49.
Through speeches of this kind, delivered by the praetor and his friends, the prestige of the consul, who was absent, was outweighed by the personal influence of the praetor, who was present, and a full session voted a triumph to Lucius Furius.
[
2]
Lucius Furius the praetor triumphed over the Gauls while still in office, and deposited in the treasury three hundred and twenty thousand
asses of bronze, and one hundred thousand five hundred pieces
1 of silver.
[
3]
There were no captives led before his chariot, no spoils displayed, no soldiers in his train.
[
4]
Everything but the victory was in possession of the consul.
Next the games which had been vowed by Publius Cornelius Scipio during his consulship in Africa were celebrated with great splendour.
[
5]
It was also decreed, regarding lands for his soldiers,
2 that each
[p. 145]should receive two
iugera of land for each year of their
3 service in Spain or Africa; the decemvirate
4 should make the distribution.
[
6]
Also, a commission of three was created to fill up the number of colonists for the people of Venusia, because the strength of that colony had been diminished in the Hannibalic war. The commissioners chosen were Gaius Terentius Varro, Titus Quinctius Flamininus, Publius Cornelius Scipio, the son of Gnaeus, and they enrolled the colonists for Venusia.
[
7]
In the same year Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, who as proconsul was governing Spain, defeated a large hostile force in the territory of the Sedetani. According to report, fifteen thousand Spaniards were killed in this battle and seventy-eight standards captured.
[
8]
Gaius Aurelius the consul, when he returned from the province to Rome to hold the elections, did not make the complaint that they had anticipated, that the senate had not waited for him nor given the consul an opportunity to debate with the praetor, but he did protest that they
[
9]
had decreed the triumph in such a way that they had heard the testimony of no one except the man who was to
[
10]
triumph, and not of those who had been present at the battle.
[
11]
Their ancestors had ordained that the lieutenants, tribunes, centurions, and even the common soldiers should attend a triumph, to the end that the Roman people might see the witnesses to the deeds of the man to whom so signal an honour was given. Was there no one from the army which had fought against the Gauls, no camp-follower at least, if there was no soldier, whom the senate could ask how much truth or untruth there was in the praetor's report?
5
[
12]
He then announced the date of the elections, at which
[p. 147]Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Villius
6 Tappulus were chosen consuls. Then Lucius Quinctius Flamininus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Lucius Villius Tappulus, and Gnaeus Baebius Tamphilus were elected praetors.