Reflections of a stormy petrel

Incidentally, the speech commits the minor but heinous (in a Classics don) sin of misquoting Virgil. When Virgil's King Latinus foretells that the Tiber will be foaming with blood, it is exactly because, under the insurgent leadership of Turnus, his own Latin subjects are proposing to drive the Trojan immigrants into the sea instead of welcoming them as the gods want. This kind of "text-proofing" is notorious enough among Christians, but it is positively inexcusable in a supposed Classicist. The only thing it proves is that he is trying to assert his superior status with a quotation he expects others not to know.