from the treasures of Proserpine should be collected, and twice the amount placed in the treasury.  That an expiatory sacred rite should be celebrated, first referring it to the college of pontiffs, to determine what atonements should be made, to what gods, and with what victims, in consequence of the sacred treasures’ having been removed and violated.  That the soldiers at Locri should be all transported into Sicily, and four cohorts of the allies of the Latin confederacy taken to Locri for a garrison.”  The votes could not be entirely collected that day in consequence of the warm feeling excited for and against Scipio.  Besides the atrocious conduct of Pleminius, and the calamities of the Locrians, much was said about the dress of the general himself, as being not only not Roman, but even unsoldierlike.  It was said, that “he walked about in the gymnasium in a cloak and slippers, and that he gave his time to light books and the palaestra.  That his whole staff were enjoying the delights which Syracuse afforded, with the same indolence and effeminacy.  That Carthage and Hannibal had dropped out of his memory; that the whole army, corrupted by indulgence, like that at Sucro in Spain, or that now at Locri, was more to be feared by its allies than by its enemies.”

20.  Though these charges, partly true, and partly containing a mixture of truth and falsehood, and therefore, probably, were urged with vehemence; the opinion, however, of Quintus Metellus prevailed, who, agreeing with Maximus on other points, differed from him in the case of Scipio.  “For how inconsistent would it be,” said he, “that the person whom the state a little while ago selected as their general, though a very young man, for the recovery of Spain; whom, after he had taken Spain out of the hands of their enemies, they elected their consul, for the purpose of putting an end to the Punic war; whom they marked out with the most confident anticipation as the person who would draw Hannibal out of Italy, and subdue Africa; how inconsistent would it be, that this man, like another Pleminius, condemned in a manner without a hearing, should suddenly be recalled from his province! when the Locrians asserted that the wicked acts which had been committed against them were done not even in the presence of Scipio, and no other charge could be brought against him, than that he spared the lieutenant-general, either from good nature or respect.  He thought it advisable, that Marcus Pomponius the praetor, to whose lot the province of Sicily had fallen, should go to his province within the next three days; that the consuls should select out of the senate ten deputies, whomsoever they thought proper, and send them with the praetor, together with two tribunes of the people, and an aedile.  That the praetor, assisted by this council, should take cognizance of the affair.  If those acts of which the Locrians complained were committed at the command or with the concurrence of Scipio, that they should command him to quit the province.