§26.27.1interrupit hos sermones nocte, quae pridie Quinquatrus fuit, pluribus simul locis circa forum incendium ortum.
A fire that broke out at several places around the Forum at the same time, on the night before the Quinquatrus, interrupted these rumors.
§26.27.2eodem tempore septem tabernae, quae postea quinque, et argentariae, quae nunc novae appellantur, arsere;
At the same time, seven shops, which were later five, and the banking-houses, which are now called the New, were burned.
§26.27.3conprehensa postea privata aedificia — neque enim tum basilicae erant —, conprehensae lautumiae forumque piscatorium et atrium regium.
Afterwards, private buildings were caught by the fire—for there were no basilicas at that time—and the quarries, the fish market, and the royal atrium were also caught.
§26.27.4aedis Vestae vix defensa est tredecim maxime servorum opera, qui in publicum redempti ac manu missi sunt.
The temple of Vesta was with difficulty defended by the exertion of at most thirteen slaves, who were ransomed at the public expense and set free.
§26.27.5nocte ac die continuatum incendium fuit; nec ulli dubium erat humana id fraude factum esse, quod pluribus simul locis, et iis diversis, ignes coorti essent.
The fire continued night and day; nor did anyone doubt that it had been done by human mischief, because the fires had broken out in several places at the same time, and those far apart.
itaque consul ex auctoritate senatus pro contione edixit, §26.27.6qui, quorum opera id conflatum incendium, profiteretur, praemium fore libero pecuniam, servo libertatem.
Therefore, the consul, by the authority of the senate, proclaimed before the assembly: that whoever should disclose by whose work that fire had been kindled, if a free man, his reward should be money; if a slave, liberty.
§26.27.7eo praemio inductus Campanorum Calaviorum servus — Manus ei nomen erat — indicavit dominos et quinque praeterea iuvenes nobiles Campanos, quorum parentes a Q. Fulvio securi percussi erant, id incendium fecisse vulgoque facturos alia, ni conprendantur.
Induced by this reward, a slave of the Campanian Calavii—his name was Manus—disclosed that his masters and five other noble young Campanians, whose parents had been beheaded by Q. Fulvius, had caused that fire, and would commit others openly, unless they were arrested.
§26.27.8conprehensi ipsi familiaeque eorum.
They themselves and their households were arrested.
et primo elevabatur index indiciumque: pridie eum verberibus castigatum ab dominis discessisse, per iram ac levitatem ex re fortuita crimen commentum; §26.27.9ceterum ut coram coarguebantur, et quaestio ex ministris facinoris foro medio haberi coepta est, fassi omnes, atque in dominos servosque conscios animadversum est.
And at first, the informer and his disclosure were treated lightly: that he, having been punished with stripes by his masters the day before, had run away, and out of anger and levity had fabricated a charge from a fortuitous event; but when they were confronted and refuted, and the examination of the instruments of the crime began to be held in the middle of the Forum, they all confessed, and punishment was inflicted on the masters and the accomplice slaves.
indici libertas data et viginti milia aeris.
To the informer, liberty was given and twenty thousand asses.
§26.27.10consuli Laevino Capuam praetereunti circumfusa multitudo Campanorum est obsecrantium cum lacrinis, ut sibi Romam ad senatum ire liceret oratum, si qua misericordia tandem flecti possent, ne se ad ultimum perditum irent nomenque Campanorum a Q. Flacco deleri sinerent.
As the consul Laevinus passed by Capua, a crowd of Campanians surrounded him, beseeching him with tears that they might be allowed to go to Rome to the senate to petition them, if by any mercy they might at last be moved, not to go on to destroy them to the uttermost, and not to permit the name of the Campanians to be blotted out by Q. Flaccus.
§26.27.11Flaccus sibi privatam simultatem cum Campanis negare ullam esse: publicas inimicitias et esse et futuras, quoad eo animo esse erga populum Romanum sciret.
Flaccus denied that he had any private feud with the Campanians; public hostilities, he said, both existed and would exist, as long as he knew them to be of such a mind toward the Roman people.
§26.27.12nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem populum nomini Romano.
For there was no nation on earth, no people more hostile to the Roman name.
ideo se moenibus inclusos tenere eos, quia, si qui evasissent aliqua, velut feras bestias per agros vagari et laniare et trucidare quodcumque obvium detur.
Therefore he kept them shut up within the walls, because if any had escaped in any direction, they wandered through the fields like wild beasts, tearing and slaughtering whatever came in their way.
§26.27.13alios ad Hannibalem transfugisse, alios ad Romam incendendam profectos.
Some had deserted to Hannibal, others had set out to burn Rome.
inventurum in semusto foro consulem vestigia sceleris Campanorum.
The consul would find in the half-burnt Forum the traces of the crime of the Campanians.
§26.27.14Vestae aedem petitam et aeternos ignes et conditum in penetrali fatale pignus imperi Romani.
The temple of Vesta, the eternal fires, and the fateful pledge of the Roman empire preserved in its sanctuary had been aimed at.
se minime censere tutum esse Campanis potestatem intrandi Romana moenia fieri.
He thought it by no means safe that the power of entering the Roman walls should be granted to the Campanians.
§26.27.15Laevinus Campanos iure iurando a Flacco adactos, quinto die, quam ab senatu responsum accepissent Capuam redituros, sequi se Romam iussit.
Laevinus ordered the Campanians, after they had been bound by an oath by Flaccus to return to Capua on the fifth day after they should receive an answer from the senate, to follow him to Rome.
§26.27.16hac circumfusus multitudine, simul Siculis obviam egressis secutisque Romam, praebuit speciem dolentis duarzum clarissimarum urbium excidio ac celeberrimis viris victos bello accusatores in urbem adducentia.
Surrounded by this crowd, and at the same time by the Sicilians who had come out to meet him and followed him to Rome, he presented the appearance of one mourning over the destruction of two most famous cities, and leading into the city, as accusers against very celebrated men, those who had been conquered in war.
§26.27.17de re publica tamen primum ac de provinciis ambo consules ad senatum rettulere.
Nevertheless, both consuls laid before the senate, in the first place, the business of the state and the provinces.