Leaving the detachment which had captured the citadel, with Pleminius in command, to protect the city, he returned with the troops he had brought to Messana. After their secession from Rome the Locrians had met with such tyrannical and brutal treatment from the Carthaginians, that they could have submitted to ordinary ill-usage not only with patience but almost with cheerfulness. But, as a matter owners were running after him. He happened to j Sergius and Matienus, the military tribunes, who ordered cup to be taken from him.A dispute arose, angry shouts raised, and at last a re gular fight began between the soldiers of Pleminius and those of the militarv tribunes. As first one and then another ran up and joined his own side, the number and noise of the combatants went on increasing. Pleminius' party were worsted and ran to their commander with loud and angry shouts, showing him their wounds and blood-stained armour, and repeating the insulting language which had been used about him in the quarrel. He was furious, and rushing out of his house summoned the tribunes before him, and ordered them to be stripped and the rods got ready. This took some time, for they struggled and appealed for help to their men, who, excited by their recent victory, ran up from all parts as though they had been summoned to arms to repel an attack. When they saw -the persons of their tribunes actually outraged by the rods they were kindled into ungovernable fury, and without the slightest for the majesty of office or even for humanity, they grossly maltreated the lictors, and then having separated Pleminius from his men and hemmed him in, they slit his nose and ears and left him half dead. All this was reported to Scipio at Messana, and a few days later he came in a six-banked galley 4 to Locri, where he held a formal enquiry into the causes of the disturbance. Pleminius was acqu fitted and retained his post;the t.ribunes were declared to be guilty and thrown·into chains with a view to their being sent to Rome. Scipio then returned to Messana, and from there proceeded to Svracuse. Pleminius was beside himself with rage. He considered that Scipio had treated his wrongs far too lightly, and that the only man who could assess the penalty was the man who had suffered the outrage. The tribunes were dragged before him, and after undergoing every torture which the human body can endure, pu ttodeath. Eatentto then his cruelty was not satiated and deredthebodies to be cast forth unburied.thedered He exercised the same savage cruelty upon the leading citizens of Locri, who he learnt had gone to Scipio to complain of his misconduct. The shocking proofs he had already given of his lust and greed amongst the allies of Rome were now multiplied in his fury, and the shame and odium they created recoiled riot only on him but on his commander-in-chief as well.