30.27
In the
beginning of the following year the consuls M. Servilius and Tiberius
Claudius convened the senate in the Capitol to decide the allocation of the
provinces. As they both wanted Africa they were anxious to ballot for that
province and for Italy. Mainly, however, owing to the efforts of Q. Metellus,
nothing was decided about Africa; the consuls were instructed to arrange
with the tribunes of the plebs for a vote of the people to be taken as to
whom they wished to conduct the war in Africa. The tribes were
unanimously in favour of P. Scipio. In spite of this the senate decreed that
the two consuls should ballot, and Africa was drawn by Ti. Claudius, who
was to take across a fleet of fifty vessels -all quinqueremes -and exercise
the same powers as Scipio. Etruria fell to M. Servilius. C. Servilius who had
held that province had his command extended in case the senate should
require his presence in Rome. The praetors were distributed as follows: M.
Sextius received Gaul and P. Quintilius Varus was to hand over two legions
which he had there; C. Livius was to hold Bruttium with the two legions
which P. Sempronius had commanded there the year before; Cnaeus
Tremellius was sent to Sicily and took over the two legions from P. Villius
Tappulus, the praetor of the previous year; Villius in the capacity of
propraetor was furnished with twenty warships and 1000 men for the
protection of the Sicilian coast; M. Pomponius was to send 1500 men to
Rome in the twenty remaining ships. The City jurisdiction passed into the
hands of C. Aurelius Cotta. The other commands were unchanged. Sixteen
legions were considered sufficient this year for the defence of the dominion
of Rome. In order that all things might be undertaken and carried out with
the favour of the gods, it was decided that before the consuls took the field
they should celebrate the Games and offer the sacrifices which T. Manlius
the Dictator had vowed during the consulship of M. Claudius Marcellus and
T. Quinctius, if the republic should maintain its position unimpaired for five
years. The Games were celebrated in the Circus, the celebration lasting four
days, and the victims vowed to the several deities were duly sacrificed.
