# 15. The Samnites had recourse to Religion as a last Resort when their Affairs were going badly

After the Samnites had been defeated several times by the Romans and had been finally destroyed in Tuscany, their army and its officers killed, their allies such as the Tuscans, Gauls and Umbrians conquered, ‘they could rely now neither on their strength nor on that of others, yet they did not withdraw from the war, so far were they from becoming weary of defending liberty even without success, and so much did they prefer to be beaten rather than not try to win’. They determined, therefore, to make a final effort; and, since they knew it was necessary to instil into the minds of the soldiers an obstinate will to conquer, and that, to instil it, there were no better means than religion, they decided on the advice of Ovius Paccius, their priest, to revive one of their ancient sacrifices. The ritual they observed was as follows. Having offered a solemn sacrifice, and made all the officers of the army stand between the dead victims and the flame-lit altars and swear that they would never abandon the fight, they called up the soldiers one by one, made them stand between the altars in the midst of a number of centurions with drawn swords in their hands, and first of all swear that they would not reveal anything which they saw or observed. They then made them promise the gods with curses and the most terrible incantations that they would be ready to go wherever the generals ordered, that they would never flee from the battle, and that they would kill anyone whom they saw running away, and, if they did not do this, they prayed that the curse might fall on the heads of their family and on their children. Some of them, terrified, were reluctant to take the oath, and were at once killed by the centurions. All those who came after them, frightened by the ferocity of the spectacle, then took the oath. To make this, their assemblage of forty thousand men, yet more magnificent, they clad half of them in white, with crests and plumes on their helmets; and, thus arrayed, the army took up its position near Aquilonia.

Papirius went to meet them, and, to encourage his troops, told them that ‘crests do not cause wounds, and the Roman javelin goes through painted and gilded shields’. Then, in order to dispel any false impression his own troops might have formed of the enemy owing to the oath they had taken, he said that its effect would be to make them afraid, not to strengthen them, since at one and the same time they were afraid of their fellow citizens, of the gods, and of the enemy.

When the engagement took place, the Samnites were overcome, because the virtue of the Romans and the fear caused by past defeats more than counterbalanced any obstinacy they might have derived from the virtue of religion and from the oath they had taken. Nevertheless, it is clear that to them there did not appear to be anything else to which they could have recourse or any other remedy they could try in the hope of recovering the virtue they had lost. This bears striking witness to the magnitude of that confidence which religion gives when properly used.

And, though, perhaps, it might have been better to discuss the question under the head of foreign affairs, yet it is concerned with one of the most important institutions of the Roman Republic, and so seems to me to belong here, since otherwise I should have to deal with this topic in parts and to return to it several times.





Book One



[DISCOURSES 16–18]


[The Transition from Servitude to Freedom]