Ab urbe condita

The infantry and cavalry who marched in the procession were conspicuous with their decorations, many were wearing civic, mural, and vallarian crowns.[*](The corona civica (made of oak leaves) was awarded to the soldier who had saved a comrade's life in battle; the corona muralis to him who first entered the breach in storming a town; the corona vallaris was given to the man who first scaled the rampart in assaulting an enemy's camp.)

The spoils of the Samnites attracted much attention; their splendour and beauty were compared with those which the consul's father had won, and which were familiar to all through their being used as decorations of public places Amongst those in the victor's train were some prisoners of high rank distinguished for their own or their fathers' military services;

there were also carried in the procession 2,533,000 bronze ases, stated to be the proceeds of the sale of the prisoners, and 1830 pounds of silver taken from the cities. All the silver and bronze was stored in the treasury, none of this was given to the soldiers.

This created dissatisfaction amongst the plebs, which was aggravated by the collection of the war tax to provide the soldiers' pay, for if Papirius had not been so anxious to get the credit of paying the price of the prisoners into the treasury there would have been enough to make a gift to the soldiers and also to furnish their pay. He dedicated the temple of Quirinus.

I do not find in any ancient author that it was he who vowed this temple in the crisis of a battle, and certainly he could not have completed it in so short a time; it was vowed by his father when Dictator, and the son dedicated it when consul, and adorned it with the spoils of the enemy.

There was such a vast quantity of these that not only were the temple and the Forum adorned with them, but they were distributed amongst the allied peoples and the nearest colonies to decorate their public spaces and temples.

After his triumph Papirius led his army into the neighbourhood of Vescia, as that district was still infested by the Samnites, and there he wintered.