[Frag. XXXIX]

[Sidenote: B.C. 283 (_a.u._ 471)] 1. The Romans had learned that the
Tarentini and some others were making ready to war against them, and had
despatched Fabricius as an envoy to the allied cities to prevent them
from committing any revolutionary act: but they had him arrested, and by
sending men to the Etruscans and Umbrians and Gauls they caused a number
of them also to secede, some immediately and some a little later.
(Ursinus, p.375. Zonaras, 8, 2-Vol. II, p.174, 4 sq.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 283 (_a.u._ 471)] 2. ¶The Tarentini, although they had
themselves initiated the war, nevertheless were sheltered from fear. For
the Romans, who understood what they were doing, pretended not to know
it on account of temporary embarrassments. Hereupon the Tarentini,
thinking that they either could mock [Footnote: Verb adopted from
Boissevain's conjecture [Greek: _diasilloun_] (cp. the same word in Book
Fifty-nine, chapter 25). at Rome or were entirely unobserved because
they were receiving no complaints behaved still more insolently and
involved the Romans even contrary to their own wishes in a war. This
proved the saying that even good fortune, when a disproportionately
large portion of it falls to the lot of any individuals, becomes the
cause of disaster to them; it entices them on to a state of frenzy
(since moderation refuses to cohabit with vanity) and ruins their
greatest interests. So these Tarentini, too, after rising to an
unexampled height of prosperity in turn met with a misfortune that was
an equivalent return for their wantonness. (Mai, p.168 and 536.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 282 (_a.u._ 472)] 3. Dio in Book 9: "Lucius Valerius,
[Footnote: Appian (Samnite Wars, VII, 1) gives the second name as