History of Rome

​The consul Marcus Valerius, summoned by the letter, having entrusted his province and army to the praetor Lucius Cincius, and having sent Marcus Valerius Messalla, the commander of the fleet, with a part of the ships to Africa to plunder and at the same time to spy out what the Carthaginian people were doing and preparing, ​himself set out for Rome with ten ships, and when he had arrived safely, he immediately held a meeting of the senate.

​There he recounted his own achievements: that although war had been waged in Sicily on land and sea for nearly sixty years, often with great disasters, he had pacified that province; that there was not a single Carthaginian near Sicily;

​that there was no Sicilian who, having been driven away by fear, was not now present; that all had been restored to their cities and their fields, and were plowing and sowing;

​that the deserted land was finally being cultivated again, being fruitful for the tillers themselves and a most reliable support for the grain supply of the Roman people in peace and war.

​Thereupon Muttines and any others whose merits toward the Roman people were recognized, having been introduced to the senate, honors were bestowed upon all of them to fulfill the promise of the consul.

​Muttines was even made a Roman citizen by a bill proposed to the commons by a tribune of the plebs on the authority of the senators.

​While these things were being done at Rome, Marcus Valerius, having approached Africa before dawn with fifty ships, made a sudden landing on the territory of Utica;

​and having devastated it far and wide, after capturing many mortals along with all kinds of other plunder, he returned to the ships and crossed over to Sicily, returning to Lilybaeum on the thirteenth day after he had set out from there.

​An examination of the prisoners having been held, the following facts were discovered and written down in order to the consul Laevinus, so that he might know in what state the affairs of Africa were:

​that five thousand Numidians with Masinissa, the son of Gala, an extremely energetic youth, were at Carthage, and that other soldiers were being hired for pay throughout all Africa, ​to be crossed over to Spain to Hasdrubal, so that he, with as large an army as possible, might cross over to Italy at the very first opportunity and join himself to Hannibal;

​that the Carthaginians believed victory to be placed in him; and furthermore, that a huge fleet was being prepared to recover Sicily, and they believed that it would cross over shortly.

​These things, having been read aloud by the consul, so moved the senate that they did not think the elections should be awaited by the consul, but that he should return immediately to his province after a dictator had been appointed for the purpose of holding the elections.

​The following dispute held them back, because the consul said that he would name Marcus Valerius Messalla, who was then in command of the fleet, as dictator in Sicily, while the senators denied that a dictator could be named outside of Roman territory, which was bounded by Italy.

​When Marcus Lucretius, a tribune of the plebs, consulted on this matter, the senate decreed that the consul, before he departed from the city, should ask the people whom they wished to be named dictator, and should name as dictator him whom the people ordered; if the consul refused, the praetor should ask the people; if not even he wished to do so, then the tribunes should bring the matter to the commons.

​Since the consul had refused to ask the people, on the ground that it was within his own power, and had forbidden the praetor to ask them, the tribunes of the plebs asked them, and the commons resolved that Quintus Fulvius, who was then at Capua, should be named dictator.

​But on the day on which that council of the commons was to be held, the consul departed secretly by night for Sicily; and the deserted senators decided that a letter should be sent to Marcus Claudius, so that he might succor the state deserted by his colleague, and name as dictator him whom the people had ordered.

​Thus Quintus Fulvius was named dictator by the consul Marcus Claudius, and by the same decree of the commons, Publius Licinius Crassus, the pontifex maximus, was named master of the horse by the dictator Quintus Fulvius.