To send (an enemy) under the yoke () was a practice in ancient Italy whereby defeated enemies were made to pass beneath a
yoke
A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in dif ...
constructed of spears either to humiliate them or to remove
blood guilt.
History
The custom was a
ritual humiliation
Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was regularly used as a form of judicially sanctioned puni ...
of enemies practiced by the people of ancient Italy. Both the Romans and the
Samnites
The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy.
An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offsh ...
forced the captives of their defeated enemies to pass under a yoke formed from spears. The practice is said to have originated as a form of expiation. According to
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...
, Horatius killed his own sister because she mourned the death of her lover Curiatius rather than her fallen brothers. In order to spare Horatius capital punishment and to allow him to remain within society, he was made to pass underneath a wooden beam as a form of atonement.
The early twentieth century historian W. Warde Fowler identified this as a means of removing "taboo" (''sacer'') and therefore in order to release their enemies they were stripped and passed under the yoke. Perhaps the most recognizable case of passing under the yoke followed the defeat of the Romans by the Samnites in 321 BC at the
Caudine Forks
Valle Caudina (Caudine Valley) is a densely settled Italian valley with about 69,000 inhabitants. It is located in Campania, between the Province of Benevento and the Province of Avellino.
Comunes
In the Valle Caudina there are 14 Italian ''comune ...
. Eventually the practice of passing under the yoke was no longer about ritual removal of "guilt", and instead was a means of humiliating defeated enemies.
[Jason Wickham 2014, ''The Enslavement of War Captives by the Romans to 146 BC'' Liverpool, pp. 33-35]
The Enslavement of War Captives By the Romans to 146 BC
References
{{Reflist
Culture of ancient Rome