Their wives, children, and all persons above the age of sixty years, they sent away into the neighbouring states of Epirus: while all from fifteen to sixty bound themselves to each other by an oath, to march against the enemy, and not to return home unless victorious; framing a dreadful execration on such of their countrymen as should receive into their city or house, or admit to their table or fire-side, any one who had given way to the foe, or quitted his post in battle. They addressed also a most solemn obtestation, of the same purport, to the states with whom they had an intercourse; beseeching, at the same time, the Epirotes to inter in one common tomb such of their men as should fall in battle, and to fix this epitaph over their graves: HERE LIE THE ACARNANIANS, WHO DIED FIGHTING IN DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY, AGAINST THE VIOLENCE AND INJUSTICE OF THE ATOLIANS. With minds highly inflamed by these and such like means, they encamped in the extreme border of their country, on the side where they expected the enemy; and, by the despatches which they sent to Philip, representing the great danger that threatened them, obliged him to drop the prosecution of the designs in which he was engaged, although Jamphorina had already capitulated, and all his affairs were in a prosperous train. The enterprise intended by the Etolians was postponed, first, on their hearing of the association entered into by the Acarnanians; and, afterwards, on the news of Philip's approach, which made them even draw back into the interior parts of their own country. Philip, however, though he had hastened by long marches to prevent the Acarnanians being overwhelmed, yet did not advance farther than Dios, whence on hearing that the Etolians had retired from Acarnania, he also removed to Pella.

XXVI. Early in the spring Lævinus set sail from Corcy. ra, and, doubling the cape of Leucate, came to Naupactum, whence he sent notice, that he was proceeding to Anticyra in order that Scopas and the Ætolians might be there to join him. Antyra stands in Locris, on the left hand on entering

the Corinthian Gulf, and the march thither by land is short, as is the passage by sea, from Naupactum. In about three days after this, the siege of that town was commenced by the combined forces; but the attack on the side next the sea was the more difficult to be withstood, because there were on board the fleet engines and machines of every sort; and besides, the assailants were Romans. In a few days, therefore, the city capitulated, and was given up to the Etolians. The spoil, according to compact, fell to the Romans. Here Lævinus received a letter, acquainting him that he had been declared consul in his absence, and that Publius Sulpicius was coming to succeed him in the command of the fleet. But he was siezed by a tedious sickness, which delayed his return to Rome longer than any one wished. Mar- Y. R. 542. cus Marcellus, entering on the consulship on the B. C. 210. ides of March, held, on the same day, a meeting of the senate, merely for form's sake, for he declared, that "he would introduce nothing respecting the state of the commonwealth, or the distribution of the provinces, in the absence of his colleague. That he understood that there were great numbers of Sicilians in the neighbourhood of the city, at the country houses of persons who wished to depreciate his character; and so far was he from hindering an open publication of the charges fabricated and circulated by his enemies, that he would have given them instantly an opportunity of laying such charges before the senate; were it not that they pretended some kind of fear to speak of a consul in the absence of his colleague. That, however, when Lævinus arrived, he would certainly suffer no business to be transacted before the Sicilians were introduced to an audience of the senate. That Marcus Cornelius had made a kind of levy through all Sicily, for the purpose of sending to Rome the greater number of complaints against him; and that the same person with a view to injure his reputation had, by his letters, filled the city with false representations VOL. III.-Z z

of war still subsisting in Sicily." The consul's behaviour on that day made people conceive a good opinion of the moderation of his temper. He then adjourned the senate, and it was expected that there would be almost a total suspension of every kind of business until the return of the other consul. Want of employment, as usual, gave occasion to various murmurs against the populace: they made great complaint of" the length of the war; of the devastation of the country by Hannibal on all sides of the city; of Italy being exhausted by levies of men, and of the loss of armies happening almost every year; of consuls being now elected, who, both of them, had a passion for war; men too enterprising and daring, who, in a time of profound peace, were capable of exciting quarrels, and therefore there was the less reason to expect that, during the actual existence of hostilities. they would allow the public time to breathe."

XXVII. These discourses were interrupted by a fire which broke out near the Forum, in the night preceding the festival of Minerva. Seven shops, where five were afterwards built, and the banking-houses, which are now called the New Banks, were in flames in several places at once. Next the private buildings were consumed (for the public halls were not then there,) with the prison, called the Quarry, and the fish-market, also the old palace of king Numa. With difficulty the temple of Vesta was saved, principally by the activity of thirteen slaves, who were afterwards purchased for the public, and discharged from servitude. The fire raged during a night and a day. There was no doubt of its being caused by human means, the flames blazing out at the same moment, and at considerable distances. The consul therefore, by direction of the senate, published a proclamation, that whoever discovered the persons that had occasioned the same, such discoverer should receive as a reward, if a freeman, a sum of money, if a slave, his liberty. Induced by this, a slave belonging to the Campanian family of the Calivii, by name Mannus, gave information, that "his masters, and five other

young Campanian noblemen, whose parents had been beheaded by Quintus Fulvius, were the perpetrators of the deed, and that they would effect the like destruction in various places, if they were not put into confinement." On this they were taken into custody, as were also their slaves. At first they spoke with scorn of the informer and his discovery: they said" he had run away from his masters, in consequence of having been chastised the day before with a whipping; and, in a fit of resentment and folly, had forged this charge, on the ground of an event merely accidental." But, when they were brought face to face with their accuser, and the instruments of their villany began to be examined by torture in the middle of the Forum, they all confessed their guilt; and the masters and their slaves who were privy to the design were punished as they deserved. The informer received his liberty and twenty thousand asses. The consul Lævinus, as he passed by Capua, was surrounded by a multitude of the Campanians, who besought him, with tears, to give them permission to go to Rome, there to entreat the senate to suffer themselves to be moved, at length, with compassion; and not to carry resentment so far as to their utter ruin, nor to let the whole race of Campanians, be extirpated by Quintus Flaccus. Flaccus declared, that " he had no personal quarrel whatsoever with the Campanians; a public and hostile enmity towards them he certainly had, and should retain as long as he knew them to harbour the same sentiments towards the Roman people. There was not on earth," he said," any race, or any state, that bore a more inveterate hatred to the Roman name. The reason of his keeping them confined within the walls was, that when any of them contrived to get out they roamed about the country like wild beasts, tearing and slaying whatever fell in their way. Some had fled to join Hannibal, others had gone to set Rome on fire, and the consul would find, in the half-burnt Forum, the traces of Campanian villany. An attempt had been made

*641. 11s. 8d.

even on the temple of Vesta, on the sacred fire, and the fatal pledge of the Roman empire deposited in her shrine. For his part, he could by no means think it safe to allow the Campanians to enter the walls of Rome." Lævinus, however, ordered the Campanians to follow him thither; having first made them bind themselves by an oath to Flaccus, to return to Capua on the fifth day after receiving an answer from the senate. Surrounded by this train, and followed also by the Sicilians and Ætolians, who came out to meet him he proceeded to Rome, bringing into the city, as accusers of two men, whose characters had been rendered illustrious by the conquest of two very celebrated cities, the parties whom they had vanquished in war. However both the consuls proposed, first, to the consideration of the senate, the state of the commonwealth, and the disposal of the provinces.

XXVIII. Lævinus then made a report of the state of Macedonia and Greece, of the Etolians, Acarnanians, and Locrians; and of the services which he himself had performed there, on land and sea; acquainting them, that " Philip, who came with an army against the Etolians, had been driven back by him into Macedonia, and had retired into the interior parts of his kingdom; and that the legion might be brought home from thence, the fleet being sufficient to prevent any attempt of the king upon Italy." This part of the business which respected himself, and the province where he had commanded, he went through alone: the questions relative to the distribution of the provinces were put by both consuls jointly. The senate decreed, that " Italy, and the war with Hannibal, should be the province of one of the consuls; that the other should have the command of the fleet lately under that of Titus Otacilius; and, in conjunction with

*This was the famous Palladium, said to have been brought by Æneas from Troy, and preserved, with most religious care, in the temple of Vesta. What it was, (so sacredly was it kept from the public eye,) no one ever certainly knew: supposing it however, to have resembled the one stolen by Diomede and Ulysses, as mentioned by Sinon in the Enead, then it must have been an image of Minerva, armed.