21.63
One of
the consuls elect was C. Flaminius, and to him was assigned by lot the
command of the legions at Placentia. He wrote to the consul giving orders
for the army to be in camp at Ariminum by the 15th of March. The reason
was that he might enter upon his office there, for he had not forgotten his old
quarrels with the senate, first as tribune of the people, then afterwards about
his consulship, the election to which had been declared illegal, and finally
about his triumph. He further embittered the senate against him by his
support of C. Claudius; he alone of all the members was in favour of the
measure which that tribune introduced. Under its provisions no senator, no
one whose father had been a senator, was allowed to possess a vessel of
more than 300 amphorae burden. This was considered quite large enough for
the conveyance of produce from their estates, all profit made by trading was
regarded as dishonourable for the patricians. The question excited the
keenest opposition and brought Flaminius into the worst possible odium with
the nobility through his support of it, but on the other hand made him a
popular favourite and procured for him his second consulship. Suspecting,
therefore, that they would endeavour to detain him in the City by various
devices, such as falsifying the auspices or the delay necessitated by the Latin
Festival, or other hindrances to which as consul he was liable, he gave out
that he had to take a journey, and then left the City secretly as a private
individual and so reached his province. When this got abroad there was a
fresh outburst of indignation on the part of the incensed senate; they
declared that he was carrying on war not only with the senate but even with
the immortal gods. "On the former occasion," they said, "when he was
elected consul against the auspices and we recalled him from the very field of
battle, he was disobedient to gods and men. Now he is conscious that he has
despised them and has fled from the Capitol and the customary recital of
solemn vows. He refuses to approach the temple of Jupiter Optimus
Maximus on the day of his entrance upon office, to see and consult the
senate, to whom he is so odious and whom he alone of all men detests, to
proclaim the Latin Festival and offer sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban
Mount, to proceed to the Capitol and after duly taking the auspices recite
the prescribed vows, and from thence, vested in the paludamentum and
escorted by lictors, go in state to his province. He has stolen away furtively
without his insignia of office, without his lictors, just as though he were
some menial employed in the camp and had quitted his native soil to go into
exile. He thinks it, forsooth, more consonant with the greatness of his office
to enter upon it at Ariminum rather than in Rome, and to put on his official
dress in some wayside inn rather than at his own hearth and in the presence
of his own household gods." It was unanimously decided that he should be
recalled, brought back if need be by force, and compelled to discharge, on
the spot, all the duties he owed to God and man before he went to the army
and to his province. Q. Terentius and M. Antistius were delegated for this
task, but they had no more influence with him than the despatch of the
senate in his former consulship. A few days afterwards he entered upon
office, and whilst offering his sacrifice, the calf, after it was struck, bounded
away out of the hands of the sacrificing priests and bespattered many of the
bystanders with its blood. Amongst those at a distance from the altar who
did not know what the commotion was about there was great excitement;
most people regarded it as a most alarming omen. Flaminius took over the
two legions from Sempronius, the late consul, and the two from C. Atilius,
the praetor, and commenced his march to Etruria through the passes of the
Apennines.
End of Book 21
