10—
Synchronism in Books 8-10
We need to look separately at the treatment of the simultaneous happenings in
Books 8-10. This is the only place where Virgil has to narrate two longish simulta-
neous actions, which converge only at the end, and which otherwise run their course
without touching each other, one notes with some surprise how difficult he found it
to deal with these simultaneous actions. In Book 8 Aeneas is brought close to Caere,
and the events of the book take up three nights and days counting from the appear-
387 ance of Tiberinus (above p. 265). We leave Aeneas on the third day; after
contemplating the shield he seems about to set out (731) to meet Tarchon. Then the
beginning of Book 9 takes us to Turnus with the words atque ea diversa penitus dum
parte geruntur , Irim de caelo misit Saturnia Iuno audacem ad Turnum [while this
was happening in a distant part of the country Saturnian Juno sent Iris down from
the sky to the fiery Turnus]. According to the normal use of such synchronistic
formulae one would take that to mean 'during the events just depicted', and there-
fore set Iris' visit on the third day, and this fits in perfectly when she says about
Aeneas (9.10) extremas Corythi penetravit ad urbes Lydorumque manum , collectos
armat agrestes [he has pressed right on to those furthest cities of Corythus, where he
musters the country-folk and has a host of Lydians under arms]: where this last
statement taken literally would take us a little further than the end of 8, perhaps
deliberately anticipating events.[28] However it would be strange if Juno delayed her
warning for such a long time and did not command Turnus to attack on the morning
after Aeneas' departure, and this is what Virgil calculated, as the chronology of the
subsequent events shows: on the second day we have the approach of the enemies
and the metamorphosis of the Trojan ships, on the third night we have Nisus'
expedition, on the third day (459) we have the fight for the camp; 10.256 would
refer to the break of the fourth day: thus on that day Aeneas would return and the
first great battle would take place. It is true that Virgil has, then, at the beginning of
Book 9, obscured the chronology when, in order to avoid a recapitulation, he takes
two actions which really happened simultaneously and makes it seem that the
second happened after the first.[29]
If we go on to examine the times given in the first part of Book 10, we come up
against more difficulties. When does the great assembly of the gods take place?
Book 10 begins with panditur interea domus omnipotentis Olympi [meanwhile the
gateway to Olympus, the seat of supreme power, was flung open]: at first interea
[meanwhile] seems to indicate that it is simultaneous with the end of Book 9, i.e.
with Turnus' rescue from the Trojan camp. But that possibility is excluded by
Jupiter's words 107f.: quae cuique est fortuna hodie . . . nullo discrimine habebo
[whatever the fortune enjoyed by individual men today . . . I shall make no discrimi-
nation], where hodie [today] must refer to a new day as opposed to the previous one,
388 and this becomes even clearer in the subsequent description of the encircled Trojans,
which is linked to the gods' assembly with interea 118, when the phrase pulsi
p r i s t i n a Turni gloria (143) [the glory of his previously repelling Turnus] indi-
cates that since Turnus' aristeia a night has passed. In this case, the line quoted
above would, as ancient commentators also understood it to do,[30] paraphrase the
break of day, and also correspond to the first line of Iliad 8, 
[Dawn spread her saffron mantle over the whole world], in
the same way as the subsequent lines in Iliad 8 are also imitated: for Jupiter's decree
is analogous to that of Zeus in Iliad 8. The interea should then, just as at the
beginning of Book 11, be taken as a loosely linking 'now':[31] however, here, where it
could easily be misunderstood, we can hardly be happy about either this interea or the
paraphrase of the unambiguous Homeric expression.
If, then, the new, fourth day begins with Book 10, how does one explain the lines
which, after the description of the camp mentioned above, return to Aeneas (146):
illi inter sese duri certamina belli contulerant : media Aeneas freta nocte secabat?
[so had the two armies clashed in the close conflict of stubborn war; and Aeneas was
cutting the channels of the sea at midnight]? Is this simultaneous? Impossible;
battles do not take place at midnight. Nor can it refer to the following midnight: it is
obvious that 260ff. is intended to follow directly on from the description in 118-45.
The only remaining option is to assume that Virgil is here, in a most peculiar way,
apparently narrating simultaneous happenings, but really intending us to understand:
'in the morning they were engaged in battle: (a few hours earlier) at midnight
Aeneas was at sea': i.e. before the daybreak mentioned at 10.1, which would then be
identical with the one described at 10.256.[32] Why does he venture to do such a
389 thing? Apparently only in order to avoid several interruptions in the narrative. It
would have been chronologically correct to report Aeneas' night-time voyage before
the assembly of the gods; but – quite apart from the loss of the pathos-filled intro-
ductory scene – there would then have had to be an interruption after the scene with
the nymphs, we would have been led first to Olympus (which would also have
destroyed the connection of the gods' speeches with the events of the previous day),
and then to the Trojan camp – for the hard-pressed state of the besieged had to be
described, so that the thrilling scene when Aeneas' shield flashes out from the sea,
reflecting the dawn rays and promising rescue, can have its full effect – and then
again to Aeneas. This jumping about is avoided, though by rather drastic measures.
However, Virgil now has to turn even further back, to the time before Aeneas'
night-time journey: for there is still a gap between this and the end of Book 8, to be
filled with Aeneas' discussions with Tarchon and the sailing of the fleet. But here
too the poet does not decide on a true recapitulation in the pluperfect, but, with one
leap, carries us back to that point in time, and then narrates in the normal way in the
present tense: namque , ut ab Euandro castris ingressus Etruscis regem adit . . . haud
fit mora , Tarchon iungit opes . . . classem conscendit gens Lydia . . . Aeneia puppis
prima tenet [for, as after leaving Evander and having entered the Etruscan camp he
approaches the king . . . there is no delay: Tarchon joins forces . . . the Lydian nation
embarks on their fleet . . . Aeneas' ship heads the line]. Thus here too the continuity of
action is preserved, although at the cost of the continuity of narration.[33]
390