Which author asserts that the shorter battle scenes are like gladiator fights and more appealing to a Roman audience?

• A. Gransden - Book 4
• B. Emma Buckley - Narration of the Aeneid
• C. Denis Feeney - Plot
• D. Harrison - Battle scenes

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is how scholars interpret Vergil’s battlefield moments as crafted to reel in a Roman audience by echoing gladiatorial spectacle. The argument is that shorter, tightly focused battle scenes function like gladiator fights: they’re brisk, visually immediate, and emotionally charged, delivering decisive outcomes in a way that would feel familiar and entertaining to Roman spectators.

In this view, the author who focuses on battle scenes makes a clear claim that these compact battles are designed to mimic arena entertainment, leveraging the audience’s expectations for public display of martial prowess and dramatic, easily grasped confrontations. This explains why the scenes feel vivid and impactful even when they’re short: they foreground spectacle, heroism, and rapid turns of fortune that resonate with Roman tastes for visible, public display of skill and courage.

Other scholars approach the epic from different angles. One analyzes a specific book in terms of structure or theme rather than audience-entertainment dynamics. Another concentrates on who is narrating the story, not the dramatic effect of the battle episodes themselves. A third looks at the overall plot without focusing on how the battle moments are designed to appeal to spectators. Because none of these centers on the gladiatorial appeal of short battle scenes, Harrison’s Battle scenes offers the most direct explanation for why those moments would feel especially engaging to a Roman readership.