§9.8.1quo creati sunt die, eo — sic enim placuerat patribus — magistratum inierunt, sollemnibusque senatus consultis perfectis de pace Caudina rettulerunt; et Publilius, §9.8.2penes quem fasces erant, “dic, Sp. Postumi,” inquit. qui ubi surrexit, eodem illo vultu, quo sub iugum missus erat, §9.8.3“haud sum ignarus” inquit, “consules, ignominiae, non honoris causa me primum excitatum iussumque dicere, non tamquam senatorem, sed tamquam reum qua infelicis belli, qua ignominiosae pacis.
On the day they were created, on that very day—for so it had pleased the fathers—they entered upon their office, and having completed the solemn decrees of the senate, they introduced a motion concerning the Caudine peace; and Publilius, in whose hands the fasces were, said, "Speak, Spurius Postumius." When he arose, with that same countenance with which he had been sent under the yoke, he said, "I am not ignorant, consuls, that I have been called upon and ordered to speak first for the sake of ignominy, not of honor, not as a senator, but as a defendant, both of an unhappy war and of an ignominious peace.
§9.8.4ego tamen, quando neque de noxa nostra neque de poena rettulistis, omissa defensione, quae non difficillima esset apud haud ignaros fortunarum humanarum necessitatiumque, sententiam de eo, de quo rettulistis, paucis peragam; quae sententia testis erit, mihine an legionibus vestris pepercerim, cum me seu turpi seu necessaria sponsione obstrinxi, §9.8.5qua tamen, quando iniussu populi facta est, non tenetur populus Romanus, nec quicquam ex ea praeterquam corpora nostra debentur Samnitibus.
Yet, since you have made no motion concerning our guilt or our punishment, I, omitting my defense, which would not be very difficult before men not ignorant of human fortunes and necessities, will briefly deliver my opinion on that which you have proposed; which opinion will be a witness whether I spared myself or your legions, when I bound myself by either a shameful or a necessary guarantee, by which, however, since it was made without the command of the people, the Roman people are not bound, nor is anything due from it to the Samnites except our own bodies.
§9.8.6dedamur per fetiales nudi vinctique; exsolvamus religione populum, si qua obligavimus, ne quid divini humanive obstet, quo minus iustum piumque de integro ineatur bellum.
Let us be surrendered by the fetials, naked and bound; let us release the people from the religious obligation, if we have bound them in any way, so that nothing divine or human may stand in the way of a just and pious war being entered upon anew.
§9.8.7interea consules exercitum scribere, armare, educere placet nec prius ingredi hostium fines, quam omnia iusta in deditione nostra perfecta erunt.
Meanwhile, it is agreed that the consuls should enlist, arm, and lead out an army, and not enter the territory of the enemy before all the proper rites in our surrender have been completed.
§9.8.8vos, di inmortales, precor quaesoque, si vobis non fuit cordi Sp. Postumium, T. Veturium consules cum Samnitibus prospere bellum gerere, §9.8.9at vos satis habeatis vidisse nos sub iugum missos, vidisse sponsione infami obligates, videre nudos vinctosque hostibus deditos, omnem iram hostium nostris capitibus excipientes; §9.8.10novos consules legionesque Romanas ita cum Samnite gerere bellum velitis, ut omnia ante nos consules bella gesta sunt. ” §9.8.11quae ubi dixit, tanta simul admiratio miseratioque viri incessit homines, ut modo vix crederent illum eundem esse Sp. Postumium, qui auctor tam foedae pacis fuisset, §9.8.12modo miserarentur, quod vir talis etiam praecipuum apud hostes supplicium passurus esset ob iram diremptae pacis.
I pray and beseech you, immortal gods, if it was not your pleasure that the consuls Spurius Postumius and Titus Veturius should successfully wage war with the Samnites, yet may you hold it sufficient to have seen us sent under the yoke, to have seen us bound by an infamous guarantee, and to see us surrendered naked and bound to the enemy, receiving all the wrath of the enemy on our own heads; and may you wish the new consuls and the Roman legions to wage war with the Samnites in the same manner as all wars were waged before we were consuls." When he had said this, so great an admiration and pity for the man at once came upon the people, that at one moment they could hardly believe that he was the same Spurius Postumius who had been the author of so shameful a peace, and at another moment they pitied him, because such a man was destined to suffer even the extreme punishment among the enemy because of their wrath over the broken peace.
§9.8.13cum omnes laudibus modo prosequentes virum in sententiam eius pedibus irent, temptata paulisper intercessio est ab L. Livio et Q. Maelio tribunis plebis, §9.8.14qui neque exsolvi religione populum aiebant deditione sua, nisi omnia Samnitibus, qualia apud Caudium fuissent, §9.8.15restituerentur, neque se pro eo, quod spondendo pacem servassent exercitum populi Romani, poenam ullam meritos esse neque ad extremum, cum sacrosancti essent, dedi hostibus violarive posse.
While all, following the man with praises, were going over to his opinion, an intervention was attempted for a short time by Lucius Livius and Quintus Maelius, tribunes of the plebs, who said that the people could not be released from the religious obligation by their surrender, unless all things were restored to the Samnites in the same state as they had been at Caudium, and that they themselves had not deserved any punishment for having saved the army of the Roman people by guaranteeing the peace, and finally, that since they were sacrosanct, they could not be surrendered to the enemy or violated.