§23.8.1Deversatus est apud Ninnios Celeres, Sthenium Pacuviumque, inclutos nobilitate ac divitiis. §23.8.2eo Pacuvius Calavius, de quo ante dictum est, princeps factionis eius, quae traxerat rem ad Poenos, filium iuvenem adduxit, §23.8.3abstractum a Deci Magi latere, cum quo ferocissime pro Romana societate adversus Punicum foedus steterat, nec eum aut inclinata in partem alteram civitas aut patria maiestas sententia depulerat. §23.8.4huic tum pater iuveni Hannibalem deprecando magis quam purgando placavit, §23.8.5victusque patris precibus lacrimisque etiam ad cenam eum cum patre vocari iussit, cui convivio neminem Campanum praeterquam hospites Vibelliumque Tauream, insignem bello virum, adhibiturus erat. §23.8.6epulari coeperunt de die, et convivium non ex more Punico aut militari disciplina esse, sed, ut in civitate atque etiam domo diti ac luxuriosa, omnibus voluptatium inlecebris instructum. §23.8.7unus nec dominorum invitatione nec ipsius interdum Hannibalis Calavius filius perlici ad vinum potuit, ipse valetudinem excusans, patre animi quoque eius haud mirabilem perturbationem causante. §23.8.8solis ferme occasu patrem Calavium ex convivio egressum secutus filius, ubi in secretum — §23.8.9hortus erat posticis aedium partibus — pervenerunt, “Consilium” inquit “adfero, pater, quo non veniam solum peccati, quod defecimus ad Hannibalem, impetraturi ab Romanis, sed in multo maiore dignitate et gratia fituri simus Campani, quam umquam fuimus. ” §23.8.10cum mirabundus pater, quidnam id esset consilii, quaereret, toga reiecta ab umero latus succinctum gladio nudat. §23.8.11“iam ego” inquit “sanguine Hannibalis sanciam Romanum foedus.
\nHannibal stayed at the house of the Ninnii Celeres, Sthenius and Pacuvius, men famous for their nobility and wealth.\n\nThither Pacuvius Calavius, of whom mention has been made before, the leader of that faction which had drawn the state over to the Carthaginians, brought his young son,\n\nwho had been drawn away from the side of Decius Magius, with whom he had stood most fiercely for the Roman alliance against the Carthaginian treaty, and whom neither the state, inclining to the other side, nor his father’s authority had deterrred from his opinion.\n\nFor this youth, then, the father appeased Hannibal, rather by entreating than by exculpating him;\n\nand won over by the father's prayers and tears, Hannibal ordered him also to be invited to the dinner with his father, to which banquet he was going to admit no Campanian except their hosts and Vibellius Taurea, a man distinguished in war.\n\nThey began to feast early in the day, and the banquet was not according to Carthaginian custom or military discipline, but, as was natural in a wealthy and even luxurious city and house, furnished with all the allurements of pleasure.\n\nThe son of Calavius alone could not be induced to drink wine, either by the invitation of the hosts or sometimes of Hannibal himself, he himself pleading ill health, while his father alleged the not surprising agitation of his mind as well.\n\nAbout sunset, the son, having followed his father Calavius as he left the banquet, when they had come into a private spot—\n\nthere was a garden in the back part of the house—he said, "I bring a plan, father, by which we shall not only obtain from the Romans pardon for the sin of having defected to Hannibal, but shall make us Campanians to be in much greater dignity and favor than we have ever been."\n\nWhen the father, full of wonder, asked what that plan could be, the youth, throwing back his toga from his shoulder, bared his side girt with a sword.\n\n"Now," he said, "I will ratify the Roman treaty with the blood of Hannibal.
te id prius scire volui, si forte abesse, dum facinus patratur, malles. ”
I wanted you to know this beforehand, in case you should prefer to be absent while the deed is being performed."