“I perceive the sentence which has been passed on this man; now choose a good and upright senator in the room of this wicked and unprincipled one.”  At first all was silence, from the want of a better man whom they might substitute; afterwards, one of them, laying aside his modesty, nominating some one, in an instant a much greater clamour arose; while some denied all knowledge of him, others objected to him at one time on account of flagitious conduct, at another time on account of his humble birth, his sordid circumstances, and the disgraceful nature of his trade and occupation.  The same occurred with increased vehemence with respect to the second and third senators, so that it was evident that they were dissatisfied with the senator himself, but had not any one to substitute for him; for it was of no use that the same persons should be nominated again, to no other purpose than to hear of their vices, and the rest were much more mean and obscure than those who first occurred to their recollection.  Thus the assembly separated, affirming that every evil which was most known was easiest to be endured, and ordering the senate to be discharged from custody.

4.  Pacuvius, having thus rendered the senators more subservient to himself than to the commons by the gift of their lives, ruled without the aid of arms, all persons now acquiescing.  Henceforward the senators, forgetful of their rank and independence, flattered the commons; saluted them courteously; invited them graciously; entertained them with sumptuous feasts; undertook those causes, always espoused that party, decided as judges in favour of that side, which was most popular, and best adapted to conciliate the favour of the commons.  Now, indeed, every thing was transacted in the senate as if it had been an assembly of the people.  The Capuans, ever prone to luxurious indulgence not only from natural turpitude, but from the profusion of the means of voluptuous enjoyment which flowed in upon them, and the temptations of all the luxuries of land and sea; at that time especially proceeded to such a pitch of extravagance in consequence of the obsequiousness of the nobles and the unrestrained liberty of the commons, that their lust and prodigality had no bounds.  To a disregard for the laws, the magistrates, and the senate, now, after the disaster of Cannae, was added a contempt for the Roman government also, for which there had been some degree of respect.  The only obstacles to immediate revolt were the intermarriages which, from a remote period, had connected many of their distinguished and influential families with the Romans; and, which formed the strongest bond of union, that while several of their countrymen were serving in the Roman armies, particularly three hundred horsemen, the flower of the Campanian nobility, had been selected and sent by the Romans to garrison the cities of Sicily.