οὗτος μὲν πανάριστος ὃς αὐτὸς πάντα νοήσῃ, XXX. 2. magistri equitum: supply ordinem, from the following. 4. maximum laudibus...ferre. Fabius was called the "shield," as Marcellus was the "sword," of Rome. XXXI. 1. a. Cn. Servilius. See above, ch. xi. § 6. b. Menige insula. The island Meninx lies very near the mainland of Africa, just south of the Syrtis Minor.-Cercina was an island just north of the Syrtis. 3. Sempronio Blaso. The name of Blæsus was one of ill omen to the Romans in these parts. In the first Punic war (B.C. 253), C. Sempronius Blæsus the consul, being in command of 260 ships, his fleet ran aground on the Syrtis, and was only got off by throwing everything overboard. 150 ships of the same fleet were afterwards lost on their way home, in a storm off Cape Palinurus. 5. a. dictatorem, as dictator, not pro-dictator. b. eo decursum esse...esset, 66 recourse was had to the creation by the people of a pro-dictator." The nomination by a consul was essential to the due election of a dictator. The senate, in their decree that a dictator should be elected, usually named the person they wished to have; but the consul was not obliged to follow their nomination. In after times, Sylla was nominated by an interrex, and Cæsar by a prætor, but it was without precedent in both cases. XXXII. 1. a. carpentes agmen. See Bk. III. ch. v. b. nisi cum fuga specie abeundum timuisset, "if he had not feared that his departure would wear the appearance of flight." Other editions read "nisi tum fugæ speciem abeundo timuisset." 3. a. juxta...ac. See above, ch. xxxi. § 1. b. ad subsidium fortunæ, "a reserve in case of change of fortune." XXXIII. 2. a. Demetrium. See Bk. xxI. ch. xvi. note d. After the capture of Pharos by L. Æmilius Paullus in B.C. 219, Demetrius fled for refuge to Philip, and became his chief adviser. After the battle of the Trasymene lake, he advised Philip to make alliance with Hannibal against Rome. The completion of this was delayed by the capture of the Macedonian envoy Xenophanes (Bk. xx111. ch. xxxiii., xxxiv.), but was concluded in the year after the battle of Cannæ. The Roman demand for the surrender of Demetrius by Philip was unsuccessful. b. Pineum regem. Pineus was the son of the Illyrian king Agron, who died in B.C. 231. At first he was left to the guardianship of Teuta, his step-mother, but upon her defeat by the Romans, he was committed to the care of Demetrius. On the expulsion of Demetrius, the Romans raised him to the throne, but obliged him to pay them ribute. 4. locatam, "let to contract." 6. interregem. The appointment of an interrex was a very unpopular measure, because no plebeians were admissible to the office. From this time there does not occur another instance of an interregnum until B.c. 82, when an interrex was appointed by the senate to hold the comitia for Sylla's election to the dictatorship. XXXIV. 3. in ejus interregno, sc. P. Corn. Asina's. The authority of each interrex lasted for only five days, At their first creation, there were ten interreges, but the number was afterwards, at various times, increased. The comitia were usually held by the second or third in the succession, seldom by the first. 4. C. Terentio Varroni...homines. This sentence is rendered difficult by the long parenthesis. The whole may be broken up in translation, and then the sense will be clear:-"That men might not grow accustomed by inveighing against them to think themselves as good as they, (se...sibi refer to patres), the patricians used all their efforts to oppose the election of C. Terentius Varro. He was one of the people's own sort, and had become ingratiated with them by his invectives against the aristocracy and other devices for winning favour. From the shock which had been given to Fabius's power as dictator, he was now in the blaze of his glory at the expense of another's popularity, and the commonalty were even exerting all their strength to bring him out for the consulship."— aliena invidia, "by throwing odium on another," in the same sense as per invidiam eorum, a little below.—extrahere: see Bk. v. ch. xii., "extractum ad tantum honorem." An invidious word, "to drag him out," as if by force, though utterly unfit for it. But see ch. xxvi. 1, note. 5. a. id fœdus, &c., "such was the league which had been struck between all the nobles." b. hominem novum. A plebeian who first attained a curule office, was the founder of his family's nobilitas. Having no imagines he was called a novus homo, and his status, or condition, was called novitas. Marius and Cicero are the most famous instances of novi homines. Dict. of Antiq., p. 799. a. c. plebeios nobiles, opposed to hominem novum. Men of plebeian origin, but whose ancestors had held curule offices, The d. populum liberum habiturum, sc. consulatum. meaning is that the people would hold the consulship at their own free disposal. XXXV. 1. C. Terentius consul unus creatur. There were six candidates, but Varro alone of them all obtained a sufficient number of votes in any tribe to be returned. 2. a. qui cum M. Livio consul fuerat. In the year B.C. 219. Æmilius was a good soldier, and had finished the Illyrian war in a single campaign. He was very unpopular, and had been charged, unjustly it would seem, with misappropriation of the spoils taken in the Illyrian war, and with difficulty escaped condemnation. M. Livius, his colleague, was not so fortunate: he was condemned and fined. The sentence was an unjust one, and Livius was so disgusted with the wrong, that for some years he withdrew entirely from Rome. The need of the State at last drew him forward again, and in B.C. 207 he accepted the consulship, as colleague with C. Nero, and with him shared the glory of defeating Hasdrubal at the Metaurus. b. sua prope. These two words must be taken closely together. Æmilius had escaped condemnation, but only narrowly. 3. a. M'. Pomponius Matho. He had been nominated magister equitum to Veturius Philo. See ch. xxxiii. § 7. At the end of his office as prætor, he was sent to Cisalpine Gaul as proprætor (B.c.215), and in B.C. 214 that province was continued to him. Bk. xxiv. ch. x. There is a difficulty in reconciling the statement in Bk. xxIII. ch. xxv., that no army was sent to Gaul in B.c. 215, with this. Perhaps Matho was appointed to the province, but did not obtain any troops that year. b. P. Furius Philus had been consul with Flaminius in B.C. 228. He was now elected prætor peregrinus Hg was severely wounded in an engagement on the coast of Africa, Bk. XXIII. ch. xxi. He died censor B.C. 214. Bk. This is the first mention of c. M. Claudius Marcellus. Marcellus as an actor in this war. As his services will occur very prominently, it will be as well, once for all, to give a short outline of them. Marcellus was consul for the first time B.C. 222, when he was nearly fifty years old. It was the time of the Gallic war, and he gained the spolia opima, and a triumph. In в.c. 216 (the present occasion) he was made prætor, and was intended to command in Sicily; but the disaster of Cannæ detained him in Italy, and he was sent to collect the remnants of the defeated army, and make what head he could against Hannibal. He saved Nola (Bk. xx111. ch. xiv.-xvii.), but could not undertake more active operations. In в.c. 215 he resumed the command in Campania as proconsul, (Bk. xxIII. ch. xxx.,) his election to the consulship in place of Postumius having been declared invalid. A second successful defence of Nola was his chief exploit this year (Bk. xx111, ch. xli.— xlvi.) In B.c. 214 Marcellus was chosen consul for the third time, with Fabius Maximus. A third defence of Nola and the capture of Casilinum were the chief events in which he was concerned this year (Bk. xxiv. ch. xiii., xix.); towards the close of the summer he was sent into Sicily, where the storming of Leontini (Bk. xxiv. ch.xxx.), and the siege, and finally the capture, of Syracuse in B.C. 212, made him further conspicuous. In B.c. 211 Marcellus returned to Italy, was consul for the fourth time in B.c. 210, and in this year took Salapia, and engaged Hannibal without disadvantage, though with no decisive success. In B.C. 209 he retained the command of his army in Italy as proconsul. Three engagements took place early this year between Marcellus and Hannibal; in the last it is said the |