Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 42
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

28. Almost at the end of the year Gaius Popilius the consul returned to Rome, somewhat later than the senate had advised, for they had thought it to the interest of the state, since so great a war was impending, that magistrates be elected as early as [p. 371]possible. [2] And so it was in no favourable mood that¹ the Fathers listened to the consul as in the temple of Bellona he discussed his accomplishments among the Ligurians. [3] There were frequent outcries and questions as to why he had not restored to freedom the Ligurians crushed by his brother's injustice.

[4] The consular elections were held on the day for which they had been proclaimed, the eighteenth of February.² [5] The consuls elected were Publius Licinius Crassus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. On the following day there were elected as praetors Gaius Sulpicius Galba, Lucius Furius Philus, Lucius Canuleius Dives, Gaius Lucretius Gallus, Gaius Caninius Rebilus and Lucius Villius Annalis. [6] To these praetors there were assigned as provinces two judgeships in Rome, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia, so that for one there was an unassigned position, at the disposal of the senate.³ [7] The consuls-elect were instructed by the senate that, on the day of their entering upon their office, they were to pray, after due sacrifice of full-grown victims, that, in the war which the Roman people were intending to wage, the outcome might be favourable. [8] On the same day the senate decreed that Gaius Popilius the consul should vow that games for ten days be dedicated to Jupiter, Greatest and Best, and that gifts be given to all the banquet-tables of the gods⁴ if for ten years the state should remain in unchanged fortune. [9] As the senate had decreed, the consul made on the Capitol the vow that games be held and gifts [p. 373]given from as large an appropriation as the senate,⁵ with a quorum of one hundred and fifty, might decree. Lepidus the chief pontifex dictated the words as this vow was taken.

In this year there died of the priests of the state Lucius Aemilius Papus, of the Board of Ten for Ritual, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus the pontifex, who had been censor the year before. [10] He died a disgraceful⁶ death. [11] Of his two sons, who were at that time serving in the army in Illyricum, it was reported that one had been killed and one was stricken with a severe and dangerous disease. Grief and fear together overwhelmed the father's mind; slaves who entered his bedroom in the morning found him hanging in a noose. [12] It was thought that after his censorship he was not wholly himself; a common rumour had it that the wrath of Lacinian Juno over the robbing of her temple⁷ had unbalanced his mind. [13] In Aemilius' place on the Board of Ten Marcus Valerius Messalla was substituted; in Fulvius' place as pontifex Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, a man quite young for a priesthood, was chosen.