42.32
The
consuls had a disagreement -not a serious dispute -about their province.
Cassius said that he was ready to choose Macedonia without a ballot, as his
colleague could not ballot with him without violating his oath. When he was
made praetor he took an oath before the Assembly that he could not go to
his province as he had sacrifices to perform at an appointed place and on
stated days, and they could not be duly offered in his absence, when he was
consul, any more than when he was praetor. Even should the senate not
consider P. Licinius' wishes now that he was consul more deserving of
censure than the oath which he had taken as praetor, he would bow to their
authority. When the matter was put to the vote, the senators thought it
would be a high-handed proceeding to refuse a province to the man to whom
the people of Rome had not refused the consulship, and ordered the consuls
to proceed to ballot. P. Licinius obtained Macedonia, and C. Cassius, Italy.
They then drew lots for the legions; the first and third were to be taken to
Macedonia; the second and fourth to remain in Italy. The consuls carried out
the mobilisation with much more care than at other times. Licinius called up
the old soldiers and centurions, and many volunteers gave in their names
because they saw that those who had served in the former Macedonian war
or against Antiochus were rich men. The military tribunes were choosing the
centurions, not in order of precedence, but picking out the best men, and
twenty-three centurions of the front rank appealed to the tribunes of the
plebs. Two members of the tribunitian college were for referring the matter
to the consuls, on the ground that the decision ought to rest with those to
whom the mobilisation had been entrusted. The rest said they would go into
the reasons of the appeal, and if an injustice had been done, they would come
to the aid of their fellow-citizens.