18.
The election of consuls took place: the1 successful candidates were Publius Cornelius Lentulus2 and Marcus Baebius Tamphilus.
[2]
Next the praetors were chosen, two named Quintus Fabius, Maximus and Buteo, Tiberius Claudius Nero, Quintus Petilius Spurinus, Marcus Pinarius Rusca, Lucius Duronius.
When they had been inaugurated, the provinces3 were assigned by lot.
[3]
Liguria was given to the consuls. Among the praetors, the civil jurisdiction was allotted to Quintus Petilius, that between citizens and aliens to Quintus Fabius Maximus, Gaul to Quintus Fabius Buteo, Sicily to Tiberius Claudius Nero, Sardinia to Marcus Pinarius, Apulia to Lucius Duronius;
[4]
the Histrians4 were also added because the news had come from Tarentum and Brundisium that the lands along the coasts were endangered by piracy on the part of the ships from across the sea. The Massilians made the same complaint about the ships of the Ligurians.
[5]
Then the armies were decreed —four legions for the consuls, each to consist of fifty-two hundred Roman infantry, and three hundred cavalry, and fifteen thousand infantry and eight hundred cavalry of the allies of the Latin confederacy.
[6]
In the Spains the imperium of the old praetors was extended, with the armies which they had, and they decreed as reinforcements three thousand Roman citizens and two hundred cavalry and of the allies of the Latin confederacy six thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry. Nor was care for the fleet omitted.5
[7]
[p. 61]The consuls were directed to secure the election of a6 board of two for this purpose, by whom twenty ships, launched from the yards, would be manned by Roman citizens who had been slaves, serving as marines,7 employing free-born citizens only as commanders.
[8]
The defence of the coast was divided between the duumvirs, ten ships being assigned to each, in such a way that the promontory of Minerva8 was, so to speak, the joint9 between them; thence one should defend the right sector as far as Massilia, the other the left as far as Barium.10
1 B.C. 182
2 The Fasti give the cognomen as Cethegus.
3 B.C. 181
4 From xxvi. 2 below it appears that Buteo was in Histria, and from xlii. 1 below that Duronius was in Illyricum later. Livy may be mistaken, or this clause may be misplaced. Cf. Zippel, Die roemische Herrschaft in Illyrium bis auf Augustus (Leipzig, 1877), 81.
5 As usual at the end of a war, the Romans had neglected the fleet after the defeat of Antiochus, and the ships had been docked. In the light of the information received, provision is now made for launching and manning them. While during the recent wars the fleets had been commanded by legati or by praetors, duumviri navales, magistrates chosen only for special occasions, are now named.
6 B.C. 181
7 Roman citizens were not ordinarily assigned to duty at sea.
8 Probably the cape of Sorrento, near Naples.
9 Literally, the pivot or hinge (on which a door would swing), but, in surveying, a limiting boundary or reference point.
10 The modern Bari, on the Adriatic.
Livy. Books XL-XLII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1938: published without copyright notice.
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