Decius Mus first enters history in 352 BC as an appointed official, one of the
quinqueviri mensarii, public
bankers charged with relieving citizen debts to some extent. He served with distinction in the
First Samnite War under
Aulus Cornelius Cossus Arvina. In 343 BC, Cossus, leading his army through the mountain fastnesses of Samnium, became trapped in a valley by the
Samnites. Decius, taking 1,600 men, seized a strong point through which the Samnites were obliged to pass, and held it against them until nightfall; breaking through their lines, he re-joined the main body of the army, which had gained the summit of the mountain and relative safety. The army then swept into the Samnites, gaining a complete victory and the spoils of the enemy camp. For the rescue of the trapped army he was awarded the
Grass Crown by both his own army and by the army he relieved. In 340 he was elected consul with
Titus Manlius Torquatus, and the Romans allied themselves with their former enemies against the
Latins in the
Latin War. When during his consulate, an oracle announced that an army and the opposite army's general both would go to their deaths, Mus devoted himself and his foes to the
Dii Manes and mother Earth to give his army the victory in the
Battle of Vesuvius, in which he was slain and the enemy annihilated.
The devotio According to Livy, as the army marched near Capua, it was given to the two consuls in mutual dreams that the army whose general pledged himself and his foemen's host to the
Dii Manes and
Tellus Mater would be victorious. Upon confirmation from the
haruspices, the two divulged a plan to their senior officers and their army that they would not lose heart, for they intended that whosoever's wing should falter first should so pledge his life to the gods of the underworld and the Earth. Once the battle was engaged, the left wing began to falter and Decius Mus called upon the
Pontifex Maximus, M. Valerius, to tell him the means by which to save the army. The
pontifex prescribed the required ritual acts and a prayer (see
devotio). After performing the ritual, the fully armored Decius Mus plunged his horse into the enemy with such supernatural vigor and violence that the awe-struck Latins soon refused to engage him, eventually bringing him down with darts. Even then, the Latins avoided his body, leaving a large space around it, and the left wing of the Romans, once faltering, now swept into this weakness in the enemy lines. Manlius, conducting the right wing, held fast, allowing the Latins to use up their reserves, before crushing the enemy host between the renewed left and Samnite
foederati at their flank, leaving only a quarter of the enemy to flee. He was the father of
Publius Decius P.f. Mus, consul in 312 BC, 308 BC, 297 BC, and 295 BC and the grandfather of
Publius Decius P.f. Mus, consul in 279 BC. ==In popular culture==