ther centuries,
on being called upon to vote according to their course, would have
inclined the same way, had not the plebeian tribunes, Caius and Lucius
Arennius interposed. They said, "that it was hardly constitutional
that a chief magistrate should be continued in office but that it was
a precedent still more shocking, that the very person who held the
election should be appointed. Then therefore, if the dictator
should allow his own name to appear they would interpose against the
election; but if the names of any other persons besides himself were
put up, they should not impede it." The dictator defended the election
by the authority of the fathers, the order of the commons, and
precedents. For, "in the consulate of Cneius Servilius, when the other
consul, Caius Flaminius, had fallen at Trasimenus, it was proposed
to the people on the authority of the fathers, and the people had
ordered, that as long as the war continued in Italy, it should be
lawful for the people to elect to the consulship whomsoever they
pleased, out of those persons who had been consuls, and as often as
they pleased. That he had a precedent of ancient date, which was to
the point, in the case of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, who, while he
was interrex, had been created consul with Caius Junius Bubulcus, at
an election over which he himself presided; and a precedent of recent
date, in Quintus Fabius, who certainly would never have allowed
himself to be re-elected, had it not been for the good of the state."
After the contest had been continued for a long time, by arguments
of this kind, at length the tribunes and the dictator came to an
agreement, that they should abide by what the senate should decide.
The fathers were of opinion, that such was then the condition of the
state, that it was necessary that its affairs should be conducted by
old and experienced generals, who were skilled in the art of war;
and, therefore, that no delay should take place in the election. The
tribunes then withdrew their opposition, and the election was held.
Quintus Fabius Maximus was declared consul for the fifth time,
and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth. The praetors were then
created; Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quintus Crispinus, Caius
Hostilius Tubulus, and Caius Aurunculeius. The magistrates for the
year being appointed, Quintus Fulvius resigned the dictatorship. At
the end of this summer, a Carthaginian fleet of forty ships, under the
command of Hamilcar