Summary of Book XXXIV
The Oppian law, which Gaius Oppius, tribune of the
people, had proposed during the Punic war to limit the
expenditures of the women, was repealed after great
argument, though the principal speech against the
abrogation of the law was made by Porcius Cato. He
proceeded to Spain and pacified Nearer Spain in a war
which broke out at Emporiae. Titus Quinctius Flamininus
ended a successful war against the Lacedaemonians and
Nabis their tyrant, granting them such a peace as he
himself desired, and liberating Argos, which was under
the control of the tyrant. In addition, the successes in
Spain and against the Boi and the Insubres are recorded.
The senate then for the first time watched the games apart
from the commons. That this happened was the result
of the action of the censors, Sextus Aelius Paetus and
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, and it was attended with great
indignation on the part of the plebeians. Several colonies
were founded. Marcus Porcius Cato triumphed over
Spain. Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who had defeated
Philip, king of the Macedonians, and Nabis, tyrant of
the Lacedaemonians, for this reason celebrated a triumph
lasting three days. Ambassadors of the Carthaginians
announced that Hannibal, who had fled to Antiochus,
was plotting war along with him. Hannibal, moreover,
had tried, through Aristo, a Tyrian whom he had sent to
Carthage without any written communications, to stir
up the Carthaginians to make war.
[p. 583]
