21.
The praetors Fulvius and Scribonius, to whom had been allotted the province of administering justice in Rome, were instructed to make ready, in addition to the fleet which Baebius was to command, one hundred quinqueremes.
[2]
Before the consul and praetors set out for their provinces, a supplication was held by reason of prodigies.
[3]
A she-goat was reported from Picenum to have given birth to six kids at one time, and at Arretium a boy with one hand was born, at Amiternum
[4??]
there was a shower of earth, at Formiae the wall and gate were struck by lightning, and, a thing which caused the greatest terror, at Rome a cow belonging to the consul Gnaeus Domitius spoke, saying, “Rome, for thyself beware.”
[5]
The period of prayer was held on account of the other portents; the haruspices ordered that the cow be carefully kept and fed.
[6]
The Tiber, attacking the city with a more violent rush than the year before, swept away the two bridges1 and many buildings, especially around the Porta Flumentana. A huge stone, dislodged either by the rains or by an earthquake too slight to be felt otherwise, fell into the vicus lugarius2 from the Capitoline and killed many people. In the flooded lands round about many cattle were washed away and damage was done to the farmhouses.
[7]
Before the consul Lucius Quinctius arrived in his province, Quintus Minucius, in the neighbourhood [p. 63]of Pisa, met the Ligures in a pitched battle;
[8]
he killed3 nine thousand of the enemy, routed and put to flight the rest and drove them into their camp. This was vigorously attacked and defended until nightfall.
[9]
By night the Ligures secretly withdrew and at daybreak the Romans entered the abandoned camp; less booty was found there because the spoils from the country were from time to time sent home.
[10]
Minucius then gave the enemy no rest; from Pisan territory he marched into the land of the Ligures and completely laid waste their citadels and towns with fire and sword.
[11]
There the booty of Etruria, which had been sent on by the raiders, sated the Roman soldiers.
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