Ruth Parkes' commentary on Statius Thebaid 4 has been long awaited, and deservedly rewards anticipation. There are still very few recent commentaries on the Thebaid in English: most notably Smolenaars on Book 7 (1994) and Pollmann on Book 12 (2004). Books 1 (Hill and Gibson), 2 (Gervais), 5 (Soerink) and 8 (Augoustakis) are currently in preparation. Book 4 has proved an irresistible temptation to commentators with its richly Homeric and Callimachean catalogue and its ghoulish necromancy, both full of literary self-consciousness. P. must engage with the recent treatments of the catalogue (both on lines 4.1–344) by Micozzi (2007) and Steiniger (2005), which she does conscientiously and judiciously. Further, she has plenty to add.

The commentary consists of general introduction, text, with facing translation, notes and bibliography. The text is P.'s own, originally based on Hill, but now drawing significantly on the groundwork of Hall. She tackles very effectively the extensive emendations of Shackleton Bailey's 2003 Loeb and the three-volume intervention of Hall, Ritchie and Edwards (2007), which offers an enormous amount of material not yet fully assimilated into the scholarly mainstream. P.'s textual discussions are concise and for the most part convincing, and her text seems to me to represent an improvement. The frequency and clarity of textual discussion in the commentary is welcome, especially in making clear to students of Statius where problems have been thought to lie. P. is particularly sensitive to Statius' impressionistic and compressed language and its effects on textual critics. She rejects unnecessary emendations with good reasoned arguments.

The translation is also clear, a useful guide to how P. takes the Latin. But it is not one that would stand on its own, and reads rather awkwardly, with more than its fair share of archaisms. The introduction is densely packed; P. offers introductory material on life and works and the plot of the Thebaid, but much of the rest is thematic and literary: delay, excess, self-consciousness, the structure of Book 4 and its place in the epic, especially in relation to Books 7 and 12, intertextuality, reception and text. The section on reception is particularly strong, especially in Claudian, but also Ariosto, Spenser and Milton. There is also much material in the commentary on later parallels and receptions of particular elements of Statius. Themes which emerge from the commentary as important to P.'s reading of the Thebaid include the imitation of Hercules, epic conventions under strain, the ways in which the two sides of the war (foreign enemies, yet fraternal leaders) are assimilated, the importance of viewing, interactions with Valerius Flaccus and Silius, different types of similes and threads of Statian imagery (for instance, bulls and snakes), intratextuality, the way that Statius plays with time, and ideas of substitution. The book is a snapshot of current directions in Statian criticism.

The commentary is rich, concise and detailed. I rarely felt that P. had avoided the real difficulty or missed out a key mode of reading. Her literary comments are careful and often suggestive. She makes clear her firm grasp of the ever-expanding secondary literature, though not always endorsing readings which she presents (the word ‘perceives’ acts as a useful distancing device). Occasionally I felt that judiciousness led to a lack of commitment, but in general it is clear which readings and ideas P. prefers. The catalogue offers opportunities to produce readings relevant to the whole poem and P. grasps these opportunities effectively, summing up approaches to each of the seven main Argive heroes.

It would not be an easy read for the average undergraduate, peppered as it is with untranslated Latin, Greek and German among other languages. This commentary is rather aimed at scholars and post-graduates. The book has been well-produced and contains few errors. This is an excellent commentary and will certainly form the starting point for future engagement with this important book of the Thebaid; it should also be a first port of call for studies of epic catalogues and scenes of necromancy.