to sacrifice
himself by _devotio_, and called on the pontifex maximus, who was
present, to dictate for him the correct formula. He was directed to put
on the toga praetexta, to wear it with the cinctus Gabinus, to veil his
head with it, to touch his chin with his hand under the folds of the
robe, and to stand upon a spear. He then repeated after the pontifex the
following formula: "Iane, Iuppiter, Mars pater, Quirine, Bellona, Lares,
divi Novensiles, di Indigetes, divi quorum est potestas nostrorum
hostiumque, diique Manes, vos precor, veneror, veniam peto feroque, uti
populo Romano Quiritium vim victoriamque prosperetis, hostesque populi
Romani Quiritium terrore formidine morteque adficiatis. Sicut verbis
nuncupavi, ita pro re publica Quiritium, exercitu legionibus auxiliis
populi Romani Quiritium, legiones auxiliaque hostium _mecum_ deis
Manibus Tellurique devoveo" (Livy ix. 9). He then mounted his horse and
rode into the midst of the enemy to meet his death. The Latins were
seized with panic and the Romans were victorious.

Here the vow is made and fulfilled almost at the same moment,--_the
fulfilment takes place before the gods have done their part_. Here too
the offering made is the life of a human being which brings the act
within the domain of sacrifice. Its sacrificial nature is obvious in all
the details.[426] The dress is that of the sacrificing priest or
magistrate;[427] Decius was therefore priest and victim at the same
time, and the two characters seem to be combined in the symbolic
touching of the chin, which has been rightly explained,[428] I think, as
analogous to the laying on of hands in the consecratio of the Rex, as we
saw it in the case of Numa, and perhaps to the _immolatio_ of a victim
by sprinkling the _mola salsa_ on its head; where the object of
consecration is made holy by contact with holy things.[429] The
standing on the spear is difficult to explain; it may have been a
symbolic dedication to Mars, whose spear or spears, as we have seen,
were kept in the Regia.[430]

The formula contains certain points of great interest. Firstly, it is
not only the Roman gods of all sorts and conditions who are invoked, but
those of the enemy also, or, in vague language, those who have power
over both Romans and Latins.[431] Secondly, it begins with a prayer
combined with a curse upon the enemy: in which respect it resembles the
prayer at the _lustratio populi_ at Iguvium[432] (which I shall mention
again