A Misunderstood Passage and an Unnecessary Deletion in Aeneid 11.399–409

This note deals with a difficult passage from the speech that Turnus gives to the Italian council in Aeneid 11. In lines 378–409 Turnus replies to Drances’ speech, but the relevance of 403–5 to his argument is not immediately clear. Accordingly, there is currently a consensus among editors and commentators, in whose opinion line 404 should be deleted. This note attempts to demonstrate that the deletion of 404 is not necessary, and that the current consensus interpretation of 403–5 is unsatisfactory.