Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 41
Rev. Canon Roberts, Ed.

---

Then came the elections. The new consuls were C. Claudius Pulcher and Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, and the new praetors, P. Aelius Tubero (for the second time), C. Quinctius Flamininus, C. Numisius, L. Mummius, Cnaeus Cornelius Scipio and C. Valerius Laevinus. Tubero received the civic jurisdiction, Quinctius the alien. [2] Sicily fell to Numisius, and Sardinia to Mummius; the latter, however, owing to the magnitude of the war, was made a consular province. Gaul was divided into two provinces and allotted to Scipio and Laevinus. [3] On the Ides of March, when Sempronius and Claudius entered upon office, the provinces of Sardinia and Histria and the instigators of war in those provinces were only informally discussed. [4] On the following day, the Sardinian deputation, who had been referred to the new consuls, and L. Minucius Thermus, who had been second [5??] in command with the consul Manlius in Histria, appeared before the senate, and after the information they gave, the senate realised what a state of war existed in those provinces. Delegates from the Latin allies, after numberless appeals to the censors and the late consuls, were at length admitted to an audience of the senate, and their statement made a great impression. [6] The gist of their complaint was that their citizens who were on the Roman register had migrated in great numbers [7??] to the City, and if this were allowed it would come to pass in a very few lustra that the towns and fields would be deserted and incapable of furnishing any men for the army. [8] The Samnites and Paeligni stated that 4000 families had gone from them to Fregellae, but they were not diminishing their contingents, nor were the Fregellans increasing theirs. The practice of individuals changing their citizenship led to two kinds of fraud. [9] The law allowed those amongst the Latin allies who chose, to become Roman citizens if they left male progeny behind in the old home. This law was abused to the injury of the allies and of the Roman people. [10] For in order to avoid any male descendants being left at home, they gave their children as slaves to some Roman or other, on condition that they should be manumitted, and as freedmen become citizens, whilst on the other hand those who had no male descendants became Roman citizens. Subsequently, even this legal presence was brushed aside. [11] In defiance of law and without any male descendants they migrated to Rome and were placed on the City register. The delegates asked that this might be stopped for the future, and that those who had migrated should be ordered to return to their homes. [12] They asked further that a law might be passed making it illegal for any person to adopt or manumit any one with the view of changing his citizenship, and also require those who had become Roman citizens by this means to renounce their citizenship. The senate granted these requests.