seized, as well as their slaves. At first, the informer and his
evidence were disparaged, for that "he had run away from his masters
the day before in consequence of a whipping, and that from an event
which had happened by mere chance, he had fabricated this charge, from
resentment and wantonness." But when they were charged by their
accusers face to face, and the ministers of their villanies begin to
be examined in the middle of the forum, they all confessed, and
punishment was inflicted upon the masters and their accessory slaves.
The informer received his liberty and twenty thousand _asses_.
The consul Laevinus, while passing by Capua, was surrounded by a
multitude of Campanians, who besought him, with tears, that they might
be permitted to go to Rome to the senate, so that if they could at
length be in any degree moved by compassion, they might not carry
their resentment so far as to destroy them utterly, nor suffer the
very name of the Campanian nation to be obliterated by Quintus
Flaccus. Flaccus declared, that "he had individually no quarrel with
the Campanians, but that he did entertain an enmity towards them on
public grounds and because they were foes, and should continue to do
so as long as he felt assured that they had the same feelings towards
the Roman people; for that there was no nation or people on earth more
inveterate against the Roman name. That his reason for keeping them
shut up within their walls was, that if any of these got out any where
they roamed through the country like wild beasts, tearing and
massacring whatever fell in their way. That some of them had deserted
to Hannibal, others had gone and set fire to Rome; that the consul
would find the traces of the villany of the Campanians in the
half-burnt forum. That the temple of Vesta, the eternal fire, and the
fatal pledge for the continuance of the Roman empire deposited in the
shrine, had been the objects of their attack. That in his opinion it
was extremely unsafe for any Campanians to be allowed to enter the
walls of Rome." Laevinus ordered the Campanians to follow him to Rome,
after Flaccus had bound them by an oath to return to Capua on the
fifth day after receiving an answer from the senate. Surrounded by
this crowd, and followed also by the Sicilians and Aeolians, who came
out to meet him, he went to Rome; taking with him into the city as
accusers of two men who had acquired the greatest celebrity by the
overthrow of two most renowned