And in this sense are those words of
Virgil to be taken -
"Non me tua turbida virtus
Terret, ait; dii me terrent, et Jupiter hostis."
I doubt not but the adverb solum is to be understood ("It is not
your valour only that gives me this concernment, but I find also by
this portent that Jupiter is my enemy"); for Turnus fled before,
when his first sword was broken, till his sister supplied him with a
better, which indeed he could not use because AEneas kept him at a
distance with his spear. I wonder Ruaeus saw not this, where he
charges his author so unjustly for giving Turnus a second sword to
no purpose. How could he fasten a blow or make a thrust, when he
was not suffered to approach? Besides, the chief errand of the Dira
was to warn Juturna from the field, for she could have brought the
chariot again when she saw her brother worsted in the duel. I might
farther add that AEneas was so eager of the fight that he left the
city, now almost in his possession, to decide his quarrel with
Turnus by the sword; whereas Turnus had manifestly declined the
combat, and suffered his sister to convey him as far from the reach
of his enemy as she could.
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