Courage Is Not Limited By Size

First layer of color complete, kinda.  Now comes the second and some sort of background.  I really should show some opponents in this, however sketchy they may appear.  Flamma has to be standing on something.  His eyes do not work for me.  The trefoil breastplate is peculiar to the Samnites.

Or maybe not.  The net shows varieties of this labeled Greek and Carthaginian.

I have a book on ancient armor that I think this was drawn for.  I don't know who did this but I have loved the book these last 35 years.  This artist is just the best at this sort of thing.

Caudine Forks, Google map photo courtesy of Frank Davis

The Romans managed to become decoyed into this pass, finding the exit blocked they then discovered a Samnite army across the entrance.  They surrendered without bloodshed, but had to pass under two spears tied together.  (the yoke).

When a letter was sent by the Samnite commander to his father as what to do with the Roman army, his father told him to let them go.  This was rejected and a second time the father was asked what to do.  He then advised them to kill the Romans to the last man.  When he was available in person to explain this contradictory advice, he said that letting the Romans go would engender friendship and gratitude, while destroying them would render them harmless.   There was no middle ground.

This is what Machiavelli advises a prince to do, not without reason.  Either raise men to honor or destroy them.  Insulting an enemy without completely weakening him forever is the path to destruction!
In any event, the Samnites did the worst thing possible.  They humiliated the Romans and left them with their army intact.  After another war with Rome, they were prostrate but allied themselves with Pyrrhus and then Hannibal.  You can imagine how Rome dealt with that.  Then they joined in on the losing side of the Social Wars, demanding citizenship, got wiped out by Sulla, and were granted citizenship.  Everybody got wiped out by Sulla, no real distinction there.  Longinus, the legionnaire who stabbed Jesus with a spear was a Samnite, as was Pontius Pilate, a curious strange attractor if there ever was one.

One wonders what happened to that spear.

(Image from that excellent movie, Constantine).

By the by, the "spear" is a decorative tip for a flag or guidon.  It was dug up during the harrowing siege of Antioch and used to rally the crusader troops to victory.  The finder, Peter Bartholomew, had a vision where St. Andrew told him where to find the spearhead.  Although this is a venerated object, it is not for real and that needs to be remembered.

The Hellboy version, with a prop from The Devil's Backbone in the foreground.  These are two different versions of the lance, both employed in exceptional movies.

The original, on display in Austria.  Relics are just that, relics.  There is no such thing as magic.

Keeping Hell at bay since 1098.