David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women

Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799, Oil on canvas, 12 feet, 8 inches x 17 feet and 3/4 of an inch or 3.85 x 5.22 m (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

At this juncture the Sabine women, from the outrage on whom the war originated, 

with hair dishevelled and garments rent, the timidity of their sex being overcome 

by such dreadful scenes, had the courage to throw themselves amid the flying 

weapons, and making a rush across, to part the incensed armies, and assuage their 

fury; imploring their fathers on the one side, their husbands on the other, "that as 

fathers-in-law and sons-in-law they would not contaminate each other with impious 

blood, nor stain their offspring with parricide, the one their grandchildren, the other 

their children. If you are dissatisfied with the affinity between you, if with our 

marriages, turn your resentment against us; we are the cause of war, we of wounds 

and of bloodshed to our husbands and parents. It were better that we perish than 

live widowed or fatherless without one or other of you." The appeal affects both the multitudes and the leaders. Silence and sudden suspension ensue. Upon this the leaders come forward in order to concert a treaty, and they not only conclude a peace, but form one state out of two. 

Livy, The History of Rome tranlated by D. Spillan, London: Bohn, 1849: book 1, section 13, 

page 19