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10. It was now the end of the year, and canvassing at the consular election was more spirited than ever before.1 [2] The candidates were many and [p. 27]influential, patricians and plebeians,2 Publius Cornelius3 Scipio, the son of Gnaeus, who had recently returned from Spain after performing great deeds,4 and Lucius Quinctius Flamininus, who had commanded the fleet in Greece,5 and Gnaeus Manlius Volso;6 these were the patricians; [3] the plebeians now were Gaius Laelius,7 Gnaeus Domitius,8 Gaius Livius Salinator,9 and Manius Acilius.10 [4] But the eyes of all men were turned upon Quinctius and Cornelius; for both were patricians, contending for one place, and recently-won military glory lent favour to each. But before all else, the brothers of the candidates11 increased their rivalry, since they were the two most celebrated commanders of their age. [5] The greater fame was Scipio's, and the greater it was, the more it was exposed to jealousy; that of Quinctius was fresher, inasmuch as he had triumphed that very year.12 [6] There was also the fact that the other had been for about ten years constantly in the public eye, a fact which renders prominent men less venerated from sheer surfeit of seeing them: he had been consul for the second time after the defeat of Hannibal and censor;13 in the case of Quinctius, everything was new and fresh for winning favour; [7] he had neither asked anything from the people since his triumph nor obtained anything. He said that he was campaigning for a real brother, not a cousin, [p. 29]for his lieutenant and a sharer in the conduct of the14 war; [8] he on land, his brother on the sea, had conducted the operations. [9] By such arguments he brought it to pass that his brother was preferred to the candidate whom his brother, Africanus, favoured, whom the Cornelian gens supported, while a consul Cornelius presided at the election, and who was honoured with so powerful a preliminary recommendation from the senate, which chose him as the best man of the state to receive the Idaean Mother when she came from Pessinus to Rome.15 [10] Lucius Quinctius and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus were chosen consuls: so little weight did Africanus have even in the selection of the plebeian consul, although he was working for Gaius Laelius. [11] The next day the praetors were chosen, Lucius Scribonius Libo, Marcus Fulvius Centumalus, Aulus Atilius Serranus, Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, Lucius Valerius Tappo, Quintus Salonius Sarra. [12] The aedileship of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Aemilius Paulus was notable that year; they condemned many grazers;16 out of the fines they set up gilded shields on the roof of the temple of Jupiter, constructed one portico outside the Porta Trigemina, adding a wharf on the Tiber, and another portico from the Porta Fontinalis to the altar of Mars, where the way led into the Campus Martius.

1 Probably for this reason we have an unusually detailed account of the campaign and we get a clear impression of the arguments employed.

2 The Licinian-Sextian legislation of 367 B.C. provided that one consul must be a plebeian and both might be. It was customary to elect one from each order.

3 B.C. 193

4 Cf. i. 3 ff. above.

5 Cf. XXXII. xvi. 9, etc.

6 He had been praetor in 195 B.C. (XXXIII. xlii. 7).

7 Laelius was the most intimate friend of Scipio Africanus. He had entered politics late and had been praetor in 196 B.C. (XXXIII. xxiv. 2).

8 He was praetor in 194 B.C. (XXXIV. xlii. 4).

9 Probably, but not certainly, the man mentioned in v. 8 above.

10 He had been plebeian aedile in 197 B.C. (XXXIII. xxv. 2). The circumstantial quality of Livy's details increases our confidence in his accuracy in the account of the campaign.

11 Africanus and Nasica were actually cousins, but Roman nomenclature is sometimes slightly vague on such points. The Flaminini were real brothers, as the antithesis in sect. 8 (fratre germano non patrueli) shows.

12 Cf. XXXIV. lii. 4 ff.

13 His second consulship was in 194 B.C., his censorship in 198 B.C.

14 B.C. 193

15 Cf. XXIX. xiv. 8.

16 I.e., for trespassing on public lands which they had not leased: cf. e.g., XXXIII. xlii. 10.

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, 1873)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1873)
load focus Summary (Latin, Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (English, Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, 1873)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
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  • Commentary references to this page (34):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.50
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.24
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.24
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.54
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.39
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.57
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.36
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.41
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.55
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.23
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.40
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 41.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.27
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.29
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.30
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.5
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.34
  • Cross-references to this page (41):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (12):
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