27.35
Three
days later came the election of praetors. Those elected were L. Porcius
Licinius, C. Mamilius and the two Catos, C. Hostilius and A. Hostilius.
When the elections were over and the Games concluded, the Dictator and
the Master of the Horse resigned office. C. Terentius Varro was sent into
Etruria as propraetor to relieve C. Hostilius, who was to take over the
command of the army at Tarentum which the consul T. Quinctius had had.
L. Manlius was to go to Greece and find out what was going on there. As
the Olympian Games were to be held this summer, and as a very large
gathering would be there, he was, if he could get through the enemy's forces,
to be present at them and inform those Sicilians who had fled there from the
war and any citizens of Tarentum who had been banished by Hannibal that
they might return home and rest assured that the Roman people would
restore to them all that they possessed before the war. As the coming year
seemed to be fraught with most serious dangers, and the State was for the
moment without consuls, all eyes were turned to the consuls-elect, and it
was universally hoped that they would lose no time in balloting for their
provinces and deciding what enemy each of them would have to meet. On
the initiative of Q. Fabius Maximus a resolution was earned in the senate
insisting upon their becoming reconciled to each other. Their quarrel was
only too notorious, and was embittered by Livius' resentment at the insulting
treatment he had received, for he felt that his honour had been sullied by his
prosecution. This made him all the more implacable; he said that there was
no need for any reconciliation, each would act with greater energy and
alertness if he knew that failure to do so would give his enemy an advantage.
However, the senate successfully exerted their authority, and they were
induced to lay aside their private differences and conduct the affairs of State
with one mind and one policy. Their provinces were not contiguous as in
former years, but widely separated, at the extremities of Italy. One was to
act against Hannibal in Bruttium and Lucania, the other in Gaul against
Hasdrubal, who was reported to be now nearing the Alps. The consul to
whose lot Gaul should fall was to choose either the army which was in Gaul
or the one in Etruria, and would receive in addition the army of the City. The
one to whom Bruttium fell was to raise fresh legions in the City and select
one of the two consular armies of the previous year. The other one Q. Fabius
was to take over as proconsul, in which capacity he was to act for the year.
C. Hostilius, who had already been removed from Etruria to Tarentum, was
now again to change from Tarentum to Capua. One legion was given him,
the one which Fulvius had commanded.