34.56
The
consuls were not looking forward to any war during their year of office,
when a despatch arrived from M. Cincius, the commandant of Pisae,
announcing a rising in Liguria. Warlike resolutions had been passed in all the
councils of the nation, and 20,000 Ligurians were now in arms. They had
ravaged the country round Luna, and after crossing the frontiers of Pisae had
traversed the whole length of the coast. Minucius, to whom the province of
Liguria had been allotted, acting on the instructions of the senate, mounted
the Rostra and issued an edict for the two City legions which had been
enrolled the year before to muster in ten days' time at Arretium, their place
would be taken by two legions which he was going to raise. He also notified
the magistrates and officers of those Latin and allied communities which
were bound to furnish troops that they should attend upon him in the
Capitol. Here he arranged with them what contingent each city should
supply in proportion to the number of men they had of military age, the total
being fixed at 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry. They were then instructed to
start for home at once and raise their troops without a moment's delay.
Fulvius and Flaminius were each reinforced with Roman troops to the
number of 3000 infantry and 100 cavalry and also 5000 infantry and 200
cavalry furnished by the Latins and allies, and the praetors were ordered to
disband the old soldiers as soon as they arrived in their provinces. Large
numbers of the soldiers in the City legions urged the tribunes of the plebs to
investigate the cases of the men who pleaded either length of service or
ill-health as reasons why they should not be called up. This matter was quite
thrown aside by a despatch from Tiberius Sempronius, in which he stated
that a body of 10,000 Ligurians had appeared in the neighbourhood of
Placentia and had wasted the country with fire and sword up to the very
walls of the colony and the banks of the Po, and the Boii also were
contemplating a revival of hostilities.
In view of this announcement the senate decreed that a state of
emergency had arisen, and that they disapproved of the tribunes investigating
the soldiers' grievance and so preventing them from assembling in obedience
to the edict. They further ordered that the men of the allied contingents who
had served under P. Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius and had been
disbanded by them should reassemble on the day which L. Cornelius named
and in whatever place in Etruria he notified to them. Whilst on his way to his
province the consul was to enlist and arm and take with him whatever men
he thought fit in the towns and country districts through which he passed,
and he was empowered to disband any of them whenever he wanted to do
so.