Lausus was the devoted son of Mezentius who died shielding his wounded father from Aeneas in Aeneid Book 10.
Mezentius, the exiled Etruscan tyrant, fought alongside Turnus against the Trojans. Together they led the Italian coalition until Aeneas killed both Mezentius and his son Lausus.
Mezentius and Aeneas were principal adversaries in the Italian war. The exiled Etruscans allied with Aeneas specifically to gain vengeance on their former tyrant Mezentius.
Mezentius bore the epithet contemptor divum, contemner of the gods. In Cato's tradition, he demanded wine first-fruits that belonged to Jupiter, directly usurping divine prerogatives.
Tarchon led the Etruscans who had expelled Mezentius from Caere and allied with Aeneas to destroy their exiled tyrant. Their enmity drove the Etruscan fleet to join the Trojan-Latin war in the Aeneid.
Aeneas killed Mezentius in single combat in Aeneid Book 10, driving his sword through the Etruscan's throat as Mezentius lay pinned beneath his fallen warhorse Rhaebus.
Mezentius killed the Trojan warrior Orodes during his aristeia in Aeneid Book 10. The dying Orodes prophesied that Mezentius would soon meet the same fate.
Mezentius slew Pallas son of Evander in the war over Latium, a killing that predates Virgil's reshaping of the tradition.
⚠ Cato's Origines attributes the killing of Pallas to Mezentius; Virgil's Aeneid reassigns it to Turnus.
Evander recounted Mezentius's atrocities to Aeneas in Aeneid Book 8, describing how the Etruscan tyrant bound living men to corpses. Evander urged Aeneas to lead the Etruscans against their exiled king.
Mezentius, the exiled Etruscan tyrant, demanded the first-fruits of the Latin wine harvest as tribute from the people Latinus ruled, provoking the conflict that would end with his death at Aeneas's hand.
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