Blurb:

Literary traditions about the story of the Caudine defeat (321 BC) are quite jumbled. Some of the problems of the historical reconstruction involve religion. In particular, the causes of the defeat (allegedly, the Roman hybris), the omens, the alleged prophecies, the Roman behaviour, the prodigies that surround it, and the religious-juridical nature of the deal struck after the defeat present many interesting points. In this article, it is argued that Roman historiography (and Livy in particular) used, among other features, religious
characterisation in order to present and strengthen the version chosen by the authors. This does not help in better defining the circumstances of this defeat, but sheds light on ancient narrative techniques used to characterise the ‘historiographical earthquake’ that the Caudine Forks story represents in ancient historical writing.