The Aeneid, Book 11 summary

What happens

1. Aeneas displays Mezentius’s armor as a sacred trophy, mourns Pallas, and sends his body home with an elaborate escort.
2. Aeneas grants Latin envoys a twelve-day truce and proposes settling the disputed marriage through single combat with Turnus.
3. Evander receives Pallas’s body and demands revenge against Turnus, while both armies burn and bury their dead.
4. Venulus reports that Diomedes refuses an alliance and advises peace, citing Greek suffering and Aeneas’s strength.
5. Latinus proposes land or ships for the Trojans; Drances urges marriage with Lavinia and attacks Turnus for prolonging the war.
6. Turnus defends his record, names remaining allies, and accepts the possibility of single combat as scouts announce Aeneas’s advance.

In this book

What to notice

Aeneas proposes limiting the dispute to its rival claimants. This offer becomes central to Drances’s attack and Turnus’s response.

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