ese being brought into the forum, and
several matrons, to the number of twenty, in whose possession they had
been detected, being summoned by the beadle, two of them, Cornelia and
Sergia, both of patrician rank, maintaining that these drugs were
wholesome, were directed by the informer who confronted them to drink
some, that they might convict her of having stated what was false;
having taken time to confer together, when, the crowd being removed,
they referred the matter to the other matrons in the open view of all;
they also not refusing to drink, they all drank off the preparation, and
perished by their own wicked device. Their attendants being instantly
seized, informed against a great number of matrons, of whom to the
number of one hundred and seventy were condemned. Nor up to that day was
there ever an inquiry made at Rome concerning poisoning. The
circumstance was considered a prodigy; and seemed the act rather of
insane persons than of persons depraved by guilt. Wherefore mention
having been found in the annals, that formerly in the secessions of the
commons the nail had been driven by the dictator, and that the minds of
the people, distracted by discord, had been restored to a sane state, it
was determined that a dictator should be nominated for the purpose of
driving the nail. Cneius Quinctilius being nominated, appointed Lucius
Valerius master of the horse, who, as soon as the nail was driven,
abdicated their offices.

19. Lucius Papirius Crassus a second time, and Lucius Plautius Venno
were elected consuls; at the commencement of which year ambassadors came
to Rome from the Fabraternians, a Volscian people, and from the
Lucanians, soliciting to be admitted into alliance: [promising] that if
they were defended from the arms of the Samnites, they would continue in
fidelity and obedience under the government of the Roman people.
Ambassadors were then sent by the senate; and the Samnites were directed
to withhold all violence from the territories of those states; and this
embassy proved effectual not so much because the Samnites were desirous
of peace, as because they were not prepared for war. The same year a war
broke out with the people of Privernum; in which the people of Fundi
were their supporters, their leader also being a Fundanian, Vitruvius
Vaccus; a man of distinction not only at home, but in Rome also. He had
a house on the Palatine hill, which, after the building was razed and
the ground thrown open