AEneas now went forth to the fight. The chiefs and their followers, encouraged by the appearance of their leader, slew numbers of the enemy, including the augur Tolumnius, who had first broken the truce. But the Trojan hero himself sought only for Turnus, and he pursued him over the plain. Juturna seeing this, assumed the shape and likeness of Me-tis'cus, her brother's charioteer, and taking his place upon the chariot, drove rapidly through the field, now here now there, but ever keeping at a distance from the pursuing Trojan chief.
She steers a various course among the foes;
Now here, now there, her conquering brother shows;
Now with a straight, now with a wheeling flight,
She turns and bends, but shuns the single fight.
AEneas, fired with fury, breaks the crowd,
And seeks his foe, and calls by name aloud;
He runs within a narrower ring, and tries
To stop the chariot, but the chariot flies.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK XII.
At length AEneas resolved to bring the battle and the war to a speedy end. While pursuing Turnus, he had noticed that the city was left without defence, all the Latian and Rutulian troops being engaged in the field. Calling his chiefs quickly together, he told them of his plan. "The city before us," said he, "is the center of the enemy's strength. It is now in our power. This day we may overturn it, and lay its smoking towers level with the ground. Am I to wait until it pleases Turnus to accept my challenge? Quickly bring firebrands, and very soon we shall establish peace."
The Trojan forces were at once marshalled, and led in a solid battalion to the walls, where a vigorous assault forthwith commenced. Some rushed to the gates and slew the first they met, others hurled darts into the city, and others, by means of scaling ladders, sought to climb over the ramparts. AEneas in a loud voice called the gods to witness that he was now for the second time compelled to fight, and that for a second time a solemn league had been violated by the Latians. Within the town dissension broke out among the alarmed citizens, some urging that the gates should be opened to the Trojans, others taking up arms to defend the walls.
Turnus was in a distant part of the field when he heard of the attack on the city. A messenger rode up to him in haste with the intelligence that AEneas was about to overthrow the stately towers of Latium, and that already flaming torches had been applied to the roofs. Then Turnus saw that the moment for action had come, and he cried out to his sister (for notwithstanding her disguise he had known her from the first): "Now, now, sister, my destiny prevails. Forbear to further stop me. Let me follow whither the gods call. I am resolved to enter the lists with AEneas. No longer shall you see me in disgrace. Whatever bitterness there is in death I am ready to endure it."
So saying, Turnus sprang from his chariot, and bounding over the plain, rushed into the midst of the combatants at the gates of the city. With outstretched arms he made a sign to his friends, and called upon them in a loud voice: "Rutulians and Latians, cease fighting. Whatever fortune of the war remains is mine. It is for me alone by my sword to put an end to this strife."
AEneas, hearing the challenge of Turnus, forsook the lofty walls and towers, and hastened to encounter his foe. The hosts on both sides laid down their arms. A space was cleared on the open plain, and immediately the two heroes rushed to the combat, with hurling of darts and clashing of swords and shields.
They launch their spears; then hand to hand they meet;
The trembling soil resounds beneath their feet;
Their bucklers clash; thick blows descend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK XII.
The great fight now began. Turnus aimed a mighty blow at AEneas, raising himself on tiptoes, and adding to the force of the stroke the whole weight of his body. But the blade snapped in two as it struck the armor of the Trojan hero, thus leaving the Rutulian chief at the mercy of his foe. The weapon was one he had hastily snatched up instead of his own when mounting his chariot for the first fight of the day. It had served his purpose so long as he used it only on fleeing Trojans, but when it came against the armor made by Vulcan it broke like ice. The unfortunate Rutulian now turned and fled over the field, calling loudly on his friends to bring him his sword. AEneas followed in pursuit, threatening death to any one who should venture to approach, and thus five times round the lists they ran.
Five times they circle round the place,
Five times the winding course retrace;
No trivial game is here; the strife
Is waged for Turnus' own dear life.
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK XII.