5—
Coroebus
Virgil deliberately chose not to give a general description of the night of slaughter
such as we read in Quintus and Tryphiodorus. His need to concentrate the action
forbade any such attempt. All that we learn of the Night Battle is what Aeneas and
his men experience on the way to the citadel and on the citadel itself; and this brings
the events into sharper focus than if we saw the whole panorama from a bird's eye
view. We go with Aeneas through the narrow streets of the ancient city, past the
houses that have been forced open and the shrines that have been violated, and see
the corpses of the slain strewn everywhere, lying where the enemy overtook them
unaware (363ff.), and we become witnesses of what is perhaps the Trojans' only
piece of good fortune, and then of its inevitable unfortunate outcome. It was prob-
ably Virgil himself who introduced into the story of the sack of Troy the stratagem
of exchanging armour – though doubtless there were historical precedents;[55] it is
also natural that the Trojan would be able to tell the story of an incident which does
not appear in the Greek accounts of the victory; only an excess of invention would
have been a misjudgement.
Virgil placed Coroebus in the foreground here, and to good effect. In the later
tradition he is represented as a suitor of Cassandra, succeeding Othryoneus ( Iliad
13.363) when he is killed by Idomeneus. The significance of his proverbial stu-
pidity, allegedly invented by Euphorion (Serv. on 341), cannot be established.
37 Perhaps it developed from the foolish boasting of Othryoneus (13.366) and was
transferred to him by Quintus (13.175); perhaps it was also based on the reckless-
ness with which he cast his bride's warnings to the four winds. Virgil justifies him
with a single word and calls on the listener's pity: infelix , qui non sponsae praecepta
f u r e n t i s audierit (345) [it was disastrous for him that he had not heeded the wild
warnings of his princess] – that was divine destiny. But it seems that he did not wish
to obliterate his traditional characteristics altogether: it is Coroebus who, excited by
his first lucky success, immediately feels renewed hope and attempts to stave off
inevitable destiny by means of a ruse (unobjectionable in itself).[56] The younger men
are caught up by his plan. Significantly, Aeneas here mentions only the others ( hoc
omnis iuventus laeta facit [394] [all our company followed his example in high
spirits]); he himself is not to be thought of in borrowed arms.
At first the trick has the desired success. It is a well-known dramatic device,
which Sophocles is particularly fond of using, to make an apparently successful
early achievement increase the effect of the subsequent disaster. At the same time,
this successful phase of the battle serves to strengthen the emphasis of the whole
narrative. Where before we saw only the Trojans conquering or dying, now we see
the Greeks too, fleeing in masses; no wonder Aeneas dwells on the memory (399-
40; 421). But Coroebus gives Virgil the opportunity he desired to weave the pathetic
fate of Cassandra into the action (rather than mention it in a separate episode, which,
as we have said, he generally avoids):[57] Coroebus falling in battle for the sake of his
38 bride is a very happy invention which, in my opinion, we should credit to Virgil.[58]
The young hothead forgets the caution required by his disguise and flings himself
upon her captors; his companions do not desert him; the noise of the fighting attracts
the enemy, who gather from all directions; the ruse is discovered:[59] Coroebus falls,[60]
39 and once again Cassandra has to see her own prophecy fulfilled before her very
eyes. But it is true tragic irony that it is the very attempt to avert the ruinous destiny
that leads to ruin: the Trojans, disguised as Greeks, fall at the hands of their own
compatriots.