The epic poem the Thebaid by P. Papinius Statius, written circa AD 80 to 92, deals with the fraternal strife between Oedipus’s sons Eteocles and Polyneices for the mastery of Thebes. Book VII describes the forced march of the Seven and their arrival at Thebes, Iocasta’s vain attempt at mediation and Amphiarus’s spectacular katabasis. Apart from being a commentary in the philological sense, this book examines in detail the poet’s mannered style and analyzes the text as a system of intertextual references. In addition to Homer and Vergil, specific passages from Euripides, Lucan, Seneca and especially Valerius Flaccus were exploited by Statius, often at the same time, for his challenging imitation. The identification of these sources offers the key to interpret and evaluate the poet’s artistic intentions. The introduction discusses Statius’s technique of multiple imitation. The information brought together has been made accesssible by full indexes and an appendix listing the passages imitated by Statius.