Otacilius and Marcus Æmilius Regillus consuls, Quintus Fabius commanded silence, and spoke to this effect:

8. "If either we had peace in Italy, or had to deal with such an enemy as would allow of any remissness on our side, I should deem that man deficient in proper respect to your independent rights, who attempted to throw any obstacle in the way of those inclinations which you bring with you into the field of election, with the purpose of conferring the high offices of the state on persons of your own choice. But when you consider that the present war is of such a nature, and the conduct of our present enemy such that none of our commanders has ever committed an error which has not been followed by most disastrous consequences, it behooves you to come hither to give your suffrages with the same careful circumspection with which you go out in arms to the field of battle; and every one ought to say to himself: 'I am to nominate a consul qualified to vie with Hannibal in the art of war.' In the present year, at Capua, on the challenge of Jubellius Taurea, the completest horseman among the Campanians, we sent against him Claudius Asellus, the completest horseman among the Romans. Against a Gaul, who at a former time pronounced a challenge on the bridge of the Anio, our ancestors sent Titus Manlius, a man abundantly furnished both with strength and courage. I cannot deny that there was the same reason for placing every degree of confidence, a few years after, in Marcus Valerius, when he took arms for the combat against a Gaul who gave a similar defiance. Now as, in selecting foot-soldiers and horsemen, we endeavour to find such as are superior, or, if that cannot be effected, equal in strength to their antagonists, let us in like manner look out for a commander equal to the general of the enemy. When we shall have chosen the man of the most consummate abilities in the nation, yet still, being elected at the moment, and appointed but for one year, he will be matched against another invested with a command of long and uninterrupted continuance, not confined by any narrow limitations either of time or of authority, or which might hinder him to conduct and execute every measure according to the exigences of the war; whereas with us, before we have well completed our preparatory operations, and when we are just entering on business, our year expires. I need say no more concerning the qualifications of the persons whom you ought to elect consuls; I shall therefore only add a few observations respecting those whom the prerogative century has made the objects of its favour. Marcus Æmilius Regillus is flamen of Quirinus, consequently we could neither send him abroad from his sacred employment, nor keep him at home, without neglecting, in one case the business of

the war, or in the other, that of religion. Otacilius is married to a daughter of my sister, and has children by her. Nevertheless, I am too sensible of the obligations which I and my ancestors owe to your kindness, not to prefer the interest of the public to that of any private connexions. In a calm sea any mariner, even a passenger, can steer the vessel; but when a furious storm arises, putting the sea into violent agitation, and the ship is hurried away by the tempest, then a pilot of skill and resolution becomes necessary. We sail not in a calm, but have already been very near foundering in several storms; you must therefore be careful to use the utmost prudence and caution with respect to the person whom you place at the helm. Titus Otacilius, we have had a trial of you in a less important business: you gave us no proof that we ought to confide in you for the management of affairs of greater moment. We fitted out this year a fleet, of which you had the command, for three purposes; to rav age the coast of Africa, to secure our own coasts of Italy, and, principally, to prevent reinforcements with money and provisions being transmitted from Carthage to Hannibal. If he has performed for the public, I do not say all, but any one of these services, create Titus Otacilius consul: but if, on the contrary, while you held the command of the fleet, every thing came to Hannibal safe and untouched, as if he had no enemy on the sea; if the coast of Italy has been more infested this year than that of Africa; what reason can you offer why people should pitch on you in particular to oppose such a commander as Hannibal? If you were consul, we should judge it requisite to have a dictator nominated according to the practice of our forefathers: nor could you take offence at its being thought that there was, in the Roman nation, some one superior to you in the art of war. It concerns no man's interest more than your own, Titus Otacilius, that there be not laid on your shoulders a burden under which you would sink. I earnestly recommend then, Romans, that, guided by the same sentiments which would influence you, if, while you stood armed for battle, you were suddenly called on to choose two commanders, under whose conduct and auspices you were to fight, you would proceed this day in the election of consuls, to whom your children are to swear obedience, at whose order they are to join the colours, and under whose care and direction they are to wage war. lake Thrasymenus and Cannæ, examples melancholy in the recollection, are nevertheless useful warnings to guard against the like. Crier, call back the younger Anien century to vote."

The

9. Otacilius, now exclaiming with great heat that the design of Fabius was to be continued in the consulship, and

becoming very obstreperous, the consul ordered his lictors to advance to him; and, as he had not entered the city, but had gone directly, without halting, into the field of Mars, he put him in mind that the axes were carried in his fasces. The prerogative century proceeded a second time to vote, and chose consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus, a fourth time, and Marcus Marcellus, a third time. The other centuries, without any variation, named the same. One pretor was likewise re-elected, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. The other three chosen were new ones, Titus Otacilius Crassus, a second time, Quintus Fabius, the consul's son, who was at the time curule edile, and Publius Cornelius Lentulus. The election of pretors being over, a decree of the senate was passed, that "Rome should, out of course, be the province of Quintus Fulvius; and that he in particular should hold the command in the city, when the consuls should go abroad to the campaign." Twice in this year happened great floods, and the Tiber overflowed the country, with great demolition of houses and destruction of men and cattle. In the fifth year of the second Punic war [A. U. C. 538. B. C. 214] Quintus Fabius Maximus, a fourth, and Marcus Marcellus, a third time, entering together into the consulship, attracted the notice of the public in an unusual degree; for during many years there had not been two such consuls. The old men observed that thus had Maximus Rullus and Publius Decius been declared consuls, in the time of the Gallic war; and thus, afterward, Papirius and Carvilius, against the Samnites, Bruttians, Lucanians, and Tarentines. Marcellus was chosen consul in his absence, being at the time with the army, and the office was continued to Fabius, who was on the spot, and presided in person at the election. The state of the times, the exigences of the war, and the danger threatening the very being of the state, hindered the people from examining the precedent strictly, neither did they suspect the consul of ambition for command; on the contrary, they rather applauded his greatness of soul, because, knowing that the state stood in need of a general of the highest abili ties, and that he himself was unquestionably the person so qualified, he had made light of any public censure which he might incur on the occasion, in comparison with the interest of the commonwealth.

10. On the day of the consuls' entering on their office, a meeting of the senate was held in the capitol, in which it was decreed, first, that the consuls should cast lots, or settle be tween themselves, which of them should, before his setting out for the army, hold the assembly for the appointment of censors. Then all those who were at the head of armies were continued in authority, and ordered to remain in the

provinces: Tiberius Gracchus at Luceria, where he was with an army of volunteer slaves: Caius Terentius Varro in the Picenian, and Manius Pomponius in the Gallic territories. Of the pretors of the preceding year, Quintus Mucius was ordered in quality of propretor to hold the government of Sardinia, and Marcus Valerius to command on the seacoast near Brundusium, watching attentively, and guarding against any motion which might be made by Philip king of Macedonia. To Publius Cornelius Lentulus the province of Sicily was decreed, and to Titus Otacilius the same fleet which he had commanded the year before against the Carthaginians. Numerous prodigies were reported to have happened this year; and the more these were credited by simple and superstitious people, the more such stories multiplied: that at Lanuvium crows had built their nest in the inside of the temple of Juno Sospita; in Apulia, a green palm-tree took fire; at Mantua, a stagnating piece of water, caused by the overflowing of the river Mincius, appeared as of blood; at Cales, a shower of chalk; and, in the cattlemarket at Rome, one of blood fell in the Istrian street; a fountain under ground burst out in such an impetuous stream, as to roll and carry off jars and casks which were in the place, like a violent flood; lightning fell on the public courthouse in the capitol, the temple of Vulcan in the field of Mars, a nut-tree in the country of the Sabines, and a public road, a wall, and a gate at Gabii. Other stories of miracles were already spread about; that the spear of Mars at Præneste moved forward of its own accord; that an ox spoke in Sicily; that an infant in a mother's womb, in the country of the Marucinians, had called out, "Io, Triumphe !" at Spoletum a woman was transferred into a man, and at Adria an altar was seen in the sky, and around it figures of men in white garments. Nay, even in the city of Rome itself, besides a swarm of bees being seen in the forum, several persons, affirming that they saw armed legions on the Janiculum, roused the citizens to arms; when those who were at the time on the Janiculum asserted that no person had appeared there except the usual inhabitants of that hill. These prodigies were expiated, conformably to the answers of the aruspices, by victims of the greater kinds, and supplication was ordered to be performed to all the deities who had

shrines at Rome.

11. Having finished the ceremonies enjoined for conciliating the favour of the gods, the consuls proposed to the senate to take into consideration the state of the nation, the management of the war, the number of forces to be employed, and the places where the several divisions were to act. It was resolved that eighteen legions should be employed

against the enemy; that each of the consuls take two to himself; two should be employed in the defence of the provinces of Gaul, Sicily, and Sardinia; that Quintus Fabius, pretor, should have two under his command in Apulia, and Tiberius Gracchus two of volunteer slaves in the country about Luceria; that one should be left to Caius Terentius, proconsul for Picenum, one to Marcus Valerius for the fleet at Brundusium, and that two should garrison the city. In order to fill up this number of legions, it was necessary to levy six new ones, which the consuls were ordered to raise as soon as possible; and, at the same time, to fit out an additional number of ships; so that, including those which were stationed on the coasts of Calabria, the fleet should this year consist of a hundred and fifty ships of war. The levy being finished, and the new vessels launched, Quintus Fabius held an assembly for the appointment of censors, when Marcus Atilius Regulus and Publius Furius Philus were elected. A rumour spreading that war had broke out in Sicily, Titus Otacilius was ordered to proceed thither with his fleet; and there being a scarcity of seamen, the consuls, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, published a proclamation that every person, who in the censorship of Lucius Æmilius and Caius Flaminius had been rated, or whose father had been rated, at fifty thousand asses of brass,* or, from that sum, up to one hundred thousand,t or had since acquired such a property, should furnish one seaman with pay for six months; every one rated from a hundred thousand, up to three hundred thousand, three seamen, with pay for a year; every one rated from three hundred thousand, up to one million,|| five seamen; every one rated higher, seven; and that senators should provide eight seamen each, with pay for a year. The seamen furnished in obedience to this ordinance being armed and equipped by their owners, went on board the ships, with provisions ready dressed for thirty days. This was the first instance of a Roman fleet being manned at the expense of private persons.

12. These preparations, so unusually great, raised fears among the Campanians in particular, lest the Romans should begin the campaign with the siege of Capua. They sent ambassadors therefore to Hannibal, entreating him to march his army to that place: acquainting him that "the Romans were raising new armies for the purpose of laying siege to it, for there was no city against which they were more highly incensed for having deserted their party." As this message, and the manner in which it was delivered, intimated