Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 32
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, Ed.

7. While this was happening in Macedonia,¹ the other consul, Lucius Lentulus, who had remained at Rome, held the meeting for the election of censors. [2] Although many distinguished men were candidates, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and Publius Aelius Paetus were elected censors. [3] They selected the members of the senate in complete harmony with one another and without putting the brand of infamy² on any man, let the contract for the collection of the sales-tax at Capua and Puteoli and the port-duties of Castra,³ where there is now a town, and for this place enrolled three hundred colonists —for this number had been fixed by the senate —and sold the land of Capua at the foot of Mount Tifata.

[4] At this same time Lucius Manlius Acidinus, on [p. 171]his return from Spain, was prevented by Publius⁴ Porcius Laeca, tribune of the people, from entering the city in ovation,⁵ although the privilege had been granted him by the senate, and, entering the city as a private person, deposited in the treasury twelve hundred pounds of silver and about thirty pounds of gold.

[5] During the same year, Gnaeus Baebius Tamphilus, who had succeeded Gaius Aurelius, consul of the preceding year, as governor of the province of Gaul, rashly invaded the territory of the Insubrian Gauls and was cut off with almost his entire army; [6] he lost more than six thousand seven hundred men; such a disaster was suffered in a war that no one any longer feared. This event summoned Lucius Lentulus the consul from the city. [7] When he arrived in a province full of terror and had taken over a panic-stricken army, he roundly upbraided the praetor and ordered him to leave the province and return to Rome. [8] Nor did the consul, even, accomplish anything worth recording, being recalled to Rome to hold the elections; the actual meetings were blocked by the plebeian tribunes Marcus Fulvius and Manius Curius, because they would [9] not allow Titus Quinctius Flamininus to stand for the consulship immediately after the quaestorship:⁶ [10] the aedileship and praetorship, they said, were already treated with contempt, and the nobles, without passing through the offices in succession, and so giving proof of their worth, were aiming straight at the consulship and, leaping over the intermediate stages, were making the [p. 173]highest distinctions continuous with the lowest. [11] -⁷ After being debated in the assembly,⁸ the matter was referred to the senate. The Fathers voted that it seemed proper that the right should reside in the people to elect anyone they chose who sought an office it was legally permissible to him to hold.⁹ [12] The tribunes yielded to the senate's will. Sextus Aelius Paetus and Titus Quinctius Flamininus were chosen consuls. [13] Then the praetorian elections were held. The choice fell on Lucius Cornelius Merula, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Marcus Porcius Cato, and Gaius Helvius, who had been plebeian aediles.¹⁰ By them the Plebeian Games were repeated, and a banquet to Jupiter was held on the occasion of the games. [14] Also, the Roman Games were celebrated with great splendour by the curule aediles Gaius Valerius Flaccus (who was Flamen Dialis) and Gaius Cornelius Cethegus. [15] Servius and Gaius Sulpicius Galba, pontiffs, died that year; in their place Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio were appointed pontiffs.