In Livy’s history both consuls have been visited by an apparition that prophesises victory for the army whose general falls in battle. Rubens restricts his account to the hero of his cycle. Decius alone steps before his fighters and recounts his dream.

Shortly before the beginning of battle the will of the gods is sought in order to learn which of the two consuls will have to sacrifice his life to secure victory for the Romans. Sacrificial bulls are slaughtered, and the liver of the bull offered by Decius Mus is found to be missing a piece known in the language of the augurs as the “head”. Rubens has depicted the moment at which Decius Mus learns of the fateful omen and its applications for him.

Here, Rubens once again brings together the Roman high priest and the self-sacrificing Decius Mus. The consul has accepted his fate and prepares to die.

The death prayer over, Decius Mus orders his lictors to immediately inform Titus Manlius, the other consul, that he is resolved to sacrifice himself for the army. Then the consul, wrapped in a toga draped over his shoulder and fully armed, mounts his horse and plunges into the midst of the enemy. Here, too, Rubens closely follows Livy’s account.

The battle between the Romans and Latins and the death of Decius Mus is the centrepiece of the cycle. Against a background of attacking Romans and fleeing Latins, the main group of the picture towers over the dead and those still fighting on the ground while the consul’s dappled-grey steed rears up regally. Decius Mus, sliding from his warhorse, receives the enemy’s fatal blow. With the transfigured face of a Christian martyr he watches as the heavens above him open as a sign of his role as the chosen one.

Livy’s account does not describe the funeral and Rubens draws on his antiquarian knowledge to depict the consul’s lying in state as a solemn victory celebration.

Tapestry cycles served to clothe the walls of an entire room. As a result they often included narrow tapestries, so-called entre-fenêtres, which covered areas between windows or around doors. The contract of 9 November 1616 whereby Jan Raes and Franco Cattaneo agreed to weave the cycle of tapestries depicting the story of Decius Mus, included three such narrow hangings: This Trophy and two figures of Victoria and Virtus.

According to Roman custom a tropaeum, a trophy of weapons seized from the enemy, was erected usually on the battlefield itself. In keeping with ancient tradition Rubens shows weapons, pieces of armour, standards, even the severed and pierced head of an enemy soldier in a martial display arranged on a tree stump.