§26.29.1his senatus consultis perfectis sortiti provincias consules.
When these decrees of the senate were completed, the consuls cast lots for the provinces.
Sicilia et classis Marcello, Italia cum bello adversus Hannibalem Laevino evenit.
Sicily and the fleet fell to Marcellus, Italy and the war against Hannibal to Laevinus.
§26.29.2quae sors, velut iterum captis Syracusis, ita exanimavit Siculos expectatione sortis in consulum conspectu stantis, ut comploratio eorum flebilesque voces et extemplo oculos hominum converterint et postmodo sermones praebuerint.
This lot, as if Syracuse had been captured a second time, so disheartened the Sicilians who were standing in the presence of the consuls awaiting the result of the lot, that their lamentation and mournful cries immediately turned the eyes of all upon them and afterwards gave rise to much talk.
§26.29.3circumibant enim senatorum domos cum veste sordida adfirmantes se non modo suam quosque patriam sed totam Siciliam relicturos, si eo Marcellus iterum cum imperio redisset.
For they went around the houses of the senators in mourning garb, declaring that they would leave not only each his own native city but the whole of Sicily, if Marcellus should return there again with command.
§26.29.4nullo suo merito eum ante inplacabilem in se fuisse: quid iratum, quod Romam de se questum venisse Siculos sciat, facturum? obrui Aetnae ignibus aut mergi freto satius illi insulae esse quam velut dedi noxae inimico.
They asserted that he had previously been implacable toward them when they had done nothing to deserve it; what then would he do now when he was angry, knowing that the Sicilians had come to Rome to complain about him? It would be better for that island to be buried under the fires of Etna or submerged in the strait than to be delivered up, as it were, as a scapegoat to an enemy.
§26.29.5hae Siculorum querellae domos primum nobilium circumlatae celebrataeque sermonibus, quos partim misericordia Siculorum partim invidia Marcelli excitabat, in senatum etiam pervenerunt.
These complaints of the Sicilians, having first been carried around the houses of the nobles and made a common subject of conversation, which was excited partly by pity for the Sicilians and partly by ill-will toward Marcellus, at length reached even the senate.
§26.29.6postulatum a consulibus est, ut de permutandis provinciis senatum consulerent.
A demand was made on the consuls to consult the senate about exchanging the provinces.
Marcellus, si iam auditi ab senatu Siculi essent, aliam forsitan futuram fuisse sententiam suam dicere: §26.29.7nunc, ne quis timore frenari eos dicere possit, quo minus de eo libere querantur, in cuius potestate mox futuri sint, si conlegae nihil intersit, mutare se provinciam paratum esse.
Marcellus said that if the Sicilians had already been heard by the senate, his own opinion would perhaps have been different; but now, lest anyone should be able to say that they were restrained by fear from complaining freely about the man in whose power they would soon be, he was ready to change his province, provided it made no difference to his colleague.
§26.29.8deprecari senatus praeiudicium: nam cum extra sortem conlegae optionem dari provinciae iniquum fuerit, quanto maiorem iniuriam, immo contumeliam esse, sortem suam ad eum transferri?
He begged, however, to be spared a prejudgment by the senate; for if it had been unjust to give his colleague a choice of province without casting lots, how much greater an injustice, or rather insult, would it be for his own lot to be transferred to him?
§26.29.9ita senatus, cum, quid placeret, magis ostendisset quam decresset, dimittitur.
Thus the senate, having shown what pleased them rather than decreeing it, was dismissed.
inter ipsos consules permutatio provinciarum, §26.29.10rapiente fato Marcellum ad Hannibalem, facta est, ut, ex quo primus post adversa omniasecundae pugnae gloriam ceperat, in eius laudem postremus Romanorum imperatorum, prosperis tum maxime bellicis rebus, caderet.
The exchange of provinces between the consuls themselves was made, fate hurrying Marcellus to Hannibal, so that, as he had been the first to win the glory of a successful battle after all the reverses, he might fall, the last of the Roman generals, in his own glory, at a time when military affairs were otherwise most prosperous.