I'll not permit any battles, set-
tos, affrays or brawls in towns or villages or on roads. You hear me? You
hear me, Vedius? You hear me, Satronius? You hear me, all of you?
"Now it so happened that I had heard of your disgraceful Sabine feud,
which mars the peace of a whole countryside near Reate, and I had sent a
competent and reliable agent with four assistants to investigate and
report. For once luck was with me: generally my luck as a ruler is as bad
as it is good for me as an athlete. It so happened that my agents had just
completed their preliminary investigations and acquainted themselves with
general conditions when your idiotic feud broke loose in two abductions of
women, one by each side, that put my agents on their mettle. They kept
awake. They are no fools. My head man has a keen scent for incipient
trouble; he managed to have one of his helpers get among the ambushers in
Vediamnum and another among those on your byway, Satronius. Each of these
two severally heard all the talk of the ambushers with whom he mingled; so
I have had a faithful report of just what the Vedian ambush meant to do to
the Satronian convoy they lay in wait for and similarly of the other side.
Each was waiting for a sheep; both caught a wildcat.
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