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[11]
Indeed, with what vigilance, with what skill
he recaptured Tarentum! It was in my own hearing
that Salinator,1 who had fled to the citadel after
[p. 21]
losing the town, remarked to him in a boasting
tone: “Through my instrumentality, Q. Fabius, you
have recaptured Tarentum.” “Undoubtedly,” said
Fabius, laughing, “for if you had not lost it I should
never have recaptured it.” But, indeed, he was not
more distinguished in war than in civil life. While
consul the second time, unaided by his colleague
Spurius Carvilius he, as far as he could, opposed
the people's tribune Gaius Flaminius who was
endeavouring to parcel out the Picene and Gallic
lands,2 contrary to the expressed will of the senate.
And, although an augur, he dared to say that whatever was done for the safety of the Republic was
done under the best auspices, and that whatever
was inimical to the Republic was against the auspices.
1 Cicero blunders here, for it was M. Livius Macatus, a relation of Salinator, who held the citadel, Livy xxvii. 34. 7.
2 Gaius Flaminius was popular tribune in 232 B.C. when this law was enacted. It provided for the settlement of citizen farmers on public lands, and resembled somewhat the American homestead laws. Cicero gives the date here as in the second consulship of Q. Fabius Maximus, i.e. 228 B.C.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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