XIII. [1] And so it was that when Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, found out that a multitude of foreigners had arrived in a fleet and invaded the Laurentine region, without delay he led out his forces against his enemies and so took them off their guard. Before giving the signal to attack, he noticed that the Trojans were drawn up in military fashion, while his own men were not only armed with rocks and clubs, but also for their armour they were dressed in cloth or hides, which they held wrapped around them in their left hand as they marched.

[2] Then the battle was deferred while Latinus sought a parley, trying to find out who they were and what they had come looking for. The reason is that he was compelled to this course by divine authority; for he had been advised by consultations of entrails and by dreams that he would be safer against his enemies if he allied his army with foreigners. [3]  And when he found out that Aeneas and Anchises, driven from their homeland by war, had come wandering with images of their gods looking for a home, he entered into friendship with them under a mutual treaty that provided that they would have the same enemies and the same friends.

[4] And so the Trojans began to fortify a location which Aeneas named Lavinium, after the name of his wife, the daughter of king Latinus, who had previously been betrothed to Turnus Herdonius.

[5] But king Latinus' wife, Amata, was offended that her cousin Turnus should be repudiated and that Lavinia should be handed over to a Trojan stranger. So she incited Turnus to take arms; he soon gathered an army of Rutuli and invaded the Laurentine region. Against him Latinus marched, side by side with Aeneas; amidst the fighting he was surrounded and killed. [6] But Aeneas did not stop standing against the Rutuli, even though his father-in-law had been lost, and he actually killed Turnus. [7] The enemies were scattered and put to flight. As the victor, Aeneas withdrew with his men to Lavinium and by the unanimous consent of the Latins he was proclaimed king, as Lutatius writes in his third book. ²⁸  [8] Indeed Piso records that Turnus was Amata's cousin on his mother's side, and that when Latinus was killed Turnus actually committed suicide. ²⁹