Towards the end of the year the consul C. Popilius returned to Rome much later than the senate considered he ought to have done, in view of the urgency of electing fresh magistrates and the imminence of such a serious war. [2] He did not receive a very favourable hearing when, in the temple of Bellona, he gave an account of his doings in Liguria. [3] There were frequent interruptions and questions as to why he had not restored the Ligurians to liberty after his brother's iniquitous treatment of them. [4] Notice of the consular elections was duly given, and they were held February 18. The new consuls were P. Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus. [5] The praetors elected on the following day were C. Sulpicius Galba, L. Furius Philus, L. Canuleius Dives, C. Lucretius Gallus, C. Caninius Rebilus, and L. Villius Annalis. The provinces assigned to these praetors were the two jurisdictions in Rome, civic and alien, Spain, Sicily and Sardinia, and one praetor was exempted from the ballot, to be employed as the senate should decide. [6] The senate ordered the consuls elect to offer due sacrifices of the larger victims, with prayers that the war, which it was in the mind of the Roman people to wage, should have a prosperous issue. [7] At the same sitting the senate decreed that the consul C. Popilius should make a vow pledging the republic that if it should remain [8??] without loss or change for ten years, Games should be held in honour of Jupiter Optimus Maximus for ten days and offerings made at all the shrines. [9] In accordance with this decree the consul made a vow in the Capitol that the Games should take place and the offerings be made at all the shrines, at such a cost as the senate should determine in a session at which not less than 150 were present. Lepidus, the Pontifex Maximus, dictated the words of the vow. [10] Two members of the State priesthood died this year-L. Aemilius Papus, a Keeper of the Sacred Books, and the pontiff Q. Fulvius Flaccus, who had been censor the year before. He met with a tragic death. [11] His two sons were serving in Illyria, and he received intelligence that one had died and that the other was dangerously ill. Between grief and anxiety his mind gave way; the slaves, on entering his room in the morning, found that he had hanged himself. [12] He was considered to be out of his mind at the close of his censorship, and there was a general belief that he had been driven mad by Juno Lacinia, in her anger at his spoliation of her temple. [13] M. Valerius Messala was appointed Keeper of the Sacred Books in place of Aemilius, and C. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a young man, was chosen to succeed Fulvius as pontiff.
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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