2. His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia
(Eutrop. ix. Victor in Caesarib. et epitom.) seems to
contradict, unless it was merely accidental, his supposed
descent from the Decii. Six hundred years had bestowed
nobility on the Decii; but at the commencement of that
period they were only Plebeians of merit, and among the
first who shared the consulship with the haughty Patricians.
Plebeia Deciorum animae, etc. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 254 See
the spirited speech of Decius, in Livy, x. 9, 10.