Legio Linteata (or Legio Samnita) were elite corps of the Samnitic army and later of the Roman army. At the beginning every warrior could join the corps only after a holy ceremony, during which he oathed in front of various gods to be ready to die for the defence of his people. After their entrance in the corps, these warriors formed a warrior caste.
Titus Livius speaks very detailed of this Legio in his Annales. According to Livius every man who betryaled the oath made to the gods or didn't join the army after his call-up should be sacrificed to Juppiter. Then the whole army was called in Aquilonia, and Samnites summoned up 60.000 warriors, the cream of the Samnitic army.

The Holy Ceremony

Livius speaks also of the ceremony.

The young warrior was guided in the centre of a cirle of warriors with unsheathed swords. The young was then asked, in front of an altar stained with the blood of victims, to oath that he would not betryal his army, invoking a curse on his family and his lineage if he would have not gone to fight where asked or if he would have escaped from the battlefield or even if he would have seen a comrade fleeing without killing him.

Some who refused to oath were killed in front of the others and their corpses were abandoned with those of the sacrificed victims.