Kitap 26
27
When Laevinus was passing Capua on his way to Rome he was surrounded by a crowd of the inhabitants who implored him with tears to allow them to go to Rome and try if they could not awaken the compassion of the senate and persuade them not to allow Q. Flaccus to ruin them utterly and efface their name. Flaccus declared that he had no personal feeling against the Capuans, it was as public enemies that he regarded them, and should continue to do so as long as he knew that they maintained their present attitude towards Rome. He had shut them up, he said, within their walls, because if they got out anywhere they would prowl about the country like wild beasts, and mangle and murder whatever came in their way. Some had deserted to Hannibal, others had gone off to burn down Rome. The consul would see in the half-burnt Forum the result of their crime. They had tried to destroy the temple of Vesta, with its perpetual fire, and the image which was concealed in the sacred shrine-that image which Fate had decreed to be the pledge and guarantee of Roman dominion. He considered that it would be anything but safe to give the Capuans a chance of entering the City. After hearing this Laevinus made the Capuans take an oath to Flaccus that they would return within five days after receiving the reply of the senate. Then he ordered them to follow him to Rome. Surrounded by this crowd and by a number of Sicilians who had also met him, he entered the City. It seemed just as though he were bringing in a body of accusers against the two commanders who had distinguished themselves by the destruction of two famous cities and who would now have to defend themselves against those they had vanquished.
