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Non Viribus Aequis: Some Problems in Virgil's Battle-Scenes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
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Little of the ‘Iliadic’ Aeneid is devoted to actual combat: two-fifths of books 7–12, on a generous count. Modern scholarship largely avoids the topic; certainly, Virgil has not yet found his Fenik. This paper grew from a desire to know just what determined victory in Virgilian combat, and though the actual answer may prove simple and unexciting, the question itself sheds new light upon the structure and personalities of the later books. The issue is vastly more complex in Homer's huge battle-scenes: there the ‘serious and grim Achaeans’ are more frequent victors and it is clear that the outcome of many duels will have pre-existed the creation of the Iliad and could not be altered. In Homer too, the vastly greater number of heroes developed into figures of individual interest results in the establishment of what is in effect an unofficial ‘rating’ system: not only is ‘The minor warriors of the Iliad' substantial and valuable study, but within that group, further clear discriminations of ranking apply: Idomeneus, Antilochus, Helenus, Deiphobus, for example, stand in mid-scale and Homer's system of ‘seeding’ excludes unexpected or improbable winners: thus when Aeneas meets Diomedes in Il. 5, he is clearly outclassed, but also, traditionally, survives the battles against the Achaeans. An honourably drawn fight would be too good a result for Aeneas' talents and a divine rescue is an alternative fortunately open to Homer. What then happens in the Aeneid?
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References
Notes
1. Cf. Raabe, H., Plurima Mortis Imago (München, 1974)Google Scholar, Willcock, M. M., PCPhS 29 (1983), 87ffGoogle Scholar., Nisbet, R. G. M., PVS 17 (1978–1980), 55ffGoogle Scholar.
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6. The classic exposition remains R. Heinze, Virgils epische Technik (repr. Stuttgart, 1965), pp. 171ff.
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20. Macr. 5.15.6f., Serv. on 7.647.
21. 10.411ff.; cf. Willcock (n. 1), 92. His death corresponds structurally to Sarpedon's: Knauer (n. 11), p. 298; the contrast of characterization requires no further comment.
22. Achates at 3.523 is interesting: Aeneas' cardboard companions are otherwise strikingly absent from bk. 3; Palinurus (3.513, 562) of course dies before the Trojans reach Italy. This minimal role for Aeneas' followers is a generally unrecognized oddity in bk. 3; the special function assigned to Anchises in that book perhaps reduces the room available: cf. Lloyd, R. B., AJP 78 (1957), 143fGoogle Scholar.
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25. Cf. Griffin (n. 3), pp. 140ff.; in Virgil see e.g. 7.535ff., 10.388f, 390ff. 12.517ff.
26. Summarized, Willcock (n. 1), 90f.
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29. Cf. Lennox (n. 17), 335ff.
30. On Virgil's tragic foreshadowing and unequal duels, cf. Krischer, T., Pap. Liverpool Lat. Sem. 2 (1979), 147fGoogle Scholar.; MacDermott, E. A., CJ 75 (1978–1980), 153ffGoogle Scholar. on the ‘unfair fight’ is inadequate.
31. 8.560ff. But see 12.93ff. for Actor the Auruncan; but could the spear be thought of as an inherited trophy, as the sword had been made for his father?
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34. At his best in Il. 13, 14, 15, 17. But the victory related by Virgil at 5.260ff. looks invented.
35. Cf. 10.82, 12.52, Austin on 1.752; note the spectre of his defeat by Diomedes: e.g. 1.96, 4.228.
36. Cf, more fully, my remarks in Vergilius forthcoming.
37. I am most grateful to Robert Peden and Stephen Harrison for attempting to moderate some of my excesses and for contributing much of value. Malcolm Willcock read the text with painstaking attention.