27.22
It was
now the eleventh year of the Punic War when M. Marcellus and T. Quinctius
Crispinus entered upon their duties as consuls. Reckoning the consulship to
which Marcellus had been elected, but in which, owing to some flaw in his
election, he did not act, this was the fifth time he had held the office. Italy
was assigned to both consuls as their province and the two armies which the
previous consuls had had, and a third which Marcellus had commanded and
which was at the time in Venusia, were all placed at their disposal so that
they could select which of the three they chose. The remaining one would
then be given to the commander to whom Tarentum and the Sallentini
should be allotted. The other spheres were allocated as follows: P. Licinius
Varus was placed in charge of the city jurisdiction, P. Licinius Crassus the
Pontifex Maximus had the jurisdiction over aliens and also wherever the
senate might determine. Sicily was allotted to Sextus Julius Caesar,
Tarentum to Q. Claudius the Flamen. Q. Fulvius Flaccus had his command
extended for a year and was to hold the district of Capua, which T.
Quinctius had previously held as praetor, with one legion. C. Hostilius
Tubulus also had his command extended, he was to succeed C. Calpurnius as
propraetor with two legions in Etruria. A similar extension of command was
granted to L. Veturius Philo, who was to remain in Gaul as propraetor with
the two legions he had previously commanded. The same order was made in
the case of C. Aurunculeius, who had administered Sardinia as praetor; the
fifty ships which P. Scipio was to send from Spain were assigned to him for
the protection of his province. P. Scipio and M. Silanus were confirmed in
their commands for another year. Out of the ships which Scipio had brought
with him from Italy or captured from the Carthaginians -eighty in all -he
was instructed to send fifty to Sardinia, as there were rumours of extensive
naval preparations at Carthage. It was said that they were fitting out 200
ships to menace the whole of the Italian, Sicilian and Sardinian coasts. In
Sicily it was arranged that the army of Cannae should be given to Sextus
Caesar whilst M. Valerius Laevinus. whose command had also been
extended, was to retain the fleet of seventy ships which was stationed off
Sicily, and augment it with the thirty vessels which had lain at Tarentum
during the past year. This fleet of one hundred ships he was to employ, if he
thought good, in harrying the African seaboard. P. Sulpicius was to continue
to hold Macedonia and Greece in check with the fleet which he had. There
was no change in the case of the two legions which were quartered in the
City. The consuls were commissioned to raise fresh troops where it was
necessary, in order to bring up the legions to their proper strength. Thus
one-and-twenty legions were under arms to defend the Roman empire. P.
Licinius Varus, the City praetor, was charged with the task of refitting the
thirty old warships which were laid up at Ostia, and manning with their full
complement twenty new ones, so that he might have a fleet of fifty ships for
the protection of that part of the coast which was nearest to Rome. C.
Calpurnius received strict orders not to move his army from Arretium before
the arrival of Tubulus who was to succeed him; Tubulus was also enjoined to
be especially on his guard in case any revolutionary projects were formed.
