Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 7
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

25. Before the new consuls entered office,^{1 2} Popilius celebrated his triumph over the Gauls, with great enthusiasm on the part of the plebeians, who, muttering low, would often ask each other if anyone regretted the choice of a plebeian [2] consul. At the same time they railed against Camillus, who by declaring himself elected consul, when he was dictator, had got a reward, they said, for his contempt of the Licinian law more disgraceful for his personal cupidity than for the injury done the [3] commonwealth.

[p. 441] The year was signalized by many and various³ disturbances. The Gauls came down from the Alban hills, having been unable to endure the sharpness of the winter, and ranging over the plains and sea-coast, laid waste the [4] country. The sea was infested by fleets of Greeks, and so were the seaboard of Antium, the Laurentine district, and the mouth of the Tiber. It happened once that the sea-robbers encountered the land-raiders, and a hard-fought battle ensued, from which the Gauls withdrew to their camp and the Greeks to their ships, alike uncertain whether they had been defeated or [5] victorious. But by far the greatest of these alarms was occasioned by councils of the Latin tribes, assembled at the grove of Ferentina, and the unambiguous reply vouchsafed by them to a demand for [6] soldiers. Let the Romans, they said, have done with issuing commands to those whose assistance they required: the Latins would sooner bear arms in behalf of their own liberty than of an alien [7] domination. Involved in two foreign wars at once, and worried besides by the defection of their allies, the senate perceived that those whom loyalty had not restrained must be restrained by fear, and bade the consuls exert the full extent of their authority in levying troops: for they must depend on a soldiery of citizens, when their allies were leaving [8] them. They say that soldiers were enlisted everywhere, not in the City alone but in the country, and ten legions were embodied, each of four thousand two hundred foot and three hundred [9] horse. The raising of a new army of this size to-day, in case of any aggression from abroad, could not easily be compassed by the concentration on one object of the [p. 443]existing resources of the Roman People, though⁴ the world hardly contains them; so strictly has our growth been limited to the only things for which we strive, —wealth and [10] luxury.

Among the untoward occurrences of this year was the death of one of the consuls, Appius Claudius, in the midst of the preparations for [11] war. The administration of the state passed to Camillus, over whom, as sole consul, —whether owing to his general high standing, which deserved not to be subordinated to the dictatorship, or to the happy omen, in a Gallic rising, of his surname,⁵ —the Fathers concluded it not meet to set a [12] dictator. The consul appointed two legions to defend the City, and divided the other eight with Lucius Pinarius the praetor. Having a lively recollection of his father's prowess, he took upon himself, without drawing lots, the conduct of the Gallic war, and commanded the praetor to secure the seaboard and prevent the Greeks from [13] landing. Then, marching down into the Pomptine district, he chose a suitable site for a permanent camp; for he had no mind to meet the enemy in the field, unless compelled to do so, believing that he should effectually subdue them if he kept them from making raids, since they subsisted necessarily on plunder.