§9.5.1consules profecti ad Pontium in conloquium, cum de foedere victor agitaret, negarunt iniussu populi foedus fieri posse nec sine fetialibus caerimoniaque alia sollemni. §9.5.2itaque non, ut vulgo credunt Claudiusque etiam scribit, foedere pax Caudina, sed per sponsionem facta est. §9.5.3quid enim aut sponsoribus in foedere opus esset aut obsidibus, ubi precatione res transigitur, per quem populum fiat, quo minus legibus dictis stetur, ut eum ita Iuppiter feriat, quem ad rodum a fetialibus porcus feriatur? §9.5.4spoponderunt consules, legati, quaestores, tribuni militum, nominaque omniur, qui spoponderunt, extant, ubi, si ex foedere acta res esset, praeterquam duorum fetialium non extarent; §9.5.5et propter necessariam foederis dilationem obsides etiam sescenti equites imperati, qui capite luerent, si pacto non staretur. §9.5.6tempus inde statutum tradendis obsidibus exercituque inermi mittendo.
The consuls having set out to Pontius for a conference, when the victor was discussing a treaty, declared that a treaty could not be made without the order of the people, nor without the fetials and other solemn ceremonies. Therefore, the Caudine peace was made not by a treaty, as people commonly believe and Claudius also writes, but by a sponsorship. For what need would there be of sponsors or of hostages in a treaty, where the matter is transacted with a prayer, that whichever people should cause the agreed conditions not to be stood by, Jupiter may strike that people in such a manner as a pig is struck by the fetials? The consuls, envoys, quaestors, and military tribunes gave sponsorship, and the names of all who sponsored are extant, whereas, if the matter had been transacted by a treaty, none would be extant except those of the two fetials; and on account of the necessary delay of the treaty, six hundred knights were also demanded as hostages, who were to forfeit their lives if the agreement were not stood by. Thereupon, a time was appointed for delivering the hostages and sending the unarmed army away.
Redintegravit luctum in castris consulum adventus, ut vix ab iis abstinerent ranus, quorum temeritate in eum locum deducti essent, quorum ignavia foedius inde, quam venissent, abituri: §9.5.7illis non ducem locorum, non exploratorem fuisse; beluarum modo caecos in foveam lapsos. §9.5.8alii alios intueri, contemplari arma mox tradenda et inermes futuras dextras obnoxiaque corpora hosti; proponere sibimet ipsi ante oculos iugum hostile et ludibria victoris et vultus superbos et per armatos inermium iter, §9.5.9inde foedi agminis miserabilem viam per sociorum urbes, reditum in patriam ad parentes, quo saepe ipsi maioresque eorum triumphantes venissent: §9.5.10se solos sine vulnere, sine ferro, sine acie victos; sibi non stringere licuisse gladios, non manum cum hoste conferre; sibi nequiquam animos datos.
The arrival of the consuls renewed the grief in the camp, so that they could scarcely keep their hands off them, by whose rashness they had been brought into that place, and by whose cowardice they were about to depart thence more shamefully than they had come: that they had had no guide of the places, no scout; but like beasts, blind, they had fallen into a pit. They looked at one another, gazed at the weapons soon to be delivered up, their right hands soon to be unarmed, and their bodies exposed to the enemy; they pictured before their own eyes the enemy's yoke, the mockery of the victor, the haughty countenances, and the march of unarmed men through the armed, then the miserable journey of a shameful column through the cities of the allies, and the return to their country and parents, whither they themselves and their ancestors had often come in triumph: they alone had been conquered without a wound, without iron, without a battle; they had not been allowed to draw their swords, nor to clash hands with the enemy; courage had been given to them in vain.
haec frementibus hora fatalis ignominiae advenit, §9.5.11omnia tristiora experiundo factura, quam quae praeceperant animis. §9.5.12iam primum cum singulis vestimentis inermes extra vallum exire iussi, et primi traditi obsides atque in custodiam abducti. §9.5.13tum a consulibus abire lictores iussi paludamentaque detracta: §9.5.14id tantam inter ipsos, qui paulo ante eos exsecrantes dedendos lacerandosque censuerant, miserationem fecit, ut suae quisque condicionis oblitus ab illa deformatione tantae maiestatis velut ab nefando spectaculo averteret oculos.
As they were murmuring these things, the fatal hour of ignominy arrived, which by experience was about to make everything more sorrowful than they had anticipated in their minds. Now first they were ordered to go outside the rampart unarmed with a single garment each, and first the hostages were delivered up and led away into custody. Then the lictors were ordered to depart from the consuls, and their cloaks were stripped off: this produced such great compassion among the very men who a little before had been cursing them and voting that they should be delivered up and torn to pieces, that everyone, forgetting his own condition, turned his eyes away from that deformation of such great majesty as if from an unspeakable spectacle.