d by the sale of
them, brazen globes were formed, and placed in the chapel of Sancus,
opposite to the temple of Quirinus. As to the senate of Privernum, it
was decreed, that every person who had continued to act as a senator of
Privernum, after the revolt from the Romans, should reside on the
farther side of the Tiber, under the same restrictions as those of
Velitrae. After the passing of these decrees, there was no further
mention of the Privernians, until Plautius had triumphed. After the
triumph, Vitruvius, with his accomplices, having been put to death, the
consul thought that all being now fully gratified by the sufferings of
the guilty, allusion might be safely made to the business of the
Privernians, he spoke in the following manner: "Conscript fathers, since
the authors of the revolt have received, both from the immortal gods and
from you, the punishment so well merited, what do ye judge proper to be
done with respect to the guiltless multitude? For my part, although my
duty consists rather in collecting the opinions of others than in
offering my own, yet, when I reflect that the Privernians are situated
in the neighbourhood of the Samnites, our peace with whom is exceedingly
uncertain, I should wish, that as little ground of animosity as possible
may be left between them and us."

21. The affair naturally admitted of a diversity of opinions, each,
agreeably to his particular temper, recommending either severity or
lenity; matters were still further perplexed by one of the Privernian
ambassadors, more mindful of the prospects to which he had been born,
than to the exigency of the present juncture: who being asked by one of
the advocates for severity, "What punishment he thought the Privernians
deserved?" answered, "Such as those deserve who deem themselves worthy
of liberty." The consul observing, that, by this stubborn answer, those
who were adverse to the cause of the Privernians were the more
exasperated against them, and wishing, by a question of favourable
import, to draw from him a more conciliating reply, said to him, "What
if we remit the punishment, in what manner may we expect that ye will
observe the peace which shall be established between us?" He replied,
"If the peace which ye grant us be a good one, both inviolable and
eternal; if bad, of no long continuance." Then indeed some exclaimed,
that the Privernian menaced them, and not in ambiguous terms; and that
by such expressions peaceable states wer