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Everything you\'ve been reading and thinking about comes together in Book XII, which contains the climax of the Aeneid. All the major themes are found here: fate and the gods, the effect of uncontrolled anger, the kind of person Aeneas is, the kind of nation Rome will be.
Do you think it\'s ever right to kill someone? If you\'re a pacifist, you don\'t think it\'s ever right and you\'ve probably been rather disturbed by all the violence needed to found Rome. On the other hand, you may think that there are some situations where it is right to kill someone. How do you feel about capital punishment? If someone murders innocent people, should that person be put to death? What if the murderer is insane? Does that make any difference?
And what about war? When is a war justified? Most people feel that there is something basically different between killing someone for your own private reasons, and fighting for your country. But what makes it different? What is the relationship between a person\'s responsibility to his country and his responsibility to his fellow man?
These are the difficult questions that Virgil raised in Book XII for his Roman audience--and for you--to think about. Your personal reaction to the final terrible struggle between Aeneas and Turnus will help you decide what you think is right.
When Turnus realizes that his troops are beaten, he finally accepts the fact that he must battle Aeneas directly. He tells Latinus to go ahead with the plan for a truce between the two armies so that the two leaders can battle it out alone.
Both Latinus and his wife, Amata, beg Turnus to give up the fight. Amata becomes hysterical, saying that she\'ll kill herself if Turnus dies and her daughter must marry Aeneas. (Allecto\'s poison is still at work in Amata.) But their pleas only make Turnus more furious. As you can see, Turnus is now completely alone in his rage for battle. Virgil compares Turnus to a raging lion who has been wounded but who fights all the harder because it\'s a lost cause. There\'s no point to the battle, but Turnus has never known when to stop.
The truce is arranged, and the Italians gather on one side of a huge field and the Trojans on the other to watch the final battle between their great leaders. An altar is built, and sacrifices to the gods are made ready to honor the winner. Aeneas prays to the gods (including Juno) and swears that if he loses, the Trojans will leave Italy forever. He also promises that if he wins, he will treat the Italians as equals of the Trojans. He does not want to conquer the Italians, he wants peace on equal terms.
We see here what a good and just leader Aeneas has become. Even after all this bloodshed, he is not angry and does not want revenge. (You might think back to Anchises\' prediction in Book VI that the Romans\' great skill will be the art of ruling.)
But Juno still has a hard time accepting fate. Although Jupiter has forbidden the gods to interfere anymore, Juno invents a way to get around his rule. Turnus\' sister is a nymph named Juturna. Juno goes to her and asks her to help Turnus.
Juturna, disguising herself as one of the Italians, goes among the crowd, whispering that it isn\'t fair that Turnus should have to fight this one out all by himself. The Italians are already uneasy; it looks like Aeneas might win. One of them hurls his spear into the Trojan ranks. The Trojans go wild and bedlam breaks out. Spears and arrows fly from all sides. Aeneas tries to stop the fighting, crying out that the battle is for him alone, but no one listens. Then a flying arrow wounds him in the leg.
Turnus, seeing Aeneas being carried off the field, is delighted. Now the Italians have another chance to fight for victory. He jumps into his chariot and races across the field, spearing Trojans wherever he sees them and hanging their heads from his chariot as trophies.
Do you see the difference between Turnus and Aeneas? Aeneas tries to control the crowd. He wants an orderly battle between Turnus and himself. This will cost the least loss of life. But Turnus is always eager for war, and instead of trying to calm his troops and honor the truce, he leads them into a new battle. His actions create more disorder.
Aeneas is frantic that he cannot stop Turnus, but his wound keeps him from walking. At first his doctor cannot remove the arrow, but then Venus gives the doctor a magic potion that releases the arrow and eases the pain.
NOTE: Why is Venus allowed to interfere like this? She\'s not really tipping the balance in Aeneas\' favor. She\'s just evening the score after what Juturna did.
Now Aeneas puts on his mighty armor and thunders across the field, determined to hunt Turnus down. Knowing this, Juturna disguises herself as the driver of Turnus\' chariot and drives erratically around the field. Aeneas on foot, and with a wounded leg, can\'t possibly catch up.
NOTE: If you think of Juno and Juturna as symbols for impulses that already exist in Turnus, you might begin to think that Turnus is avoiding Aeneas. Is he afraid? After all his bragging, is he really a coward?
Aeneas then thinks of a way to force Turnus to fight. He turns his Trojan army against the city and begins setting fire to the walls. When Amata realizes that the city is under attack, she mistakenly concludes that Turnus must be dead and she kills herself. Latinus is left in despair at the death of his wife and the failure of all his efforts at peace.
NOTE: Latinus certainly hasn\'t been a very effective leader. Virgil may be hinting that the Latins desperately need new leadership. This helps justify the Trojan \"invasion.\"
Turnus hears the wailing and crying from the city and finally stops his insane flight over the battlefield. Recognizing his sister\'s tricks, he tells her to stop. He realizes that he must go to the defense of his city and that his people are suffering because of his refusal to fight Aeneas. Although some sense of responsibility seems to dawn on Turnus at this point, it appears very late.
Aeneas turns to meet Turnus at last. Turnus strikes a mighty blow with his sword. But, in his frenzy to get to the battle that morning, he took the wrong sword and it breaks on Aeneas\' shield.
Turnus has no choice but to race away with Aeneas in hot pursuit, But Aeneas is slower because of his wound. He tries to catch Turnus with his spear, but he misses and the spear lands in a tree. Aeneas cannot pull it out. Juturna gives Turnus his good sword and, once again, Venus restores the balance by freeing Aeneas\' spear.
At last Jupiter has had enough, and he orders Juno to stop making trouble in any way. Miraculously, Juno accepts this order quietly. All she asks is that the Trojan name die and both the Italians and Trojans be known as Latins. Juno\'s anger has finally worked itself out, and now Troy is extinct. The Trojans have a new identity. They are free to start again without an angry goddess pursuing them.
NOTE: Isn\'t this a rather realistic description of how anger stops? Have you ever been really furious? You rant and rave. You may even do some destructive (or self-destructive) things. Finally, you just stop being angry. It\'s a relief that Juno finally feels better, but she\'s left Aeneas and Turnus with the consequences. They still have to resolve the anger in themselves.
The end comes at last. Aeneas aims his spear and Turnus falls to the ground, wounded in the thigh. Aeneas rushes up, his sword poised, ready to strike. Turnus speaks his last words:
I have deserved it, surely,
And I do not beg off. Use the advantage.
But if a parent\'s grief has any power
To touch the spirit, I pray you, pity Daunus,
(I would Anchises), send him back my body.
You have won; I am beaten, and these hands go out
In supplication: everyone has seen it.
No more. I have lost Lavinia. Let hatred
Proceed no further.
(XII. 930-37)
Aeneas pauses for a moment, almost moved to spare Turnus. But then he sees that Turnus is wearing the belt he stole from Pallas and he plunges his sword through Turnus.
How do you feel about Aeneas now? The last thing you see him do is kill a defenseless man. It\'s hard not to feel terribly sorry for Turnus. It takes courage to admit you were wrong. And it\'s not so clear that Turnus was entirely to blame for everything that happened. Has Aeneas just been infected with the uncontrollable rage that has caused him so much trouble all through the Aeneid? Some readers think so, and they think that Virgil\'s final judgment on the Roman Empire was a very dark one: that its success was rooted in this kind of violence.
But we can look at this another way. Aeneas does pity Turnus in that last moment before he strikes. But when he sees Pallas\' belt, he remembers all the needless bloodshed that Turnus\' madness has caused. How does he know that if he lets Turnus live that Turnus will really change his ways? Maybe Turnus only says what he does in the hope that Aeneas will spare his life. In the end, Aeneas chooses order and the safety of his country over his feeling for another, and in many ways great, man.
Virgil wrote the Aeneid at the end of the Roman civil wars. Augustus killed many of his rivals in order to restore order. Was Augustus right? Was Aeneas right? Virgil\'s sad and troubling ending leaves the decision up to you.
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