amnites, as a last resource in their broken
Fortunes, had recourse to Religion._

The Samnites, who before had met with many defeats at the hands of the
Romans, were at last decisively routed by them in Etruria, where their
armies were cut to pieces and their commanders slain. And because their
allies also, such as the Etruscans, the Umbrians, and the Gauls, were
likewise vanquished, they "_could now no longer_" as Livius tells us,
"_either trust to their own strength or to foreign aid; yet, for all
that, would not cease from hostilities, nor resign themselves to forfeit
the liberty which they had_ unsuccessfully defended, preferring new
defeats to an inglorious submission._" They resolved, therefore, to make
a final effort; and as they knew that victory was only to be secured by
inspiring their soldiers with a stubborn courage, to which end nothing
could help so much as religion, at the instance of their high priest,
Ovius Paccius, they revived an ancient sacrificial rite performed by
them in the manner following. After offering solemn sacrifice they
caused all the captains of their armies, standing between the slain
victims and the smoking altars, to swear never to abandon the war. They
then summoned the common soldiers, one by one, and before the same
altars, and surrounded by a ring of many centurions with drawn swords,
first bound them by oath never to reveal what they might see or hear;
and then, after imprecating the Divine wrath, and reciting the most
terrible incantations, made them vow and swear to the gods, as they
would not have a curse light on their race and offspring, to follow
wherever their captains led, never to turn back from battle, and to put
any they saw turn back to death. Some who in their terror declined to
swear, were forthwith slain by the centurions. The rest, warned by their
cruel fate, complied. Assembling thereafter to the number of forty
thousand, one-half of whom, to render their appearance of unusual
splendour were clad in white, with plumes and crests over their helmets,
they took up their ground in the neighbourhood of Aquilonia. But
Papirius, being sent against them, bade his soldiers be of good cheer,
telling them "_that feathers made no wounds, and that a Roman spear
would pierce a painted shield;_" and to lessen the effect which the oath
taken by the Samnites had upon the minds of the Romans, he said that
such an oath must rather distract than strengthen those bound by it,
since t