This is the first in-depth exploration of the extent and significance of Ovidian intertexts in Statius' Thebaid, with particular emphasis on the interconnectedness of poetics, politics, and material culture. By cross-fertilising literary and intertextual analysis with New Historicist, Cultural Materialistic, and Intermedial approaches to Latin literature, this study suggests that despite their Virgilian patina, Statius' depictions of landscapes, heroes, and gods are pervaded by verbal and semantic allusions to Ovid's mythical narratives. This multi-layered allusivity not only prompts alternative readings of the Augustan classics, but also challenges the reader's perceptions of the Augustanising worldview that the urban landscape of Flavian Rome was arguably meant to convey. The poetic and political significance of Statius' Theban saga thereby moves from a critical rewriting of the Aeneid into a reflection on the new socio-political issues of Flavian Rome.