TESTO E FRAMMENTO NELL’ACHILLEIDE DI STAZIO

Abstract

Only one (long) fragment of the Achilleid, an epic poem by Statius, is preserved, but it is so strikingly original
that it has generated interest both in medieval culture and in recent times. The fortunes of this fragment
have made it appear as a complete, autonomous work of some sort, a text in the fullest sense, and this approach
has occluded other questions that we may want to ask. These include considerations of the relationship
between the extant text and the project of the entire poem and the political implications of the story as
it is narrated by Statius. The answers are extremely conjectural, but perhaps worth attempting.