31.6
This
province fell to P. Sulpicius, and he gave notice that he should propose to
the Assembly that "owing to the lawless actions and armed attacks
committed against the allies of Rome, it is the will and order of the Roman
people that war be proclaimed against Philip, King of Macedonia, and
against his people, the Macedonians." The other consul, Aurelius, received
Italy for his province. Then the praetors balloted for their respective
commands. C. Sergius Plancus drew the City; Q. Fulvius Gillo, Sicily; Q.
Minucius Rufus, Bruttium, and L. Furius, Gaul. The proposed declaration of
war against Macedonia was almost unanimously rejected at the first meeting
of the Assembly. The length and exhausting demands of the late war had
made men weary of fighting and they shrank from incurring further toils and
dangers. One of the tribunes of the plebs, Q. Baebius, too, had adopted the
old plan of abusing the patricians for perpetually sowing the seeds of fresh
wars to prevent the plebeians from ever enjoying any rest. The patricians
were extremely angry and the tribune was bitterly attacked in the senate,
each of the senators in turn urging the consul to call another meeting of the
Assembly to consider the proposal afresh and at the same time to rebuke the
people for their want of spirit and show them what loss and disgrace would
be entailed by the postponement of that war.