33. The business, therefore, came into the court of the tribunes. Thither Marcus Popilius, a man of consular dignity, the centurions, and the consul came. The consul then required that the matter might be discussed in a general assembly; and, accordingly, the people were summoned. On the side of the centurions, Marcus Popilius, who had been consul two years before, argued thus: that “as military men they had served out their regular time, and that they possessed bodies worn out through age and continual hardships. Nevertheless, they did not refuse to give the public the benefit of their services, they only entreated that they might be favoured so far, that posts inferior to those which they had formerly held in the army should not be assigned to them.” The consul, Publius Licinius, first ordered the decree of the senate to be read, in which war was determined against Perseus; and then the other, which directed that as many veteran centurions as could be procured should be enlisted for that war; and that no exemption from the service should be allowed to any who was not upwards of fifty years of age. He then entreated that, “at a time when a new war was breaking out so near to Italy, and with a most powerful king, they would not either obstruct the military tribunes in making the levies, or prevent the consul from assigning to each person such a post as best suited the convenience of the public; and that, if any doubt should arise in the proceedings, they might refer it to the decision of the senate.”