To what extent does Virgil glorify war in Aeneid 10? (20 marker)

In the Aeneid, Virgil presents a dichotomy in his depiction of war; it seems simultaneously a source of glorious heroism, and of barbaric death and suffering. The Aeneid is a reinterpretation of Homer, and it is therefore natural that war is to some extent glorified just as in the Iliad. Aeneas is presented as a great Homeric warrior; He arrives on enemy land standing high on his stern, adorned with the indomitable, burning shield forged by Vulcan, and carried on the waves by the aid of nymphs, a strikingly heroic presentation. As a warrior served by the gods both personally and in terms of weaponry, Aeneas resembles Homer’s Achilles. Aeneas is also, like his Homeric counterpart, portrayed as the outstanding fighter of the narrative: structurally, Virgil gives a lot of weight to Aeneas’ aristeiae, both before and after Pallas’ death. He lingers on the descriptions of the deaths of Aeneas’ opponents, for example describing how, in killing Theron, ‘his sword pierced/through the bronze joints, and the tunic scaled with gold’, and, in Maeon’s death, Aeneas’ javelin ‘mashed breastplate and breast in one go’. Writing in a society that greatly values pre-eminence in battle above all else, Virgil’s depiction of Aeneas particularly appeals to the militaristic Roman psyche.
Conversely, however, Virgil acknowledges the huge suffering war brings, notably in the deaths of Pallas and Lausus. Virgil places an emphasis on the pathos of Pallas' death by describing the reaction of his friends who react “with many groans and tears” and through his brutal description of how Pallas “bit the ground with his bloody mouth”. This is a common metaphor for death in the Iliad and thus Virgil associates Pallas with a tradition of tragic fallen warriors. Similarly, w hen Lausus dies he poignantly describes how “blood filled the folds of the tunic of soft gold his mother had woven”. Even Aeneas is moved to pity as he groans and thinks of his own father. We see also Mezentius’ grief who “darkened his white hair with dust, and lifted both hands to heaven, clinging to the body”. Mezentius’ dying wish too is not for lasting heroic honor, but simply to be buried next to Lausus. In his death, his grief and yearning for his son supplants a wish for heroic glory. Virgil thus offers a portrayal of war not as a source of glory, but of grief, something that would have resonated with a Roman society crippled by decades of civil war.