nder auspices,
to be transferred to camps and provinces, and (far from the control of
the laws and magistrates) to military thoughtlessness. And though some
gave it as their opinion, that the sense of the senate should be taken
on the matter, yet it was thought more advisable that the discussion
should be postponed till after the departure of the horsemen who
brought the letter from Marcius. It was resolved, that an answer
should be returned respecting the corn and clothing of the army,
stating, that the senate would direct its attention to both those
matters; but that the letter should not be addressed to Lucius
Marcius, propraetor, lest he should consider that as already
determined which was the very point they reserved for discussion.
After the horsemen were dismissed, it was the first thing the consuls
brought before the senate; and the opinions of all to a man coincided,
that the plebeian tribunes should be instructed to consult the commons
with all possible speed, as to whom they might resolve to send into
Spain to take the command of that army which had been under the
conduct of Cneius Scipio. The plebeian tribunes were instructed
accordingly, and the question was published. But another contest had
pre-engaged the minds of the people: Caius Sempronius Blaesus, having
brought Cneius Fulvius to trial for the loss of the army in Apulia,
harassed him with invectives in the public assemblies: "Many
generals," he reiterated, "had by indiscretion and ignorance brought
their armies into most perilous situations, but none, save Cneius
Fulvius, had corrupted his legions by every species of excess before
he betrayed them to the enemy; it might therefore with truth be said,
that they were lost before they saw the enemy, and that they were
defeated, not by Hannibal, but by their own general. No man, when he
gave his vote, took sufficient pains in ascertaining who it was to
whom he was intrusting an army. What a difference was there between
this man and Tiberius Sempronius! The latter having been intrusted
with an army of slaves, had in a short time brought it to pass, by
discipline and authority, that not one of them in the field of battle
remembered his condition and birth, but they became a protection to
our allies and a terror to our enemies. They had snatched, as it were,
from the very jaws of Hannibal, and restored to the Roman people,
Cumae, Beneventum, and other towns. But Cneius Fulvius had infected
with the vices pec