This passage is from the Twelfth and final Book of the Aeneid. The Trojans and Rutulians along with their respective allies have agreed a febrile peace pact on the condition that Turnus and Aeneas meet in single combat to resolve the war. The Rutulians themselves have no doubt that Turnus will be the underdog in this duel and have been stirred up by the words of Juturna to carry on the fight, she has sent an omen in the form of an Eagle carrying a Swan being mobbed by a flock of smaller birds and forced to drop its prey. Tolumnius, mentioned earlier in 11.429 as a supporter of Turnus gives a brief speech encouraging his comrades to rescue Turnus and drive Aeneas from Italy He then whips a spear at the enemy troops killing one of them and unleashing all out war between both armies.
The passage itself details a speech made by Tolumnius and then his subsequent action in throwing the spear. Notable in the speech of Tolumnius are two instances of epanalepsis although given the rhetorical form of his speech it would be more appropriate to label them as anaphoric. The two uses of the pronouns hoc in line 259 and the repetition of the personal pronoun me in line 260 (in this case the word order has them positioned next to one another further emphasising their repetitive nature) provide the examples. This use of anaphora helps to construct a sense of excitement within the speaker, to the effect that he is doubling up his words, there is some comparison to be drawn here between Tolumnius’ words and those of Cicero in L.Catalinam Oratio Prima, line 81 in which Cicero repeats the words “Hic, hic sunt…” again giving the sense that the speaker is getting agitated. It is also emphatic and related to the previous verbs in the 1st person singular accipio and agnosco in that there is a single mindedness inherent in this 1st person viewpoint or, to be fairer to Tolumnius, a sense of an individual accepting and shouldering the responsibility for action. From what we see of his character he is eager and egotistic apparent in “Quod saepe petivi” again a 1st person singular perfect indicative indicates that this is what he has been looking for. If he is speaking for the group then he does it indirectly by speaking for himself and assuming that he has his finger on the pulse of majority opinion.
There is something of an element of demagoguery in Tolumnius’ speech for he is careful to rhetorically smooth over the finer subtleties of the true cause on the conflict, hence his description of the Rutulians as “O miseri” and his comparison of them “invalidas ut avis”, which is a reference to the omen they have just witnessed. Here the comparison serves two purposes in that the Rutulians have been associated with the birds which have grouped together to see off a predator inviting further comparison with what it is that they should do and also as portraying the Rutulians and Italians as the victims rather than the aggressors.
We are well aware from the beginning of the passage that Tolumnius is tapping into the general spirit or emotion of the crowd indeed he may be viewed as a spokesman for the general consensus since the words “expediuntque manus” tell the reader that the Rutulians are already inflamed by a desire to take up arms. This individual emphasis and his voluntary assumption of leading the Rutulians “me duce ferrum” carries through to his individual action of throwing a spear at the enemy ranks and it is this one action which causes the instant reaction “simul hoc” of a sudden uproar within the enemy ranks. It is one man acting in accordance with a frenzied crowd, not just inciting with but very suddenly acting upon his own words, which themselves owe at least some of their origin to the emotions of the crowd, and consequently breaking the truce between the Trojans and the Rutulians. In the text immediately following the passage the spear strikes one of the nine sons of Gylippus killing him and bringing instant retribution from the man’s brothers, which in turn brings their allies piling into combat after them and hostilities are resumed. The scene may be paralleled with the Homeric scene of Pandarus in Book 4 of the Iliad although the circumstances do differ, the context is similar and that is an individual act of violence which breaks a fragile truce.
The passage is closely embedded within the text, the word augurium links it to the events in the skies just witnessed and this in itself establishes a form of a chain of causation, the sudden clamore of the Italians is a direct result of the omen. At the end of the passage the relationship between the sentences in 268-9 “…simul ingens clamor et omnes turbati cunei calefactaque corda tumult” and that of 270-1 “hasta volens, ut forte novem pulcherrima fratrum corpora constiterant contra” appears to be causal with line 270-1 with its verb in the pluperfect providing the prior action that the enemy army’s response is dependent upon. In other words what takes place in the sentence immediately following the passage precedes that which takes place in the final sentence of the passage and this firmly embeds it within the text.
This passage describes the manner in which an oracle or omen is interpreted and used as justification for an act of individual violence which in the delicate balance of peace is all that is necessary for conflict to break out afresh, it is closely related to what precedes it and what follows. As part of the wider context of the poem this scene emphasises the chaotic nature of warfare, even in peace and the fact that a single act can bring grave consequences, there is some comparison to be made here with the events of Book 7 503-40 after the shooting of Silvia’s stag and also an interesting possibility of contrasting Tolumnius’ incitements to violence with the ill fated plea of peace made by Galaesus. As is so often in the Aeneid the theme of divine intervention is also given air in that Tolumnius uses a sign sent by the water-nymph Juturna as justification for his actions.
