---
title: 'Ultimo acto d''um valente (Last Act of a ''Brave Man''): Sidónio Pais and Afonso Costa'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sidonio-pais-ultimo-acto-valente-1918/
description: A colour postcard shows a caricatured Afonso Costa kneeling with clasped hands, a rosary and a cross-shaped decoration before a uniformed Sidónio Pais…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Ridicule caricature of a political figure kneeling with a rosary at swordpoint. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Ultimo acto d'um valente (Last Act of a 'Brave Man'): Sidónio Pais and Afonso Costa](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sidonio-pais-ultimo-acto-valente-1918.png)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sidonio-pais-ultimo-acto-valente-1918.png)

# Ultimo acto d'um valente (Last Act of a 'Brave Man'): Sidónio Pais and Afonso Costa

A colour postcard shows a caricatured Afonso Costa kneeling with clasped hands, a rosary and a cross-shaped decoration before a uniformed Sidónio Pais who points a sword at him; the only caption is the ironic 'Ultimo acto d'um valente'. The tell is the sarcastic label 'valente' (brave) laid over a kneeling, pleading figure, ridiculing a fallen rival.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Publisher and artist not identified on the postcard (pro-Sidónio Pais political postcard)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Portuguese Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=portuguese-republic)
- **Medium:** [Postcard](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=postcard)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Sidonio Pais Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=sidonio-pais-government)
- **Leader:** [Sidonio Pais](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=sidonio-pais)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Theme:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sid%C3%B3nio_Pais_derrota_Afonso_Costa_-_1918.png), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (anonymous postcard published 1918, before 1931; PD-old per Wikimedia Commons) Anonymous postcard, Portugal, 1918; Casa Comum (Fundação Mário Soares), via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (Portuguese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Ultimo acto d'um valente
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Last act of a brave man
```

[← Aan de Nederl. Arbeidersklasse (SDAP and NVV manifesto calling a congress, Netherlands, November 1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sdap-nvv-aan-de-arbeidersklasse-1918/) [Is Ireland a part of England? Vote for Sinn Fein (Sinn Féin publicity sheet, 1918 general election) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sinn-fein-election-poster-1918/)

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- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
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- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)