History of Rome

​The people were immediately ordering the tribes to be called, and it was clear that the law was being accepted; nevertheless, that day was put off by the veto.

​On the following day, the tribunes having been deterred, it was accepted with immense consensus. As pontiffs there were elected Publius Decius Mus, the supporter of the law, Publius Sempronius Sophus, Gaius Marcius Rutilus, and Marcus Livius Denter; likewise, five augurs from the plebs: Gaius Genucius, Publius Aelius Paetus, Marcus Minucius Faesus, Gaius Marcius, and Titus Publilius. Thus the number became eight pontiffs and nine augurs.

​In the same year, Marcus Valerius the consul proposed a law on appeal, more carefully secured. It was then proposed for the third time since the expulsion of the kings, always by the same family. I believe that there was no other reason for renewing it so often, ​than that the power of the few prevailed more than the liberty of the plebs. Yet only the Porcian law seems to have been proposed for the backs of the citizens, because it sanctioned a heavy penalty if anyone should scourge or kill a Roman citizen;

​whereas the Valerian law, although it had forbidden him who had appealed to be beaten with rods and beheaded with the axe, if anyone should act contrary to these things, added nothing more than that it was “a wicked act.”

​That, such was the sense of shame among men at that time, was deemed, I believe, a sufficiently strong bond for a law; nowadays, scarcely anyone would threaten in such a way in earnest.

​A war by no means memorable was waged by the same consul against the rebelling Aequi, though they had nothing of their ancient fortune, except for their fierce spirits.

​The other consul, Apuleius, besieged the town of Nequinum in Umbria. The place was steep and precipitous on one side, where Narnia is now situated, and could be taken neither by force nor by siege-works. Therefore, that unfinished business ​Marcus Fulvius Paetus and Titus Manlius Torquatus, the new consuls, took over.

​When all the centuries were naming Quintus Fabius as consul for that year, though he was not seeking it, Licinius Macer and Tubero relate that he himself was the author of postponing his consulship to a more warlike year, ​saying that in that year he would be of greater use to the commonwealth by holding a city magistracy. Thus, neither concealing what he preferred, nor yet seeking it, he was made curule aedile along with Lucius Papirius Cursor.

​Piso, a more ancient writer of annals, prevented me from putting this down as certain, who relates that the curule aediles in that year were Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, son of Gnaeus, and Spurius Carvilius Maximus, son of Quintus.

​I believe that that cognomen caused the error regarding the aediles, and that a story followed, mixed up from the aedilician and consular comitia, corresponding to the error.

​Also, the lustrum was performed in that year by the censors Publius Sempronius Sophus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, and two tribes were added, the Aniensis and the Terentina. These things were done at Rome.