A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

3. M.AemiliusBarbula, L. F. Q. N., son of No. 2, was consul in B. C. 230, and had in conjunction with his colleague the conduct of the war against the Ligurians. (Zonar. 8.19.) Zonaras says (l.c.), that when the Carthaginians heard of the Ligurian war, they resolved to march against Rome, but that they relinquished their design when the consuls came into their country, and received the Romans as friends. This is evidently a blunder, and must in all probability be referred to the Gauls, who, as we learn from Polybius (2.21), were in a state of great ferment about this time owing to the lex Flaininia, which had been passed about two years previously, B. C. 232, for the division of the Picentian land.