lity of an individual; surely a
very natural and inevitable _caveat_, where for once the whole people,
and not only their priests or magistrates, were concerned in the
transaction.

A curious form of the _votum_, which, however, I can only mention in
passing, is that addressed to the gods of a hostile city, with a view to
induce them to desert their temples and take up their abode at Rome;
this is the process called _evocatio_, which was successfully applied at
the siege of Veii, when Juno Regina consented to betray her city.[420]
Macrobius, commenting on Virgil's lines (_Aen._ ii. 351),

excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis
di quibus imperium hoc steterat,

has preserved the _carmen_ used at the siege of Carthage.[421] It is
cast in the language of prayer: "Si deus si dea est cui populus
civitasque Carthaginiensis est in tutela ... precor venerorque veniamque
a vobis peto ut vos populum civitatemque Carthaginiensem deseratis,"
etc.; but it ends with a vow to build temples and establish _ludi_ in
honour of these deities if they should comply with the petition. It is
worth noting here that it was, of course, impossible to make a bargain
with strange or hostile gods, or in any way to force their hand; the
promise is entirely one-sided; and I am inclined to think that in
dealing with his own gods the mental attitude of the Roman was much the
same, though his faith in them was undoubtedly greater.

This is the proper place to mention another very curious rite, closely
allied to the _votum_, but differing from it in one or two important
points, which is almost peculiar to the Romans and most characteristic
of them; I mean the _devotio_ of himself on the field of battle by a
magistrate _cum imperio_.[422] The famous example, familiar to us all,
is that of Decius Mus at the battle of Vesuvius in the great Latin
war[423] (340 B.C.): the same story is told of his son in a war with
Gauls and Samnites, and of his grandson in the war with Pyrrhus.[424]
The historical difficulties of these accounts do not concern us now; by
common consent of scholars the method and formula of the _devotio_ are
authentic, and the rite must have had its origin in remote antiquity.

The story runs[425] that Decius, at whose preliminary sacrifice before
the battle with the Latins the liver of the victim had been found
imperfect, while that of his colleague was normal, perceived that his
wing of the army was giving way. He therefore resolved