of the state, which had been abandoned by his colleague, and appoint
him dictator whom the commons had ordered. Thus Quintus Fulvius was
appointed dictator by Marcus Claudius, the consul, and in conformity
with the same order of the people, Publius Licinius Crassus, chief
pontiff, was appointed master of the horse by Quintus Fulvius, the
dictator.

6. After the dictator had arrived at Rome, he sent Cneius Sempronius
Blaesus, who had acted under him as lieutenant general at Capua, into
the province of Etruria, to take the command of the army there, in the
room of the praetor, Caius Calpurnius, whom he had summoned by letter
to take the command of Capua and his own army. He fixed the first date
he could for the election: which, however, could not be brought to
a conclusion, in consequence of a dispute which arose between the
tribunes and the dictator. The junior century of the Galerian tribe,
to whose lot it fell to give the votes first, had named Quintus
Fulvius and Quintus Fabius as consuls; and the other centuries,
on being called upon to vote according to their course, would have
inclined the same way, had not the plebeian tribunes, Caius and Lucius
Arennius interposed. They said, "that it was hardly constitutional
that a chief magistrate should be continued in office but that it was
a precedent still more shocking, that the very person who held the
election should be appointed. Then therefore, if the dictator
should allow his own name to appear they would interpose against the
election; but if the names of any other persons besides himself were
put up, they should not impede it." The dictator defended the election
by the authority of the fathers, the order of the commons, and
precedents. For, "in the consulate of Cneius Servilius, when the other
consul, Caius Flaminius, had fallen at Trasimenus, it was proposed
to the people on the authority of the fathers, and the people had