§29.16.1altera item res, prope aeque longo neglecta silentio, relata a M. Valerio Laevino est, qui privatis conlatas pecunias se ac M. Claudio consulibus reddi tandem aequum esse dixit; §29.16.2nec mirari quemquam debere in publica obligata fide suam praecipuam curam esse; nam praeterquam quod aliquid proprie ad consulem eius anni, quo conlatae pecuniae essent, pertineret, etiam se auctorem ita conferendi fuisse inopi aerario nec plebe ad tributum sufficiente.
Another matter, which had been neglected in almost equally long silence, was brought forward by Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who said that it was at last fair that the money contributed by private individuals during the consulship of himself and Marcus Claudio should be repaid; and that no one ought to wonder that his own chief concern was for the public faith when it had been pledged; for besides the fact that the matter particularly concerned the consul of that year in which the money had been contributed, he himself had also been the proposer of making contributions in that manner when the treasury was needy and the plebeians were unable to pay the tax.
§29.16.3grata ea patribus admonitio fuit, iussisque referre consulibus decreverunt, ut tribus pensionibus ea pecunia solveretur; primam praesentem ii, qui tum essent, duas tertii et quinti consules numerarent.
This reminder was pleasing to the senators, and having ordered the consuls to bring forward the motion, they decreed that the money should be repaid in three installments: the first, immediately, by the consuls who were then in office; the other two by the consuls of the third and fifth years.
§29.16.4omnes deinde alias curas una occupavit postquam Locrensium clades, quae ignoratae ad eam diem fuerant, legatorum adventu vulgatae sunt.
Then, a single concern occupied all other concerns after the disasters of the Locrians, which had been unknown up to that day, were made known by the arrival of envoys.
§29.16.5nec tam Plemini scelus quam Scipionis in eo aut ambitio aut neglegentia iras hominum inritavit.
And it was not so much the crime of Pleminius as the ambition or negligence of Scipio in that matter which provoked the anger of the people.
§29.16.6decem legati Locrensium, obsiti squalore et sordibus, in comitio sedentibus consulibus velamenta supplicum, ramos oleae, ut Graecis mos est, porgentes, ante tribunal cum flebili vociferatione humi procubuerunt.
Ten envoys of the Locrians, covered in filth and mourning-garments, while the consuls were sitting in the Comitium, holding out the olive branches as suppliants' emblems according to the custom of the Greeks, prostrated themselves on the ground before the tribunal with tearful cries.
§29.16.7quaerentibus consulibus Locrenses se dixerunt esse, ea passos a Q. Pleminio legato Romanisque militibus, quae pati ne Carthaginienses quidem velit populus Romanus; orare, uti sibi patres adeundi deplorandique aerumnas suas potestatem facerent.
When the consuls questioned them, they said that they were Locrians, and that they had suffered such things at the hands of the legate Quintus Pleminius and the Roman soldiers as the Roman people would not wish even the Carthaginians to suffer; they begged that the senators would grant them the opportunity of approaching them and deploring their grievances.