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Successful expedition against the Samnites. The consuls now were Caius Plautius a second time, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus; when the people of Setia and Norba came to Rome to announce the revolt of the Privernians, with complaints of the damages received by them. News were brought that the army of the Volscians, under the guidance of the people of Antium, had taken post at Satricum.
They consequently both carried their cause in the senate; and, moreover, by direction of that body, a proposal was laid before the people, that the freedom of the state should be granted to the Privernians. The same year a colony of three hundred was sent to Anxur, and received two acres of land each.
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?"
Both wars fell by lot to Plautius. He, marching first to Privernum, immediately came to an engagement. The enemy were defeated after a slight resistance: the town was taken, and given back to the Privernians, a strong garrison being placed in it: two thirds of their land were taken from them.
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."
Marcus Flavius, a tribune of the commons, proposed, that punishment should be inflicted on those of the Tusculans, "by whose advice and assistance the Veliternians and Privernians had made war on the Roman people." The Tusculans, with their wives and children, came to Rome.
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."
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?
The senate, being consulted with respect to Vitruvius and the Privernians, sent directions, that the consul Plautius should demolish the walls of Privernum, and, leaving a strong garrison there, come home to enjoy the honour of a triumph; at the same time ordering that Vitruvius should be kept in prison, until the return of the consul, and that he should then be beaten with rods, and put to death.
The Romans being hard pressed in the battle, Publius Decius, then consul with Manlius, devoted himself for the army. The Latins surrender. None of the young men came out to meet Manlius on his return to the city. Minucia, a vestal virgin, was condemned for incest. Several matrons convicted of poisoning. Laws then first made against that crime. The Ausonians, Privernians, and Palæpolitans subdued.
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