39.32
When
the enrolment of troops and the other business which kept the consuls in
Rome was finished, they led the army into Liguria. Sempronius advanced
from Pisae against the Apuani, and after devastating their fields and burning
their villages, opened up the pass leading to the river Macra and the port of
Luna. The enemy took up their position on a mountain range, where their
ancestors had long been settled, and though the approach was extremely
difficult they were driven off. In his good fortune and courage Appius
Claudius was not behind his colleague. He won several victories over the
Ingauni, took six of their towns and many thousands of the inhabitants.
Forty-three of the chief instigators of the war were beheaded. The time for
the elections was now approaching. It fell to Sempronius to conduct them,
but Claudius reached Rome before him, as his brother Publius was standing
for the consulship. The other patrician candidates were L. Aemilius, Q.
Fabius and Ser. Sulpicius Galba. They had been unsuccessful in previous
contests, and they considered that they had all the stronger claim to the
honour because it had been denied them before. Only one consul could be a
patrician, and this lent additional keenness to the contest. The plebeian
candidates were all popular men: L. Porcius, Q. Terentius Culleo and Cnaeus
Baebius Tamphilus, and they, too, had had their hopes of attaining the
distinction deferred by previous defeats. Out of all the candidates, Claudius
was the only new one. It was generally looked upon as a certainty that Q.
Fabius Labeo and L. Porcius Licinius would be the successful candidates.
But Claudius, unattended by his lictors, was bustling about with his brother
in every corner of the Forum, notwithstanding the loud remonstrances of his
opponents and of most of the senators, who told him to bear in mind that he
was the consul of the people of Rome rather than that he was Publius'
brother. "Why," they asked, "did he not take his seat on the tribunal and
show himself as a witness or silent spectator of the proceedings?" In spite of
all, he could not be restrained from his zealous exertions. The elections were
from time to time disturbed by heated quarrels between the tribunes of the
plebs; some were fighting against the consul, and some in his support. At last
Appius succeeded in defeating Fabius and carrying his brother in. Contrary
to his own expectation and everybody else's, P. Claudius Pulcher was elected
consul. L. Porcius Licinius gained his position because he had conducted his
canvass amongst the plebeians in a temper of moderation, not with the
violence of a Claudius. Those who were elected praetors on the following
day were C. Decimius Flavus, P. Sempronius Longus, P. Cornelius
Cethegus, Q. Naevius Matho, C. Sempronius Blaesus and A. Terentius
Varro. These were the main incidents at home and abroad during the
consulship of Appius Claudius and M. Sempronius.