BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 87
est of the readers. This is an issue that is arguably germane to martial
epic in general.^8 Thus Harrison in his commentary on Aeneid 10 re-
marks that “The fundamental problem in writing the ‘Iliadic’ Aeneid
was that of maintaining vitality and interest in a long epic war-
narrative”.^9 A few examples of how Statius achieves compression to
this end may be given here.
If we consider the outbreak of fighting in Thebaid 7, there are
really two different beginnings to the combat: the episode of the sa-
cred tigers who are killed by Aconteus, who is then slain by a priest of
Bacchus (Theb. 7.564–607), leading to a confused outbreak of general
fighting (Theb. 7.608–27), which is then separated off from the begin-
ning of fighting proper and the death of Pterelas at Theb. 7.632–9 by
the poet’s invocation of the Muses (Theb. 7.628–31). As Smolenaars
notes in his commentary, the killing of the sacred tigers of Bacchus is
comparable to the episode of Silvia’s stag in Aeneid 7.^10 However,
St atius already is narrowing the focus of attention, especially if one
compares Aeneid 7 here. In Virgil, the stag’s killing leads not into set-
piece battle but a rustic brawl, as indicated by the descriptions of the
Italian rustics seizing whatever weapons are available for combat
(Verg. A. 7.507–8), which eventually leads to the killing of Galaesus
(A. 7.535–9). Not even then does Virgil produce his invocation of the
Muses, which in any case introduces the catalogue of Italians (A.
7.641), not the opening of combat, since the catalogue is preceded by
Allecto’s report to Juno and the formalisation of hostilities when the
gates of war are opened. Indeed, formal fighting in the Aeneid does
not begin until Book 9, with Turnus hurling his spear (A. 9.52),
though as it happens the Trojans are under siege. The first proper
fighting in the second half of the Aeneid is in fact, oddly, the night
raid of Nisus and Euryalus, which is followed by a pause with the
reaction of Euryalus’ mother, before a general scene of battle at A.
9.503–24 leading to the invocation of the Muses that precedes Turnus’
8 Thus Vessey 1973, 283.
9 Harrison 1991, xxxi; cf. Horsfall 1987, 54: “There are of course moments of
high excitement ..., but Virgil lacks the space to invent or develop enough major
participants to sustain and vary a complex battle-narrative, and, it has further been
suspected, perhaps not unfairly, that the desire was also lacking.” It is worth noting
that battles could be attractive subject material for readers: see e.g. Tac. Ann. 4.32.1
and 4.33.3 with Martin and Woodman 1989, 171 and 175.
10 Smolenaars 1994, 253.