or it, should proceed into Africa; the tribunes and the aedile to
bring Scipio back from thence, and the deputies to take the command of
the army until a new general had come to it. But if Marcus Pomponius
and the ten deputies should discover that those acts had been
committed neither with the orders nor concurrence of Publius Scipio,
that Scipio should then remain with the army and carry on the war as
he had proposed." A decree of the senate having passed to this effect,
application was made to the tribunes of the people to arrange among
themselves, or determine by lot, which two should go with the praetor
and the deputies. The advice of the college of pontiffs was taken on
the subject of the expiations to be made, on account of the treasures
in the temple of Proserpine, at Locri, having been touched, violated,
and carried out of it. The tribunes of the people, who went with the
praetor and ten deputies, were Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus
Cincius Alimentus. To these a plebeian aedile was given, whom, if
Scipio, whether he was still in Sicily or had now crossed over into
Africa, should refuse to obey the orders of the praetor, the tribunes
might direct to apprehend him, and bring him home in right of their
most sacred authority. The plan was, to go to Locri before they went
to Messana.

21. With regard to Pleminius, there are two different accounts. Some
relate that, having heard what measures had been adopted at Rome,
as he was going into exile to Naples, he accidentally fell in with
Quintus Metellus, one of the deputies, by whom he was forcibly
conveyed back to Rhegium. Others say, that Scipio himself sent a
lieutenant-general with thirty of the most distinguished of the
cavalry to throw Quintus Pleminius into chains, and with him the
principal movers of the mutiny. All these, whether by the orders
of Scipio before, or of the praetor now, were delivered over to the
Rhegians to be kept in custody. The praetor and the deputies going to
Locri, gave their attention first to the affair relating to religion,
agreeably to their instructions; for, collecting all the sacred money,
whether in the possession of Pleminius or the soldiers, they replaced
it in the treasury, together with that which they had brought with
them, and performed an expiatory sacred rite. The praetor then,
summoning the soldiers to an assembly, ordered them to march out of
the city, and pitched a camp in the plain, issuing an edict which
threatene