86 BRUCE GIBSON
(375–652) and Euripides’ Phoenissae (106–81, 1104–40).^3 The gates
are in fact rarely referred to in Statius: one exception is the passage at
10.493–508 where the Thebans are in retreat after the night raid of
Thiodamas, and all the gates are closed, with the exception of the
Ogygian gates where some Spartans momentarily get into the city.
Nevertheless, the decision not to include a wholesale picture of com-
bat at the gates of the kind which we find in tragedy illustrates from
the outset Statius’ innovative approach to battle narrative.^4
This paper will examine various techniques of battle narrative in
the Thebaid. I will be considering the topic under various headings:
first of all, density of coverage, and then narrative strategies and de-
vices which are employed by the poet, including what one might
loosely refer to as Roman or anachronistic intrusions into the poet’s
presentation of warfare. There are of course many features which Sta-
tius has in common with Homer and Virgil in the presentation of bat-
tle,^5 and it would certainly be possible to document such aspects in the
same way in which scholars such as Willcock and Horsfall have writ-
ten about Virgil, for example.^6 However, it may be instructive to look
for areas of difference as well, which will be the focus of this paper.
CoverageThe issue of density of coverage is an important one in the Thebaid.
The book’s composition in twelve books alone, and also the fact that
fighting at Thebes begins in Book 7 might suggest obvious grounds
for comparison with Virgil’s Aeneid.^7 However, one point that does
emerge is how Statius foreshortens battle narrative in his poem, some-
times to an extraordinary degree. In part we may see this as Statius’
response to the problem of how to sustain the narrative and the inter-
3 For the gates of Thebes, see Apollod. 3.6.6 and Paus. 9.8.4–7 with Frazer ad
loc.; cf. Henderson 1998b, 226. While Diggle accepts Morus’ deletion of the list of
the Seven at E. Ph. 1104–40, see Mastronarde 1978 for a defence of these lines.
4 See e.g. Vessey 1973, 270–316, and McNelis 2007, 124–51 for useful treat-
ments of the second half of the Thebaid.
5 For a treatment which stresses the traditional aspects of Statius’ battle narrative,
see Miniconi 1951, 95–9.
6 Willcock 1983; Horsfall 1987. Note also the invaluable discussions of Virgilian
and post-Virgilian battle scenes in Raabe 1974, 166–241.
7 For links between Thebaid 7 and Aeneid 7 (and also 1) see Smolenaars 1994,
xviii–xxvi; see also Criado 2000, 75–7; Ganiban 2007, 97–116.