Hersilia leads the 30 Sabine women unarmed and unarmored into the midst of the epic battle between the armies of Hersila's second husband, Romulus and Hersila's Father Tatius. The sheer force of her personality causes both armies to cease the hostilities upon the shouted command of Hersila.
  In times of heat and high humidity, soldiers did sometimes fight naked. And there is debate on how much germ-ridden clothing increased chances of infection from injuries by sword and spear. However, the painter chose to show the fighters naked in this scene to draw contrast between the civilized intelligent compassionate women and the barbaric emotional men. There is also a similarity between the naked babies in the center foreground being tended and taught by the educated women and the naked warriors in equal need of learning from the women's wisdom and authority.
  The male artist painted this scene as a tribute to his estranged wife, who afterward took him back, and they remarried.