Summary of Book XIX
CAECILIUS METELLUS, after a prosperous campaign
against the Carthaginians, triumphed brilliantly, having
thirteen of the enemy's generals and a hundred and
twenty elephants in his procession. The consul Claudius
Pulcher having set out in opposition to the auspices—he
ordered the chickens to be drowned, when they would
not feed
1 —fought an unsuccessful naval engagement with
the Carthaginians, and on being recalled by the senate
and directed to name a dictator, named Claudius Glicia,
a man of the basest sort, who afterwards, when he had
been forced to abdicate the office, witnessed the games
in his purple—bordered toga. Aulus Atilius Calatinus
was the first dictator to lead an army out of Italy. An
[p. 559]
exchange of prisoners with the Carthaginians was effected.
colonies were founded at Fregenae
2 and in the Sallentine country at Brundisium. The lustrum was closed by the censors. 241,212 citizens were registered. claudia, the
sister of Publius Claudius, who had been defeated after
making light of the auspices, being jostled by the crowd
while returning from the games, exclaimed, “o that my
brother were alive to command another fleet!” for this
she was fined. then for the first time two praetors were
elected. Caecilius Metellus, the pontifex maximus, kept
Aulus Postumius, the consul, in the City, since he was
also the flamen of Mars, when he desired to go forth
to war, nor would he suffer him to forsake his sacred
functions. after a number of generals had gained successes against the Carthaginians, Gaius Lutatius crowned
the victory by defeating the Carthaginian fleet off the
Aegatian Islands. The Carthaginians sued for peace and
it was granted them. when the temple of Vesta was
burning, Caecilius Metellus, the pontifex maximus,
rescued the sacred objects from the flames. two tribes
were added, the Velina and the Quirina.
