The traditional problem of Silver Latin poetry, and Silver Latin epic especially, has been its attraction to the extravagant, the grotesque, the infinite, the absurd, in other words, its propensity for excess. Statius' Thebaid in particular has been considered guilty of this offence. Recent criticism, however, has tended to see Silver Latin poetry not simply as being excessive, but as being deeply concerned with excess—cultural, ideological, and poetic. In this paper I hope to demonstrate that such a concern is a prominent characteristic of Statius' Thebaid, by exploring perhaps the most important manifestation of excess in the poem, madness. I will argue that the Thebaid's excessiveness is fundamental and necessary, rather than detrimental, to its overall effect. But this paper, like the Thebaid, will not concentrate exclusively on excess, for it will prove to be only the starting-point for a specific interpretation of the patterns of action and madness in the Thebaid.