The Sacrifice of Decius Mus

In 340 BC Rome went to war with its former allies, the Latin League. Livy tells that before the decisive battle near Vesuvius, both Roman consuls, Titus Manlius Torquatus and Publius Decius Mus, dreamed of a figure who told them that one side would lose its general and the other its army. They agreed that whichever consul's wing began to fail would devote himself to the gods.

When the Roman left began to give ground, Decius called the pontifex. Livy sets out what he presents as the ancient ritual: the consul put on the bordered toga, veiled his head, touched his chin with one hand beneath the toga, and stood on a spear while he repeated a prayer to Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, the Lares and other gods, and the gods of the dead. Then, with his toga girded in the Gabine manner, he leapt armed onto his horse and rode into the enemy. Livy says he seemed to both armies more majestic than a man, and that panic spread wherever he rode, until he fell under a storm of missiles. His son of the same name is said to have made the same sacrifice at Sentinum in 295 BC.