Before the convention broke up, they saw the garrison march down from the citadel of Corinth, proceed forward to the gate, and depart. The general followed them, accompanied by the whole assembly, who, with loud acclamations, blessed him as their preserver and deliverer. At length, taking leave of these, and dismissing them, he returned to Elatia by the same road through which he came. He thence sent Appius Claudius, lieutenant-general, with all the troops, ordering him to march through Thessaly and Epirus, and to wait for him at Oricum, whence he intended to embark the army for Italy. He also wrote to his brother, Lucius Quinctius, lieutenant-general, and commander of the fleet, to collect thither transport ships from all the coasts of Greece. He himself proceeded to Chalcis; and, after sending away the garrisons, not only from that city, but likewise from Oreum and Eretria, he held there a congress of the Euboean states, whom he reminded of the condition in which he had found their affairs, and of that in which he was leaving them; and then dismissed the assembly. He then proceeded to Demetrias, and removed the garrison. Accompanied by all the citizens, as at Corinth and Chalcis, he pursued his route into Thessaly, where the states were not only to be set at liberty, but also to be reduced from a state of utter anarchy and confusion into some tolerable order; for they had been thrown into confusion, not only through the faults of the times, and the violence and licentiousness of royalty, but also through the restless disposition of the nation, who, from the earliest times, even to our days, have never conducted any election, or assembly, or council, without dissensions and tumult. He chose both senators and judges, with regard, principally, to their property, and made that party the most powerful in the state to whom it was most important that all things should be tranquil and secure.

In the latter part of this year Quintus Aelius Tubero, plebeian tribune, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, and the people ordered, that "two Latin colonies should be settled, one in Bruttium, the other in the territory of Thurium." For making these settlements commissioners were appointed, who were to hold the office for three years; for Bruttium, Quintus Naevius, Marcus Minucius Rufus, and Marcus Furius Crassipes; and for the district of Thurium, Cneius Manlius, Quintus Aelius, and Lucius Apustius. The assemblies of election to these two appointments were held in the Capitol by Cneius Domitius, city praetor. Several temples were dedicated this year: one of Juno Sospita, in the herb market, vowed and contracted for four years before, in the time of the Gallic war, by Cneius Cornelius, consul; and the same person, now censor, performed the dedication. Another of Faunus, the building of which had been agreed for two years before, and a fund formed for it out of fines estreated by the aediles, Caius Scribonius and Cneius Domitius; the latter of whom, now city praetor, dedicated it. Quintus Marcius Ralla, constituted commissioner for the purpose, dedicated the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, on the Quirinal Hill. Publius Sempronius Sophus had vowed this temple ten years before, in the Punic war; and, being afterwards censor, had employed persons to build it. Caius Servilius, duumvir, also dedicated a temple of Jupiter, in the island. This had been vowed in the Gallic war, six years before, by Lucius Furius Purpureo, who afterwards, when consul, contracted for the building.--Such were the transactions of that year.

Publius Scipio came home from his province of Gaul to choose new consuls. The consular comitia were accordingly held, in which Lucius Cornelius Merula and Quintus Minucius Thermus were chosen. Next day were chosen praetors, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Caius Scribonius, Marcus Valerius Messala, Lucius Porcius Licinus, and Caius Flaminius. The curule aediles of this year, Caius Atilius Serranus and Lucius Scribonius, first exhibited the Megalesian theatrical games. At the Roman games, celebrated by these aediles, the senators, for the first time, sat separate from the people, which, as every innovation usually does, gave occasion to various observations. Some considered this as "an honour, shown at length to that most respectable body, and which ought to have been done long before;" while others contended, that "every addition made to the grandeur of the senate was a diminution of the dignity of the people; and that all such distinctions as set the orders of the state at a distance from each other, were equally subversive of liberty and concord. During five hundred and fifty-eight years," they asserted, "all the spectators had sat promiscuously: what reason then had now occurred, on a sudden, that should make the senators disdain to have the commons intermixed with them in the theatre, or make the rich disdain the poor man as a fellow-spectator? It was an unprecedented gratification of pride and over-bearing vanity, never even desired, and never instituted, by the senate of any other nation." It is said, that even Africanus himself at last became sorry for having proposed that matter in his consulship: so difficult is it to bring people to approve of any alteration of ancient customs; they are always naturally disposed to adhere to old practices, except those which experience evidently condemns.

In the beginning of the year, which was the consulate of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Minucius, such frequent reports of earthquakes were brought, that people grew weary, not only of the matter itself, but of the religious rites enjoined in consequence; for neither could the senate be convened, nor the business of the public be transacted, the consuls were so constantly employed in sacrifices and expiations. At last, the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books; and, in pursuance of their answer, a supplication was performed during three days. People offered prayers at all the shrines, with garlands on their heads; and an order was published, that all the persons belonging to one family should pay their worship together; and the consuls, by direction of the senate, published an edict, that, on any day whereon religious rites should be ordered, in consequence of the report of an earthquake, no person should report another earthquake on that day. Then the consuls first, and afterwards the praetors, cast lots for their provinces. Cornelius obtained Gaul; Minucius, Liguria; Caius Scribonius, the city jurisdiction; Marcus Valerius, the foreign; Lucius Cornelius, Sicily; Lucius Porcius, Sardinia; Caius Flaminius, Hither Spain; and Marcus Fulvius, Farther Spain.

While the consuls supposed that, for that year, they should have no employment of a military kind, a letter was brought from Marcus Cincius, who was commander at Pisae, announcing, that "twenty thousand armed Ligurians, in consequence of a conspiracy of that whole nation, formed in the meetings of their several districts, had first wasted the lands of Luna, and then, passing through the territory of Pisae, had overrun the whole sea-coast." In consequence of this intelligence, the consul Minucius, whose province Liguria was, by direction of the senate, mounted the rostrum, and published orders, that "the two legions, enlisted the year before, should, on the tenth day from that, attend him at Arretium;" and mentioned his intention of levying two legions for the city in their stead. He likewise gave notice to the magistrates and ambassadors of such of the allies, and of the Latin confederates, as were bound to furnish soldiers, to attend him in the Capitol. Of these he wrote out a list, amounting to fifteen thousand foot and five hundred horse, proportioning the contingent of each state to the number of its young men, and ordered those present to go directly from the spot to the gate of the city; and, in order to expedite the business, to proceed to raise the men. To Fulvius and Flaminius were assigned, to each three thousand Roman foot, and a reinforcement of one hundred horse, with five thousand foot of the Latin allies, and two hundred horse; and orders were given to those praetors, to disband the old troops immediately on their arrival in their provinces. Although great numbers of the soldiers belonging to the city legions had made application to the plebeian tribunes, to take cognizance of the cases of such men as claimed exemption from the service, on account either of having served out their time, or of bad health; yet a letter from Tiberius Sempronius banished all thoughts of such proceeding; for in this it was announced that "fifteen thousand of the Ligurians had come into the lands of Placentia, and wasted them with fire and sword, to the very walls of that city and the bank of the Po; and that the Boian nation were looking out for an occasion to rebel." In consequence of this information, the senate passed a vote, that "there was a Gallic tumult subsisting, and that it would be improper for the plebeian tribunes to take cognizance of the claims of the soldiers, so as to prevent their attending, pursuant to the proclamation;" and they added an order, that the Latin confederates, who had served in the army of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius, and had been discharged by those consuls, should re-assemble, on whatever day and in whatever place of Etruria the consul Lucius Cornelius should appoint; and that the consul Lucius Cornelius, on his way to his province, should enlist, arm, and carry with him all such persons as he should think fit, in the several towns and countries through which he was to pass, and should have authority to discharge such of them, and at such times, as he might judge proper.

After the consuls had finished the levies, and were gone to their provinces, Titus Quinctius demanded, that "the senate should receive an account of the regulations which he in concert with the ten ambassadors, had settled; and, if they thought proper, ratify them by their authority." He told them, that "they would accomplish this the more easily, if they were first to give audience to the ambassadors, who had come from all parts of Greece, and a great part of Asia, and to those from the two kings." These embassies were introduced to the senate by the city praetor, Caius Scribonius, and all received kind answers. As the discussion of the affair with Antiochus required too much time, it was referred to the ten ambassadors, some of whom had conferred with the king in Asia, or at Lysimachia. Directions were given to Titus Quinctius, that, in conjunction with these, he should listen to the representations of the king's ambassadors, and should give them such answer as comported with the dignity and interest of the Roman people. At the head of the embassy were Menippus and Hegesianax; the former of whom said, that "he could not conceive what intricacy there was in the business of their embassy, as they came simply to ask friendship, and conclude an alliance. Now, there were three kinds of treaties, by which kings and states formed friendships with each other: one, when terms were dictated to a people vanquished in war; for after all their possessions have been surrendered to him who has proved superior in war, he has the sole power of judging and determining what portion of them the vanquished shall hold, and of what they shall be deprived. The second, when parties, equally matched in war, conclude a treaty of peace and friendship on terms of equality; for then demands are proposed and restitution made, reciprocally, in a convention; and if, in consequence of the war, confusion has arisen with respect to any parts of their properties, the matter is adjusted on the footing either of ancient right or of the mutual convenience of the parties. The third kind was, when parties who had never been foes, met to form a friendly union by a social treaty: these neither dictate nor receive terms, for that is the case between a victor and a party vanquished. As Antiochus came under this last description, he wondered, he said, that the Romans should think it becoming to dictate terms to him; as to which of the cities of Asia they chose should be free and independent, which should be tributary, and which of them the king's troops and the king himself should be prohibited to enter. That a peace of this kind might be ratified with Philip, who was their enemy, but not a treaty of alliance with Antiochus, their friend."

To this Quinctius answered: "Since you choose to deal methodically, and enumerate the several modes of contracting alliances, I also will lay down two conditions, without which you may tell your king, that there are no means of contracting any friendship with the Roman people. One, that, he does not choose that we should concern ourselves in the affairs of the cities in Asia, he must himself keep entirely out of Europe. The other, that if he does not confine himself within the limits of Asia, but passes over into Europe, the Romans will think themselves at full liberty to maintain the friendships which they have already formed with the states of Asia, and also to contract new ones." On this Hegesianax exclaimed, that "this proposition was unworthy to be listened to, as its tendency was to exclude Antiochus from the cities of Thrace and the Chersonese,--places which his great-grandfather, Seleucus, had acquired with great honour, after vanquishing Lysimachus in war and killing him in battle, and had left to his successors; and part of which, after they had been seized by the Thracians, Antiochus had, with equal honour, recovered by force of arms; as well as others which had been deserted,--as Lysimachia, for instance, he had repeopled, by calling home the inhabitants;--and several, which had been destroyed by fire, and buried in ruins, he had rebuilt at a vast expense. What kind of resemblance was there, then, in the cases of Antiochus being ejected from possessions so acquired and so recovered; and of the Romans refraining from intermeddling with Asia, which had never been theirs? Antiochus wished to obtain the friendship of the Romans; but so that its acquisition would be to his honour, and not to his shame." In reply to this, Quinctius said,--"Since we are deliberating on what would be honourable, and which, indeed with a people who held the first rank among the nations of the world, and with so great a king, ought to be the sole, or at least the primary object of regard; tell me, I pray you, which do you think more honourable, to wish to give liberty to all the Grecian cities in every part of the world; or to make them slaves and vassals? Since Antiochus thinks it conducive to his glory, to reduce to slavery those cities, which his great-grandfather held by the right of arms, but which his grandfather or father never occupied as their property while the Roman people, having undertaken the patronage of the liberty of the Greeks, deem it incumbent on their faith and constancy not to abandon it. As they have delivered Greece from Philip, so they have it in contemplation to deliver, from Antiochus, all the states of Asia which are of the Grecian race. For colonies were not sent into Aeolia and Ionia to be enslaved to kings; but with design to increase the population, and to propagate that ancient race in every part of the globe."

When Hegesianax hesitated, and could not deny, that the cause of liberty carried a more honourable semblance than that of slavery, Publius Sulpicius, who was the eldest of the ten ambassadors, said,--"Let us cut the matter short. Choose one of the two conditions clearly propounded just now by Quinctius; or deem it superfluous to negotiate about an alliance." But Menippus replied, "We neither will, nor can, accede to any proposition by which the dominions of Antiochus would be diminished." Next day, Quinctius brought into the senate-house all the ambassadors of Greece and Asia, in order that they might learn the dispositions entertained by the Roman people, and by Antiochus, towards the Grecian states. He then acquainted them with his own demands, and those of the king; and desired them to "assure their respective states, that the same disinterested zeal and courage, which the Roman people had displayed in defence of their liberty against the encroachments of Philip, they would, likewise, exert against those of Antiochus, if he should refuse to retire out of Europe." On this, Menippus earnestly besought Quinctius and the senate, "not to be hasty in forming their determination, which, in its effects, might disturb the peace of the whole world; to take time to themselves, and allow the king time for consideration; that, when informed of the conditions proposed, he would consider them, and either obtain some relaxation in the terms, or accede to them for the sake of peace." Accordingly, the business was deferred entire; and a resolution passed, that the same ambassadors should be sent to the king who had attended him at Lysimachia,--Publius Sulpicius, Publius Villius, and Publius Aelius.

Scarcely had these begun their journey, when ambassadors from Carthage brought information, that Antiochus was evidently preparing for war, and that Hannibal was employed in his service; which gave reason to fear, that a Punic war might break out at the same time. Hannibal, on leaving his own country, had gone to Antiochus, as was mentioned before, and was held by the king in high estimation, not so much for his other qualifications, as because, to a person who had long been revolving schemes for a war with Rome, there could not be any fitter participator of his counsels on such a subject. His opinion was always one and the same, that the war should be carried on in Italy: because "Italy would supply a foreign enemy both with men and provisions; but, if it were left in quiet, and the Roman people were allowed to employ the strength and forces of Italy, in making war beyond the limits of that country, no king or nation would be able to cope with them." He demanded, for himself, one hundred decked ships, ten thousand foot, and one thousand horse. "With this force," he said, "he would first repair to Africa; and he had confident hopes, that he should be able to prevail on the Carthaginians to revive hostilities. If they should hesitate, he would raise a war against the Romans in some part of Italy. That the king ought to cross over into Europe with all the rest of his force, and keep his army in some part of Greece; not to pass over immediately into Italy, but to be in readiness to do so; which would sufficiently conduce to the imposing character and the reported magnitude of the war."

When he had brought the king to agree in his opinion, he judged it necessary to predispose the minds of his countrymen to the same; but he durst not send a letter, lest it might, by some accident, be intercepted, and his plans by that means, be discovered. He had found at Ephesus a Tyrian called Aristo, and in several less important commissions, had discovered him to possess a good degree of ingenuity. This man he now loaded with presents and promises of rewards which were confirmed by the king himself, and sent him to Carthage with messages. He told him the names of the persons whom it was necessary that he should see, and furnished him with secret tokens, by which they would know, with certainty, that the messages came from him. On this Aristo's appearing at Carthage, the reason of his coming was not discovered by Hannibal's friends sooner than by his enemies. At first, the subject was bruited about in their circles and at their tables; and at last some persons declared in the senate that "the banishment of Hannibal answered no purpose, if while resident in another country, he was still able to propagate designs for changing the administration, and disturbing the quiet of the state by his intrigues. That a Tyrian stranger, named Aristo, had come with a commission from Hannibal and king Antiochus; that certain men daily held secret conferences with him, and were concocting that in private, the consequences of which would soon break out, to the ruin of the public." This produced a general outcry, that "Aristo ought to be summoned, and examined respecting the reason of his coming; and if he did not disclose it, to be sent to Rome, with ambassadors accompanying him: that they had already suffered enough of punishment in atonement of the headstrong rashness of one individual; that the faults of private citizens should be at their own risk, and the state should be preserved free, not only from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it." Aristo, being summoned, contended for his innocence; and urged, as his strongest defence, that he had brought no letter to any person whatever: but he gave no satisfactory reason for his coming, and was chiefly embarrassed by the fact which they urged, that he had conversed solely with men of the Barcine faction. A warm debate ensued; some earnestly pressing, that he should be immediately seized as a spy, and kept in custody; while others insisted, that there were not sufficient grounds for such violent measures; that "putting strangers into confinement, without reason, was a step that afforded a bad precedent; for that the same would happen to the Carthaginians at Tyre, and other marts, where they frequently traded." The question was adjourned on that day. Aristo practised on the Carthaginians a Carthaginian artifice; for having early in the evening hung up a written tablet, in the most frequented place of the city, over the tribunal where the magistrates daily sat, he went on board his ship at the third watch, and fled. Next day, when the suffetes had taken their seats to administer justice, the tablet was observed, taken down, and read. Its contents were, that "Aristo came not with a private commission to any person, but with a public one to the elders;" by this name they called the senate. The imputation being thus thrown on the state, less pains were taken in searching into the suspicions harboured of a few individuals: however, it was determined, that ambassadors should be sent to Rome, to represent the affair to the consuls and the senate, and, at the same time, to complain of the injuries received from Masinissa.

When Masinissa observed that the Carthaginians were looked on with jealousy by others, and were full of dissensions among themselves; the nobles being suspected by the senate, on account of their conferences with Aristo, and the senate by the people, in consequence of the information given by the same Aristo, he thought that, at such a conjuncture, he might successfully encroach on their rights; and accordingly he laid waste their country along the sea-coast, and compelled several cities, which were tributary to the Carthaginians, to pay their taxes to him. This tract they call Emporia; it forms the shore of the lesser Syrtis, and has a fertile soil; one of its cities is Leptis, which paid a tribute to the Carthaginians of a talent a day. At this time, Masinissa not only ravaged that whole tract, but, with respect to a considerable part of it, disputed the right of possession with the Carthaginians; and when he learned that they were sending to Rome, both to justify their conduct, and, at the same time, to make complaints of him, he likewise sent ambassadors to Rome, to load them with suspicions, and to discuss the right to the taxes. The Carthaginians were heard first, and their account of the Tyrian stranger gave the senate no small uneasiness, as they dreaded being involved in war with Antiochus and the Carthaginians at the same time. What contributed chiefly to strengthen a suspicion of evil designs, was, that though they had resolved to seize Aristo, and send him to Rome, they had not placed a guard either on himself or his ship. Then began the controversy with the king's ambassadors, on the claims of the territory in dispute. The Carthaginians supported their cause by a boundary claim, urging that "It must belong to them, as being within the limits which Scipio, after conquering the country, had fixed as the boundaries which should be under Carthaginian rule; and also, by the acknowledgment of the king, who, when he was going in pursuit of Aphir, a fugitive from his kingdom, then hovering about Cyrene, with a party of Numidians, had solicited as a favour a passage through that very district, as being confessedly a part of the Carthaginian dominions." The Numidians insisted, "that they were guilty of misrepresentation with respect to the limits fixed by Scipio; and if a person chose to recur to the real origin of their property, what title had the Carthaginians to call any land in Africa their own: foreigners and strangers, to whom had been granted precariously, for the purpose of building a city, as much ground as they could encompass with the cuttings of a bull's hide? Whatever acquisitions they had made beyond Byrsa, their original settlement, they held by fraud and violence; for, in relation to the land in question, so far were they from being able to prove uninterrupted possession, from the time when it was first acquired, that they cannot even prove that they ever possessed it for any considerable time. As occasions offered, sometimes they, sometimes the kings of Numidia, had held the dominion of it; and the possession of it had always been held by the party which had the greatest armed force. They requested the senate to suffer the matter to remain on the same footing on which it stood before the Carthaginians became enemies to the Romans, or the king of Numidia their friend and ally; and not to interfere, so as to hinder whichever party was able, from keeping possession."--The senate resolved to tell the ambassadors of both parties, that they would send persons into Africa to determine the present controversy between the people of Carthage and the king. They accordingly sent Publius Scipio Africanus, Caius Cornelius Cethegus, and Marcus Minucius Rufus; who, after viewing the ground, and hearing what could be said on both sides, left every thing in suspense, their opinions inclining neither to one side nor the other. Whether they acted in this manner from their own judgment, or because they had been so instructed, is by no means so certain as it is, that as affairs were circumstanced, it was highly expedient to leave the dispute undecided: for, had the case been otherwise, Scipio alone, either from his own knowledge of the business, or the influence which he possessed, and to which he had a just claim on both parties, could, with a nod, have ended the controversy.

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In the beginning of the same year, Sextus Digitius, praetor in the Hither Spain, fought with those states which, after the departure of Marcus Cato, had, in great numbers, recommenced hostilities, numerous battles, but none deserving of particular mention; and all so unfavourable to him, that he scarcely delivered to his successor half the number of men that he had received. In consequence of this, every state in Spain would certainly have resumed new courage, had not the other praetor, Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Cneius, been successful in several engagements on the other side of the Iberus; and, by these means, diffused such a general terror, that no less than fifty towns came over to his side. These exploits Scipio performed in his praetorship. Afterwards, when propraetor, as the Lusitanians, after ravaging the farther Province, were returning home, with an immense booty, he attacked them on their march, and continued the engagement from the third hour of the day to the eighth, before any advantage was gained on either side. He was inferior to the enemy in number of men, but he had the advantage of them in other respects: with his troops formed in a compact body he attacked a long train, encumbered with multitudes of cattle; and with his soldiers fresh, engaged men, fatigued by a long march; for the enemy had set out at the third watch, and besides travelling the remainder of the night, had continued their route to the third hour of the day; nor had they been allowed any rest, as the battle immediately succeeded the toil of the march. Wherefore, though at the beginning they retained some vigour of body and spirits, and, at first, threw the Romans into disorder, yet, after some time, the fight became equal. In this critical situation the propraetor made a vow to celebrate games in honour of Jupiter, in case he should defeat and cut off the enemy. The Romans then made a more vigorous push, and the Lusitanians gave way, and, in a little time, turned their backs. As the victors pursued them briskly, no less than twelve thousand of them were slain, and five hundred and forty taken prisoners, most of whom were horsemen. There were taken, besides, a hundred and thirty-four military standards. Of the Roman army, but seventy-three men were lost. The battle was fought at a small distance from the city of Ilipa. Thither Publius Cornelius led back his victorious army, amply enriched with spoil; all which was exposed to view under the walls of the town, and permission given to the owners to claim their effects. The remainder was put into the hands of the quaestor to be sold, and the money produced by the sale was distributed among the soldiers.

At the time when these occurrences happened in Spain, Caius Flaminius, the praetor, had not yet set out from Rome: therefore these events, as well prosperous as adverse, were reported by himself and his friends in the strongest representations; and he laboured to persuade the senate, that, as a very formidable war had blazed out in his province, and he was likely to receive from Sextus Digitius a very small remnant of an army, and that, too, terrified and disheartened they ought to decree one of the city legions to him, in order that, when he should have united to it the soldiers levied by himself, pursuant to the decree of the senate, he might select from the whole number six thousand five hundred foot and three hundred horse. He said, that "with such a legion as that, (for very little confidence could be placed on the troops of Sextus Digitius,) he would conduct the war." But the elder part of the senate insisted, that "decrees of the senate were not to be passed in consequence of rumours fabricated by private persons for the gratification of magistrates; and that no intelligence should be deemed authentic except it were either written by the praetors, from their provinces, or brought by their deputies. If there was a tumultuous commotion in Spain, they advised a vote, that tumultuary soldiers should be levied by the praetor in some other country than Italy." The senate's intention was that such description of men should be raised in Spain. Valerius Antias says, that Caius Flaminius sailed to Sicily for the purpose of levying troops, and that, on his voyage thence to Spain, being driven by a storm to Africa, he enlisted there many stragglers who had belonged to the army of Publius Africanus; and that, to the levies made in those two provinces, he added a third in Spain.

In Italy the war, commenced by the Ligurians, grew daily more formidable. They now invested Pisae, with an army of forty thousand men; for multitudes flocked to them continually, led by the reports of the war and the expectation of booty. The consul, Minucius, came to Arretium, on the day which he had fixed for the assembling of the troops. Thence he led them, in order of battle, towards Pisae; and though the enemy had removed their camp to the other side of the river, at a distance of no more than three miles from the place, the consul marched into the city, which evidently owed its preservation to his coming. Next day he also encamped on the other side of the river, about a mile from the enemy; and by slight skirmishes protected the lands of the allies from their depredations. He did not think it prudent to hazard a general engagement, because his troops were raw, composed of many different kinds of men, and not yet so well known among themselves that they could rely on one another. The Ligurians depended so much on their numbers, that they not only came out and offered battle, willing to risk every thing on the issue of it; but, from their superfluity of men, they sent out many parties along the frontiers to plunder; and whenever a large quantity of cattle, and other prey, was collected, there was an escort always in readiness to convey it to their forts and towns.

While the operations remained at a stand at Pisae, the other consul, Lucius Cornelius Merula, led his army through the extreme borders of the Ligurians, into the territory of the Boians, where the mode of proceeding was quite the reverse of that which took place in the war of Liguria. The consul took the field; the enemy refused to fight; and the Romans, when no one would come out against them, went out in parties to plunder, while the Boians chose to let their country be laid waste with impunity rather than venture an engagement in defence of it. When all places were completely ravaged with fire and sword, the consul quitted the enemy's lands, and marched towards Mutina, in a careless manner, as through a pacific population. The Boians, when they learned that the enemy had withdrawn beyond their frontiers, followed him as secretly as possible, watching an opportunity for an ambuscade; and, having gone by his camp in the night, took possession of a defile through which the Romans were to pass. But as they were not able to effect this with sufficient secrecy, the consul, who usually began his march late in the night, now waited until day, lest, in the disorderly fight likely to ensue, darkness might increase the confusion; and though he did not stir before it was light, yet he sent forward a troop of horse to explore the country. When intelligence was brought by them of the number and situation of the enemy, he ordered the baggage to be heaped together in the centre, and the veterans to throw up a rampart round it; and then, with the rest of the army in order of battle, he advanced towards the enemy. The Gauls did the same, when they found that their stratagem was detected, and that they were to engage in a fair and regular battle, where success must depend on valour alone.

The battle began about the second hour. The left brigade of the allies, and the Extraordinaries, fought in the first line, and were commanded by two lieutenant-generals of consular dignity, Marcus Marcellus and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been consul the year before. The present consul was sometimes employed in the front of the line, sometimes in keeping back the legions in reserve, that they might not, through eagerness for fighting, come up to the attack until the signal was given. He ordered the two Minucii, Quintus and Publius, military tribunes, to lead off the cavalry on the legions into open ground, at some distance from the line; and "when he should give them the signal, to charge the enemy through the clear space." While he was thus employed, a message came from Tiberius Sempronius Longus, that the Extraordinaries could not support the onset of the Gauls; that great numbers had already fallen; and that partly through weariness, partly through fear, the ardour of the survivors was much abated. He recommended it therefore to the consul, if he thought proper, to send up one or other of the two legions, before the army suffered disgrace. The second legion was accordingly sent, and the Extraordinaries were ordered to retire. By the legion coming up, with its men fresh, and the ranks complete in their numbers, the fight was renewed with vigour. The left wing was withdrawn out of the action, and the right took its place in the van. The intense heat of the sun discomposed the Gauls, whose bodies were very ill qualified to endure it: nevertheless, keeping their ranks close, and leaning sometimes on each other, sometimes on their bucklers, they withstood the attack of the Romans; which, when the consul observed, in order to break their ranks, he ordered Caius Livius Salinator, commander of the allied cavalry, to charge them at full speed, and the legionary cavalry to remain in reserve. This tempest of cavalry first confused and disordered, and at length entirely broke the line of the Gauls; yet it did not make them fly. That was prevented by their officers, who, when they quitted their posts, struck them on the back with their spears, and compelled them to return to their ranks: but the allied cavalry, riding in among them, did not suffer them to recover their order. The consul exhorted his soldiers to "continue their efforts a little longer, for victory was within their reach; to press the enemy, while they saw them disordered and dismayed; for, if they were suffered to recover their ranks, they would enter on a fresh battle with doubtful success." He ordered the standard-bearers to advance with the standards, and then, all exerting themselves at once, they at length forced the enemy to give way. As soon as they turned their backs, and fled precipitately oh every side, the legionary cavalry was sent in pursuit of them. On that day, fourteen thousand of the Boians were slain; one thousand and ninety-two taken--as were seven hundred and twenty-one horsemen, and three of their commanders, with two hundred and twelve military standards, and sixty-three chariots. Nor did the Romans gain the victory without loss of blood: of themselves, or their allies, were lost above five thousand men, twenty-three centurions, four prefects of the allies, and two military tribunes of the second legion, Marcus Genucius and Marcus Marcius.