8.37
The
Dictator made a triumphal entry into the City, and as he wished to lay down
his office, he received instructions from the senate before doing so to
conduct the consular elections. The new consuls were C. Sulpicius Longus
(for the second time) and Q. Aemilius Cerretanus. The Samnites did not
succeed in obtaining a permanent peace, as they could not agree on the
conditions; they took back with them a truce for one year. But even this was
soon broken, for when they heard that Papirius had resigned they were eager
to renew hostilities. The new consuls -some authorities give Aulus instead
of Aemilius for the second consul -had on their hands a fresh enemy, the
Apulians, in addition to the revolt of the Samnites. Armies were despatched
against both; the Samnites were allotted to Sulpicius, the Apulians to
Aemilius. Some writers assert that it was not against the Apulians that the
campaign was undertaken, but for the protection of their allies against the
wanton aggressions of the Samnites. The circumstances of that people,
however, who were hardly able to defend themselves, make it more probable
that they had not attacked the Apulians but that both nations were united in
hostilities against Rome. Nothing noteworthy took place; the districts of
both Samnium and Apulia were laid waste, but neither in the one nor the
other was the enemy met with. At Rome the citizens were one night
suddenly aroused from sleep by an alarm so serious that the Capitol, the
Citadel, the walls, and gates were filled with troops. The whole population
was called to arms, but when it grew light neither the author nor the cause of
the excitement was discovered. In this year M. Flavius, a tribune of the
plebs, brought before the people a proposal to take measures against the
Tusculans, "by whose counsel and assistance the peoples of Velitrae and
Privernum had made war against the people of Rome." The people of
Tusculum came to Rome with their wives and children in mourning garb,
like men awaiting trial, and went from tribe to tribe prostrating themselves
before the tribesmen. The compassion which their attitude called out went
further to procure their pardon than their attempts to exculpate themselves.
All the tribes, with the exception of the Pollian tribe, vetoed the proposal.
That tribe voted for a proposal that all the adult males should be scourged
and beheaded, and their wives and children sold into slavery. Even as late as
the last generation the Tusculans retained the memory of that cruel sentence,
and their resentment against its authors showed itself in the fact that the
Papirian tribe (in which the Tusculans were afterwards incorporated) hardly
ever voted for any candidate belonging to the Pollian tribe.