27.5
On
receiving his letter of recall the consul M. Valerius handed over the army and
the administration of the province to the praetor Cincius, and gave
instructions to M. Valerius Messala, the commander of the fleet, to sail with
a part of his force to Africa and harry the coast and at the same time find out
what he could about the plans and preparations of Carthage. Then he left
with ten vessels for Rome, which he reached after a good voyage.
Immediately on his arrival he summoned a meeting of the senate and laid
before them a report of his administration. For nearly sixty years, he said,
Sicily had been the scene of war both by land and sea, and the Romans had
suffered many serious defeats there. Now he had completely reduced the
province, there was not a Carthaginian in the island, nor was there a single
Sicilian amongst those who had been driven away who had not now
returned. They had all been repatriated, and were settled in their own cities
and ploughing their own fields. Once more the desolated land was under
tillage, the land which enriched its cultivators with its produce and formed an
unfailing bulwark against scarcity for Rome in times of war and peace, alike.
When the consul had addressed the senate, Muttines and others who had
done good service to Rome were introduced, and the promises which the
consul had made were redeemed by the bestowal of honours and rewards
upon them. A resolution was carried in the Assembly, with the sanction of
the senate, conferring the full Roman citizenship on Muttines. M. Valerius,
meanwhile, having reached the African shore with his fifty ships before
daybreak, made a sudden descent on the territory of Utica. Extending his
depredations far and wide he secured plunder of every kind including a large
number of prisoners. With these spoils he returned to his ships and sailed
back to Sicily, entering the port of Lilybaeum, within a fortnight of his
departure. The prisoners were subjected to a close examination, and the
following facts were elicited and duly forwarded to Laevinus that he might
understand the position in Africa: 5000 Numidians were at Carthage with
Gala's son, Masinissa, a young man of great energy and enterprise; other
mercenary troops were being raised throughout Africa to be sent over to
Spain to reinforce Hasdrubal, so that he might have as large a force as
possible with which to cross over into Italy and join his brother, Hannibal.
The Carthaginians, believed that in adopting this plan they were sure of
victory. In addition to these preparations an immense fleet was being fitted
out to recover Sicily, and it was expected to appear off the island in a short
time.
The consul communicated this intelligence to the senate, and they
were so impressed by its importance that they thought the consul ought not
to wait for the elections, but return at once to his province after naming a
Dictator to preside over the elections. Matters were delayed somewhat by
the debate which followed. The consul said that when he reached Sicily he
would nominate M. Valerius Messalla, who was at that time commanding
the fleet, as Dictator; the senators on the other hand asserted that no one
who was outside Roman soil, i.e., who was beyond the frontiers of Italy,
could be nominated Dictator: M. Lucretius, one of the tribunes of the plebs,
took the sense of the House upon the question, and the senate made a
decree, requiring the consul, previously to his departure from the City, to put
the question to the people, whom they wished to have nominated Dictator,
and then to nominate the man whom the people had chosen. If the consul
declined to do this, then the praetor was to put the question, and if he
refused, then the tribunes were to bring the matter before the people. As the
consul refused to submit to the people what was within his own rights, and
had inhibited the praetor from doing so either, it fell to the tribunes to put
the question, and the plebs resolved that Q. Fulvius, who was then at Capua,
should be nominated. But the day before the Assembly met, the consul left
secretly in the night for Sicily, and the senate, thus left in the lurch, ordered a
despatch to be sent to Marcellus, urging him to come to the aid of the
Commonwealth which his colleague had deserted, and nominate the man
whom the people had resolved to have as Dictator. Q. Fulvius was
accordingly nominated Dictator by the consul M. Claudius, and under the
same resolution of the plebs P. Licinius Crassus, the Pontifex Maximus, was
named by Q. Fulvius as his Master of the Horse.