more of his life there than at Carthage. That the Roman people were
enjoying the fruits of the prolonged command of Marcellus; that his
army, after having been twice defeated, was now spending the summer
at Venusia lodged in houses." Marcellus so completely destroyed the
effect of this harangue of the tribune, by the recital of the services
he had rendered, that not only the bill for depriving him of his
command was thrown out, but the following day he was created consul
by the votes of all the centuries with wonderful unanimity. Titus
Quinctius Crispinus, who was then praetor, was joined with him as his
colleague. The next day Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, then chief
pontiff, Publius Licinius Varus, Sextus Julius Caesar, and Quintus
Claudius Flamen were created praetors. At the very time of the
election, the public were thrown into a state of anxiety relative to
the defection of Etruria. Caius Calpurnius, who held that province as
propraetor, had written word that the Arretians had originated such
a scheme. Accordingly Marcellus, consul elect, was immediately sent
thither to look into the affair, and if it should appear to him of
sufficient consequence, to send for his army and transfer the war from
Apulia to Etruria. The Tuscans, checked by the alarm thus occasioned,
desisted. To the ambassadors of Tarentum, who solicited a treaty of
peace securing to them their liberty and the enjoyment of their own
laws, the senate answered, that they might return when the consul
Fabius came to Rome. The Roman and plebeian games were this year
repeated each for one day. The curule aediles were, Lucius Cornelius
Caudinus and Servius Sulpicius Galba; the plebeian aediles, Caius
Servilius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus. It was asserted that
Servilius was not qualified to be plebeian tribune or aedile, because
it was satisfactorily established that his father, who, for ten years,
was supposed to have been killed by the Boii in the neighbourhood of
Mutina, when acting as triumvir for the distribution of lands, was