In Book X, with both protagonist and antagonist present for the first time, the war enters its crucial phase. Turnus’s killing Pallas will lead eventually to his own death, for Turnus arouses in Aeneas a lust for vengeance that transforms the Trojan leader into an unrelenting enemy. Aeneas’s fury will be heightened by the sight of Pallas’s swordbelt, which Turnus unceremoniously wears as a war trophy during his battle with Aeneas in Book XII. There, the Trojan hero will dismiss from his mind the fleeting thought of sparing Turnus and will lead him instead to give the final, killing thrust that brings an end to both Turnus’s life and the epic poem.
Book X concludes with Aeneas slaying his other great antagonist, Mezentius. This incident is one of the most powerful in the Aeneid and offers an outstanding example of Virgil’s ability to introduce, at the very moment of triumph for the victor, a note of pathos that opens us to sympathy for the victim. Virgil’s power to awaken this feeling is all the more remarkable because in this case the victim, Mezentius, is monstrous. Although gravely wounded, Mezentius takes on a heroic stature by fighting Aeneas to avenge his son’s death and make amends for his own evil past.
In his grief over Lausus, whom Aeneas reluctantly slays, Mezentius resembles Evander, who loses Pallas. The love that exists between fathers and sons—Aeneas and Anchises offer the greatest example—is perhaps the most powerful emotional tie portrayed in the Aeneid and is closely bound up with the ideal of pietas—patriotism and duty.
Mezentius also contrasts—negatively—with Aeneas, at least in terms of their respect for the gods. Addressing the Trojan leader before flinging his spear at him, the evil king deliberately calls on no god to steady his aim, claiming that his right arm is the only god he needs. Aeneas, however, described as “the God-fearing captain” whose aim is true, successfully wounds his enemy. The man who is submissive to the gods wins in battle; the heathen does not.
In addition to religion, fate affects the outcomes of many battles here in Book X. Nowhere is this better exemplified than when Jupiter, speaking to Hercules, who wishes to help Pallas fight Turnus, philosophically explains death’s unstoppable march: “Every man’s last day is fixed. / Lifetimes are brief, and not to be regained, / For all mankind. But by their deeds to make / Their fame last: that is labor for the brave.” However, despite a person’s fated death, Jupiter does allow for some leeway, at least concerning Turnus. When Juno petitions her husband to permit Turnus to live a short while longer, he grants her wish. He tells her that there is room for some lenience concerning when a man must die, but she deludes herself if she thinks Turnus will be spared forever from his fate.
While modern readers tend to find the first half of the Aeneid more engrossing than the second, Virgil himself regarded the second half as fulfilling the true purpose of the epic and expected his readers to feel the same. We, however, may sometimes find his descriptions of man-to-man combat wearisome, especially in Book X, in which these military contests go on longer than elsewhere. Still, Virgil’s readers probably appreciated the elaborate descriptions of carnage. We must remember that the Romans were a warlike people: They relished gladiatorial fights, and persistent warfare was the means by which Rome forged its empire. Furthermore, war was regarded as the noblest theme of epic poetry.
Virgil especially emphasizes a warrior’s code of honor against which combatants are judged. Generally, those warriors who respect the unspoken code will prosper, but those who flaunt their victories will die. Such disparity concerning honorable actions is nowhere greater than between Turnus and Aeneas.
