Question asked without expecting an answer, either because the answer is already implied or because what matters is the doubt it exposes.
In the Aeneid
Should I, defeated, give up what I have begun? Not be able to keep the king of the Trojans away from Italy?
The two questions, “should I, defeated, give up what I have begun?” and “not be able to keep the king away from Italy?”, expect no answer. Juno asks them of herself, in outrage, and already lets it be understood that the answer is a no that she refuses to accept.
Book I: The Storm and Carthage, Juno
Why does it please you so much to surrender to this mad grief, sweet husband? This does not happen without the will of the gods; it is not lawful for you to take Creusa as your companion, nor does the lord of high Olympus permit it. Long exiles await you, and a vast sea to plough.
Book II: The Fall of Troy, Creusa
Will it never again be said that there are walls of Troy? Shall I never again see the rivers of Hector, the Xanthus and the Simois? Come, burn with me the ill-fated ships. For in a dream it seemed to me that the image of the prophetess Cassandra gave me burning torches: here seek Troy, here is your home.
Book V: The Games, Iris, disguised as Beroe
What new madness is this? Where are you going now, where, he said, O wretched citizens? You are not burning an enemy or the hostile camp of the Argives: you are burning your own hopes. Here I am, your Ascanius.
What will he give now, poor boy, in return for such praise, what will pious Aeneas give, worthy of such a noble spirit? Keep the arms you were so proud of; I return you to the shadows and the ashes of your fathers, if that matters to them. But you will have, unhappy one, this consolation in your sad death: you fall by the hand of the great Aeneas.
Is this our homecoming, are these the triumphs we hoped for? This is my great faith!
You, dressed in the spoils of my people, will escape me here? Pallas, Pallas sacrifices you with this blow and exacts the penalty of your criminal blood.
Subscription
The explanation of each passage, in every device and in every work, comes with a subscription.