The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost BooksLivy
History
The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books
Livy
Rome -- History
Latin foot, with three hundred horse.
16. The Latin festival was celebrated on the third day before the nones
of May;[73] and because, on the offering of one of the victims, the
magistrate of Lanuvium had not prayed for the ROMAN PEOPLE, THE
QUIRITES, religious scruples were felt. When the matter was laid before
the senate, and they referred it to the college of pontiffs, the latter
determined that the Latin festival had not been duly performed, and must
be repeated; and that the Lanuvians, on whose account they were
repeated, should furnish the victims. Besides the concern excited by
matters of a religious nature, another incident caused no small degree
of uneasiness. The consul Cneius Cornelius, as he was returning from the
Alban mount, fell down. And being paralysed in part of his limbs, set
out for the waters of Cumæ, where, his disorder still increasing, he
died. His body was conveyed to Rome to be buried, and the funeral
obsequies were performed with great magnificence: he was likewise a
pontiff. The other consul, Quintus Petillius, was ordered to hold an
assembly, as soon as the auspices could be taken, for the election of a
consul in the room of his late colleague, and to proclaim the Latin
festival. Accordingly, by proclamation, he fixed the election for the
third day before the nones of August,[74] and the Latin festival for the
third before the ides of the same month.[75] While the minds of the
people were full of religious fears, to add thereto, several prodigies
were reported to have happened; that a blazing torch was seen in the sky
at Tusculum; that the temple of Apollo, and many private buildings at
Gabii, and a wall and gate at Graviscæ, were struck by lightning. The
senate ordered these to be expiated as the pontiffs should direct. While
the consuls were detained, at first by religious ceremonies, and
afterwards, one of them, by the death of the other, and then by the
election and the repetition of the Latin festival, in the mean time
Caius Claudius marched the army to Mutina, which the Ligurians had taken
the year before. Before three days had elapsed from the commencement of
the siege he retook it, and delivered it back to the colonists; on this
occasion eight thousand Ligurians were killed within the walls. He
immediately despatched a letter to Rome, in which he not only
represented this success, but likewise boasted that through his good
conduct and good fortune there was not one enemy of the Roman people
left on this side the Alps; and that a large tract of land had been
taken, which might be distributed among many thousand men, giving each a
share.
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