The person who introduced this order of the people, was Marcus Decius, plebeian tribune.

Another transaction of this year I should pass over as trifling, did it not seem to bear some relation to religion.

The flute-players, taking offence because they had been prohibited by the last censors from holding their repasts in the temple of Jupiter, which had been customary from very early times, went off in a body to Tibur; so that there was not one left in the city to play at the sacrifices.

The religious tendency of this affair gave uneasiness to the senate; and they sent envoys to Tibur to endeavour that these men might be sent back to Rome.

The Tiburtines readily promised compliance, and first, calling them into the senate-house, warmly recommended to them to return to Rome; and then, when they could not be prevailed on, practised on them an artifice not ill adapted to the dispositions of that description of people: on a festival day, they invited them separately to their several houses, apparently with the intention of heightening the pleasure of their feasts with music, and there plied them with wine, of which such people are always fond, until they laid them asleep.