42.28
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. He did not receive a very favourable
hearing when, in the temple of Bellona, he gave an account of his doings in
Liguria. 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. 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. 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. 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. At the
same sitting the senate decreed that the consul C. Popilius should make a
vow pledging the republic that if it should remain 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
