[537] Q. Metellus said “that the invasion of Hannibal had re-awakened the slumbering virtue of the Roman people.” (Valerius Maximus, VII. ii. 3.) [538] The Senate demanded of thirty colonies men and money. Eighteen gave both with eagerness, namely, Signia, Norba, Saticulum, Brundusium, Fregellæ, Luceria, Venusia, Adria, Firmum, Ariminum, Pontia, Pæstum, Cosa, Beneventum, Isernia, Spoletum, Placentia, and Cremona. The twelve colonies which refused to give any succours, pretending that they had neither men nor money, were: Nepete, Sutrium, Ardea, Cales, Alba, Carseoli, Cora, Suessa, Setia, Circeii, Narnia, Interamna. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 9.) [539] “The quarrels and struggles between the two parties ended in the second Punic war.” (Sallust, _Fragments_, I. vii.) [540] “Four tribes referred it to the Senate to grant the right of suffrage to Formiæ, Fundi, and Arpinum; but they were told in reply that to the people alone belonged the right of suffrage.” (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 36.) [541] “The annual change of generals was disastrous to the Romans. They recalled all those who had experience in war, as though they had been sent not to fight, but only to practice.” (Zonaras, _Annales_, VIII. 16.) [542] Titus Livius, XXII. 29. [543] Titus Livius, XXVII. 5, 7. [544] Titus Livius, XXXII. 28. [545] Titus Livius, XXXI. 4, 49. [546] Titus Livius, XXIV. 49.--Polybius, III. 75. [547] Zonaras, _Annales_, VIII. 16. [548] Titus Livius, XXXIX. 3. [549] Plutarch, _Marcellus_, 28. [550] Titus Livius, XXIII. 30. [551] Titus Livius, XXXIV. 54. [552] “Et equites Romanos milites et negociatores.” (Sallust, _Jugurtha_, 65.) [553] “In 342, a senator and two knights were charged, during a famine, with the provisioning of Rome.” (Titus Livius, IV. 3.) [554] _Seminarium senatus._ (Titus Livius, XLII. 61.) [555] Titus Livius, XXIII. 49.--Valerius Maximus, V. vi. 8. [556] Titus Livius, XXI. 63; XXV. 3. [557] Valerius Maximus, IV. viii. 2. [558] Valerius Maximus, IV. v. 1. [559] They had no deliberative voice, because, according to the public Roman law, no acting magistrate could vote. (See Mommsen, i. 187.) [560] “Now you have still the comitia by centuries, and the comitia by tribes. As for the comitia by curiæ, they are observed only for the auspices.” (Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 9.)