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Why do Turnus and Aeneas go to war in the Aeneid?

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Ancient Roman mosaic showing the poet Virgil seated and writing, flanked by the muses Clio and Melpomene, displayed in a decorative border. — Virgil Virgil (centre) holding a scroll with a quotation from the *Aeneid* and flanked by the muses Clio and Melpomene, mosaic, early 3rd century ce; in the Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia.

In Virgil’s Aeneid, the war between Aeneas and Turnus is primarily ignited by a conflict over the hand of Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus.12

Turnus, the leader of the Rutuli, was the favored suitor for Lavinia before the arrival of the Trojans. When King Latinus instead engages his daughter to Aeneas, it creates deep resentment among the local Italians, particularly Turnus and Latinus’s wife, Queen Amata.1234

The goddess Juno, who harbors a long-standing hatred for the Trojans, intervenes by driving Turnus to madness, inciting him to lead his people into war against the newcomers. This conflict serves as the central struggle of the poem's latter half, ultimately concluding with Aeneas killing Turnus to avenge the death of Pallas, the son of Evander.124