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The cup having been taken away from him at the order of the tribunes, abuse and clamour ensued, and at last a fight arose between the soldiers of Pleminius and those of the tribunes; the numbers engaged and the tumult increasing at the same time, as either party was joined by their friends who happened to come up at the time.
Clodius Licinius, in the third book of his Roman history, relates, that this Pleminius, during the celebration of the votive games, which Africanus, in his second consulate, exhibited at Rome, made an attempt, by means of certain persons whom he had corrupted by bribes, to set fire to the city in several places, that he might have an opportunity of breaking out of prison, and making his escape; and that afterwards, the wicked plot having been discovered, he was consigned to the Tullian dungeon, according to a decree of the senate.
That Scipio, though he had evinced too little sympathy in the injuries inflicted on their state, was such a man as they would rather have their friend than their enemy; that they were convinced that the many and horrid acts which had been committed were done neither by the orders nor with the approval of Publius Scipio; that he had either placed too much confidence in Pleminius, or too little in them; that the natural disposition of some men was such, that they rather were unwilling that crimes should be committed, than had sufficient resolution to punish them when committed.
Having acquitted Pleminius and left him in command of the same place, and pronounced the tribunes guilty and thrown them into chains, that they might be sent to Rome to the senate, he returned to Messana, and thence to Syracuse.
Leaving Quintus Pleminius lieutenant-general, and the garrison which had taken the citadel to defend the city, the general himself crossed over to Messana with the forces he had brought with him.
In answer to the inquiry of the consuls, they said, "that they were Locrians, who had suffered such things at the hands of Pleminius the lieutenant-general, and the Roman soldiers, as the Roman people would not wish even the Carthaginians to experience. They requested that they would allow them to appear before the senate, and complain of their sufferings."
When the soldiers of Pleminius, who had been worsted, had run to him in crowds, not without loud clamouring and indignant feelings, showing their blood and wounds, and repeating the reproaches which had been heaped upon him during the dispute, Pleminius, fired with resentment, flung himself out of his house, ordered the tribunes to be summoned and stripped, and the rods to be brought out.
Besides the atrocious conduct of Pleminius, and the calamities of the Locrians, much was said about the dress of the general himself, as being not only not Roman, but even unsoldierlike. It was said, that "he walked about in the gymnasium in a cloak and slippers, and that he gave his time to light books and the palaestra.
Pleminius, unable to restrain his resentment, for he thought that the injury he had sustained had been treated negligently and too lightly by Scipio, and that no one could form an estimate of the punishment which ought to be inflicted in such a case, except the man who had in his own person felt its atrocity, ordered the tribunes to be dragged before him, and after lacerating them with every punishment which the human body could endure, put them to death; and not satisfied with the punishment inflicted on them while alive, cast them out unburied.
But this plot was disclosed by some of the accomplices, and the affair was laid before the senate. Pleminius was thrown into a lower dungeon, and there put to death. In this year colonies of Roman citizens were settled at Puteoli, Vulturnum, and Liternum; three hundred men in each place. Colonies of Roman citizens were likewise established at Salernum and Buxentum.