at he would act in this
affair according to his own free will, and would choose Quintus Fabius
Maximus, whom he would prove to be the first man in the Roman state,
even in the judgment of Hannibal. After a long verbal dispute, his
colleague giving up the point, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, was
chosen, by Sempronius, chief of the senate. Another senate was then
chosen, and eight names were passed over; among which was that
of Lucius Caecilius Metellus, disrespected as the adviser of the
abandonment of Italy, after the defeat at Cannae. In censuring those
of the equestrian order, the same ground was acted upon, but there
were very few to whom that disgrace belonged. All of the equestrian
order belonging to the legions who had fought at Cannae, and were then
in Sicily, were deprived of their horses. To this severe punishment
they added another relating to time, which was, that the past campaign
which they had served on horses furnished at the public expense should
not be reckoned to them, but that they should serve ten campaigns on
horses furnished at their own expense. They also searched for, and
discovered, a great number of those who ought to have served in the
cavalry; and all those who were seventeen years old at the beginning
of the war and had not served, they disfranchised. They then
contracted for the restoration of the seven shops, the shamble and the
royal palace, situated round the forum, and which had been consumed by
fire.

12. Having finished every thing which was to be done in Rome, the
consuls set out for the war. Fulvius first went advance to Capua; in
a few days Fabius followed. He implored his colleague in person,
and Marcellus by a letter use the most vigorous measures to detain
Hannibal, while he was making an attack upon Tarentum. That when that
city was taken from the enemy, who had been repulsed on all sides and
had no place where he might make a stand or look back up as a safe
retreat, he would not then have even a pretext for remaining in Italy.
He also sent a messenger to Rhegium, the praefect of the garrison,
which had been placed there the consul Laevinus, against the
Bruttians, and consisted eight thousand men, the greater part of
whom had been brought from Agathyrna in Sicily, as has been before
mentioned, and were men who had been accustomed to live by rapine. To
these were added fugitives of the Bruttians natives of that country,
equal to them in daring, and under an equal necessit