a state of blind wrath and has come to represent the concept of warfare. Another important theme is the poem's depiction of nefas. In the language of Roman moral discourse, the term denotes something or someone in violation of societal and religious norms. The Thebaid, classicist Randall Ganiban writes, is unique in Latin poetry for the degree to which its protagonists indulge in such behaviour without serious moral opposition. Although the poem's heroes commit acts of exceptional violence, they are not balanced by a benign cast of gods. Instead, the gods' attitude has been described as "one of hostility or indifference". The world of the Thebaid may thus be viewed as anti-Rome because it indulges in the unchecked representation of one of Rome's strictest religious taboos. Episodicity In contrast with other Roman epics (notably, the Aeneid), the poem does not follow a linear form of plot development. Instead, it entails a variety of loosely related episodes. This observation is most valid in the build-up to the war and has traditionally been viewed as a poetic flaw. The Argives' extensive stint at Nemea is typical of this trend. Hypsipyle's tale, embedded within the Nemean episode, introduces nearly an entire book of material extraneous to the Theban legend. Though seemingly unconnected, the Thebaid'''s episodes reveal an intricate carmen perpetuum ('unbroken song'), in the manner of Ovid's Metamorphoses: an epic of diverse strands which are held together by an intricate internal structure. Textual history Date Although the precise dating of the Thebaid is unknown, the poem is thought to have been written during the reign of Domitian (80s AD) and published in the early 90s. Statius himself states that he had spent twelve years composing his poem, while the preface to his first book of Silvae, a collection of occasional poems published from 91 onwards, mentions its publication. These circumstances have led some critics to posit a date of publication in 90 or 91. The Latinist D. R. Shackleton Bailey, on the other hand, writes that the Thebaid was "probably" published in 92. The poems precedes by a few years the composition of the Achilleid, Statius' second, unfinished epic begun in 95. Transmission The text of the poem known to modern readers derives from several medieval manuscripts which trace their roots back to the 9th century AD. This tradition is thought to fall into two distinct branches. One, labelled P as a shorthand