Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 41
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

10. While all these things were being done at Rome, Marcus Junius and Aulus Manlius, who had been consuls the preceding year, after wintering at Aquileia, in the beginning of spring led the army into the land of the Histrians; [2] while they were plundering far and wide, grief and indignation at the sight of their ravaged possessions roused the Histrians more than any assured hope that they had strength enough to withstand the two armies. [3] When the young men from all the communities had rushed together, the army, hastily raised for the emergency, fought at the first clash with greater vigour than perseverance. [4] About four thousand of them were killed in the battle-line, the rest, abandoning the campaign, scattered in every direction to their states. Then they first sent ambassadors to the Roman camp to ask peace, then the hostages which were demanded. [5] When this was known at Rome from the dispatch of the proconsuls, Gaius Claudius the consul, fearing that these occurrences might perhaps deprive him of his province and his army,¹ without [p. 217]announcing his vows or clothing his lictors in uniform,² notifying only his colleague of everything, set out by night and went off at headlong speed to his province; there his conduct was more rash than his coming. [6] For when, calling an assembly, he had upbraided Aulus Manlius for his flight from the camp (the soldiers, who themselves had begun the flight, listening with hostile ears) and had heaped insults upon Marcus Junius, because he had made himself a partner in his colleague's disgrace, he ended by ordering both to leave the province. [7] When they had replied to this that they would obey the command of a consul at such time as he set out from the City in the manner of their forefathers, after public proclamation of his vows on the Capitoline and with his lictors in uniform,³ Claudius, maddened with rage, summoned the officer who was acting as quaestor for Manlius and demanded from him chains, threatening that he would send Junius and Manlius to Rome in irons. [8] This officer also ignored the command of the consul; and the army standing round about favouring the cause of the generals and hostile to the consul, gave the quaestor courage to disobey. [9] At last the consul, worn out by the insults of individuals and the jeers of the whole crowd —for [10] they ridiculed him as well —returned to Aquileia in the same ship in which he had come. [11] Thence he wrote to his colleague to issue an edict that such portion of the new troops as had been [p. 219]enlisted for the province of Histria should assemble⁴ at Aquileia, lest anything delay him at Rome from announcing his vows and setting out from the City in uniform. This was done by his colleague as he requested, and an early date for the muster was proclaimed. [12] Claudius almost overtook his own letter. On his arrival he delivered a speech on the conduct of Manlius and Junius, and after tarrying not more than three days at Rome, with [13??] his lictors in uniform and having proclaimed his vows on the Capitoline, he went off to his province with the same headlong speed as before.