§23.23.1is ubi cum lictoribus in rostra escendit, neque duos dictatores tempore uno, quod numquam antea factum esset, §23.23.2probare se dixit, neque dictatorem sine magistro equitum, nec censoriam vim uni permissam et eidem iterum, nec dictatori nisi rei gerendae causa creato in sex menses datum imperium.
When he ascended the rostra with his lictors, he said that he did not approve of there being two dictators at one time, a thing which had never happened before, nor of a dictator without a master of the horse, nor of censorial power being entrusted to one man and to the same man a second time, nor of imperium for six months being given to a dictator unless he had been created for the purpose of conducting war.
§23.23.3quae inmoderata fors tempus ac necessitas fecerit, iis se modum impositurum: nam neque senatu quemquam moturum ex iis, quos C. Flaminius L. Aemilius censores in senatum legissent; §23.23.4transcribi tantum recitarique eos iussurum, ne penes unum hominem iudicium arbitriumque de fama ac moribus senatoris fuerit; et ita in demortuorum locum sublecturum, ut ordo ordini, non homo homini praelatus videretur.
He said that he would set a limit to those things which irregular fortune, time, and necessity had brought about; for he would not remove from the senate anyone of those whom the censors C. Flaminius and L. Aemilius had chosen into the senate; he would only order their names to be transcribed and read out, so that the judgment and decision concerning the reputation and morals of a senator should not rest with a single man; and he would select others in place of the deceased in such a way that rank should seem to have been preferred to rank, not man to man.
§23.23.5recitato vetere senatu inde primos in demortuorum locum legit, qui post L. Aemilium C. Flaminium censores curulem magistratum cepissent necdum in senatum lecti essent, ut quisque eorum primus creatus erat; §23.23.6tum legit, qui aediles, tribuni plebis quaestoresve fuerant; tum ex iis, qui minores magistratus cepissent, qui spolia ex hoste fixa domi haberent aut civicam coronam accepissent.
After the old senate list had been read out, he then selected in place of the deceased, first, those who had held a curule magistracy since the censorship of L. Aemilius and C. Flaminius and had not yet been chosen into the senate, in the order in which each had been first elected; next, he selected those who had been aediles, tribunes of the plebs, or quaestors; then, from among those who had held lesser magistracies, those who had spoils taken from the enemy fixed at home or had received a civic crown.
§23.23.7ita centum septuaginta septem cum ingenti adprobatione hominum in senatum lectis extemplo se magistratu abdicavit privatusque de rostris descendit lictoribus abire iussis, turbaeque se inmiscuit privatas agentium res, §23.23.8tempus sedulo terens, ne deducendi sui causa populum de foro abduceret: neque tamen elanguit cura hominum ea mora, frequentesque eum domum deduxerunt.
Having thus chosen one hundred and seventy-seven men into the senate with the immense approval of the people, he immediately abdicated his office and descended from the rostra as a private citizen, having ordered the lictors to depart, and mingled with the crowd of people attending to their private business, diligently killing time so that he might not lead the people away from the forum for the sake of escorting him; yet the people's devotion did not cool through that delay, and they escorted him home in great numbers.
§23.23.9consul nocte insequenti ad exercitum redit non facto certiore senatu, ne *omitiorum causa in urbe retineretur.
The consul returned to the army on the following night without making the senate aware, lest he should be detained in the city for the sake of the elections.