xperienced how highly the lieutenant-general was in favour with the
general, when, after hearing the cause between him and the
tribunes, he threw the tribunes into chains, while he left the
lieutenant-general, who was equally or more guilty, in possession of
the same power as before." The ambassadors, having been directed to
withdraw from the senate-house, not only Pleminius, but even Scipio,
was severely inveighed against by the principal men; but, above all,
by Quintus Fabius, who endeavoured to show, "that he was born for the
corruption of military discipline. It was thus," he said, "that in
Spain he almost lost more men in consequence of mutiny than the
war. That, after the manner of foreigners and kings, he indulged the
licentiousness of the soldiers, and then punished them with cruelty."
He then followed up his speech by a resolution equally harsh: that "it
was his opinion, that Pleminius should be conveyed to Rome in chains,
and in chains plead his cause; and, if the complaints of the Locrians
were founded in truth, that he should be put to death in prison, and
his effects confiscated. That Publius Scipio should be recalled, for
having quitted his province without the permission of the senate; and
that the plebeian tribunes should be applied to, to propose to the
people the abrogation of his command. That the senate should reply to
the Locrians, when brought before them, that the injuries which they
complained of having received were neither approved of by the senate
nor the people of Rome. That they should be acknowledged as worthy
men, allies, and friends; that their children, their wives, and
whatsoever else had been taken from them, should be restored; that
the sum of money which had been taken from the treasures of Proserpine
should be collected, and twice the amount placed in the treasury. That
an expiatory sacred rite should be celebrated, first referring it to
the college of pontiffs, to determine what atonements should be made,
to what gods, and with what victims, in consequence of the sacred
treasures' having been removed and violated. That the soldiers at
Locri should be all transported into Sicily, and four cohorts of the
allies of the Latin confederacy taken to Locri for a garrison." The
votes could not be entirely collected that day in consequence of the
warm feeling excited for and against Scipio. Besides the atrocious
conduct of Pleminius, and the calamities of the Locrians, much was
said about the