of the senate, a letter was sent to the consuls, that if they thought proper, one of them should come to Rome to elect successors, and that a proclamation should be issued for holding the election, on whatever day they might name. In answer to this, the consuls wrote back, that, "without detriment to the business of the public, they could not go to any, distance from the enemy. That it would be better, therefore, that the election should be held by an interrex, than that either of them should be called away from the war." The senate judged it more adviseable that a dictator should be nominated by a consul, for the purpose of holding the election, and Lucius Veturius Philo being accordingly nominated, appointed Manius Pomponius Matho master of the horse. But some defect being discovered in their appointment, they were ordered, on the fourteenth day, to abdicate their offices, and an interregnum took place.

Y.R. 536.

XXXIV. The consuls were continued in command B.C. 216. for another year. The patricians declared interrex Caius Claudius Centho, son of Appius, and afterwards Publius Cornelius Asina, under whose direction the election was held; which was attended with a warm contention between the patricians and plebeians. The populace struggled hard to raise to the consulship, Caius Terentius Varro, a person of their own rank, who, as before observed, by railing against the patricians, and by other popular arts, had acquired their affection; and who, by undermining the interest of Fabius and the dictatorial authority, had made the public displeasure against him the means of adding a lustre to his own character. The patricians opposed him with their utmost efforts, lest a power should be given to those men of raising themselves to the level of nobles, by means of malignant aspersions on their characters. Quintus Bæbius Herennius, a plebeian tribune, a relation of Caius Terentius, censured not only the senate, but likewise the augurs, for having hindered the dictator from holding the election, and thought, by

rendering them odious, to increase the popularity of his favourite candidate. He asserted, that, "by certain of the nobility, who, for many years, had been wishing for a war, Hannibal was induced to enter Italy; that by the same men the war was treacherously prolonged, though it might have been brought to a conclusion; further, that an army, consisting of four entire legions, was sufficiently able to cope with the enemy, was evident from this, that Marcus Minucius, in the absence of Fabius, had fought with success. That two legions had been exposed in the field, with intent that they should be defeated, and then were rescued from the brink of destruction, in order that the man should be saluted as father and patron, who had hindered the Romans from conquering, though he had afterwards prevented their defeat. That the consuls had, on the plan of Fabius, protracted the war, when they had it in their power to bring it to an end. That a confederacy to this purpose had been entered into by all the nobles, nor would the people know peace, until they elected to the consulship a real plebeian, a new man: for as to the plebeians, who had attained nobility,` they were now initiated into the mysteries of their order; and, from the moment when they ceased to be despised by the patricians, looked with contempt on the commons. Who did not see, that the end and intention of appointing an interregnum was to put the election into the power of the patricians? It was with a view to this that both the consuls had remained with the army; with the same view afterwards, when, contrary to their wishes, a dictator had been nominated to hold the election, they arbitrarily carried the point, that the appointment should be pronounced defective by the augurs. They had in their hands, therefore, the office of interrex; but certainly one consul's place was the right of the Roman commons, which the people would dispose of with impartiality, and would bestow on such a per

son as rather wished to conquer effectually, than to continue long in command."

XXXV. These inflammatory speeches had such an effect on the commons, that though there stood candidates three patricians, Publius Cornelius Merenda, Lucius Manlius Volso, and Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, and two of plebeian extraction, whose families were now ennobled, Caius Atilius Serranus, and Quintus Ælius Pætus, one of whom was pontiff, the other augur; yet Caius Terentius Varro, alone, was elected consul, in order that he might have the direction of the assembly for choosing his colleague. On which the nobles, having found that his competitors possessed not sufficient strength, prevailed, by violent importunity, on a new candidate to stand forth, after he had long and earnestly refused; this was Lucius Æmilius Paullus, a determined enemy of the commons, who had been consul before with Marcus Livius, and had very narrowly escaped being sentenced to punishment, as was his colleague. On the next day of assembly, all those who had opposed Varro, having declined the contest, he was appointed rather as an antagonist than as a colleague. The election of prætors* was then

At first the name of prætor, derived from præire, to preside, was applied to any magistrate who was the chief in any line, whether civil, military, or religious; as dictator, consul, commander of an army, &c. But it was afterwards appropriated to a magistrate, appointed to relieve the consuls from the burthen of superintending the administration of justice. His proper office, therefore, was the direction of judicial proceedings; but, in the absence of the consuls, he acted in their stead, with power nearly equal to theirs. The great influx of foreigners soon made it necessary to create a second prætor, who was called prætor peregrinus, the foreign prætor, because his business was to decide controversies between citizens and foreigners, while the city prætor, prætor urbanus, who was superior in dignity, took cognizance of suits between citizens. When the Romans gained possession of foreign provinces, they appointed a prætor to the government of each, and his power within his province was almost unlimited, for he was accountable to none but the people of Rome.

held, and Manius Pomponius Matho, and Publius Furius Philus were chosen. The lot of administering justice to the citizens of Rome fell to Pomponius, that of deciding causes between Roman citizens and foreigners, to Publius Furius Philus. Two additional prætors were appointed, Marcus Claudius Marcellus for Sicily, Lucius Postumius Albinus for Gaul. All these were appointed in their absence; nor, excepting the consul Terentius, was any of them invested with an office which he had not administered before; several men of bravery and activity being passed by, because, at such a juncture, it was not judged expedient to intrust any person with a new employment.

XXXVI. Augmentations were also made to the armies; but as to the number of additional forces of foot and horse which were raised, writers vary so much, as well as in the kind of troops, that I can scarcely venture to affirm any thing certain on that head. Some authors assert, that ten thousand new soldiers were levied; others four new legions; so that there were eight legions employed: and that the legions were also augmented, both horse and foot; one thousand foot and one hundred horse being added to each, so as to make it contain five thousand foot, and four hundred horse; and that the allies furnished an equal number of foot, and double the number of horse. Some writers affirm, that, at the time of the battle at Cannæ, there were in the Roman camp eighty-seven thousand two hundred soldiers. All agree in this, that greater force, and more vigorous efforts, were now employed than in former years, in consequence of the dictator having afforded them room to hope that the enemy might be vanquished. However, before the new legions began their march from the city, the decemvirs were ordered to go and inspect the books, because people in general were terrified by prodigies of extraordinary kinds: for accounts were received, that, at Rome, on the Aventine, and, at the same time, at Aricia, a shower of stones had fallen; that, in

the country of the Sabines, statues had sweated abundance of blood, and that the warm waters at Cære had flowed bloody from the spring; and this circumstance, having happened frequently, excited therefore the greater terror. In a street, near the field of Mars, several persons had been struck with lightning, and killed. These portents were expiated according to the directions of the books. Ambassadors from Pæstum brought some golden vessels to Rome, and to these, as to the Neapolitans, thanks were returned, but the gold was not accepted.

XXXVII. About the same time arrived at Ostia a fleet, sent by Hiero, with a large supply of provisions. The Syracusan ambassadors, being introduced to the senate, acquainted them, that "King Hiero had been as sincerely afflicted, on hearing of the loss of the consul Caius Flaminius, and his army, as he could have been by any disaster happening to himself, or his own kingdom. Wherefore, though he was fully sensible that the grandeur of the Roman people had shone forth, in times of adversity, with a still more admirable degree of lustre than even in prosperity, yet he had sent such supplies of every sort, for the support of the war, as are usually furnished by good and faithful allies; and he earnestly besought the conscript Fathers not to refuse them. That, in the first place, for the sake of the omen, they had brought a golden statue of Victory, of three hundred and twenty pounds weight, which they prayed them to accept, hold, and possess, as appropriated to them for ever. That they had likewise, in order to guard against any want of provisions, brought three hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and two hundred thousand of barley; and that whatever further supplies might be necessary, should be conveyed to such places as the senate should order. That he knew that the Roman people employed not in the main body of their army, or in the cavalry, any other than Roman citizens, or Latine confederates; yet as he had seen, in a Roman camp,