chapter four
CANNIBALISING HISTORY: LIVIAN MOMENTS IN STATIUS’ THEBAID
Helen Lovatt
Introduction
Statius’ Thebaid is an epic of gore, Greek myth and the grotesque; Livy’s history is a monumental account of Rome from its founding, compre- hensive, and often dry. Surely these two must represent the polar oppo- sites of poetry and history? Yet the death of Tydeus in a cannibalistic frenzy, emblem of ‘Silver Latin’ excess and horror, has an analogue in Livy’s account of the aftermath of Cannae.1 Tydeus is killed from afar by Melanippus, and with his last burst of energy sends a spear after him; as he lies dying, he asks his friends to bring him the body, and gazes joyfully at the head (Stat. Theb. .–): infelix contentus erat: plus exigit ultrix Tisiphone; iamque inflexo Tritonia patre venerat et misero decus immortale ferebat, atque illum effracti perfusum tabe cerebri aspicitetvivoscelerantemsanguinefauces (nec comites auferre valent) Theunluckymanwascontent:avengingTisiphone exacted more; and now Athena had come, after persuading her father, and was bringing immortal glory to the wretched man, and saw him drenched in the gore of broken brain and polluting his throat with living blood (nor were his comrades strong enough to take it away) In Livy, the un-named Roman forms the climax of a list of spectacles viewed by Hannibal on the battlefield (..):
1 This analogy is noted by Dewar () and Pagán () n. , though neither commit themselves to direct influence. helen lovatt
Praecipue convertit omnes subtractus Numida mortuo superincubanti Romano vivus naso auribusque laceratis, cum manibus ad capiendum teluminutilibusinrabiemiraversalaniandodentibushostemexspirasset. All eyes were especially turned to a Numidian who was dragged out alive from under a dead Roman who was lying on top of him; but his nose and ears were mutilated, since, when the latter’s hands had proved useless for seizing a weapon, his anger had turned to madness and he had breathed out his last while rending his enemy with his teeth. Statius did not invent the Tydeus episode, which is attested in the epic cycle.2 It is also well represented in art.3 Verbal similarity with Livy is tangential: most striking is the adjective vivo,whichpresumablyreflects the fact that Tydeus has only just recently ordered Melanippus’ head cutoff,butisnotstrictlyappropriate,while,sinceLivy’sCarthaginian is still alive, his Roman has also been covered with living blood. Statius and Livy respectively put emphasis on vivo and vivus: vivo is accented at the caesura, while Livy postpones vivus and makes a strong contrast with mortuo. The two authors play similar games with word order: Livy separates the adjective vivus from Numida by the intervening mortuo superincubanti Romano,whileStatiusmixesupillum . . . perfusum tabe with effracti ... cerebri, puts Athena emphatically in the centre with aspicit and surrounds the sin of Tydeus (scelerantem)withtheliving blood (vivo sanguine). Livy’s key words rabies and ira are both important for Tydeus: when he is first introduced (Theb. .–), he is described as immodicum irae | Tydea (“Tydeus excessive in anger”); the first line of the horrified response at the beginning of Book is Asperat Aonios rabies audita cruenti | Tydeos (“The reported madness of bloody Tydeus makes the Thebans harsher”). We might also triangulate the two texts via Silius Italicus, who certainly was using Livy.4 He transfers Livy’s description of the aftermath at Cannae to Lake Trasimene where he names the cannibalistic Roman Laevinus (Pun. .–): Iuxta cernere erat meritae sibi poscere carmen virtutis sacram rabiem. Laevinus, ab alto Priverno, vitis Latiae praesignis honore, exanimum Nasamona Tyren super ipse iacebat exanimis. non hasta viro, non ensis; in artis
2 See now McNelis () for a discussion of Tydeus’ affiliation with cyclic epic. 3 See LIMC on Tydeus. The Pyrgi relief shows Athena as viewer of Tydeus’ atrocity, and the figure of Athanasia features in two bell-craters. 4 On this passage see Bassett (), who (–) makes a clear case for Silius’ use of Livy,aswellasLucan’sScaevaepisodeandVirgil’sNisusandEuryalusepisode.