BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 103
Battle narrative and anachronismsI wish to turn now to another issue, the intrusion of anachronistic ele-
ments into the presentation of battle. Statius does, indeed, incorporate
references which suggest events after the era of Thebes, as with the
simile referring to mining in Spain at Theb. 6.880–5, or the reference
to succession to the Persian throne at 8.286–93; note too the reference
to spices offered at the funeral of Opheltes in Thebaid 6 (6.59–61;
209–10) which has more in common with the kind of thing described
by Statius in his account of funerals in the Silvae than with, say, the
funeral of Patroclus in the Iliad.^32 In battle scenes, one of the tech-
niques used by Statius is to evoke methods of combat which, if not
necessarily contemporary, nevertheless seem somewhat at odds with
the supposed setting of the epic in the heroic age. Now this is not
something particular to Statius:^33 Virgil for instance uses the word
legio to refer to contingents fighting in the Aeneid (e.g. legio Ae-
neadum, A. 10.120)^34 , and the word has a history in epic which goes
back to Naevius, and also Ennius, where the word is used on a number
of occasions, even denoting the Carthaginian forces at Ann. 292 Sk.
However, there is surely something of a difference between Virgil
applying the word to Italian or Trojan contingents who are proto-
Romans, and Statius using the term, as he does at Theb. 4.647, of the
Argive host, or at 10.195 Aonidum legio, “the host of the Aonians”, a
clever echo of Virgil’s use of legio with Aeneadum and indeed Au-
sonidum (A. 12.121), used of the Thebans sleeping before the night
attack against them: the word is as pointedly Italian in a Greek setting
as the word phalanx is intrusively Greek in Latin epic. Valerius Flac-
cus too uses legio, to describe the Argonauts (7.573), and even a con-
tingent of Scythians at V.Fl. 6.48 Bisaltae legio ductorque Colaxes,
“the legion of the Bisaltae and their leader Colaxes”, and the Dran-
gaeans at 6.507–8. One might argue that the use of the word is merely
conventional, but Valerius’ extraordinary simile at 6.402–6, where the
32 For Statius’ use of spices, see e.g. van Dam 1984, 148–51; Gibson 2006a, 152–
6.
33 An important study of ‘anachronisms’ in Virgil which is still relevant here is
Sandbach 1965–6, which includes remarks on Statius as well (34–5). See also (on
Virgil) Horsfall 2003, 352 and 412 on A. 11.616 and 11.770 for further discussion and
references.
34 Harrison 1991, 92 argues that the sense here is an original one of ‘muster’ or
‘levy’.