Death Before Surrender The Roman Seppuku DOCUMENTARY

Rome is primarily remembered as a supreme military power with a long string of victories under its belt. Meanwhile, its losses are mostly glossed over. That is, except for the big ones where it really took a hit. Alia, Cannae, Carrhae, and of course, the disastrous ambush of the legions in the Teutoburg Forest which plays host to Netflix's Barbarians. Spoilers, the show and real history end when the Roman commander realizes that all hope of victory is lost and he decides to commit suicide. But this raises the question, what was the expected fate of a Roman commander who faced defeat? Was this small moment in the depths of a German forest just a one-off incident, or was it part of a broader tradition which might be thought of as a form of Western seppuku? Let's find out. In this episode we'll be diving into the Roman military ethos. In many ways its virtues are framed by the epic works of Homer, whose heroes served as sources of inspiration for countless warriors from antiquity. You can relive their glorious exploits through our sponsor, A Total War Saga, Troy. It's a strategy game set during the Bronze Age Mediterranean, which dives into the legendary ten-year conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenae in Greece. Dominate your enemies through a blend of grand, turn-based empire management and spectacular real-time battles. For more information, check out the link below, or stick around until the end of the video. I wanted to start off with one of the most legendary tales of suicide amongst Rome's It's in these formative years that the small community along the Tiber fought constant wars with its close neighbors. During one of these wars, the Roman army, along with its two consuls Publius Decius Mus and Titus Manlius Torquatus, set off to repel an enemy coalition force in Campania. On the way, both leaders were said to have had dreams which communicated to them that victory in the upcoming battle would go to whichever commander devoted himself to the spirits of the earth. This cryptic message was confirmed by priests who checked the animal entrails. A plan was thus devised, whereby the consuls pledged to give their lives in whichever flank began to falter first. This dreadful deal would be fulfilled in 340 BC at the Battle of Mount Vesuvius. According to Livy, as the armies clashed, the Roman left was beginning to give. In response, Publius Decius Mus called upon the pontifex maximus to advise him on what should be done. The head priest invoked the rite of devotio, a ritual fit for such a moment. The ceremony was short and involved the offering of a prayer, which was repeated back by the general who stood on a spear and brought his hand to his chin. Its specific language is lost to us, but is supposed to have included the line, quote, I devote the army and auxiliaries of the enemy, and myself, to the demones, and tell us. In this way, the devotio channeled all of the bad luck from the Roman army into the general. Having been infused with this spiritual pollution, it was now time to destroy it. This would be achieved by sacrificing the commander. According to the story, Publius Decius Mus mounted his horse and suicidally charged headlong into the enemy ranks. The act inevitably resulted in his death, but we are told that the awestruck enemy were so shocked by the act that it brought the Romans much needed reprieve and the opportunity to strike back, which ultimately led to victory. From our records, it appears that this ritual was only invoked three times in all of Roman history. The second occurrence took place during the Third Samnite War at the Battle of Sentinam in 295 BC. The commander who invoked the rite of devotio this time was actually the son of the deceased consul from the Battle of Vesuvius, who was also named Publius Decius Mus. The story goes that once again the Roman left was faltering, and only spiritual intervention could save them. The general repeated the holy rites and consummated the pact with a suicidal charge. His death brought victory. The third occurrence of the devotio took place during the Pyrrhic War at the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC. The Roman consul at the time was also named Publius Decius Mus, the son and grandson of the previous two deceased generals. Rumors abounded that he was preparing to repeat the sacrifice of his forefathers to secure victory. This absolutely terrified members of the enemy army. In response, Pyrrhus of Epirus reportedly gave his soldiers specific orders. If they saw a man charged into the fray wearing the ritual clothing of the devotio, they were to avoid harming him at all costs and capture him alive. In the end, however, battle was joined and the ritual was not invoked. When the Romans lost, this only further reinforced the belief in the power inherent in the act of devotio. Thus the tales would be passed down through the ages, molding the ideals of generations to come. During the Republican period, the concept of heroic death was ingrained in the Roman psyche. Yet while no commander outside of the Decius family would repeat the suicidal devotio, it seems that there was indeed a broader societal idea of refusing to submit yourself to surrender. Generally speaking, one could look at Rome's famous bullheadedness that would see it send Indeed, even when these were smashed time and again by a cunning opponent like Hannibal, Romans refused to give in. After Cannae, for instance, Rome's most devastating defeat yet, the Senate closed the city gates to Carthaginian envoys. Talks, let alone terms of surrender, were completely off the table. It seems that this ethos was particularly strong amongst the Roman aristocracy. The idea of a heroic suicide was something that every one of them had been raised on. After all, wealthy Roman households often included an ancestor room, filled with wax masks of the lineage of that family alongside descriptions of their noble deeds. This was a room through which young nobles contextualized their place in the world. Growing up, every child was taught to consider what might be written under their own wax mask when they died. The lecture was repeated again and again, with the lesson being that it was better to die honorably by your own sword than it was to be defeated by an enemy. It should be no surprise then why members of the House of Decius felt so compelled to match the brave deeds of their ancestors and repeat the devotion thrice over. Even other families centuries down the line would feel the pressure to at least consider the option of a sacrificial suicide. Those who failed to live up to these standards risked significant blowback. This most often took the form of humiliation, which in the public-facing, honor-based system of the Romans was devastating. An early example of this is during the First Punic War, when the Consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio led a portion of Rome's fleet ahead to seize the Lipari Islands in 260 BC. However, the exposed harbor into which he sailed had actually been a trap, and the Carthaginian fleet soon arrived to bottle him in. The entire Roman crew fled, and Scipio was captured. When he later returned home, he was given the pejorative nickname Acina, or female donkey, for having so tarnished the pride of Rome without even a fight. Other commanders who similarly fell short of their ideals would be shamed and publicly outcast. This stain on their reputation would risk the future of their political career, which was basically the measure by which aristocrats proved their worth. Thus crippled in the cursus honorum, their failure would doom them to a life of ignominity with little hope of emerging from the shadow of shame. The nightmare scenario would be that now, the headline of their obituary in the Room of Masks would be nothing more than an eternal testament to future generations of their failure. As we have stated, a way to avoid such a disaster was to fight with honor. It didn't matter so much that you lost as you did so while adhering to societal expectations. For instance, the consuls at Cannae were praised in spite of their failures because they chose to fight on. Generally, the Romans were less lenient with their own troops though, as is evidenced by the banishment of the legionary survivors of Cannae to Sicily. Nonetheless, the spirit of honor was still one which permeated down into the rank and file troops. We cover examples of this quite extensively in our series on the heroes of the Roman army. The prime example being the tale of Centurion's Lucius Verinus and Titus Pillow which inspired the characters in HBO's Rome. Thus we see how Roman commanders had means to save face even in defeat. However, for many generals brought up in the old guard of Rome's elite, such half measures were deemed to be beneath their rank. Suicide was indeed the best remedy to defeat. Let's now consider some key examples from some of the most famous figures of the Roman Republic prior to the events of the Teutoburg Forest with which we started the video. The first example comes in 53 BC at the Battle of Carae. It's here, in Rome's first real battle with the Parthian Empire, that the legions would face a crushing blow at the hands of a more mobile enemy. At one point, a detachment of overeager cavalrymen led by the general's son Publius Licinius Crassus was cut off from the main force and torn to shreds. According to Plutarch, quote, Publius, declaring that no death could have such terrors for him as to make him desert those who were perishing on his account, ordered them to save their own lives, bade them farewell and dismissed them. Then he himself, being unable to use his hand, which had been pierced through with an arrow, presented his side to his shield-bearer and ordered him to strike home with his sword. The enemy would later find his body, sever the head, and send it to his father, who despaired and quickly spiraled into defeat. The next three examples come from the civil wars of the late Republic. The Senate and the Pompeian faction had been forced to the east following Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, with both sides clashing decisively at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Caesar won the battle, and his enemies fled to North Africa to regroup. However, they would be beaten once more at the Battle of Thapsus two years later. For the Pompeians, all hope of winning the war was lost. In the aftermath, one of their leaders, Cato the Younger, attempted to kill himself with the sword, but struggled to do so, owing to the injuries he had sustained. Here's a quote from Plutarch, Immediately, his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror. The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound, but Cato, recovering himself and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired. It's quite the grisly picture that certainly matches the intensity first demonstrated by the ancient devotios of the Decius family. The other set of suicides come during the subsequent civil war which followed the assassination of Julius Caesar. The Caesareans once again held Rome, while their rivals, known as the Liberators, found themselves in Greece. The two would clash decisively at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. The Caesareans were led by Antony and Octavian, who commanded a total of 19 legions, while the Liberators, led by Brutus and Cassius, commanded about 17 legions reinforced by additional eastern levies. When battle began, opposite flanks would be traded. Brutus was able to defeat Octavian's flank, while Antony similarly routed Cassius. The behavior of either loser would prove quite different. Octavian, the future emperor, was nowhere to be found in the aftermath of his loss, and is rumored to have hidden out in the marshes. Meanwhile, his counterpart Cassius chose to kill himself, believing that the entire battle had been lost. This was of course not the case, but his premature suicide caused further panic amongst the men. Their fear proved so infectious that it spread to the forces of the otherwise victorious Brutus who now turned to flight. During the retreat, the commander called upon his closest friends to assist him in one final act of defiance. He would fall upon his sword rather than face capture. Thus, both nobles proved their dedication to the honorable ideals of Rome, even in defeat. Fast forward about 50 years, and we find ourselves back in the Teutoburg forest where we started this episode. The Roman general Publius Quintilius Varus marches through the drizzly rain with his army when reports come of an ambush. At first he and the legions were confident. After all, such raids on a column were relatively common occurrences. The best trained army on this side of the world needn't worry too much about such things. In fact, there could be opportunities for commanders to accrue more honors for having pushed back these attacks. This one though kept coming. It ground through the Roman war machine with frightening efficiency, slowly pulling it apart over several days. When his final surviving legions became surrounded, pressed together in the mud, without any room to fight, Varus and his command staff knew that their cause was doomed. They also knew that their own prospects were quite dim. Even if they did survive capture, any life afterwards would be hopelessly drowned in shame. Their only possible option to escape such a fate was to save what dignity they had left by claiming their own lives. Thus, Varus and many of the officers shed their armor and fell on their swords. While the entire debacle was seen as a supreme tragedy, this final act of courage is one of the few silver linings picked out by ancient historians. At least they could be said to have held on to the ideals of Rome. I hope that this discussion has offered you valuable insight into the Roman military ethos. As we've seen, there certainly was a prevailing ideal among the aristocracy of the honorable suicide. This mostly resulted from some sort of shameful military defeat, but does occasionally appear as a remedy for other shames, particularly when it comes to officials who disappointed the emperors of the imperial era. However, much like the Japanese practice of seppuku, the actual ritualized practice of suicide was not as common as it's made out to be. Nonetheless, the romanticization of the idea certainly increased the number of people who engaged in it or at least thought of doing so. Anyways, I find these sorts of windows into ancient cultures truly fascinating and highly informative when it comes to understanding the worldview which served to guide their history. I'm curious what you think of these sorts of honor culture mentalities. Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you enjoyed this episode, then definitely check out A Total War Saga Troy, Creative Assembly's first entry of their award-winning series to be set in the Bronze Age Mediterranean. Explore the epic 10-year Trojan War from the perspectives of the Trojans and the Greeks through a blend of grand, turn-based empire management and spectacular real-time battles where you can lead armies with 8 playable legendary characters including the heroes Achilles and Hector. Get A Total War Saga Troy by clicking on the link in the description below. A special thanks again to the patrons who fund the channel, and to the researchers, writers, and artists who made this video possible. Thanks for watching, and see you in the next one.