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27. The censors who were elected that year, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Aulus Postumius Albinus, chose the members of the senate; as princeps senatus Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the chief pontiff was chosen. [2] They expelled nine from the senate. The conspicuous victims of the censure were Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis, who [p. 277]two years before had been praetor in Spain,1 and2 Lucius Cornelius Scipio the praetor, who at the time exercised jurisdiction over cases between citizens and aliens,3 and Lucius Fulvius who was own brother to the censor and, as Valerius Antias writes, held their father's property jointly with the censor.4 [3] The consuls, after publicly proclaiming their vows on the Capitoline, departed to their provinces. To one of them, Marcus Aemilius,5 the senate had entrusted the task of suppressing a revolt of the people of Patavium in Venetia, since even their own ambassadors had reported that civil war had flared up in consequence of the rivalry of factions. [4] The ambassadors who had gone to Aetolia to repress similar disturbances reported that the madness of the people could not be checked. The consul's arrival was the cause of safety to the people of Patavium; since he had nothing else to do in the province, he returned to Rome. [5] The censors first of all let contracts for paving the streets in the City with flint,6 and for laying the bases of roads outside the City with gravel and constructing footpaths along [p. 279]their edges, and for the construction of bridges in7 many places;8 [6] also a stage to be placed at the disposal of the aediles and praetors;9 stalls too in the Circus, and egg-shaped markers to designate the laps . . . and turning-points across . . . and iron cages through which the wild beasts might be let in . . .10 the festival on the Alban Mount. [7] . .,11 and they arranged for the pavement with flint of the Clivus Capitolinus12 and for the construction of a portico from the temple of Saturn to the assembly-room of the senators on the Capitoline,13 and, above it, to the Curia. [8] And outside the Porta Trigemina they paved the warehouse with stone and enclosed it with paling, and they contracted for repairs to the portico of Aemilius,14 and built a stairway from the Tiber to the warehouse.15 [9] And within the same gate they paved with flint the portico leading to the Aventine, and they built . . . from the temple of Venus.16 [10] The same censors contracted for the [p. 281]construction of walls at Calatia and Auximum; and after17 selling the public land there, the money which had been collected they devoted to building shops around the forum in each town. [11] Also one of them, Fulvius Flaccus —for Postumius had announced that he would let no contract without the order of the Roman senate or assembly —with the money allotted to them contracted for a temple of Jupiter at Pisaurum and at Fundi,18 and for conducting water to Potentia also, and for paving with flint a street at Pisaurum and at Sinuessa for the construction of [12??] suburbs19 . . . in them, for both sewers and a surrounding wall . . . and a forum, to be enclosed by porticoes and shops, and for the erection of three statues of Janus. These contracts were let by the one censor to the great satisfaction of the colonists.20 [13] In the supervision of morals the censorship was careful and strict. The horses of many were taken away.21

1 In xv. 10 above Cornelius is represented as having evaded going to Spain, and Livy or a scribe, forgetting the fact, assumed that he had actually gone. Possibly his expulsion from the senate was due to suspicion or certainty that he had perjured himself; possibly it was due to an anti-Scipionic crusade: see also the next note.

2 B.C. 174

3 In viii. 1 Livy reported the election of Cn. Cornelius Scipio as praetor for 177 B.C. Valerius Maximus (IV. v. 3) has an anecdote of the election of Cn. Cornelius Scipio, the son of Africanus, and speaks of him as holding a judicial assignment, whereas the praetor of 177 B.C. was in Gaul. It is therefore impossible to be certain which, if either, was the son of Africanus. The basis for the expulsion of this Scipio is unknown. His election was mentioned in the lost portion of chap. xx.

4 The censor of this year was consul in 179 B.C. (a cousin of the same name was consul in 180 B.C.). Each of them seems to have had a brother Marcus, the brother of the consul of 180 B.C. perhaps having the cognomen Nobilior (XL. xli. 7-10 and the note). Possibly, however, Nobilior, who was banished in 180 B.C., is the man who is here referred to with the praenomen Lucius; he may have been expelled from the senate in 175 B.C. (XL. li. 1). Velleius (I. x. 6) calls him Fulvius Gnaeus, while Valerius Maximus (II. vii. 5) mentions him without the praenomen.

5 Aemilius was consul in 175 B.C. not in 174 B.C., and Livy is in error as to the name or as to the date.

6 The first paving outside of Rome was recorded XXXVIII. xxviii. 3; this is the first within the city.

7 B.C. 174

8 Their location is unknown; no bridges within Rome are traceable to this censorship.

9 These magistrates presided over games at which dramatic performances were given.

10 The text of this passage has suffered in various places, and no satisfactory restorations have been proposed for most of the lacunae. I have added nothing to complete the sense except “the wild beasts.” The carceres were built at the end of the race-track, so placed as to give each contestant an equal opportunity to gain the inside track. The ova were arranged on the spina, and one was taken down as each lap in the race was run. The metae marked the points around which the chariots were to go. The single syllable dam is entirely unintelligible.

11 The loss of the context leaves consulibus without a sense, and makes the entire clause doubtful in meaning.

12 This was the steep ascent from the Forum to the Capitoline.

13 The meaning is uncertain, but would seem to require two porticoes, one following the line of the Clivus Capitolinus, one branching off from it and running northward along the face or at the foot of the Capitoline, and reaching the area occupied by the temple of Concord or the Comitium. Possibly there were a senaculum and a curia.

14 Cf. XXXV. x. 12; on the Capitoline (for the comitia curiata).

15 This area lay at the south-west corner of the Aventine, along the Tiber.

16 If the phrase found in V. eo publico (see the critical note) is derived from the corruption of clivo Publicio, the temple of Venus might be the one referred to in XXIX. xxxvii. 2 as in the forum boarium, whence the clivus Publicius led to the Aventine.

17 B.C. 174

18 According to Weissenborn the words lovis aedem should be construed with both Fundis and Potentiae: cf. li. 6.

19 Or possibly “huts,” “hutments.” magalia and mapalia were Punic words, or the same Punic word, for huts or small dwellings. magalia was also used for the suburbs of Carthage. There may be a connection between magalia here and the word aviariae (which is not here translated); for Cato speaks of “magalia” as cohortes rotundae, and a cohors is a cattle-pen or a poultry-pen. Cf. Cato in Servius on Virgil Aen. i. 421 (E. H. Warmington).

20 The colonies were Pisaurum, Potentia, and Sinuessa, and possibly the three statues were erected there.

21 Cf. XXXIX. xliv. 1 etc. The censorship was particularly active in the construction of new buildings, despite the apparent conservatism of Postumius; see Tenney Frank, An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, Vol. I. ch. iii. p. 185.

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, 1880)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (Latin, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., 1938)
load focus Summary (English, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., 1938)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., 1938)
load focus English (William A. McDevitte, Sen. Class. Mod. Ex. Schol. A.B.T.C.D., 1850)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, 1876)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
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  • Commentary references to this page (29):
    • 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, 37.34
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.28
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.44
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.41
    • 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 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.8
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.2
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.28
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.33
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.16
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.16
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.9
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.33
  • Cross-references to this page (28):
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