Turnus is the young chief of the Rutulians, the warrior who opposes Aeneas in the war for Latium and dies at his hand in the last line of the Aeneid.
He enters the poem as the legitimate suitor of Lavinia: the most handsome of those who ask for her, powerful through his grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and chosen by Queen Amata as son-in-law for King Latinus. What blocks the marriage are portents from the gods and the oracle of Faunus, which tells Latinus to expect foreign sons-in-law. Juno sends the Fury Alecto, who plants a torch in his chest, but the poem shows that he already knew of the Trojan ships and was already losing bride and throne: the fury kindles what was already there.
Turnus's courage and impatience appear in Book 9. Prevented from attacking a camp that does not leave its walls, he prowls like a wolf before a sheepfold, tries to burn the fleet, and enters the camp alone, where he kills chief after chief, but does not open the gate to his own people. In Book 10 he kills the young Pallas and tears from him the baldric on which the slaughter of the husbands by the daughters of Danaus is engraved, and the narrator warns that one day he will hate that spoil. Later, when Drances accuses him of fear, he accepts the duel: "Does only Aeneas call me? Let him call, I beg."
In Book 12, Turnus demands that the duel take place and takes sole responsibility for the common charge. The pact breaks through the work of Juno and of her sister Juturna, Jupiter weighs the two destinies, Turnus's sword shatters against the arms of Vulcan, and he falls, wounded. He asks for his life or for his body to be returned to his father, Daunus. Aeneas was going to grant it, until he sees Pallas's baldric on his shoulder.