# CHAPTER XLII.—_That Promises made on Compulsion are not to be observed._

When, after being subjected to this disgrace, the consuls returned to
Rome with their disarmed legions, Spurius Posthumius, himself one of
the consuls, was the first to contend in the senate that the terms made
in the Caudine Valley were not to be observed. For he argued that the
Roman people were not bound by them, though he himself doubtless was,
together with all the others who had promised peace; wherefore, if the
people desired to set themselves free from every engagement, he and all
the rest who had given this promise must be made over as prisoners into
the hands of the Samnites. And so steadfastly did he hold to this
opinion, that the senate were content to adopt it, and sending him and
the rest as prisoners back to Samnium, protested to the Samnites that
the peace was not binding. And so kind was Fortune to Posthumius on
this occasion, that the Samnites would not keep him as a prisoner, and
that on his return to Rome, notwithstanding his defeat, he was held in
higher honour by the Romans than the victorious Pontius by his
countrymen.

Here two points are to be noted; first, that glory may be won by any
action; for although, commonly, it follow upon victory, it may also
follow on defeat, if this defeat be seen to have happened through no
fault of yours, or if, directly after, you perform some valiant action
which cancels it. The other point to be noted is that there is no
disgrace in not observing promises wrung from you by force; for
promises thus extorted when they affect the public welfare will always
be broken so soon as the pressure under which they were made is
withdrawn, and that, too, without shame on the part of him who breaks
them; of which we read many instances in history, and find them
constantly occurring at the present day. Nay, as between princes, not
only are such compulsory promises broken when the force which extorted
them is removed, but all other promises as well, are in like manner
disregarded when the causes which led to them no longer operate.

Whether this is a thing to be commended or no, and whether such methods
ought or ought not to be followed by princes, has already been
considered by me in my “_Treatise of the Prince_” wherefore I say no
more on that subject here.