[9] Up to this time the consuls had not left for their province. They did not comply with the desire of the senate to bring up the question of Popilius, and the senators were determined not to make any decrees till this was settled. [2] The feeling against Popilius was intensified by a despatch received from him in which he stated that he had fought another battle with the Statellati and had killed 6000 of them. This iniquitous proceeding of his drove the rest of the Ligurians to arms. [3] Now, however, it was not only the absent Popilius who was attacked in the senate for having, in defiance of all law, human and divine, commenced an aggressive war upon a people who had made their submission; the consuls also were severely censured for not having gone to their province. [4] This attitude of the senate determined two of the tribunes of the plebs-M. Marcius Sermo and Q. Marcius Scylla-to warn the consuls that if they did not go to their province they should impose a fine on them. They also read to the senate the terms of a proposal which they intended to bring forward regarding the treatment of the Ligurians after they had made their submission. [5] It was to the effect that where any of the Statellati who had made their surrender had not been restored to liberty by August 1, the senate should on oath empower a magistrate to seek out and punish the persons through whose criminal act they had passed into slavery. This order, thus sanctioned by the senate, was announced to the Assembly. [6] Before the consuls left the City the senate gave an audience to C. Cicereius in the temple of Bellona. He gave an account. [7] [10] of what he had done in Corsica, but his request for a triumph was refused, and he celebrated his triumph on the Alban Mount, without the sanction of the senate, a thing which had become quite customary. Marcius's proposal about the Ligurians received the hearty assent of the plebs, and was carried. [8] Acting on this plebiscite, C. Licinius consulted the senate as to whom they would choose to conduct the enquiry, and the senators ordered him to conduct it himself.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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