40.18
The
new consuls were M. Baebius Tamphilus and P. Cornelius Lentulus. Liguria
was assigned as their province. The assignment of provinces to the new
praetors was as follows: The civic jurisdiction fell to Q. Petilius, the alien to
Q. Fabius Maximus; Gaul to Q. Fabius Buteo; Sicily to Tiberius Claudius
Nero; Sardinia to M. Pinarius; Apulia to L. Duronius, who was also to
command in Histria, because news was received from Tarentum and
Brundisium that the fields on the coast were being plundered by pirates from
overseas. The same complaint was made by Marseilles about the ships of the
Ligurians. The military requirements were then determined. Four legions
were assigned to the consuls, each consisting of 5200 Roman infantry and
300 cavalry, and also 15,000 infantry to be drawn from the Latin allies and
800 cavalry. The former praetors remained in Spain with the armies they
had, and reinforcements were sent to them of 3000 Roman citizens and 200
cavalry, together with 6000 allied infantry and 300 cavalry. Naval affairs
were not lost sight of. The consuls appointed two officers to man twenty
ships with crews of Roman citizens who had the status of freedmen, the
officers alone being freeborn citizens. These two officers were responsible
for the defence of the coast, each commanding ten ships, and their spheres of
action were separated by the promontory of Minerva, which formed the
centre of the defence; the operations of the one extending from that point
westward to Marseilles; those of the other, south and east as far as Barium.
