All that remains. Statius' Thebaid and the tragedies of Accius

The Thebaid is an epic poem based on a tragic myth and draws heavily on Attic and Senecan tragedy. Nevertheless, the connection between the Thebaid and Accius’ tragedies should not be underestimated, despite the scarcity of surviving remains from Republican theatre. This paper explores Accian fragments as potential intertexts for the Thebaid, aiming to identify further lexical and thematic similarities between the poem and its tragic models. In some cases, it addresses episodes whose links to Accius have hitherto been unexplored. The results of this study reveal the significant influence of Accius’ tragedies on the Thebaid, often mediated through Virgil, Lucan, or Seneca—a series of ‘window references’ that highlight the importance of Republican theatre for Statius’ epic.