35.21
The
praetors Fulvius and Scribonius, whose department was the administration of
justice, were charged with the task of fitting out 100 quinqueremes in
addition to the fleet which Atilius was to command. Before the consul and
the praetors left to take up their appointments solemn intercessions were
made on account of various portents. A report came from Picenum that a
she-goat had produced six kids at one birth; at Arretium a boy had been born
with only one hand; at Amiternum there was a shower of earth; at Formiae
the wall and one of the gates were struck with lightning. But the most
appalling report was that an ox belonging to Cn. Domitius had uttered the
words "Roma, cave tibi" ("Rome, be on thy guard!"). With respect to the
other portents public supplications were offered up, but in the case of the ox
the haruspices ordered it to be carefully kept and fed. The flooded Tiber
made a more serious attack upon the City than in the previous year and
destroyed two bridges and numerous buildings, most of them in the
neighbourhood of the Porta Flumentana. A huge mass of rock, undermined
either by the heavy rains or by an earthquake not felt at the time, fell from
the Capitol into the Vicus Jugarius and crushed a number of people. In the
country districts cattle and sheep were carried off by the floods in all
directions and many farmhouses were laid in ruins. Before the consul L.
Quinctius reached his province Q. Minucius fought a pitched battle with the
Ligurians near Pisae. He killed 9000 of the enemy and drove the rest in flight
to their camp, which was attacked and defended with furious fighting until
nightfall. During the night the Ligurians stole away in silence, and at
daybreak the Romans entered the deserted camp. They found less plunder
than might have been expected, as the Ligurians made a practice of sending
what they seized in the fields to their homes. After this Minucius gave them
no respite; advancing from Pisae he laid waste their fortified villages and
homesteads, and the Roman soldiers loaded themselves with the plunder
which the Ligurians had carried off from Etruria and sent to their homes.
