The oath at Canusium

After Cannae the surviving Romans gathered at Canusium, and some of the young nobles were already preparing to flee Italy. Scipio stopped it by making them swear; Livy gives the text of the oath.

Ex mei animi sententia — "on my soul's judgement". This is the technical clause that turns words into an oath: without it, what is said remains a declaration of intent. Roman law distinguished the two strictly.

The second half is a self-curse, and this is the ordinary structure of a Roman oath: not "may the gods help me keep my word" but "may they punish me if I do not". The god is summoned not as helper but as executioner, and the receiving party gets security.

The list pledged is worth comparing with Cato's formula in janus-002: there one asks favour "for me and my children, my house and my household"; here the curse is laid on "me, my house, my household and my property". The same inventory of holdings — blessed in one formula and cursed in the other.

A textual variant. Conway's edition gives Iuppiter optime maxime … adficias, vocative and second person: the god is addressed directly. Weissenborn and Foster print Iuppiter optimus maximus … adficiat, third person — Drakenborch's conjecture against manuscript P. The card follows Conway, and its English agrees.