awn from the Sidicinian territory. But a
hostile attack made by Alexander of Epirus on the Lucanians drew away
the attention of the Samnites to another quarter; these two nations
fought a pitched battle against the king, as he was making a descent on
the district adjoining Paestum. Alexander, having come off victorious in
that contest, concluded a peace with the Romans; with what fidelity he
would have kept it, if his other projects had been equally successful,
is uncertain. The same year the census was performed, and the new
citizens were rated; on their account the Maescian and Scaptian tribes
were added: the censors who added them were Quintus Publilius Philo and
Spurius Postumius. The Acerrans were enrolled as Romans, in conformity
with a law introduced by the praetor, Lucius Papirius, by which the right
of citizenship with the privilege of suffrage was conferred. These were
the transactions at home and abroad during that year.

18. The following year was disastrous, whether by the intemperature of
the air, or by human guilt, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Caius Valerius
being consuls. I find in the annals Flaccus and Potitus variously given
as the surname of the consul; but in this it is of little consequence
which is the true one. I would heartily wish that this other account
were a false one, (nor indeed do all writers mention it,) viz. that
those persons, whose death rendered the year signal for the pestilence,
were carried off by poison. The circumstance however must be stated as
it is handed down to us, that I may not detract from the credit of any
writer. When the principal persons of the state were dying of similar
diseases, and all generally with the same result, a certain maid-servant
undertook, before Quintius Fabius Maximus, curule aedile, to discover the
cause of the public malady, provided the public faith would be given to
her by him, that the discovery should not be made detrimental to her.
Fabius immediately lays the matter before the consuls, and the consuls
before the senate, and with the concurrence of that order the public
faith was pledged to the informer. It was then disclosed that the state
was afflicted by the wickedness of certain women, and that certain
matrons were preparing those poisonous drugs; and if they wished to
follow her forthwith, they might be detected in the very fact. Having
followed the informer, they found women preparing certain drugs, and
others of the same kind laid up. Th