32. The consuls had a slight dispute, rather than a great contest, about their province. Cassius said, that “he would select Macedon without casting lots, nor could his colleague, without perjury, abide their determination. When he was prætor, to avoid going to his province, he made oath in the public assembly, that he had sacrifices to perform on stated days, in a stated place, and that they could not be duly performed in his absence; and surely they could no more be performed duly in his absence when he was consul, than when he was prætor. If the senate thought proper to pay more regard to what Publius Licinius wished, in his consulship, than to what he had sworn in his prætorship, he himself, for his part, would at all events be ruled by that body.” When the question was put, the senators thought it would be a degree of arrogance in them to refuse a province to him, since the Roman people had not denied him the consulship. They, however, ordered the consuls to cast lots. Macedonia fell to Publius Licinius, Italy to Caius Cassius. They then cast lots for the legions: when it fell to the lot of the first and third to go over into Macedonia; and of the second and fourth, to remain in Italy. The consuls held the levy with much greater care than usual. Licinius enlisted even veteran centurions and soldiers; and many of them volunteered, as they saw that those men who had served in the former Macedonian war, or in Asia, had become rich. When the military tribunes cited the centurions, and especially those of the highest rank, twenty-three of them, who had held the first posts, appealed to the tribunes of the people. Two of that body, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, wished to refer the matter to the consuls; “the cognizance of it ought to rest with those to whom the levy and the war were intrusted:” but the rest declared, that since the appeal had been made to them, they would examine into the affair; and, if there were any injustice in the case, would support their fellow-citizens.