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ever, are so scanty that any estimate of his debt to it must be purely conjectural, and the same applies to the Oedipodeia and Thebais of the Epic Cycle. Of extant authors, Aeschylus and Sophocles appear to have contributed comparatively little, for, to take one or two instances, the character of Eteocles is quite different in Aeschylus’s Septem, and in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex Jocasta commits suicide and Oedipus leaves the city immediately after the discovery, while in the Thebaid they are both there all the time. On the other hand the Phoenissae of Euripides is closely followed (probably also the Hypsipyle^[1]) and Seneca’s Phoenissae. For the narrative of Hypsipyle both Statius and Valerius Flaccus elaborate considerably on the simpler account of Apollonius of Rhodes.

There is, in fact, little if anything to show that Statius has done more than work on the traditional epic material in a manner that seemed to him best suited to the requirements of his audience; that he was successful and enjoyed considerable popularity as a poet we may gather both from the passage of Juvenal quoted above and from the closing lines of the poem itself (xii. 812–15):

“Of a truth already present Fame hath of her bounty paved thy way, and begun to hold thee up, young as thou art, to future ages. Already great-hearted