History of Rome

​The dictator entered the city in triumph; and, when he wished to abdicate the dictatorship, by order of the senators, before he abdicated, he elected Gaius Sulpicius Longus (for the second time) and Quintus Aemilius Cerretanus as consuls.

​The Samnites, without peace being concluded, because there was dispute about the conditions, brought back a one-year truce from the city. Nor was the pledge of even that truce kept sacred; to such an extent, as soon as it was reported that Papirius had retired from office, were their minds aroused to war. When Gaius Sulpicius and Quintus Aemilius—

(certain annals have Aulius)—were consuls, a new war in Apulia was added to the revolt of the Samnites. Armies were sent to both places. The Samnites fell by lot to Sulpicius, and the Apulians to Aemilius. There are those ​who write that war was not brought upon the Apulians themselves, but that the allied peoples of that nation were defended from the violence and injuries of the Samnites;

​but the situation of the Samnites, who at that time were scarcely warding off war from themselves, makes it more likely to be true that arms were not brought upon the Apulians by the Samnites, but that there was war for the Romans with both nations at the same time. Nevertheless, no memorable deed was performed;

​the Apulian territory and Samnium were thoroughly devastated; the enemy was found neither here nor there. At Rome, a nightly terror suddenly aroused the state, trembling from sleep, so that the Capitol and the citadel, the walls and the gates, were full of armed men;

​and, although there was running about and crying to arms in all places, at dawn neither the author nor the cause of the terror appeared.

​In the same year, a trial of the people concerning the Tusculans was held under the Flavius proposal. Marcus Flavius, tribune of the plebs, proposed to the people that punishment should be inflicted on the Tusculans, because by their aid and counsel the Veliterni and Privernates had made war on the Roman people.

​The Tusculan people came to Rome with their wives and children. This multitude, with their garments changed and in the guise of defendants, went around the tribes, prostrating themselves at the knees of all.

​Therefore, mercy was of more avail for obtaining pardon of the punishment than their cause was for clearing them of the charge.

​All the tribes except the Pollia rejected the law. The opinion of the Pollia was that the adults should be scourged and put to death, and their wives and children sold under the crown by the law of war;

​and it is well established that the memory of this anger remained among the Tusculans against the authors of so cruel a punishment down to the age of our fathers, and that scarcely any candidate from the Pollia tribe was accustomed to carry the Papiria tribe.