27.34
When
the patricians began to look round and see who would make the best
consuls, one man stood out conspicuously -C. Claudius Nero. The question
was, who was to be his colleague? He was regarded as a man of exceptional
ability but too impulsive and venturesome for such a war as the present one,
or such an enemy as Hannibal, and they felt that his impetuous temperament
needed to be restrained by a cool and prudent colleague. Their thoughts
turned to M. Livius. He had been consul several years previously, and after
laying down his consulship had been impeached before the Assembly and
found guilty. This disgrace he felt so keenly that he removed into the
country, and for many years was a stranger to the City and to all public
gatherings. It was about eight years after his condemnation that the consuls
M. Claudius Marcellus and M. Valerius Laevinus brought him back to the
City, but his squalid garments, his neglected hair and beard, his whole
appearance showed pretty clearly that he had not forgotten the humiliation.
The censors L. Veturius and P. Licinius made him trim his hair and beard
and lay aside his squalid garments and take his place in the senate and
discharge other public duties. Even then he contented himself with a simple
"aye" or "no" to the question before the House, and in the event of a division
with a silent vote, until the case of his kinsman Marcus Livius Macatus came
up, when the attack upon his relative's fair fame compelled him to rise in his
place and address the House. The voice which after so long an interval was
once more heard was listened to with deep attention, and the senators
remarked to one another that the people had wronged an innocent man to
the great detriment of the commonwealth, which in the stress of a grievous
war had been unable to avail itself of the help and counsel of such a man as
that. Neither Q. Fabius nor M. Valerius Laevinus could be assigned to C.
Nero as his colleague because it was illegal for two patricians to be elected,
and the same difficulty existed in the case of T. Manlius, who had moreover
already refused a consulship and would continue to refuse it. If they gave
him M. Livius as colleague, they felt that they would have a splendid pair of
consuls. This suggestion put forward by the senators was approved by the
great body of the people. There was only one among all the citizens who
rejected it and that was the man on whom the honour was to be conferred.
He accused them of inconsistency. "When he appeared in mourning garments
at his trial they felt no pity for him, now, in spite of his refusal, they would
have him put on the white robe of the candidate. They heaped penalties and
honours on the same man. If they thought that he was a good citizen, why
had they condemned him as a criminal? If they had found him to be a
criminal, why were they entrusting him with a second consulship after he had
misused the first?" The senators severely censured him for complaining and
protesting in this way, and reminded him of M. Furius Camillus who after
being recalled from exile restored his country to its ancient seat. "We ought
to treat our country," they told him, "like our parents, and disarm its severity
by patience and submission." By their united efforts they succeeded in
making him consul with C. Claudius Nero.
