The two most prominent men in Rome at this time were Scipio Africanus and Marcus Cato. Of these Titus appointed Scipio to be President of the Senate, as being the first man in the state, but he quarrelled with Cato for the following reason. Titus had a brother, Lucius Flamininus, who was very unlike himself in disposition, being licentious in his pleasures and careless of his reputation. He had a favourite whom he always took with him even when he was in command of an army or governor of a province. This boy once at a wine party said that he was so greatly attached to Lucius, that he left a show of gladiators before he had seen a man killed, to please him. Lucius, delighted at this proof of affection, said, "That is easily remedied; I will gratify your wish." He ordered a condemned criminal to be brought, sent for the executioner, and bade him strike off the man's head in the banquetting chamber. Valerius of Antium says that Lucius did this to please a female, not a male favourite. But Livy says that in Cato's own speech on the subject we are told that Lucius, to gratify his favourite, slew with his own hand a Gaulish deserter who came with his wife and children to the door, and whom he had himself invited into the banquetting chamber. It is probable that Cato added these particulars to exaggerate the horror of the story, for Cicero the Orator, who gives the story in his book 'On Old Age,' and many other writers, say that the man was not a deserter, but a criminal, and condemned to death.