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 sometimes 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, u ...
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 pun ...
of enemies practiced by the people of ancient Italy. Both the Romans and the
Samnites 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, 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 beam meant to remove his murder guilt.
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 BCE at the
Caudine Forks
The Battle of Caudine Forks, 321 BC, was a decisive event of the Second Samnite War. Its designation as a battle is a mere historical formality: there was no fighting and there were no casualties. The Romans were trapped in an enclosed valley by ...
. 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
Ancient Roman culture