The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 - Livy

"There is one circumstance, however, in complaining of which particularly we may be allowed to yield to our deeply-rooted sense of religion, and indulge a hope that you will listen to it; and, if it shall seem good to you, conscript fathers, free your state from the guilt of irreligious conduct. For we have seen with how great solemnity you not only worship your own deities, but entertain even those of foreign countries. We have a fane dedicated to Proserpine, of the sanctity of which temple I imagine some accounts must have reached you, during the war with Pyrrhus; who, when sailing by Locri, on his return from Sicily, among other horrid enormities which he committed against our state, on account of our fidelity towards you, plundered also the treasures of Proserpine, which had never been touched up to that day; and then, putting the money on board his ships, proceeded on his journey himself by land. What, therefore, was the result, conscript fathers? The next day his fleet was shattered by a most hideous tempest, and all the ships which carried the sacred money were thrown on our shores. That most insolent king, convinced by this so great disaster that there were gods, ordered all the money to be collected and restored to the treasures of the goddess. However, he never met with any success afterwards; but, after being driven out of Italy, he died an ignoble and dishonourable death, having incautiously entered Argos by night. Though your lieutenant-general and military tribune had heard of these, and a thousand other circumstances, which were related not for the purpose of creating increased reverence, but frequently experienced by ourselves and our ancestors, through the special interposition of the goddess, they had, nevertheless, the audacity to apply their sacrilegious hands to those hallowed treasures, and pollute themselves, their own families, and your soldiers, with the impious booty. Through whom we implore you, conscript fathers, by your honour, not to perform any thing in Italy or in Africa, until you have expiated their guilty deed, lest they should atone for the crime they have committed, not with their own blood only, but by some disaster affecting their country. Although, even now, conscript fathers, the resentment of the goddess does not tarry either towards your generals or your soldiers. Already have they several times engaged each other in pitched battles, one party headed by Pleminius, and the other by the two military tribunes. Never did they employ their weapons with more fury against the Carthaginians than when encountering each other; and they would have afforded Hannibal an opportunity of retaking Locri, had not Scipio, whom we called in, come in time to prevent it. But, by Hercules, is it that the soldiers are impelled by frenzy, and that the influence of the goddess has not shown itself in punishing the generals themselves? Nay, herein her interposition was manifested in the most conspicuous manner. The tribunes were beaten with rods by the lieutenant-general. Then the lieutenant-general, treacherously seized by the tribunes, besides being mangled in every part of his body, had his nose and ears cut off, and was left for dead. Then, recovering from his wounds, he threw the tribunes into chains; beat them, tortured them with every species of degrading punishment, and put them to death in a cruel manner, forbidding them to be buried. Such atonements has the goddess exacted from the despoilers of her temple; nor will she cease to pursue them, with every species of vengeance, till the sacred money shall have been replaced in the treasury. Formerly, our ancestors, during a grievous war with the Crotonians, because the temple was without the town, were desirous of removing the money into it; but a voice was heard from the shrine, during the night, commanding them to hold off their hands, for the goddess would defend her own temple. As they were deterred, by religious awe, from removing the treasures thence, they were desirous of surrounding the temple with a wall. The walls were raised to a considerable height, when they suddenly fell down in ruins. But, both now, and frequently on other occasions, the goddess has either defended her own habitation and temple, or has exacted heavy expiations from those who had violated it. Our injuries she cannot avenge, nor can any but yourselves avenge them, conscript fathers. To you, and to your honour, we fly, as suppliants. It makes no difference to us whether you suffer Locri to be subject to that lieutenant-general and that garrison, or whether you deliver us up for punishment to incensed Hannibal and the Carthaginians. We do not request that you should at once believe us respecting one who is absent, and when the cause has not been heard. Let him come; let him hear our charges in person, and refute them himself. If there is any enormity one man can commit against another which he has not committed upon us we do not refuse to suffer all the same cruelties over again, if it is possible we can endure them, and let him be acquitted of all guilt towards gods and men."

When the ambassadors had thus spoken, and Quintus Fabius had asked them whether they had carried those complaints to Publius Scipio, they answered, "that deputies were sent to him, but he was occupied with the preparations for the war, and had either already crossed over into Africa, or was about to do so within a few days. That they had experienced how highly the lieutenant-general was in favour with the general, when, after hearing the cause between him and the tribunes, he threw the tribunes into chains, while he left the lieutenant-general, who was equally or more guilty, in possession of the same power as before." The ambassadors, having been directed to withdraw from the senate-house, not only Pleminius, but even Scipio, was severely inveighed against by the principal men; but, above all, by Quintus Fabius, who endeavoured to show, "that he was born for the corruption of military discipline. It was thus," he said, "that in Spain he almost lost more men in consequence of mutiny than the war. That, after the manner of foreigners and kings, he indulged the licentiousness of the soldiers, and then punished them with cruelty." He then followed up his speech by a resolution equally harsh: that "it was his opinion, that Pleminius should be conveyed to Rome in chains, and in chains plead his cause; and, if the complaints of the Locrians were founded in truth, that he should be put to death in prison, and his effects confiscated. That Publius Scipio should be recalled, for having quitted his province without the permission of the senate; and that the plebeian tribunes should be applied to, to propose to the people the abrogation of his command. That the senate should reply to the Locrians, when brought before them, that the injuries which they complained of having received were neither approved of by the senate nor the people of Rome. That they should be acknowledged as worthy men, allies, and friends; that their children, their wives, and whatsoever else had been taken from them, should be restored; that the sum of money which had been taken from the treasures of Proserpine should be collected, and twice the amount placed in the treasury. That an expiatory sacred rite should be celebrated, first referring it to the college of pontiffs, to determine what atonements should be made, to what gods, and with what victims, in consequence of the sacred treasures' having been removed and violated. That the soldiers at Locri should be all transported into Sicily, and four cohorts of the allies of the Latin confederacy taken to Locri for a garrison." The votes could not be entirely collected that day in consequence of the warm feeling excited for and against Scipio. 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. That his whole staff were enjoying the delights which Syracuse afforded, with the same indolence and effeminacy. That Carthage and Hannibal had dropped out of his memory; that the whole army, corrupted by indulgence, like that at Sucro in Spain, or that now at Locri, was more to be feared by its allies than by its enemies."

Though these charges, partly true, and partly containing a mixture of truth and falsehood, and therefore, probably, were urged with vehemence; the opinion, however, of Quintus Metellus prevailed, who, agreeing with Maximus on other points, differed from him in the case of Scipio. "For how inconsistent would it be," said he, "that the person whom the state a little while ago selected as their general, though a very young man, for the recovery of Spain; whom, after he had taken Spain out of the hands of their enemies, they elected their consul, for the purpose of putting an end to the Punic war; whom they marked out with the most confident anticipation as the person who would draw Hannibal out of Italy, and subdue Africa; how inconsistent would it be, that this man, like another Pleminius, condemned in a manner without a hearing, should suddenly be recalled from his province! when the Locrians asserted that the wicked acts which had been committed against them were done not even in the presence of Scipio, and no other charge could be brought against him, than that he spared the lieutenant-general, either from good nature or respect. He thought it advisable, that Marcus Pomponius the praetor, to whose lot the province of Sicily had fallen, should go to his province within the next three days; that the consuls should select out of the senate ten deputies, whomsoever they thought proper, and send them with the praetor, together with two tribunes of the people, and an aedile. That the praetor, assisted by this council, should take cognizance of the affair. If those acts of which the Locrians complained were committed at the command or with the concurrence of Scipio, that they should command him to quit the province. If Publius Scipio had already crossed over into Africa, that the tribunes of the people and the aedile, with two of the deputies, whom the praetor should judge most fit for it, should proceed into Africa; the tribunes and the aedile to bring Scipio back from thence, and the deputies to take the command of the army until a new general had come to it. But if Marcus Pomponius and the ten deputies should discover that those acts had been committed neither with the orders nor concurrence of Publius Scipio, that Scipio should then remain with the army and carry on the war as he had proposed." A decree of the senate having passed to this effect, application was made to the tribunes of the people to arrange among themselves, or determine by lot, which two should go with the praetor and the deputies. The advice of the college of pontiffs was taken on the subject of the expiations to be made, on account of the treasures in the temple of Proserpine, at Locri, having been touched, violated, and carried out of it. The tribunes of the people, who went with the praetor and ten deputies, were Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus Cincius Alimentus. To these a plebeian aedile was given, whom, if Scipio, whether he was still in Sicily or had now crossed over into Africa, should refuse to obey the orders of the praetor, the tribunes might direct to apprehend him, and bring him home in right of their most sacred authority. The plan was, to go to Locri before they went to Messana.