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Having conspired together, they sent some of their number to engage in the cause the slaves of the country round Setia, and then those at Norba and Circeii.
It so happened that the Romans also had a consul, a match for this man's high spirit; who, so far from restraining his angry feelings, openly declared, that if such infatuation took possession of the conscript fathers, that they would receive laws from a man of Setia, he would himself come into the senate armed with a sword, and would slay with his hand any Latin whom he should see in the senate-house.
Lucius Papirius having set out to oppose him whilst devastating extensively the districts of Setia, Norba, and Cora, posted himself at no great distance from his camp. Vitruvius neither adopted the prudent resolution to enclose himself with his trenches against an enemy his superior in strength, nor had he sufficient courage to engage at any great distance from his camp.
During this expedition he intended also to dig through the Corinthian Isthmus, and he had already commissioned Anienus to superintend the work; and to receive the Tiber immediately below the city in a deep cut, and giving it a bend towards Circæum to make it enter the sea by Tarracina, with the view of giving security and facility to those who came to Rome for the purpose of trade: besides this he designed to draw off the water from the marshes about Pomentium and Setia, and to make them solid ground, which would employ many thousands of men in the cultivation; and where the sea was nearest to Rome he designed to place barriers to it by means of moles, and after clearing away the hidden rocks and dangerous places on the shore of Ostia to make harbours and naval stations which should give security to the extensive shipping.
But one of the unexpected results of the Second Punic War was to kindle a rising in the very heart of Latium, and it was the African slave, not the African freeman, that stirred the last relics of the war in Italy. At Setia were guarded the noble Carthaginians who were a pledge of the fidelity of their state.
These hostages, the sons of merchant princes, were allowed to retain the dignity of their splendid homes, and a vast retinue of slaves from Africa attended on their wants. The number of these was swelled by captive members of the same nationalities whom the people of Setia had acquired in the recent war.
The only disturbance there was towards the end of the year was, that the Prænestines, having stirred up some of the states of the Latins, renewed hostilities. During the same year new colonists were enrolled for Setia, the colony itself complaining of the paucity of men.
These poets need not detain us long. There is little to interest us in them, and they are of little importance in the history of literature. The first of them is C. VALERIUS FLACCUS SETINUS BALBUS. He was born not, as his name would indicate, at Setia, but at Patavium.
Besides this, he intended to drain all the marshes by Pomentium and Setia, and gain ground enough from the water to employ many thousands of men in tillage.
Latium had at that time two prætors, Lucius Annius, a native of Setia, and Lucius Numisius of Circeii, both from the Roman colonists; through whose means, besides Signia and Velitræ, also Roman colonies, the Volscians too had been stirred up to arms. It was determined that these two should be summoned specially; it was a matter of doubt to no one, on what matter they were sent for.
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