Editing Turnus (section)

==Historical tradition==

While there is limited information in historical sources about Turnus, some key details about Turnus and the [[Rutuli]] differ significantly from the account in the Aeneid. The only source predating the Aeneid is [[Cato the Elder|Marcus Porcius Cato]]'s ''[[Origines]]''. Turnus is also mentioned by [[Livy]] in his ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri|Ab Urbe Condita]]'' and by [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] in his {{lang|grc|Ρωμαϊκή Αρχαιολογία}} (''Rômaïkê Archaiologia'', "''Roman Antiquities''"), both of which come later than the ''Aeneid''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Quartarone|first1=Lorina|title=The Origins of Turnus, Vergilian Invention, and Augustan Rome|journal=Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae|date=March 2015|volume=55|issue=1–4|pages=379–392|doi=10.1556/068.2015.55.1-4.26|url=http://real.mtak.hu/44351/1/068.2015.55.1-4.26.pdf}}</ref> Turnus is mentioned in the [[Book of Jasher (Pseudo-Jasher)|Pseudo-Jasher]], along with Angeas of Africa. <ref>Jasher, Chapter 60</ref>

In all of these historical sources, Turnus' heritage is unclear. Dionysius calls him ''Tyrrhenus'', which means "[[Etruscans|Etruscan]]", while other sources suggest a Greek ancestry. In all of these sources, Turnus and his Rutulians are settled in Italy prior to the arrival of the Trojans and are involved in the clash between the Latins and the Trojans, but there is a great deal of discrepancy in details. It appears that Virgil drew on a variety of historical sources for the background of Turnus in the ''Aeneid''.