during the 1st century AD, Statius' Silvae praises or pays tribute to a number of individuals, most notably the emperor Domitiam whom Statius refers to