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THE SECOND BOOKE 37
'I have/ quoth he, 'taken order that men fit for
that purpose shall he ready, when we shall he expired,
to cast us into a great burning pile of wood.' Diverse
approved of his high resolution, but few did imitate the
same. Seven and twentie Senators followed him, who
after they had attempted to stifle so irkesome and
suppress so terror-moving a thought, with quaffing and
swilling of wine, they ended their repast by this deadly
messe: and enter-bracing one another, after they had
in common deplored and bewailed their countries misfortunes,
some went home to their owne houses, othersome
stayed there, to be entombed with Vibius in his
owne fire, whose death was so long and lingering, forsomuch
as the vapor of the wine having possessed their
veines, and slowed the effect and operation of the
poyson, that some lived an hour after they had seen
their enemies enter Capua, which they caried the next
day after, and incurred the miseries and saw the calamities
which at so high a rate they had sought to eschue.
Taurea Iubellius, another citizen there, the Consull
Fulvius returning from that shameful slaughter which
he had committed of 225 Senators, called him churlishly
by his name, and having arrested him;
' Command,' quoth he unto him, 'that I also be
massacred after so many others, that so thou maiest
brag to have murthered a much more valiant man
than ever thou wast.' Fulvius, as one enraged,
disdaining him ; forasmuch as he had newly received
letters from Rome contrarie to the inhumanitie of his
execution, which inhibited him to proceed any further;
Iubellius, continuing his speech, said: ' Sithence my
Countrie is taken, my friends butchered, and having
with mine owne hands slaine my wife and children, as
the onely meane to free them from the desolation of this
ruine, I may not dye the death of my fellow citizens,
let us borrow the vengeance of this hatefull life from
vertue:' And drawing a blade he had hidden under
his garments, therewith ran himselfe thorow, and
foiling on his face, died at the Consuls feet Alexander
besieged a Citie in India, the inhabitants whereof,