§8.19.1creati consules L. Papirius Crassus iterum L. Plautius Venox.
Lucius Papirius Crassus for the second time and Lucius Plautius Venox were elected consuls.
cuius principio anni legati ex Volscis Fabraterni et Lucani Romam venerunt orantes, ut in fidem reciperentur: §8.19.2si a Samnitium armis defensi essent, se sub imperio populi Romani fideliter atque oboedienter futuros. §8.19.3missi tum ab senatu legati denuntiatumque Samnitibus, ut eorum populorum finibus vim abstinerent; valuitque ea legatio, non tam quia pacem volebant Samnites, quam quia nondum parati erant ad bellum. §8.19.4eodem anno Privernas bellum initum, cuius socii Fundani, dux etiam fuit Fundanus Vitruvius Vaccus, vir non domi solum sed etiam Romae clarus; aedes fuere in Palatio eius, qua Vacci prata diruto aedificio publicatoque solo appellata. §8.19.5aduersus hunc vastantem effuse Setinum Norbanumque et Coranum agrum L. Papirius profectus haud procul castris eius consedit. §8.19.6Vitruvio nec, ut vallo se teneret adversus validiorem hostem, sana constare mens, nec, ut longius a castris dimicaret, animus suppetere; vix tota extra portam castrorum explicata acie, §8.19.7fugam magis retro quam proelium aut hostem spectante milite sine consilio, sine audacia depugnat. §8.19.8ut et levi momento nec ambigue est victus, ita brevitate ipsa loci facilique receptu in tam propinqua castra haud aegre militem a multa caede est tutatus, §8.19.9nec fere quisquam in ipso certamine, pauci in turba fugae extremae, cum in castra ruerent, caesi;
At the beginning of this year, envoys from the Fabraternians of the Volsci and from the Lucanians came to Rome, praying to be received into protection: saying that if they were defended from the arms of the Samnites, they would be faithful and obedient under the rule of the Roman people. Then envoys were sent by the senate and a warning was given to the Samnites to keep their violence away from the territories of those peoples; and that embassy was effective, not so much because the Samnites wished for peace as because they were not yet ready for war. In the same year, the war with Privernum began, of which the Fundani were allies, and their leader was also a Fundanian, Vitruvius Vaccus, a man famous not only at home but also in Rome; he had a house on the Palatine, where, after the building was demolished and the ground confiscated, it was called the Meadows of Vaccus. Against him, as he was wasting the Setian, Norban, and Coran territory in a widespread manner, Lucius Papirius set out and pitched his camp not far from his camp. Neither did Vitruvius have a sound mind to keep himself within his rampart against a stronger enemy, nor did he have the courage to fight further from his camp; when his battle line was scarcely fully deployed outside the gate of the camp, with the soldiers looking more to flight in their rear than to battle or the enemy, he fought without plan and without boldness. As he was defeated easily and without doubt, so by the very closeness of the place and the easy retreat into the camp so near at hand, he protected his soldiers from great slaughter without difficulty; and hardly anyone was slain in the combat itself, and only a few in the confusion at the end of the flight as they rushed into the camp.
primisque tenebris Privernum inde petitum agmine trepido, ut muris potius quam vallo sese tutarentur.
At the first darkness, they made for Privernum from there in a trembling column, so that they might protect themselves by walls rather than by a rampart.
a Priverno Plautius alter consul pervastatis passim agris praedaque abacta in agrum Fundanum exercitum inducit.
From Privernum, Plautius, the other consul, having thoroughly devastated the lands everywhere and driven off the booty, led his army into the Fundan territory.
ingredienti fines senatus Fundanorum occurrit; §8.19.10negant se pro Vitruvio sectamque eius secutis precatum venisse, sed pro Fundano populo, quem extra culpam belli esse ipsum Vitruvium iudicasse, cum receptaculum fugae Privernum habuerit, non patriam Fundos. §8.19.11Priverni igitur hostes populi Romani quaerendos persequendosque esse, qui simul a Fundanis ac Romanis utriusque patriae inmemores defecerint; Fundanis pacem esse et animos Romanos et gratam memoriam acceptae civitatis. §8.19.12orare se consulem, ut bellum ab innoxio populo abstineat; agros, urbem, corpora ipsorum coniugumque ac liberorum suorum in potestate populi Romani esse futuraque. §8.19.13conlaudatis Fundanis consul litterisque Romam missis, in officio Fundanos esse, ad Privernum flexit iter.
As he entered their borders, the senate of the Fundani met him; they declared that they had not come to plead on behalf of Vitruvius and those who followed his faction, but on behalf of the Fundan people, whom Vitruvius himself had judged to be free from the guilt of the war, since he had Privernum as a refuge for his flight and not his native city, Fundi. Therefore, the enemies of the Roman people were to be sought and pursued at Privernum, who had revolted at the same time from both the Fundani and the Romans, unmindful of either country; but for the Fundani there was peace, Roman sympathies, and a grateful memory of the citizenship they had received. They implored the consul to keep the war away from an innocent people; their lands, city, and the persons of themselves, their wives, and their children were and would be in the power of the Roman people. Having praised the Fundani and sent letters to Rome stating that the Fundani were remaining loyal, the consul turned his march to Privernum.
prius animadversum in eos, qui capita coniurationis fuerant, a consule scribit Claudius; §8.19.14ad trecentos quinquaginta ex coniuratis vinctos Romam missos eamque deditionem ab senatu non acceptam, quod egentium atque humilium poena defungi velle Fundanum populum censuerint.
Claudius writes that punishment was first inflicted by the consul on those who had been the heads of the conspiracy; and that about three hundred and fifty of the conspirators were sent bound to Rome, but that surrender was not accepted by the senate, because they judged that the Fundan people wished to clear themselves with the punishment of the needy and the humble.