The consuls' province remained quiet. M. Baebius was recalled to Rome to conduct the elections. A. Postumius Albinus Luscus and C. Calpurnius Piso were the new consuls. [2] The praetors elected were Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, L. Postumius Albinus, P. Cornelius Mammula, Ti. Minucius Molliculus, A. Hostilius Mancinus and C. Maenius. All these magistrates entered upon office on the Ides of March. [3] At the beginning of his year of office A. Postumius introduced to the senate L. Minucius, a staff officer, and two military tribunes, T. Maenius and L. Terentius Massiliota, who had come from Q. Fulvius Flaccus in Hither Spain. They gave a report of the two victorious battles, the surrender of the Celtiberi and the establishment of order throughout the province, and told the senate that there was no [4??] need of the pay which was usually sent nor of any supply of corn to the army for that year. [5] They then requested that honour might be paid to the immortal gods for these successes and that Q. Fulvius should be allowed to bring back on his departure from Spain the army whose courage had been of such service to him and to many praetors before him. [6] This was not only due to them, but it was all but inevitable, for the soldiers were in such a determined mood that it appeared impossible to keep them any longer in the province, and if they were not disbanded, they were prepared to leave without orders, or if they were kept back by a strong hand, would break out into a dangerous mutiny. [7] The senate ordered the consuls to take Liguria as their province. Then the praetors balloted for their provinces. Hither Spain fell to Tiberius Sempronius. [8] As he was to succeed Q. Fulvius he did not want the province to be robbed of the veteran army and accordingly made the following speech in the senate: [9] "I ask you, L. Minucius, since you report that the province is in a settled state, whether it is your belief that the Celtiberi will always keep their word so that this province can be held without the presence of an army? [10] If you can neither assure yourself nor give us any guarantee of their remaining permanently at peace, and still hold that in any case an army must be kept there, would [11??] you advise the senate to send such reinforcements as will only allow the time-expired soldiers to be released, the recruits being incorporated in the old army, or would you say that the veteran legions should be withdrawn and fresh ones enrolled and sent there, when the contempt felt for these raw recruits might possibly excite even the less aggressive barbarians to resume hostilities? [12] To say that you have pacified and settled a province whose inhabitants are naturally warlike and aggressive may be easier than to do it. [13] According to what I hear only a few communities, mainly those where we have made our winter quarters, have submitted to our authority; those further off are in arms. Under these circumstances, senators, I declare at the outset that I am ready to take the government of the province with the army which is there now. [14] If Flaccus brings his legions with him, I shall select for my winter quarters places already pacified, and shall not expose my new soldiers to a most fierce enemy."
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.