BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 107
tower on which the trumpeter Enyeus stands at Theb. 11.49 owes
more to historical warfare than it does to the kind of fighting de-
scribed in Homer.^48
ConclusionThese are just a few examples, but they show how content of the kind
Statius would have found in the historical narratives of poets such as
Lucan and possibly Silius (if Statius had heard any recitations) plays
its part in the mythological battle narrative of the Thebaid.^49 Historical
epics such as Lucan’s poem were able to draw on historiographers’
claims for the grandeur of their subjects; hence Lucan’s insistence in
BC 7 on troping the civil war as a war involving the whole world (see
e.g. Luc. 7.362–4, 617). Similarly, in Silius too, we find the poet at the
opening of the poem emphasising the grandeur and danger of the Sec-
ond Punic War, just as Livy (21.1) before him had, Silius’ remarks
that the victors came closer to disaster (Sil. 1.13–14) being a clear
echo of Livy. Thus it should be no surprise to see Statius conjuring up
historical modes of warfare in a poem on a mythical heroic subject: as
well as the interest raised by evoking more recent times, references to
weaponry such as scythed chariots and siege artillery adds to the sense
that we are not simply in a pre-Iliadic and primitive world of warfare,
but in something altogether grander.
And this, I think, is the key to understanding some of Statius’ other
approaches to the presentation of warfare as well. In a war so obvi-
ously involving individuals, single combats of the traditional epic
variety have to be present. Nevertheless, I hope that I have shown how
Statius often circumscribes such passages. Statius could not simply
copy the exact techniques of Homer and Virgil. But while there is
some compression in terms of coverage, there is much other material
which serves to heighten the portrayal of battle. Thus Statius includes
examples of similes which amplify the intensity of the situation in
which they arise, such as the simile of the horses taking on their mas-
ter’s rage, rather than direct the audience away to something else.
48 Cf. Rossi 2004, 182–3, and 186 on the connections between turres in Virgilian
narrative and in historiographical writing; see also Sandbach 1965–6, 33.
49 For useful observations on the chronological interrelationship of Statius and
Silius, see e.g. Dewar 1991, xxxi, Smolenaars 1994, xvii–xviii.