In The Expedition of Cyrus, by Xenophon (trans. Robin Waterfield), at various turns of the Ten Thousand’s journey, “executive decisions” are preceded with a sacrifice to the gods, whose approval is then deciphered by a diviner. Reading the book, I accepted it with a shrug, putting it down to Ancient Grecian culture.

However, a passage from Machiavelli’s “Discourses on Livy” (Chapter 11 – The Religions of the Romans) throws light on why even a rational leader like Xenophon may have validated his decisions with a sacrifice:

It is evident that Romulus did not find divine authority necessary to found the senate and other civil and military institutions, but it was necessary for Numa, who pretended to have a relationship with a nymph who advised him what to say to the people: the reason was that he wanted to establish new and unfamiliar institutions in the city, and he doubted that his authority would be sufficient to do so.

Actually, there never existed a person who could give unusual laws to his people without recourse to God, for otherwise such laws would not have been accepted: for the benefits they bring, although evident to a prudent man, are not self-explanatory enough to be evident to others. Therefore, wise men who wish to avoid this difficulty have recourse to God. Lycurgus did this, as did Solon and many others who had the same goal. Since the Roman people were amazed at the goodness and the prudence of Numa, they yielded to his every decision. It is, of course, true that those times were very religious ones and that the men with whom he had to deal were unsophisticated, thereby giving him a great deal of freedom to follow his own plans and to be able to impress upon them easily any new form he wished.

On a related note, I’ll be following the Xenophon Roundtable closely – it’s a great opportunity to learn! Read Lexington Greene’s introductory post here.