The Last Book of the Aeneid

The first part of this paper discusses several effects Virgil achieves by delaying the decisive encounter between Aeneas and Turnus for the greater part of Aeneid 12: these include multiple indirect encounters between the two characters, a dense web of allusions casting Turnus and the Latins in roles that recall the doomed Trojans, and several anticipations of events that lie beyond the end of the narrative proper. The second part re-examines the end of the book against this background and in the light of recent discussions, emphasizing Virgil’s complex view of Aeneas’ actions and of human action in general.