Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 29
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

22. While they were on their way to Syracuse Scipio prepared tangible evidence, not words, in his defence. He ordered the entire army to be concentrated there, and the fleet to be cleared for action, as if on that day he must fight on land and sea with the Carthaginians. [2] On the day of their arrival they were hospitably entertained, and the next day he showed them his land and naval forces, not merely drawn up in line, but the soldiers in manœuvres¹ and the fleet likewise manœuvring in mimicry of a naval battle in the harbour. [3] Then the praetor and the legati were conducted on a tour of inspection of arsenals and magazines and other equipment for war. [4] And so much was their admiration aroused for particular things and for the sum total that they fully believed the Carthaginian people could be defeated either by that general and army or by no other, and bade [5??] him with the blessing of the gods to cross over, and at the first possible moment to bring to the Roman people the fulfilment of the hope inspired on the day on which all the centuries [p. 295]had named him consul first. [6] So happy also were they² on leaving the city, it was if they were to carry to Rome the news of a victory, not of a magnificent preparation for war.

[7] Pleminius and those who were involved in the same charge, upon their arrival in Rome, were at once put in the prison. And when first brought before the people by the tribunes, while men's minds were already filled with the sufferings of the Locrians, they found no room left for pity. [8] Later, as they were brought out repeatedly,³ men's anger was subsiding as animosity now waned, and even Pleminius' disfigurement and the memory of the absent Scipio won them support among the populace. [9] He died, however, in prison before his trial in the assembly of the people could be completed.

Clodius Licinus⁴ in the third book of his Roman History relates of this Pleminius that during the votive games which Africanus was conducting at Rome in his second consulship,⁵ he made an attempt, with the aid of certain men whom he had bribed, to set fire to the city in a number of places, in order to have a chance to break out of prison and escape; [10] [p. 297]that then, when his crime was revealed, he was⁶ consigned to the Tullianum⁷ in accordance with a decree of the senate.

[11] In regard to Scipio no action was taken anywhere except in the senate, in which both legati and tribunes united in praise of the fleet, army and general. Consequently the senate voted that at the earliest possible moment the crossing to Africa must take place, and that out of the armies then in Sicily Scipio should be permitted to choose for himself what forces he would transport with him to Africa, and what he would leave as a garrison [12??] for the province.