In this manner Marcus Marcellus had been accused by the Syracusans; and Quintus Fulvius by the Campanians. Why might not the senate as well allow Titus Quintius to be accused by king Philip; Manius Acilius and Lucius Scipio, by Antiochus; Cneius Manlius, by the Gauls; and Fulvius himself, by the Ætolians and the states of Cephallenia? Do you think, conscript fathers, either that I in behalf of Marcus Fulvius, or that Marcus Fulvius himself, will deny the besieging and taking Ambracia, the removing thence the statues and ornaments, and the other proceedings, which are usual on the capture of cities? He is about to demand a triumph from you for those very services, and to carry before his chariot those statues, the removal of which is charged as criminal, together with the other spoils of that city, and hang them up on the pillars of his house. There is no kind of pretence for their separating themselves from the Ætolians; the cause of the Ambracians and of the Ætolians is the same. Let, therefore, my colleague either vent his malice in some other case; or, if he is determined to proceed in this, let him detain his Ambracians until Fulvius comes home. I will not suffer any determination, concerning either the Ambracians or Ætolians, to pass in the absence of Marcus Fulvius.” 44. When Æmilius inveighed against the artful malignity of his adversary as being notorious to all, and affirmed, that he would spin out the time by affecting delays, so as not to return to Rome while an adversary was consul; two days were wasted in this dispute, and it was apparent that while Flaminius was present, no decision of the cause could be procured. The opportunity was eagerly caught at by Æmilius, when Flaminius, happening to fall sick, was absent, and on his proposing the motion the senate decreed, that, “all their effects should be restored to the Ambracians, that they should enjoy liberty, and the benefit of their own laws, and should levy what duties they might think proper on goods conveyed by land or sea, provided that the Romans and the allies of the Latin nation should be exempted therefrom. That with respect to the statues, and other ornaments, which they complained were carried away from their sacred buildings, their order was, that immediately on the return of Marcus Fulvius to Rome, the business should be laid before the college of pontiffs, and that whatever they might think proper should be done.” Nor was the consul content with this; but afterwards, in a badly attended meeting, he procured a clause to be added to the decree, “that it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force.” A supplication of three days’ continuance was then performed for the health of the people, because a grievous pestilence was desolating the city and country. The Latin festival was afterwards celebrated, when the consuls, being relieved from these religious duties, and having finished their levies, (for both of them chose to employ new soldiers,) set out for their