Within the Aeneid, there are many themes contained in One of them is the death of the good and theyoung in battle. This recurring theme seems to be prevalentin Vergil’s epic because it most definitely occurs in allbattles. When there is battle, there are consequences. Most often these consequence are the death of someone who isseen as not yet ready to die because they are good or young.In Book IX of the Aeneid, lines 402-545, a battle sceneand the events leading to it are depicted. Ascanius isleading a troop of Trojan soldiers who want to pass througha place that was unrightfully conquered by Rhamnes. OneTrojan decides to single handedly make a path through thisplace. As the Trojan passes through, he kills many Romans.The Trojan, Euryalus, kills Rhamnes and his slaves. He thenkills Remus’ armor-bearer, charioteer, and horses. Lastly,Euryalus comes upon the lord, Remus. Vergil begins todescribe the beheading of Remus, done by none other thenRemus, “Full on his neck he drives the fatal sword: thegasping head flies off; a purple flood flows from thetrunk.” Euryalus then kills Lamus, the bold, and Lamyrus,the strong. Euryalus also kills the young Serranus, agood-natured young man who may not have deserved to die. Vergil includes this certain murder in particular because itshows that war shows no mercy, no matter how young or howgood. The slaughter in this scene is ended only at the handof Nisus, Euryalus’ lover, who proclaims there has beenenough blood lust and murder. The group leaves the battlescene with nothing, for they leave the “precious load”behind. Soon we see that a young boy is left behind because hewants to take some of the bounty that was left from thebattle. As Euryalus and Nisus have been gone for some time,Euryalus realizes he has left the boy behind and he retraceshis path. When he returns he sees the boy surrounded by“three hundred horse” lead by Volscen...
