26.27
All
this talk was suddenly interrupted by a fire which broke out in the night in
several places round the Forum on the eve of the Quinquatrus. Seven shops
which were afterwards replaced by five were burning at the same time, as
well as the offices where the New Banks now stand. Soon after, private
buildings -the Basilicae did not yet exist -the Lautumiae, the Fish Market
and the Hall of Vesta were alight. It was with the utmost difficulty that the
Temple of Vesta was saved, mainly through the exertions of thirteen slaves,
who were afterwards manumitted at the public cost. The fire raged all
through the next day and there was not the smallest doubt that it was the
work of incendiaries, for fires started simultaneously in several different
places. The senate accordingly authorised the consul to give public notice
that whoever disclosed the names of those through whose agency the
conflagration had been started should, if he were a freeman, receive a
reward, if a slave, his liberty. Tempted by the offer of a reward, a slave
belonging to the Capuan family of the Calavii, called Manus, gave
information to the effect that his masters, together with five young Capuan
nobles, whose fathers had been beheaded by Q. Fulvius, had caused the fire
and were prepared to commit every description of crime if they were not
arrested. They and their slaves were at once apprehended. At first they
endeavoured to throw suspicion upon the informer and his statement. It was
asserted that after being beaten by his master, the day before he gave
information, he had run away and had made out of an occurrence which was
really accidental the foundation of a false charge. When, however, the
accused and accuser were brought face to face and the slaves were examined
under torture, they all confessed. The masters as well as the slaves who had
been their accessories were all executed. The informer was rewarded with
his liberty and 20,000 ases.
When Laevinus was passing Capua on his way to Rome he was
surrounded by a crowd of the inhabitants who implored him with tears to
allow them to go to Rome and try if they could not awaken the compassion
of the senate and persuade them not to allow Q. Flaccus to ruin them utterly
and efface their name. Flaccus declared that he had no personal feeling
against the Capuans, it was as public enemies that he regarded them, and
should continue to do so as long as he knew that they maintained their
present attitude towards Rome. He had shut them up, he said, within their
walls, because if they got out anywhere they would prowl about the country
like wild beasts, and mangle and murder whatever came in their way. Some
had deserted to Hannibal, others had gone off to burn down Rome. The
consul would see in the half-burnt Forum the result of their crime. They had
tried to destroy the temple of Vesta, with its perpetual fire, and the image
which was concealed in the sacred shrine -that image which Fate had
decreed to be the pledge and guarantee of Roman dominion. He considered
that it would be anything but safe to give the Capuans a chance of entering
the City. After hearing this Laevinus made the Capuans take an oath to
Flaccus that they would return within five days after receiving the reply of
the senate. Then he ordered them to follow him to Rome. Surrounded by this
crowd and by a number of Sicilians who had also met him, he entered the
City. It seemed just as though he were bringing in a body of accusers against
the two commanders who had distinguished themselves by the destruction of
two famous cities and who would now have to defend themselves against
those they had vanquished.
