Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 29
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

10. The time for the elections was already at hand when a letter from Publius Licinius, the consul, reached Rome, reporting that he and his army were suffering from a serious malady, and that they could not have held out if an equally violent or even more serious disease had not been visited upon the enemy. [2] Accordingly, since he was unable to come in person to the elections, he would name Quintus Caecilius Metellus dictator to hold the elections, if the senators approved. [3] It was to the interest of the state, he said, that the army of Quintus Caecilius should be discharged; for at present his army had nothing to do, since Hannibal had already withdrawn his troops into winter quarters; and so violent a malady had befallen Caecilius' camp that, unless the troops were promptly disbanded, not one man, it [p. 245]seemed, would survive. The consul was permitted¹ by the senate to do whatever he thought consistent with the public interest and his own conscience.

[4] At that time religious scruples had suddenly assailed the citizens because in the Sibylline books, which were consulted on account of the frequent showers of stones that year, an oracle was found that, if ever a foreign foe should invade the land of [5??] Italy, he could be driven out of Italy and defeated if the Idaean Mother² should be brought from Pessinus to Rome. [6] The discovery of that oracle by the decemvirs impressed the senators all the more because the ambassadors also who had carried a gift to Delphi reported that, when they offered sacrifices themselves to Pythian Apollo, the omens had been favourable, and that likewise from the sanctum there had come a response that a much greater victory was in prospect for the Roman people than that from spoils of which they were bringing gifts. [7] To the facts supporting that same hope the senators added Publius Scipio's state of mind, virtually forecasting the end of the war, in that he demanded Africa as his province. [8] And so, that they might the sooner be in possession of the victory which foreshadowed itself in oracles, forecasts³ and responses, they planned and discussed what should be the method of transporting the goddess to Rome.