Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 40
William A. McDevitte, Sen. Class. Mod. Ex. Schol. A.B.T.C.D., Ed.

37. [49] [48] [47] [46] [45] [44] [43] [42] [41] [40] [39] [38] [37] [36] [35] [34] [33] [32] [31] [30] [29] [28] [27] [26] [25] [24] [23] [22] [21] [20] [19] [18] [17] [16] [15] [14] [13] [12] [11] [10] Tiberius Minucius, the praetor, died of this malady; and soon after, Caius Calpurnius, the consul; also many illus- [p. 1894]trious men of all ranks; so that at last this calamity began to be considered as a prodigy. [2] Caius Servilius, chief pontiff, was ordered to find out proper atonements for the wrath of the gods; the decemvirs to inspect the books, and the consul to vow offerings, and to present gilded statues, to Apollo, Aesculapius, and Health; which he vowed and gave. [3] The decemvirs proclaimed, on account of the sickness, a supplication of two days in the city, and in all the market-towns and villages; all persons above the age of twelve years offered the supplication, with garlands on their heads, and holding laurels in their hands. [4] There had, also, crept into people's minds a suspicion of human villany in regard to it, whereupon Caius Claudius, the proctor, who had been substituted in the room of Tiberius Minucius, was commissioned by a decree of the senate, to make inquisition concerning acts of poisoning committed in the city, or within ten miles of it; and Caius Maenius was ordered to do the same, before he passed over to his province, Sardinia, in the market-towns and villages beyond the tenth stone. [5] The death of the consul was most suspected. [6] It was reported that he had been murdered by his wife, Quarta Hostilia; and when her son, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was proclaimed consul in the room of his stepfather, the death of Piso began to excite much more suspicion; for witnesses appeared, who testified, that, after Albinus and Piso were declared consuls, in which election Flaccus had suffered a disappointment, his mother upbraided him with being refused the consulship a third time, and then desired him to make ready to stand candidate again, saying, “she would take such measures that within two months he should be made consul.” [7] This expression verified by the event, which was but too real, joined to many other evidences of the same tendency, appeared such strong proof, that Hostilia was condemned. [8] In the spring of this year, the levies detained the new consuls at Rome; while the death of one of them, and the holding of the assembly to substitute another in his place, occasioned still further delays. [9] In the mean time Publius Cornelius and Marcus Baebius, who, in their consulate, had done nothing worth mention, led their troops into the country of the Apuan Ligurians.