allies, who had been transported into Spain previous to the consulate of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Marcius; and likewise to such as, after the junction of the reinforcements, should be found in the two legions, above the number of ten thousand four hundred foot and six hundred horse; and in the Latin auxiliaries above twelve thousand foot and six hundred horse, who had behaved with courage under Quintus Fulvius in the two battles with the Celtiberians,—these, if he thought proper, he might bring home. Thanksgivings were also decreed, because he had managed the republic successfully; and the rest of the prætors sent into their provinces. Quintus Fabius Buteo had his command in Gaul. It was resolved that eight legions should be employed this year, besides the veteran army then in Liguria, which expected to be speedily disbanded; and that very army was made up with difficulty, in consequence of the pestilence which continued, for the third year, to depopulate the city of Rome and all Italy. 37. Tiberius Minucius, the prætor, died of this malady; and soon after, Caius Calpurnius, the consul; also many illustrious men of all ranks; so that at last this calamity began to be considered as a prodigy. Caius Servilius, chief pontiff was ordered to find out proper atonements for the wrath of the gods; the decemvirs to inspect the books, and the consul to vow offerings, and to present gilded statues, to Apollo Æsculapius, and Health; which he vowed and gave. The decemvirs proclaimed, on account of the sickness, a supplication of two days in the city, and in all the market-towns and villages; all persons above the age of twelve years offered the supplication, with garlands on their heads, and holding laurels in their hands. There had, also, crept into people’s minds a suspicion of human villany in regard to it whereupon Caius Claudius, the prætor, who had been substituted in the room of Tiberius Minucius, was commissioned by a decree of the senate, to make inquisition concerning acts of poisoning committed in the city, or within ten miles of it; and Caius Mænius was ordered to do the same, before he passed over to his province, Sardinia, in the market-towns and villages beyond the tenth stone. The death of the consul was most suspected. It was reported that he had been murdered by his wife, Quarta Hostilia; and when her son, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was proclaimed consul in the room of his stepfather, the death of Piso began to excite much more suspicion; for witnesses appeared, who testified, that, after Albinus and Piso were declared consuls, in which election Flaccus had suffered a disappointment, his mother upbraided him with being refused the consulship a third time, and then desired him to make ready to stand candidate again, saying, “she would take such measures that within two months he should be made consul.” This expression verified by the event, which was but too real, joined to many other evidences of the same