of 206 BC. Alternatively, Livy says, Scipio himself sent his own legate and an elite squadron of cavalry to arrest Pleminius and turned him over to the commission. Diodorus reports only the second version that ameliorates Scipio's conduct, but has Scipio summoning Pleminius to Sicily, throwing him in chains, then handing him over to the two plebeian tribunes sent with the commission, who were duly impressed by this firm response. Pleminius was later shipped off to Rome and imprisoned, but died before his trial concluded. The charge would have been perduellio, a capital crime, most likely to be brought before the centuriate assembly. What was unusual, and perhaps unprecedented at the time, was the arrest of a man who held delegated imperium. If it's correct that Pleminius chose to become a fugitive, by Roman law he had deserted his post and would be considered an exile. The choice of exile to escape sentencing in a capital crime brought with it a loss of citizenship. The complexities of the case may account for the proliferating versions, and the potential legal status of Pleminius is of interest in documenting the use of exile in ancient Rome. The case of sacrilege at Locri was a precedent in the investigation of an incident involving the same temple only a short time later, conducted by the praetor Quintus Minucius Rufus in 200 BC: see Minucius Rufus: Praetorship in Locri. Imprisonment, attempted escape, and execution Livy reports that Pleminius, still imprisoned in 194 BC, organized a number of men to cover his escape by setting fire to various points in Rome. This was to take place during the Sacred Games. The plot was betrayed and reported to the Senate; Pleminius was put to death. See also Pleminia (gens) Selected bibliography Bagnall, Nigel. The Punic Wars: Rome, Carthage, and the Struggle for the Mediterranean. St. Martin's Press, 1990. Brennan, T. Corey. The Praetorship in the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press, 2000. Broughton, T.R.S. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic. American Philological Association, 1951, 1986 reprint, vol. 1, p. 304. Kelly, Gordon P. A History of Exile in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Scullard, H.H. Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War. Cambridge University Press, 1930. Vishnia, Rachel Feig. State, Society, and Popular Leaders in Mid-Republican Rome, 241–167 B.C. Routledge, 1996. Further reading Andrew Lintott, "Provocatio: From the Struggle of the Orders to the Principate," Aufstieg