§43.4.1* tis tantum extitit * pavorem ingressi castra, ostentantes capita, fecerunt, ut, si admotus extemplo exercitus foret, capi castra potuerint. §43.4.2tum quoque fuga ingens facta est; et erant, qui legatos mittendos ad pacem precibus petendam censerent; civitatesque conplures eo nuntio audito in deditionem venerunt. §43.4.3quibus purgantibus sese culpamque in duorum amentiam conferentibus, qui se ultro ad poenam ipsi obtulissent, cum veniam dedisset praetor, §43.4.4profectus extemplo ad alias civitates omnibus imperata facientibus quieto exercitu pacatum agrum, qui paulo ante ingenti tumultu arserat, peragravit. §43.4.5haec lenitas praetoris, qua sine sanguine ferocissimam gentem domuerat, eo gratior plebi patribusque fuit, quo crudelius avariusque in Graecia bellatum et ab consule Licinio et ab Lucretio praetore erat. §43.4.6Lucretium tribuni plebis absentem contionibus adsiduis lacerabant, cum rei publicae causa abesse excusaretur; sed tum adeo vicina etiam inexplorata erant, ut is eo tempore in agro suo Antiati esset aquamque ex manubiis Antium ex flumine Loracinae duceret. §43.4.7id opus centum triginta milibus aeris locasse dicitur; tabulis quoque pictis ex praeda fanum Aesculapi exornavit. §43.4.8invidiam infamiamque ab Lucretio averterunt in Hortensium, successorem eius, Abderitae legati flentes ante curiam querentesque oppidum suum ab Hortensio expugnatum ac direptum esse: §43.4.9causam excidii fuisse urbi, quod, cum centum milia denarium et tritici quinquaginta milia modium imperaret, spatium petierint, quo de ea re et ad Hostilium consulem et Romam mitterent legatos. §43.4.10vixdum ad consulem se pervenisse et audisse oppidum expugnatum, principes securi percussos, sub corona ceteros venisse. §43.4.11indigna res senatui visa, decreveruntque eadem de Abderitis, quae de Coronaeis decreverant priore anno, eademque pro contione edicere Q. Maenium praetorem iusserunt. §43.4.12et legati duo, C. Sempronius Blaesus Sex. Iulius Caesar, ad restituendos in libertatem Abderitas missi. §43.4.13iisdem mandatum, ut et Hostilio consuli et Hortensio praetori nuntiarent, senatum Abderitis iniustum bellum inlatum conquirique omnes, qui in servitute sint, et restitui in libertatem aecum censere.
*... only arose *, those who entered the camp, showing the heads, caused such panic that, if the army had been immediately moved, the camp could have been taken. Then also a huge flight took place; and there were those who thought that envoys should be sent to beg for peace with entreaties; and several states, on hearing this news, came into surrender. When they excused themselves and cast the blame upon the madness of two men, who had of their own accord offered themselves for punishment, and the praetor had granted them pardon, he set out immediately for other states, and while all performed his commands, he traversed with a quiet army the pacified country which shortly before had burned with a huge tumult. This leniency of the praetor, by which he had subdued a most ferocious nation without bloodshed, was the more pleasing to the plebeians and the patricians, the more cruelly and greedily the war had been waged in Greece both by the consul Licinius and by the praetor Lucretius. The tribunes of the plebs were attacking Lucretius in his absence with constant speeches in assembly, although he was excused as being absent on the business of the state; but at that time even neighboring affairs were so uninvestigated that he was at that very time on his estate at Antium, and was bringing water to Antium from the river Loracina with the spoils of war. He is said to have contracted for that work at one hundred and thirty thousand asses; he also adorned the temple of Aesculapius with painted tablets from the spoils. The envoys of Abdera, weeping before the senate-house and complaining that their town had been captured and plundered by Hortensius, turned the hatred and infamy away from Lucretius onto Hortensius, his successor: namely, that the cause of the city's destruction had been that, when he demanded one hundred thousand denarii and fifty thousand modii of wheat, they begged for time to send envoys on that matter both to the consul Hostilius and to Rome. Hardly had they reached the consul when they heard that the town had been captured, the leading men beheaded, and the rest sold under the crown. The matter seemed unworthy to the senate, and they decreed the same things concerning the Abderites as they had decreed concerning the Coronaeans in the previous year, and they ordered the praetor Quintus Maenius to proclaim the same before the assembly. And two envoys, Gaius Sempronius Blaesus and Sextus Julius Caesar, were sent to restore the Abderites to liberty. The same were instructed to notify both the consul Hostilius and the praetor Hortensius that the senate considered that an unjust war had been waged against the Abderites, and deemed it right that all who were in slavery should be sought out and restored to liberty.