9.
Next the provinces which were at war, Sardinia and Histria, were decreed to the consuls.
[2]
For Sardinia two legions were ordered to be raised, each of fifty-two hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry; also twelve thousand infantry and six hundred cavalry from the allies of the Latin confederacy, and ten ships of five banks of oars, in case the consul should wish to launch any from the docks. The same number of infantry and cavalry were decreed for Histria as for Sardinia.
[3]
Also, the consuls were directed to send one legion with three hundred cavalry and five thousand allied infantry and two hundred and fifty cavalry1 to Marcus Titinius2 in Spain.
[4]
Before the consuls drew lots for their provinces, the prodigies were reported: a stone fell from the sky into the grove of Mars in the territory of Crustumerium; a boy whose body was without limbs was born near Rome and a four-legged snake was seen; and at [p. 213]Capua also many buildings in the forum were struck3 by lightning; and at Puteoli two ships were burned by lightning bolts.
[5]
In the midst of the announcement of these occurrences, a wolf was pursued even in Rome by day, after entering by the Porta Collina, and escaped by the Porta Esquilina amid great uproar on the part of the pursuers.
[6]
By reason of these portents the consuls sacrificed full-grown victims, and for one day a supplication was held at all the banquet-tables of the gods.
[7]
The sacrifices having been duly completed, the consuls drew for their provinces; Histria fell to Claudius, Sardinia to Sempronius.
Then Gaius Claudius, with the authorization of the senate, proposed a law concerning the allies, and
[8??]
issued a proclamation to the effect that all allies of the Latin confederacy, in the event that they themselves or their ancestors had been registered among the allies of the Latin confederacy in the censorship of Marcus Claudius and Titus Quinctius or thereafter,4 should all return, each to his own state, before the Kalends of November.
[9]
The investigation of those who should not have returned in this fashion was decreed to Lucius Mummius the praetor.5
[10]
To this law and proclamation of the consul a decree of the senate was added, that a dictator, consul, interrex, censor, or praetor, who was at the time in office or should henceforth be in office,6 before any one of whom a slave was brought for manumission and for the assertion of his claim to freedom,7 should require that an oath be given8 that the person who was manumitting the slave was [p. 215]not manumitting him for the purpose of changing9 his citizenship;10
[11]
in any case in which this oath was not taken, they decreed that the manumission should not take place. These precautions were taken for the future, and orders were issued under the edict of Gaius Claudius the consul [for the return of the allies to their states.
[12]
The investigation thereof] was ordered [to be conducted under the supervision] of Mummius.11
1 I.e. of the allies, the three hundred being Roman.
2 There were two praetors of this name: only three praetors are listed for the year 178 B.C. in XL. lix. 5.
3 B.C. 177
4 They were censors in 189 B.C. (XXXVII. lviii. 2).
5 In viii. 2 above Mummius was allotted Sardinia, but this province had later been transferred to Gracchus.
6 The offices of dictator and interrex were rarely used at this period but were included for completeness, since they might be revived in future.
7 The two clauses together constitute both the requirements for granting freedom to a slave and the methods to be followed.
8 The syntax is obscure, but the sense requires that the oath be given by the manumissor.
9 B.C. 177
10 This decree prevents the first method of evasion described in viii. 10 above.
11 Madvig's suggestion as to the last words is followed except at the end, since he requires that the investigation be entrusted to Claudius. Because this contradicts sec. 10 above, I have modified his supplement, with no authority except the desire for a greater measure of consistency.
Livy. Books XL-XLII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1938: published without copyright notice.
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