38.36
In the
case of the armies abroad it was settled that the legions in Gaul which had
been under C. Laelius should be transferred to the propraetor M. Tuccius for
service in Bruttium. The army in Sicily was to be disbanded, and the fleet
lying there M. Sempronius the propraetor was to bring back to Rome. It was
decreed that the legion stationed in each of the two Spanish provinces should
remain there, and the praetors were each to take with them 3000 infantry
and 200 cavalry drawn from the allies as reinforcements. Before the new
magistrates left for their provinces, special intercessions for three days were
ordered on the authority of the Keepers of the Sacred Books to be offered at
all the cross-roads owing to a darkness which came over in broad daylight
between the third and fourth hours. Sacrifices were also enjoined for nine
days in consequence of a shower of stones on the Aventine. The Campanians
had been obliged by a decree of the senate passed the year before to have
their census taken in Rome as it had previously been uncertain where they
ought to be enrolled. They now requested that they might be allowed to
marry women who were Roman citizenesses, and that any who had already
done so might hold themselves to be lawfully married, and that children
already born might be regarded as legitimate and capable of inheriting
property. Both requests were granted. One of the tribunes of the plebs, C.
Valerius Tappo, brought forward a proposal granting the full franchise to the
citizens of the municipal boroughs of Formiae, Fundi and Arpinum. They had
hitherto enjoyed the citizenship without the power of voting. This motion
was opposed by four of the tribunes on the ground that it had not received
the sanction of the senate, but on being informed that it rested with the
people and not the senate to confer the franchise on whom they chose, they
abandoned their opposition. The citizens of Formiae and Fundi were
authorised to vote in the Aemilian tribe, and those of Arpinum in the
Cornelian. In these tribes, therefore, they were for the first time enrolled by
virtue of the plebiscite, passed on the motion of Valerius. The censor M.
Claudius Marcellus, to whom the ballot gave precedence over T. Quinctius,
closed the lustrum. The census gave the number of citizens as 258,318. After
these matters were settled the consuls left for their provinces.
