1—
Types of Battle-Scenes
If we classify the types of battle scenes under various headings, we see at once that
the
man, is by far the largest category. Thus Book 9 is almost exclusively the aristeia of
Turnus; in Book 10 we have Aeneas in 310-44, Pallas' deeds and his death at the
hand of Turnus in 362-509, Aeneas again in 510-605 (606-88, the removal of
Turnus, is a later addition), Mezentius in 689-746, and his death from 755 to the end
(908), the latter being Aeneas' first decisive achievement. The battles in Book 11
(597-895) are for the most part (647-724, 759-867) the aristeia and death of Ca-
milla, interrupted by an exploit of Tarchon (725-58), and concluded by a description
195 (868-95) of the consequences of Camilla's death: the flight of the Latins and their
pursuit up to the walls of the city. Finally in Book 12 Tolumnius and the spear, and
the subsequent hand-to-hand fighting at the altar (257-310), is followed by the
wounding of Aeneas (311-23), and another aristeia of Turnus (324-82) and the
healing of Aeneas (383-440): then his sortie with his faithful companions, which
includes a few lines about their deeds (458-61), the attack by Messapus on Aeneas
and what might be described as a combined aristeia of Aeneas and Turnus (500-53),
up to Aeneas' attack on the city, which then leads to the decisive duel (554-696) that
rounds off the work (697-952). Thus the interest is concentrated on five characters:
Turnus, Aeneas, Pallas, Mezentius, Camilla; of these, only Turnus and Aeneas
appear in more than one book; two books (9 and 11) have only one main character
each. If we disregard the episodes concerning isolated feats performed by other
characters – Nisus and Euryalus in 9.176-502, Ascanius in 9.590-671, Tarchon in
9.725-59 – and if we ignore the few characters whose only function is to oppose the
main heroes and who are given some importance in order to magnify their aristeia –
Lausus in 10.791-832, Aunus in 11.699-724, Arruns in 11.759ff., and to a lesser
degree Pandarus and Bitias in 11.672-716, Halaesus in 10.411-25 – all that is left is
a few not very extensive passages which serve to give an impression of the general
fighting by naming the victors and the vanquished; and we may observe that Virgil
inflicts such a 'butcher's list' on his readers only once in each book: 9.569-89
(though 573-5 makes it belong in part to Turnus' aristeia ), 10.747-54 (also 345-61,
though this is rather different), 11.612-47 (though this includes the very general
description of the ebb and flow of battle in 618-35), and 12.458-61. And indeed, it is
only exceptionally that Virgil expands his narrative so as to give an account of an
actual duel (for example in Book 11, and again in 9.576-89, and in 12.287-310,
though that passage is not strictly comparable); otherwise it is merely a case of
listing names as in Iliad 6.29-36, followed on one occasion (9.576ff.) by a slightly
more detailed description of two fights, rather like Iliad 14.511ff., where the list is
followed by the very sketchy description of the killing of Hyperenor. On the other
hand, what is completely absent in Virgil, but fairly common in Homer, is what we
might call the 'chain of combats', where the poet tries to bring several single
196 combats fought by various heroes into some sort of relationship with one another –
as for example in Iliad 5.533ff.: Agamemnon kills Deikoon, the comrade of Aeneas,
and then his two brothers, who had joined the expedition against Troy out of loyalty
to the Atridae; Menelaus, later joined by Antilochus,
Menelaus and Antilochus then kill two Trojans; Hector
he avenges their death with that of two of the enemy; Ajax
them and strikes Amphius (cf. also, for example, 13.576-672, 14.440-507, 15.518–
91). Such series have a more tiring effect than plain, rapid lists, unless, at least,
famous heroes appear in them to lend interest; and few such heroes were available to
Virgil.