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War was to be waged against Aristonicus in the consulship of Publius Licinius and
Lucius. Valerius. The people consulted as to whom it wished to have the
management of that war. Crassus, the consul and Pontifex Maximus, threatened to
impose a fine upon Flaccus his colleague, the priest of Mars, if he deserted the
sacrifices. And though the people remitted the fine, still they ordered the
priest to submit to the commands of the pontiff. But even then the Roman people
did not commit the management of the war to a private individual; although there
was Africanus, who the year before had celebrated a triumph over the people of
Numantia; and who was far superior
to all men in martial renown and military skill; yet he only gained the votes of
two tribunes. And accordingly the Roman people entrusted the management of the
war to Crassus the consul rather than to the private individual Africanus. As to
the commands given to Cnaeus Pompeius, that most illustrious man, that first of
men, they were carried by some turbulent tribunes of the people. For the war
against Sertorius was only given by the senate to a private individual because
the consuls refused it; when Lucius Philippus said that he sent the general in
the place of the two consuls, not as proconsul.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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