point of time from which the calculation begins is included. See
Zumpt, S 867. But we here reckon according to the calendar such as it
was subsequently reformed and rectified by J. Caesar.
[153] _Portenta_ are chiefly human beings or animals presenting at their
birth anything abnormal or monstrous; _prodigia_, on the other hand,
are strange phenomena in the heavens; and the superstition of the
ancients regarded both as signs sent by the gods to warn men.
[154] _Senati_ for _senatus_. See Zumpt, S 81.
[155] _Hi utrique_ for _horum uterque_. Zumpt, S 141, note 2.
[156] Both had received the military command (_imperium_) from the
senate and people: Marcius Rex as proconsul of Cilicia, and Metellus
for the purpose of subduing Crete. After their return from their
provinces, they tarried for a time outside the walls of Rome (_ad
urbem_), because, by entering the city, they would have lost their
imperium, which they were anxious to retain until their solemn
entrance in a military procession (the triumph), to which the senate
had not yet given its sanction. Accordingly, as they were still
generals in active service, they could legally be intrusted with the
military command in the disturbed districts of Italy.
[157] The intrigues of some influential members of the senate, who had
either received bribes from the opponents of the two commanders, or
expected some from the commanders themselves, prevented the
resolution of the senate here alluded to. Respecting _mos erat
vendere_, see Zumpt, S 598.
[158] Supply to the two names of places _missus est_, which is implied
in the preceding sentence.
[159] _Sestertia centum_; that is, _centum millia sestertiorum_, or the
ancient census of the citizens of the first class; for the neuter
sestertia was used in calculations as an imaginary coin of _mille
sestertii_ or ten nummi aurei.