Quote 1
(Turnus):
"In war
There's no salvation? Sing that to your Trojan
Chief and your own prospects, you mad fool!
Go on confusing everything with fear,
Exalt a race twice-conquered and their strength,
Cry down Latinus' power. Nowadays
The Myrmidons tremble at Phrygian spears,
Diomedes and Achilles tremble—
Yes, and Aufidus torrent flows uphill
In flight from the Adriatic." (11.539-548)
With these sarcastic words, Turnus emphatically characterizes Drances – who had just suggested that he give up his claim to marriage with Lavinia in favor of a less prestigious match – as weaksauce. In them, he displays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of political power. Just because the Trojans were beaten twice before, Turnus assumes that it is literally impossible for them to be powerful now – about as likely as the Aufidus river flowing uphill. Even setting aside the fact that the Trojans are fated to win this time, Turnus seems pretty naïve (or willfully ignorant) of the way the world works.
Quote 2
Then driven wild, shouting for arms, for arms
He ransacked house and chamber. Lust of steel
Raged in him, brute insanity of war,
And wrath above all, as when fiery sticks
Are piled with a loud crackling by the side
Of a caldron boiling, and the water heaves
And seethes inside the vessel, steaming up
With foam, and bubbling higher, till the surface
Holds no more, and vapor mounts to heaven. (7.633-641)
These lines describe the reaction of Turnus, immediately after the Fury Allecto has convinced him to make war against the Trojans. In the lines that immediately follow these, we are told of how Turnus gives orders for defending the Latins' territory, in violation of the peace between them and the Trojans. Why do you think Virgil chose the image of a boiling cauldron to represent Turnus's emotions and how they give rise to conflict? What might this image say about war in general?