Latinus, the ruler of Latium, receives a message from an oracle declaring that his daughter, Lavinia, must marry a foreigner. “Don’t seek to marry your daughter within any Latin alliance, / Son of my blood, don’t trust in an easy and ready-made wedding! / Sons-in-law will one day arrive from a foreign world and, with their blood, / Raise our name to the stars!” (7.96-98) When Aeneas arrives in Latium shortly thereafter, Latinus receives him warmly, declaring that the Trojan will receive his daughter’s hand. This is what puts Aeneas at odds with Turnus, as she was initially betrothed to him. Following Aeneas’s defeat of Turnus, he marries Lavinia and names the city of Lavinium after her. Notably, Lavinia never speaks over the course of the poem,
