§ 1. Since many of the pagans judged it to have been done wisely that they restrained the multitude by fear of ceremonies and by a certain tragedy of religion, I have already refuted this. But because Machiavelli, who wished to be regarded as a Christian, nevertheless leads his prince to the same thing, what he wrote in book 1, chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 of Discourses on Livy must be examined. For these writings combine great imprudence with the utmost superstition.
Chapter 11: “Although Rome derived its first origin from Romulus and ought deservedly to acknowledge him as a daughter acknowledges her father, nevertheless the immortal gods saw that the laws and institutions established by Romulus were not sufficient for acquiring so great an empire. Therefore, when he departed from this life, they moved the senate to choose Numa Pompilius as his successor, so that he might supply the things which had been neglected by Romulus. When, therefore, he had come to power, he found the Roman people trained in the arts of war and fierce; and since he desired to train them for peace and tranquillity, he directed all his effort toward establishing the worship of religion. He established it so excellently that for many centuries nowhere among nations was there so great a fear of God as that which existed among the Romans from Numa’s institution; and this thing greatly advanced all those institutions.”
He proves that Rome’s safety depended upon that reverent worship of religion because they were accustomed to keep the oath which they had been compelled to swear. Thus, after the disaster at Cannae, Scipio compelled the frightened youth, who under the leadership of Metellus were contemplating departure to some king, to swear at sword-point that they would not desert their fatherland. Thus Titus Manlius compelled the tribune Pomponius at dagger-point to swear that he would desist from accusing Manlius’s father. Accordingly, he affirms that the Romans owed more to Numa than to Romulus. Finally he concludes in these words: “Since these things are so, I conclude that the worship of religion instituted by Numa Pompilius was one of the principal causes because of which the Romans were so fortunate in conducting affairs. For where religion exists, good laws and good discipline have a place; and from these arise fortunate and happy outcomes of affairs, especially in military expeditions. Conversely, with religion removed, the commonwealth must fall; for with fear of God removed, impiety follows, and from this the ruin of empires. For although the prince himself may perhaps be pious and may in some manner compensate by his virtue for the impiety of his subjects, nevertheless, because he is mortal and perhaps also of a brief life, it must happen that, when he dies, the virtue which had prevailed gradually declines together with the empire.”
§ 2. In chapter 13 he says: “I think that I shall not act irrelevantly if, by setting forth examples, I show that the Romans often settled a disturbed commonwealth and undertook certain expeditions by the assistance of religion. Although many examples of this kind occur in Livy, I shall nevertheless adduce only these few.
“After the Roman people had created tribunes of the plebs with consular power, and all of them except one
were plebeians, there arose in Rome in the same year a severe plague and scarcity of grain; in addition, certain other portents appeared. The patricians therefore seized this occasion and asserted that these calamities had been sent upon the Roman people by the immortal gods because of abuse of the majesty of government and wrongful usurpation of tribunician power, and that the gods could not be appeased otherwise than if the lawful arrangement of tribunician power were restored. Terrified by this matter, the plebs created all the tribunes from the patrician order.
“In the very long siege of Veii also, when the soldiers, wearied by tedium, wished to return to Rome, they were kept by their leaders in continuation of the siege under a certain pretext of religion. For when the Alban Lake had risen, they interpreted the oracle of Apollo as though that inundation of waters announced that the city would be taken in that year; and a seer, who was held captive at Rome, was employed for the expiation of this Alban prodigy and the appeasement of the gods. Persuaded by all these things, the soldier patiently endured the hardships of war; and from this it came about that Camillus, having been created dictator, took the city which the Roman people had besieged for an entire decade. The Romans would never have accomplished these things so happily, nor could they have restored tribunician power to the patricians, unless, assisted by the pretext of religion, they had known how to keep both the soldiers and the plebs in their duty.
“Similar to these examples is what happened when Terentillus, tribune of the plebs, wished to promulgate the Terentillan law, concerning which we shall dispute later. For then also, to quiet the disturbances which this matter had produced, the Fathers employed a certain pretext of religion in two ways. First, they ordered the duumvirs to consult the Sibylline books and then announced from them that danger threatened the state of losing its liberty in that year unless men abstained from seditions. Although the tribunes charged that this had been done by the Fathers to obstruct the law, it nevertheless moved the minds of the plebs so greatly that it no longer followed the tribunes with such ardor.
“Next, when, amid the same disturbances, a certain Appius Herdonius, with the aid of exiles and slaves—of whom he had four thousand five hundred with him—occupied the Capitol and citadel by night, and there was danger that, if either the Aequi or Volsci, perpetual enemies of the Roman name, should arrive, they would take the city; and when the tribunes still did not cease to press the promulgation of the law and asserted that this too had been fabricated by the Fathers in order to obstruct the law, then the consul Publius Valerius, a grave and eloquent man, came out from the senate and, mingling threats with arguments, demonstrated to the people what dangers threatened the city because the Capitol had been seized and how untimely that occasion was for carrying the law. He accomplished so much that all were bound by oath not to depart from the consul’s will. The plebs therefore followed him and recovered the Capitol.
“But when Publius Valerius had been killed in that assault and Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus had succeeded him in the consulship, he resolved to lead the legions against the Volsci and Aequi, lest he leave the plebs leisure or furnish it an opportunity to consider and press the same Terentillan law. But when the tribunes tried to frustrate this and asked by what arrangement the consuls would lead out an army, since no one would permit them to conduct a levy against the will of the tribunes, Quinctius said: ‘But we have no need of a levy. For when Publius Valerius gave arms to the plebs for the recovery of the Capitol, all swore allegiance: that they would assemble at the consul’s command and would not depart without his command. We therefore proclaim that all of you who swore allegiance are to be present armed at Lake Regillus tomorrow.’
“Although after these words the tribunes resisted and attempted to release the plebs from its religious obligation, on the ground that the oath had been rendered not to Quinctius, who was then a private man, but to the consul, nevertheless the plebs, moved by reverence for religion, preferred to follow the consuls rather than appear to violate its oath in any manner. To such an extent, assuredly, were those times happy and human beings very little evil. And as Livy says: ‘That neglect of the gods which holds our age had not yet arrived, nor did each man make oaths and laws suitable to himself by interpreting them; rather, he accommodated his own morals to them.’
“With these things thus established, when the tribunes saw that they could not resist the consuls, they themselves descended to the consuls’ will through fear of losing their dignity; and an agreement was made that throughout the entire year neither would they themselves do anything concerning the Terentillan law, nor would the consuls summon the plebs from the city to war. Here too, accordingly, you perceive that the senate, by the assistance of religion, quieted these turbulent movements of tribunician power and overcame the present difficulties, and that it could not have overcome them without religion.”
§ 3. In chapter 14 he says that the Romans employed auspices, yet frequently fought contrary to omens and at other times interpreted them contrary to common usage, as Papirius did against the Samnites. For when the tripudium solistimum had falsely been reported to him and this had been disclosed to the commander, who was now intent upon the business, he answered the messenger: “May you indeed be honored for your courage and diligence. But if the one who attends the auspice reports anything falsely, he takes the religious guilt upon himself. To me the tripudium has been reported, and it is an excellent auspice for the Roman people and army.”
When he had said these things, so that the outcome might answer his omen, he commanded the centurions to station the chicken-keepers among the foremost standards. And so, while the standards were advanced against the enemy, before the shout was raised and battle joined, a chicken-keeper was struck by a spear discharged at random and fell before the standards. When this was reported to the consul, he answered that all things would now proceed under good auspices, since the chicken-keeper had expiated his falsehood by his own destruction and the gods, now appeased, would assist the army. In this passage you perceive manifestly that Papirius interpreted the auspices so that he neither omitted the opportunity of fighting contrary to what they appeared to advise, nor could anyone nevertheless object to him that he had despised the auspices and religion.
The senate approved that dexterity and, by decreeing honors, ratified it publicly.
§ 4. Although the preceding arguments have shown that this is impious imprudence, I shall now nevertheless demonstrate it from histories and from the commonwealth itself—and, unless I am mistaken, from Machiavelli himself.
First, he says that the immortal gods saw that the laws enacted by Romulus were insufficient for acquiring so great an empire, and that they therefore moved the senate to choose Numa so that he might supply what was lacking. What here should I first marvel at or censure? Did the gods foresee that Romulus’s laws were insufficient? But neither the divine powers of Romulus nor those of Numa not only foresaw anything, but even saw anything. All those gods grew without foundations and were therefore inclined toward ruin. Romulus made a few gods, Numa more. But those were not gods whose divinity was weighed according to human judgment, since those human beings were propitious to the god: for unless they had decreed it, that crowd of little gods would never have been adorned with ray and stars.
Minucius Felix judged better concerning this business: “The Romans were not so great because they were religious, but because they were sacrilegious with impunity.” But nevertheless the gods moved Numa to establish divine powers and, as Machiavelli wishes, to deceive the simple people. Yet those gods did not suffice for posterity.
“Nor,” says Augustine in book 3, chapter 12 of The City of God, “did Rome deign to be content with these sacred rites, although Pompilius had established so many there; for it did not yet possess the chief temple of Jupiter himself. King Tarquin built the Capitol there. Aesculapius, moreover, left Epidaurus for Rome so that, as a most skilled physician, he might practice his art more gloriously in the most renowned city. The Mother of the Gods also came—I do not know whence—from Pessinus. For it was unworthy that, while her son already presided over the Capitoline Hill, she herself should still
lie hidden in an ignoble place. Yet if she is the mother of all the gods, she not only followed certain of her sons to Rome but also preceded others who were to follow. I marvel indeed whether she herself gave birth to Cynocephalus, who came much later from Egypt. Whether the goddess Fever was also born from her, let Aesculapius, her great-grandson, see to it. But from wherever she was born, I do not think that the foreign gods will dare to call her, a Roman citizen, an ignoble goddess.
“Under the protection of so many gods—who can number them? Native and foreign, heavenly, terrestrial, infernal, marine, of springs and of rivers; and, as Varro says, certain and uncertain; and in every kind of gods, just as among animals, males and females—under the protection, therefore, of so many gods, Rome ought not to have been shaken and afflicted by such great and horrible disasters, of which I shall commemorate a few out of many. For by her great smoke, as though a signal had been given, she had gathered far too many gods for her protection; by instituting and furnishing temples, altars, sacrifices, and priests for them, she offended the supreme and true God, to whom alone these things, rightly performed, are owed.
“And she certainly lived more happily when she had fewer. But the greater she became, the more she judged that more must be employed, as a ship employs sailors; I believe she despaired that those fewer gods under whom, in comparison with her worse life, she had lived better were sufficient to assist her greatness. For first, under the kings themselves, except Numa Pompilius, of whom I have already spoken above, how great was the evil of discordant strife which compelled Romulus’s brother to be killed?”
§ 5. I omit the twelve select gods and the twenty celestial gods. Was that crowd necessary—Cautius, Ops, Lucina, Vagitanus, Cunina, Rumina, Statilinus, Mens, Adeona, Volumnus and Volumna, Bellona, the rustic god, Honorinus, Victoria, Aesculanus, Fessonia, Pellonia, Spiniensis, Fortuna, the goddess Mutua, Agenoria, Stimula, Murcia, Jugatinus, Vallonia, Runcina, Sera, Segetia, Tutilina, Flora, Matura, Ruana, Carda, Limentinus, Forculus, Silvanus, Fever, Fear, Flora, Rest, and the one who alone has a rightful name, Cloacina? These and more were added; for I omit many because I cannot name them honorably. Therefore, if Machiavelli judges that the Roman state stood by the superstition of these gods, he departs very far from the truth. For what did Fever and Pallor foresee concerning the commonwealth?
§ 6. Second, it is owed to Numa that the Romans preserved the religious obligation of the oath, as Metellus did with his companions, and Pomponius. But they observed the religious obligation of the oath not from fear of vain divine powers, but from natural reason and a certain fear concerning the eternal divine power, whose implanted πρόληψιν—“preconception”—they could not shake off; and much more truly from fear of death and infamy. For through their gods—Apollo, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter himself—they learned to swear falsely and deceive.
Do you wish me to set the crowd of perjurers against these very few? First, Numa himself was an occupier of the kingdom through guile and a corrupter of so great an empire through the fraud of religion introduced among the citizens. Next, Tullus Hostilius, waging war against the treaties of Alba—that is, against its parent—was consumed by lightning together with his whole house. Tarquinius Priscus was killed by the sons of Ancus contrary to the pledged faith. Servius was killed by his son-in-law. Tarquinius Superbus, a parricide, erected the Capitol and reigned. Brutus expelled his colleague Collatinus without cause. Roman youths conspired against their fatherland on behalf of tyranny. Where here is Numa’s profane piety?
“The Roman senate dealt according to equitable and moderate law while fear from Tarquin and the grave war with Etruria remained. Afterward the Fathers exercised the plebs by servile domination, decided concerning their life and body in the royal manner, drove them from their land, and, with the rest excluded, acted alone in government. Harried by these cruelties, and especially oppressed by usury, the plebs, since it bore tribute and military service at the same time amid continual wars, occupied the Sacred Mount and the Aventine under arms, and then procured for itself tribunes of the plebs and other rights. The end of discord and strife on both sides was the Second Punic War.” Thus Sallust.
It was therefore not through religious piety but through fear that the Fathers showed themselves equitable; and because fear is not a lasting teacher of duty, when it was removed they proceeded to injuries against the plebs. What of Sergius Galba, a man of the utmost perfidy, who sold some and slaughtered others of seven thousand Lusitanians, although he had summoned them after giving his word? The senate banished Bituitus, king of the Arverni, perfidiously captured, to Alba for confinement.
I am not ignorant that there was a greater religious regard for the oath at Rome than among any nation. Cicero, book 3 of On Duties: “Our ancestors wished there to be no bond tighter than an oath for binding faith.” Aulus Gellius and Dionysius praise this. Dionysius, book 2, refers it to Numa; Polybius likewise in book 6. But this was in comparison with the Carthaginians, Egyptians, and other most faithless nations.
For as regards fidelity to an oath, I appeal to an author who knew Roman affairs better and assessed them more prudently than Machiavelli: Augustine, book 3, chapter 2 of The City of God: “Therefore the great gods Neptune and Apollo, not knowing that Laomedon would deny them their pay, became builders of the walls of Troy for nothing and without thanks. Let them consider whether it is not more serious to believe in such gods than to swear falsely by such gods. For even Homer himself did not readily believe this, since he makes Neptune indeed fight against the Trojans, but Apollo for the Trojans, although the tale relates that both were offended by that perjury. If, therefore, they believe the tales, let them blush to worship such divine powers; if they do not believe the tales, let them not put forward Trojan perjuries, or let them marvel that the gods punished Trojan perjuries but loved Roman ones.
“For whence did the conspiracy of Catiline, in so great and so corrupt a state, have also a great abundance of those whose hand and tongue were nourished by perjury or civil blood? For what else did senators so often corrupted in judgments, or the people so often corrupted in voting or in whatever cases were treated before it in assemblies, do except sin also by swearing falsely? For amid the most corrupt morals the ancient custom of swearing was preserved for this purpose: not that they might be restrained from crimes by fear of religion, but that perjuries too might be added to their other crimes.”
§ 7. But whatever religious regard existed in the oath soon vanished through contempt for vain divine powers that laughed at and taught perjuries. Therefore, later men swore by the genius of Caesar; and when an oath was demanded of Christians by the safety of Caesar, Tertullian, Apology 35, says: “We swear, just as not by the genii of the Caesars, so by their safety, which is more august than all genii.” This, moreover, was judged the greatest oath at Rome, not because they were moved by religion, but because vengeance was readily at hand. “It is safer,” says Minucius, “to swear falsely by the genius of Jupiter than by that of Caesar.”
§ 8. Third, he praises the Romans because they employed the pretext of religion. For when they had created plebeian tribunes with consular power, they persuaded the people that the plague which was raging had been sent because of abuse of the majesty of government; and thus the plebs created all the tribunes from the Fathers. Next, they fabricated that the inundation of the Alban Lake portended the capture of Veii in that year, so that they might keep the soldier in the siege. Third, they first obstructed the Terentillan law by a pretense involving the Sibylline books; then they led the Quirites, bound by the religious obligation of their oath, against the Volsci.
But all the centuries of the Quirites will give testimony for me and for the truth: namely, that by those deceptions the authority and strength of the nobility
collapsed. For, to omit the tribunes, after a five-year contest they made consuls from the plebs, the first of whom was Lucius Sextius. This was done while Camillus the liberator was still alive. When a new plague afterward arose, a remedy was sought through new religious rites—that is, dramatic games—and not by depriving the plebs of the right to undertake the consulship. And so the Terentillan law was carried, superstition was shaken off, and not in this manner only: they also transferred the priesthoods and auspices to themselves.
Do you desire, reader, to see the fruit of so trivial and so brief an imposture? Read the speech of the consul Decius Mus: “Since this is so, to whom among gods and human beings can it appear unworthy,” he says, “to add pontifical and augural insignia to those men whom you have honored with curule chairs, the bordered toga, the palm-embroidered tunic, the painted toga, the triumphal and laurel crown, and whose houses you have made distinguished among others by the spoils of enemies affixed to them? If a man who has been adorned with the attire of Jupiter Best and Greatest, borne through the city in a gilded chariot, and ascended the Capitol, is he not to be seen with the sacrificial bowl and augur’s staff, with his head veiled, slaughtering a victim or taking an augury from the citadel? Although the consulship, censorship, and triumph will be read with equanimity in the inscription beneath his image, if you add the augurate or pontificate, will the readers’ eyes not endure it?
“For my part—may I say it with the gods’ pardon—I hope that by the benefit of the Roman people we are already men who render no less honor to the priesthoods by our own dignity than we receive, and that we seek them for the sake of the gods more than for our own sake, so that we may worship publicly those whom we worship privately. But why have I thus far conducted my case as though the patricians’ claim regarding the priesthoods were intact and we were not already in possession of one most ample priesthood? We see plebeian decemvirs for performing sacred rites, interpreters of the Sibyl’s verses and of this people’s fates, and likewise overseers of the Apollinarian rite and other ceremonies. Nor was any injury done then to the patricians when, for the sake of the plebeians, the number was added to the duumvirs for performing sacred rites; and now a tribune, a brave and vigorous man, has added five places of augurs and four of pontiffs, to which plebeians may be nominated—not that they may expel you, Appius, from your place, but that plebeian men may assist you also in administering divine affairs, just as in other human affairs they assist according to their manly share.
“Do not blush, Appius, to have as colleague in the priesthood one whom you could have as colleague in the censorship and consulship, to whom you can be master of the horse when he is dictator, just as you can be dictator when he is master of the horse. A Sabine newcomer, the founder of your nobility—whether you prefer Appius Clausus or Appius Claudius—was received into their number by those ancient patricians. Do not disdain to receive us into the number of the priests. We bring many honors with us—indeed, all the same things that have made you proud. Lucius Sextius was made the first consul from the plebs; Gaius Licinius Stolo the first master of the horse; Gaius Marcius Rutilus the first both dictator and censor; Quintus Publilius Philo the first praetor. Those same things have always been heard: that the auspices are in your possession, that you alone have lineage, that you alone have lawful command and auspice at home and in war. Up to now this has been equally prosperous for plebeian and patrician, and so it will be hereafter.
“Or have you ever heard it said at Rome that the patricians were first created not by descent from heaven, but that those who could name a father and grandfather—that is, nothing further than freeborn men—were patricians? I can now name a consul as father, and my son will now be able to name one as grandfather. There is nothing else at issue, Quirites, except that we should attain all things that have been denied. The patricians seek only a contest and do not care what outcome the contests have. I judge that this law, which may be good, favorable, and fortunate for you and the commonwealth, ought to be commanded as you have been asked.” Thus the fraud, once disclosed, harmed more than it profited during the brief time when it lay hidden.
§ 9. They turned the overflowing of the Alban Lake into a prodigy signifying that Veii would be taken in that year. This was a political lie, intended for a brief time and rash—especially since its interpretation was entrusted to a captive. But how was Camillus uncertain of his own fate, which was already impending, while he predicted the fatherland’s fate from the outpouring of the Alban waters? I, if it pleased me to prophesy, would affirm instead that the outpoured multitude of the Senones, which devastated everything all the way to Rome—and Rome itself, except the Capitol—was signified by that portent.
But Papirius interpreted the auspices dexterously. It is plainly so. Nor did Claudius act badly when he commanded that the chickens should drink, since they were unwilling to eat; and Scipio acted wittily when, after the commander’s slip while disembarking from his ship appeared ominous to the inexperienced soldier, he drew it into a favorable auspice by saying that he held Africa. Thus Augustus, when a comet appeared which is ordinarily regarded as fatal to kings, said that it pertained to the king of the Persians, because that king was long-haired. All these things altogether destroy the superstition of auguries and furnish an occasion for mocking this entire kind universally.
In the same manner Cicero acts in books 1 and 2; although himself an augur, he denies that either Romulus or anyone possesses true auspices, yet says they are retained for the opinion of the common people and the great advantages of the commonwealth. But against Cicero, the Christian Cicero rightly teaches in book 2, chapter 5 of The City of God: “For what kind of thing is that which they said was a most beautiful auspice, which I commemorated a little before: that Mars, Terminus, and Youth were unwilling to yield their place even to Jupiter, king of the gods? For thus, they say, it was signified that the Martial people—that is, the Roman people—would yield to no one the place it held; that no one would move the Roman boundaries because of the god Terminus; and that Roman youth because of the goddess Youth would yield to no one.
“Let them therefore see how they regarded that king of their gods and giver of their kingdom, since they set those auspices against him as an adversary to whom it would be glorious not to yield. Yet if these things are true, they have altogether nothing to fear. For they will not confess that the gods yielded to Christ, who were unwilling to yield to Jupiter. For, with the boundaries of the empire preserved, they could yield to Christ both from the seats of places and, especially, from the heart of believers.
“But before Christ came in the flesh, before, finally, those things which we bring forth from their books were written, yet after that auspice occurred under King Tarquin, the Roman army was several times routed—that is, turned to flight—and proved false the auspice that Youth had not yielded to Jupiter. The Martial nation was crushed in the city itself when the Gauls prevailed and broke in; and the boundaries of the empire were constricted into a narrow compass when many states defected to Hannibal. Thus the beauty of the auspices was emptied out, and obstinacy against Jupiter remained—not the obstinacy of gods, but of demons. For it is one thing not to have yielded, another to have returned from the place whence you had yielded.
“And yet afterward, in the eastern regions, the boundaries of the Roman Empire were changed by Hadrian’s will. For he conceded three noble provinces—Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria—to the empire of the Persians, so that the god Terminus, who according to them protected the Roman boundaries and by that most beautiful auspice had not yielded his place to Jupiter, may appear to have feared Hadrian, king of human beings, more than the king of the gods.”
§ 10. It is time for us to hear the pseudo-politician speaking against himself for once. In book 1, chapter 12 of Discourses on Livy, he requires true worship: “Whatever princes and commonwealths desire to preserve themselves ought, before all other things, to devote themselves to this one thing: that they rightly establish and venerate the true worship of religion. Nor will you ever be able to have a surer judgment concerning the ruin and destruction of any religion than if you perceive that divine worship is held in contempt and scorned within it. But, so that you may understand that the matter is so, observe upon what foundation the religion of the place in which each person is born rests, because every religious worship stands upon some foundation.”
Next, in chapter 15, he relates the history of the monstrous conspiracy of the Samnites. Reduced to straits, since they had decided to attempt every extremity and nevertheless understood that they could not conquer unless they had the most resolute spirits among their soldiers for fighting, they fled to religion as their final remedy. For from an old book, with Ovius Paccius as priest, a man advanced in age, they sought a sacrifice according to the ancient religion of the Samnites.
When the sacrifice had been completed, their commander ordered every most noble man to be summoned by an attendant. The apparatus of the sacred rite was of such a kind that it could suffuse the mind with religious awe. For a place stood enclosed with latticework in the middle of the camp and covered with barriers and linen, extending equally two hundred feet in every direction. In the middle were altars, victims slaughtered around them, and centurions standing about with drawn swords. The soldier was brought to the altars more as a victim than as a participant in the sacred rite and was compelled by oath not to disclose what he had seen and heard in that place. Then he was compelled to swear by a certain dreadful formula, composed as a curse upon his person, family, and stock, unless he went into battle wherever the commanders led them, and unless, if he himself fled from the battle line or saw anyone fleeing, he immediately killed him.
At first certain men who refused to swear were cut down around the altars; then, lying among the heaps of victims, they served as a warning to the others not to refuse. So that those bound by this oath might be held by a greater religious obligation, they also adorned them with various distinguishing marks. For, out of the forty thousand whom they had gathered, they clothed about half in white garments and assigned them decorated arms and crested helmets so that they might stand out among the rest. At last they encamped at Aquilonia.
But when the consul Papirius was about to fight against them, he made light of all these things and addressed his own soldiers lest they be terrified by a religious oath of this kind: “Crests,” he said, “do not make wounds; rather, a Roman javelin passes through painted and gilded shields, and the whiteness of clothing and a gleaming battle line, where the affair is conducted by the sword, will be stained with blood. Finally, all these things will recoil upon their own heads, since in an abominable sacred rite they mingled the slaughter of human beings and cattle and, because of treaties so often broken, incited gods, citizens, and enemies against themselves.”
At last the Romans conquered in the conflict because their courage instilled in the Samnites, through remembrance of disaster so often suffered, a greater fear than religion could infuse into them of either courage or obstinacy for fighting. Although this is so, we nevertheless see plainly that, when their affairs were so deeply afflicted, they fled to religion as their final remedy and placed so great a hope for the recovery of courage in no other thing. From this it is possible to understand how much protection anyone may possess in the right use of true religion. And so I have judged that this matter must be discussed in this place, as one which depended upon the most necessary institutions of the Roman commonwealth.
From these things I conclude that no fabricated religion is lasting, and that Roman soldiers, such great despisers of religion, could laugh at the foolishness of their augurs; and therefore that it is the most inconsiderate rashness to rest upon that foundation which can be overturned by one blow and a slight jest. The consular augur confesses that it is so: “Antiquity erred in many things,” he says, “and we see it changed either by practice, learning, or age.” Since, therefore, those opinions are ordinarily changed by practice and learning, the lawgiver who contrives a true and stable commonwealth will not employ them. Although such a commonwealth derives all things from truth, nevertheless its most solid foundations are very frequently shaken by the vice of human beings. How will it be stable if its highest interest and safety depend upon the most foolish and most inconstant opinions of the common people?