1. There are a number of new readings of the ending of the Thebaid. See esp. Hardie, P.R., ‘Closure in Latin Epic’, in Roberts, D., Dunn, F. and Fowler, D. (eds.), Classical Closure: Reading the End in Greek and Latin Literature (Princeton 1997), 139–62Google Scholar; Braund, Susanna, ‘Ending Epic: Statius, Theseus and a Merciful Release’, PCPS 42 (1997), 1–23Google Scholar.

2. Cf. Legras, L., Étude sur la Thébaide de Stace (Paris 1905), 148Google Scholar: ‘C’est le duel d’Éteocle et de Polynice qui doit mettre fin a la guerre et terminer l’action principale’; for the relationship of Eteocles/Polynices to Aeneas/Turnus see Venini, P. (ed.), P. Papinii Statii Thebaidos Liber XI: Introduzione, Testo Criticale, Commento e Traduzione (Florence 1970), xviiiGoogle Scholar; id., Studi Statiani (Pavia 1971), 22Google Scholar; Ogilvie, R.M., Roman Literature and Sociel, (Brighton 1980), 232Google Scholar: ‘There has to be a final duel in which Polynices and Eteocles re-enact the fight of Tumus and Aeneas.’ Ogilvie does not account for the ‘final duel’ occurring before the actual end of the poem. Malamud, M.A., ‘Happy Birthday, Dead Lucan: (P)raising the Dead in Silvae 2.7’, in Boyle, A.J. (ed.), Roman Literature and Ideology: Ramus Essays for J.P. Sullivan (Bendigo 1995), 169–98, at 191f.Google Scholar, sees the final duel as Lucanian, rather than Virgilian: ‘At the narrative climax of the poem, the mutual slaughter of Eteocles and Polynices, Statius is at his most Lucanian, exploding into an impassioned apostrophe to his protagonists in which the desire to commemorate is poised against the desire to conceal (11.574–79).’ See also Venini Studi, 45ff., for Lucan’s influence in Thebaid 11.

3. Gossage, A.J., ‘Statius’, in Dudley, D.R. (ed.), Neronians and Flavians (London 1972), 184–235Google Scholar, at 192f: ‘Some severe criticisms have been made against the Thebaid from time to time. Besides occasional obscurities of detail and lapses from good taste which mar certain passages, it is held that the poem is episodic and lacks unity, that some of the episodes, especially Adrastus’ narration in Book I and the whole of Books V, VI, and XII, are unnecessary excrescences, irrelevant to the main story, that the double motivation of the action obscures the poet’s main purpose, and that there is no central hero.’ See also Summers, W.C., The Silver Age of Latin Literature (London 1920), 51f.Google Scholar: ‘Nothing could be much worse than the composition: the first six books drag terribly, scenes and similes recur, the characters are very rudely drawn, the two brothers overshadowed by the other chiefs’; Duff, J.W., A Literary History of Rome in the Silver Age: From Tiberius to Hadrian (London 1927), 377Google Scholar: ‘If Statius had studied the construction and proportion of his story more exactly, if he had condensed some and rigidly excised others of his episodes, the Thebaid would have gained in unity and attractiveness, while his readers and his reputation might have been increased by the reappearance as separate poems of the best among the banished portions.’

4. Lancaster, , The New Yorker, Jan. 1 1996, 9–10Google Scholar.

5. Kermode, F., The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction (Oxford 1966), 6Google Scholar: ‘In their general character our fictions have certainly moved away from the simplicity of the paradigm; they have become more “open”. But they still have, and so far as one is capable of prediction must continue to have, a real relation to simpler fictions about the world. Apocalypse is a radical instance of such fictions and a source of others.’ See also Ricoeur, P., Time and Narrative, tr. McLaughlin, and Pellauer, (Chicago 1984), ii.22–28Google Scholar, for Kermode’s influence on the story of endings.

6. Brooks, P., Reading for the Plot (New York 1984), 314Google Scholar.

7. ‘Baring Striptease’s Humor’, Los Angeles Times, May 22 1996.

8. Fowler, D., ‘First Thoughts on Closure: Problems and Prospects’, MD 22 (1989), 75–122, at 78Google Scholar. See also id., ‘Second Thoughts on Closure’, in Roberts, Dunn and Fowler (n.1 above), 3–22, at 3f.

9. Hardie (n.1 above), 139.

10. Quint, D., ‘Repetition and Ideology in the Aeneid’, MD 24 (1991), 9–54, at 9Google Scholar.

11. Fowler, ‘First’ (n.8 above), 82.

12. Contrast to Smith, B.H., Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (Chicago 1968Google Scholar); Fowler, ‘First’ (n.8 above); Hardie, P.R., The Epic Successors of Vergil (Cambridge 1983Google Scholar); Quint (n.10 above).

13. Skutsch, O., The Annals of Q. Ennius (Oxford 1985), 553Google Scholar: ‘Ennius intended to end the Annals with an account of the campaign conducted by his patron M. Fulvius Nobilior in Aetolia, of which he was a witness himself, concluding with Fulvius’ triumph in 187 BC and the founding of the temple Herculis Musarum.’

14. Virgil contrasts his poetic activities with Octavian’s military achievements, which can be interpreted as an assertion of his poetry’s endurance.

15. See Boyle, A.J., The Chaonian Dove: Studies in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil (Leiden 1986Google Scholar), and Hardie (n.1 above) for readings of the end of the Aeneid.

16. Cf. Aeneid 12.1, Tumus ut…, which focuses on the final challenge for Aeneas and Turnus’ defeat as resolution of the problems in Italy.

17. Horace Odes 2.5 opens with nondum.

18. Virgil’s use of interea at 5.1 is very effective in contrasting the actions of Dido in Book 4 with Aeneas’ departure from Carthage.

19. For the connection of the proem and Georgics 3 see Newman, J. K., ‘De Statio Epico Ani-madversiones’, Latomus 34 (1975), 80–89, at 81Google Scholar.

20. Malamud (n.2 above), 190.

21. Contra Braund (n.1 above), 8f., who argues that Statius is emphasising closure: ‘To express this in its strongest form, Statius’ triple supplement to the Aeneid could be taken as a critique of the lack of closure provided by the end of the Aeneid, as a sign that the “message” needed to be spelled out more explicitly, as Statius’ own epic signature.’

22. Smith (n.12 above), 117: ‘The passage of time, however, is continuous; and although temporal sequence provides the poet with an excellent principle of generation, it does not provide him with a termination point. He—his story, his poem—must, at some point, stop; but the conclusion, with respect to time alone, will always be an arbitrary one.’

23. Smith (n.12 above), 118.

24. Fowler, ‘First’ (n.8 above), 78. See also Fowler, ‘Second’ (n.8 above), 3f.

25. See Braund (n.1 above), 12–16, for presentation of Theseus as bringing closure to the Thebaid, esp. 14: ‘As a figure of supreme power, it is he and he alone who can bring the narrative to a close.’

26. Vessey, D.W.T.C., Statius and the Thebaid (Cambridge 1973), 308Google Scholar.

27. Cf. Ahl, F.M., ‘Statius’ Thebaid: A Reconsideration’, ANRW 2.32.5 (1986), 2803–912Google Scholar, at 2897: ‘The difference between Theseus and the other warriors of the epic is that he has a simple solution to what is now a straightforward problem. Like Maeon, he confronts a tyrant, weapon in hand. Unlike Maeon, he uses his weapon on the tyrant: he attacks the problem not himself, and thus brings at least temporary halt to the cycle of war.’

28. Cf. Ahl, F., Kings, Man, and Gods in Thebaid of Statius (Diss. Texas 1966), 57Google Scholar: ‘In a very real way, the world of peace at home, and the carrying of civilisation overseas are found in Theseus’ person and city.’

29. Vessey (n.26 above), 311: ‘It is mercy that distinguishes a king from a tyrant; it is the glory and the salvation of monarchs.’

30. Vessey (n.26 above), 308.

31. Vessey (n.26 above), 315.

32. See Dominik, W.J., ‘Monarchal Power and Imperial Politics in Statius’ Thebaid’, in Boyle, A.J. (ed.), The Imperial Muse: Flavian Epicist to Claudian (Bendigo 1990), 74–97Google Scholar, for the presentation of monarchy in the Thebaid, esp. 83: ‘Assumption of monarchal power foredooms its possessor and disposes him to a lack of feeling and humanity.’

33. Cf. Ahl (n.27 above), 2893, on the presentation of Amazons: ‘They are humiliated captives, not aggressive invaders as in Aeschylus, where they are forcibly dispossessed of the Areopagus by Theseus. Although their limbs and their chastity are threatened, not by the tyrannical Creon, but by Theseus, liberator of the Argive women, they utter no complaint.’

34. Theseus’ shield bears the story of Theseus’ exploits in Crete with the Minotaur, and the story of Ariadne’s role in helping him achieve his goal (Theb. 12.665–76).

35. Hippolyte’s pregnancy foreshadows the birth of Hippolytus which will lead to the tragedy of Phaedra (Theb. 12.539).

36. McClary, S., Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality (Minneapolis 1991), 9fGoogle Scholar. Gendered language is also used of verse, for example the term ‘feminine ending’ in Gross, H. (ed.), The Structure of Verse (New York 1979), 282Google Scholar: ‘Feminine ending: A hypermetrical line with a final unstressed syllable.’ In Latin literature verse and style are also gendered.

37. Cf. the use of terms such as mollis and durus (‘soft’ and ‘hard’) to refer to poetic forms and Seneca’s criticisms of Maecenas’ literary style, Ep. 114. There is also the masculine and feminine caesura in Latin verse; cf., Lane’s treatment of dactylic hexameter (Lane, G.M., A Latin Grammar [New York 1926], 463Google Scholar): ‘A caesura which comes immediately after the thesis of a foot is called masculine; one which falls in the middle of the arsis (i.e. after the first short of a dactyl) is termed feminine. The Roman writers show a strong preference for masculine principal caesuras, and in general their treatment of the caesura is more strict than that of the Greek poets.’

38. Cf. Aen. 9.491 (et funus lacerum tellus habet, ‘and the earth holds your mangled corpse’) and Theb. 12.328f. (proiectus caespite nudo/hoc patriae telluris habes, ‘you, thrown down on naked earth, hold this of your paternal land’).

39. illam incendentem luctus ldaeus et Actor/Ilionei monitu et multum lacrimantis Iuli/corripiunt interque manus sub tecta reponunt (‘by command of Ilioneus and the copiously weeping Iulus, Idaeus and Actor seize her as she inflames grief and place her back inside between their hands’, ken. 9.500–02).

40. Cf. Richlin, A. (ed.), Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome (New York 1992), 158–79Google Scholar.

41. Anderson, W.S., Ovid’s Metamorphoses Books 6–10 (Norman OK 1972Google Scholar), ad loc.

42. Leach, E.W., ‘Ekphrasis and the Theme of Artistic Failure in Ovid’s Metamorphoses’, Ramus 3 (1974), 102–43, at 103fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43. Leach (n.42 above), 104.

44. Leach (n.42 above), 118.

45. Leach (n.42 above), 118.

46. See D’Ambra, E., Private Lives, Imperial Virtues: The Frieze of the Forum Transitorium in Rome (Princeton 1993), 104–08Google Scholar.

47. Martial Epigrams 1.3.1f.; 1.117.9–12.

48. See Coleman, K., ‘The Emperor Domitian and Literature’, ANRW II.32.1 (1986), 3087–3115, at 3111–15, esp. 3112Google Scholar, for Domitian’s relationship to literature and censorship.

49. Exordium may also be translated as ‘warp of web.’

50. Statius also compares the conversations of women to weaving at Theb. 8.636: talia nectebant.

51. Dominik, W.J., Speech and Rhetoric in Statius’ Thebaid (Olms 1994), 132Google Scholar.

52. Statius discusses how Lucan’s epic Bellum Civile is a proper monument to Pompey the Great: Pharo cruenta/Pompeio dabis altius sepulcrum (‘you will give Pompey a higher monument than bloody Pharos’, Silvae 2.7.7 If.)

53. Henderson, J.G.W., ‘Form Remade/Statius’ Thebaid’, in Boyle, A.J. (ed.), Roman Epic (London 1993), 162–91, at 188Google Scholar.

54. Vessey (n.26 above), 1: ‘All (Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus) accepted Virgil as their master and the Aeneid as the perfect exemplar of their genre, to be imitated and worshipped, but never equalled.’

55. carmen amicae/Thebaidos (‘the song of his Theban girlfriend’, Juvenal Sat. 7.82f.)

56. See Malamud (n.2 above), 193: ‘The penultimate ending of the Thebaid begins with words….which reveal epic’s impulse to grieve, and to commemorate, and thereby to re-instill the seductive and dangerous values of pietas and patria. But—and this is important—this is the story Statius does not tell. His mourning women do not resolve into the figure of Atalanta grieving for her dead child. The ferocious ethic of the battlefield is precisely not balanced at the end by the doleful voice of the victimised female. Instead, Statius raises the possibility of such a commemorative text—and then changes, literally, the subject. The women in the text are dismissed, while the text itself becomes Woman.’

57. Statius also makes the connection of weaving to poetic production explicit in the Silvae when he discusses the poetry of Pollius: seu nostram quatit ille chelyn seu dissona nectit/carmina siue minax ultorem stringit iambon (‘he strikes my own lyre or weaves together discordant songs or, threatening, draws out avenging iambic’, Silv. 2.2.114f.).

58. I wish to thank A.J. Boyle for his continued support of this project. I would also like to thank those who have heard or read this paper in one of its many forms, especially Bill Dominik, Martha Malamud, Judy Hallett and Steven Rutledge.