(no subject)

[timelets]

“Why, if the Samnites had forced us to pronounce the correct form of words used by those who surrender cities, with the same high-handedness they showed when they wrung from us that guarantee – would you tribunes declare that the Roman people had been surrendered, and that this City, its temples, sanctuaries, territories, and waters were now Samnite property? No more of surrender!”

--- Titus Livy. “Rome and Italy.”

upd: in the Magistra vitae sense, this is also a great quote about the Simnites' response:

“I appeal to the people of Rome: if they regret the guarantee they gave at the Caudine Forks, let them return the legions to the defile where they were surrounded. Let no one have deceived anyone; let everything be as if nothing had happened. Let the Romans resume the arms they handed over under agreement; let them return to their camp; let them recover all they had on the day before the conference; that will be the time for them to vote for war and bold measures and to reject the guarantee and the peace. Let us carry on the war in the same circumstances and in the same positions we were in before there was mention of peace; let the Roman people make no complaint of the consuls’ guarantee nor we of the Roman people’s sense of honour. Will you never lack a reason for not keeping to your word in defeat? ”

--- ibid