his wife. In 216, just after the battle of Cannae, he made a most remarkable proposal, to fill up the gaps which that battle had made in the numbers of the senate by selecting two members from each of the Latin communities. It was almost the only occasion in the course of Roman history when anything like modern representative government was advocated. Carvilius was not sprung from one of the noble families, who for the most part monopolized the higher offices of state, it is therefore not surprising that he should have sympathized with Flaminius. -- CONTRA SENATUS AUCTORITATEM: 'against the expressed wish of the senate' _Senatus auctoritas_ is, strictly speaking, an opinion of the senate not formally embodied in a decree, _senatus consultum_. Cicero, in Invent. 2, 52 says Flaminius carried his law _contra voluntatem omnium optimatium_. -- DIVIDENTI: 'when he tried to divide'. The participle is here equivalent to _cum_ with the imperfect indicative (dividebat). So in 54 _lenientem_ A. 290, _a_; G 668; H 549, 1. P. 6. -- CUM ESSET: '_though_ he was'. What Fabius declared was reaily that the _auspicia_ were a political instrument in the hands of the aristocrats, rather than a part of religion. Fabius, according to Liv. 30, 26, 7, was augur for 62 years before his death, and had no doubt had a large experience in the manipulation of the _auspicia_ for political purposes. Compare Homer, Iliad, 12, 243, also Cic. Phil. 11, 28 _Iuppiter ipse sanxit ut omnia quae rei publicae salutaria essent legitima et iusta haberentur_. Consult Mommsen, Hist of Rome, Bk. IV. Ch. 12.