At dawn the next day, Aeneas, sick of slaughter, hangs Mezentius’s armor on a big oak trunk as a memorial to the fallen king and as a sign of victory, and then tells his men that the time has come to march on Latinus. But first, he says, the dead must be ceremonially burned and buried, and Pallas must be returned to Pallanteum. Aeneas mourns for the slain youth and pities his father, Evander, who is unaware of his son’s death. Pallas’s body is placed on a bier and sent off with an escort of a thousand men, plus spoils of war, sacrificial captives, and Pallas’s horse, riderless. This procession is followed by a line of mourners.
Now envoys come from Laurentum seeking a truce and asking Aeneas to allow the return of the Latin dead for burial. Aeneas grants this request, saying that he wants peace, and that he is willing to engage Turnus in single combat as a way of resolving the conflict. The Latin envoy Drancës, who is a bitter enemy of Turnus, praises Aeneas and expresses the hope that Aeneas and Latinus will become allies. During the truce, which lasts for twelve days, the Trojans and the Latins live together peacefully and honor their respective dead.
At Pallanteum, Evander and his people receive Pallas’s body. The king laments that he himself did not die instead of his son, but he declares that he does not blame the Trojans for his son’s death, and that he is consoled by the thought that it was for a good cause—to help the Trojans establish themselves in Latium. Evander sends back the men in the escort with a message for Aeneas: The Trojan leader owes him Turnus’s death.
On the battlefield, Aeneas and Tarchon, the Etruscans’s leader, oversee the funeral rites for their dead, which include the sacrifice of animals, the burning of the dead soldiers’s bodies, and the burial of the ashes. The Latins do the same, and fires burn for three days. Meanwhile, there is great mourning in Laurentum and much opposition to the war and to Turnus’s proposed marriage to Lavinia. Drancës insists that Turnus should fight alone against Aeneas in order to settle the issue since Turnus is the one who most opposes the Trojans’s settling in Italy. However, Queen Amata defends Turnus against such criticism.
Increasing the Latins’s despair, messengers now arrive from the southern Italian city of Arpi with a message from its king, Diomedes, to whom the Latins have appealed for aid, announcing that he has refused their request. Nothing but evil, Diomedes declares, has happened to those who fought against the Trojans during the Trojan War. He enumerates the mishaps that have befallen him: His companions were changed into birds, he lost his wife, and he was exiled from Argos to his present kingdom as punishment for having wounded Venus. Furthermore, having engaged in personal combat against Aeneas, he is all too familiar with the Trojan’s physical prowess.
Discouraged, Latinus declares that the war against the Trojans is hopeless, and that they should be welcomed to Latium and given land or, should they choose to go elsewhere, given ships. He proposes to send envoys with gifts to them. Drancës approves and, motivated by jealousy of Turnus, says that Lavinia should wed Aeneas. Repeating his earlier proposal, he says that if Turnus objects to these arrangements, he should face Aeneas in single combat. In reply, the indomitable Turnus declares that victory over the Trojans is still possible; although Diomedes has declined to fight, there are others who will help, including the famous Volscian woman warrior, Camilla. If no additional forces come to aid the Latins, Turnus says, then he will fight hand to hand against Aeneas and settle the issue.
In the midst of this quarreling, a messenger arrives with the news that the Trojans and Etruscans are marching on Laurentum. Turnus responds by calling his forces to arms. Amata, Lavinia, and a throng of women go off to pray to Athena.
Turnus and Camilla together prepare for Laurentum’s defense: Turnus leads his forces into a forest, where he intends to ambush the main body of Aeneas’s army, while Camilla and her cavalry of men and women engage the enemy’s cavalry. Despite great bravery, Camilla is slain, and her forces flee into Laurentum. When Turnus receives the news of Camilla’s defeat, he abandons his ambush and hastens with his own army to the city, only to encounter Aeneas’s forces, which have already arrived at the gates unopposed. Night falls before a battle can occur, and both armies camp outside Laurentum.
