There was no division of opinion shown in the elections, Marcius was unanimously elected censor, together with Manlius Gnaeus. This year also saw M. Fabius as Dictator, not from any apprehension of war but to prevent the Licinian Law from being observed in the consular elections.
The Dictatorship, however, did not make the combined efforts of the senate more influential in the election of consuls than it had been in the election of censors.
M.
Fortune conferred the greater distinction upon the plebeian consul, for upon the receipt of information that an immense army of Gauls had encamped in the territory of Latium, the conduct of tbat war, owing to Scipio's serious illness at the time, was entrusted by special arrangement to Popilius.
He promptly raised an army, and ordered all who were liable for active service to meet under arms outside the Capene Gate at the temple of Mars; the quaestors were ordered to carry the standards from the treasury to the same place.
After bringing up four legions to full strength, he handed over the rest of the troops to P. Valerius Publicola, the praetor, and advised the senate to raise a second army to protect the republic against any emergency. When all preparations were completed and everything in readiness, he advanced towards the enemy.
With the view of ascertaining their strength before testing it in a decisive action, he seized some rising ground as near to the camp of the Gauls as possible and began to construct the rampart.
When the Gauls saw the Roman standards in the distance they formed their line, prepared, with their usual impulsiveness and instinctive love of fighting, to engage at once. Observing, however, that the Romans did not come down into the plain and were trusting to the protection of their position and their rampart, they imagined that they were smitten with fear, and at the same time would be more open to attack whilst they were occupied in the work of entrenchment. So raising a wild shout they advanced to the attack.
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