27.24
Day by
day the reports from Arretium became more serious and caused increasing
anxiety to the senate. Written instructions were sent to C. Hostilius, bidding
him lose no time in taking hostages from the townspeople, and C. Terentius
Varro was sent with powers to receive them from him and conduct them to
Rome. As soon as he arrived, Hostilius ordered one of his legions which was
encamped before the city to enter it in military order, and he then disposed
the men in suitable positions. This done, he summoned the senators into the
forum and ordered them to give hostages for their good behaviour. They
asked for forty-eight hours for consideration, but he insisted upon their
producing the hostages at once, and threatened in case of refusal to seize all
their children the next day. He then issued orders to the military tribunes and
prefects of allies and centurions to keep a strict watch on the gates, and to
allow no one to leave the city during the night. There was too much
slackness and delay in carrying out these instructions; before the guards were
posted at the gates seven of the principal senators with their children slipped
out before it was dark. Early on the morrow, when the senators began to
assemble in the forum, the absence of these men was discovered, and their
property was sold. The rest of the senators offered their own children to the
number of one hundred and twenty; the offer was accepted, and they were
entrusted to C. Terentius to be conveyed to Rome. The report he gave to the
senate made matters look still more serious. It seemed as though a rising
throughout Etruria was imminent. C. Terentius was accordingly ordered to
proceed to Arretium with one of the two City legions and occupy the place
in force, C. Hostilius with the rest of the army was to traverse the entire
province and see that no opening was afforded for revolutionary
disturbances. When C. Terentius and his legion reached Arretium, he
demanded the keys of the gates. The magistrates replied that they could not
find them, but he was convinced that they had been deliberately carried off
and not lost through carelessness, so he had fresh locks fitted on all the
gates, and took especial precautions to have everything under his own
control. He earnestly impressed upon Hostilius the need of vigilance, and
warned him that all hope of Etruria remaining quiet depended upon his
taking such precautions as to make any movement of disaffection impossible.