ht in determining who shall sit
at the helm Of you, Titus Otacilius, we have had experience in a
business of less magnitude, and, certainly you have not given us any
proof that we ought to confide to you affairs of greater moment The
fleet which you commanded this year we fitted out for three objects:
to lay waste the coast of Africa, to protect the shores of Italy, but,
above all, to prevent the conveyance of reinforcements with pay and
provisions from Carthage to Hannibal. Now if Titus Otacilius has
performed for the state, I say not all, but any one of these services,
make him consul But if, while you had the command of the fleet
supplies of whatever sort were conveyed safe and untouched to
Hannibal, even as though he had no enemy on the sea, if the coast of
Italy has been more infested this year than that of Africa, what can
you have to urge why you should be preferred before all others as the
antagonist of Hannibal? Were you consul, we should give it as our
opinion that a dictator should be appointed in obedience to the
example of our ancestors Nor could you feel offended that some one in
the Roman nation was deemed superior to you in war It concerns
yourself more than any one else, Titus Otacilius, that there be not
laid upon your shoulders a burthen under which you would fall I
earnestly exhort you, that with the same feelings which would
influence you if standing armed for battle, you were called upon
suddenly to elect two generals, under whose conduct and auspices you
were to fight, you would this day elect your consuls, to whom your
children are to swear allegiance, at whose command they are to
assemble, and under whose protection and care they are to serve. The
Trasimene Lake and Cannae are melancholy precedents to look back upon,
but form useful warnings to guard against similar disasters Crier,
call back the younger century of the Amen tribe to give their votes
again"

9. Titus Otacilius, vociferating in the most furious manner, that his
object was to continue in the consulship, the consul ordered the
lictors to go to him, and as he had not entered the city, but had
proceeded directly without halting from his march to the Campus
Martius, admonished him that the axes were in the fasces which were
carried before him. The prerogative century proceeded to vote a second
time, when Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth time, and Marcus
Marcellus for the third time, were created consuls. The other
centuries vote