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fontibus aureus exis” (iv. 389). There is an effective touch in the duel of the brothers, when the ghosts of Thebans are permitted by Pluto to throng the hills around and watch the combat; in the journey of Argia, too, in Bk. XII. there are some romantic scenes (xii. 228 sq., 250–54, 267–77).

(IV.) His love of epigram and point has already been mentioned; here we may notice that it is frequently seen at the ends of paragraphs, sometimes producing an effect of overstrain, even of obscurity. Examples may be found in i. 335, i. 547 (see note), i. 623, iii. 323, 498, v. 485, 533, vi. 795, x. 570.

(V.) Statius has great skill in versification, which shows itself not perhaps so much in the art of varying the pauses and the rhythm of his lines, though in this respect he has learnt more from Virgil than either Ovid or Lucan, as in his use of assonance and alliteration. The latter especially repays study, both in the single line, e.g. i. 123, ii. 89, v. 14, v. 615, and in passages of two or three lines, in which usually one or two consonant or vowel sounds predominate, with others as subordinate, e.g. ii. 118–19 (“f”), ii. 538 sq. (“e,” “t,” with “f,” “v,” “h”) or even in longer passages, e.g. i. 342–54). There is also sometimes remarkable symmetry in words, see the simile in iv. 93 sq., where the verb “erigitur” connects two groups, each consisting of two sub-groups, in each of which again noun and adjective are arranged in a chiasmus, and he often brackets his phrase between noun and adjective or participle, as in ii. 252–3, 718–9. It was, no doubt, technique of this kind, combined with the pointed phrases, the appearance of familiar similes and descriptions in more elaborate form, and