Ab urbe condita

The[*](Various Notices.) year having now expired, new plebeian tribunes entered upon office, but there was a flaw in their election, and five days later others took their place.

The lustrum was closed this year by the censors, P. Cornelius Arvina and C. Marcius Rutilus. The census returns gave the population as numbering 262,321 . These were the twenty-sixth pair of censors since the first, the lustrum was the nineteenth.

This year, for the first time, those who had been crowned for their deeds in war were allowed to wear their decorations at the Roman Games, and then, too, for the first time, palms were given to the victors after a custom borrowed from Greece.

This year also the road from the temple of Mars to Bovillae was paved throughout its length by the curule aediles, who devoted to the purpose the fines levied on cattle-breeders.

L. Papirius conducted the consular elections. The consuls elected were Q. Fabius Gurgites, the son of Maximus, and D. Junius Brutus Scaeva. Papirius himself was made praetor.

The many incidents which helped to make the year a happy one served to console the citizens for one calamity, a pestilence which raged in the City and country districts alike. The mischief it did was looked upon as a portent. The Sacred Books were consulted to see what end or what remedy would be vouchsafed by the gods.

It was ascertained that Aesculapius must be sent for from Epidaurus. Nothing, however, was done that year, owing to the consuls being engrossed with the war, beyond the appointment of a day of public intercession to Aesculapius.