Ab urbe condita

As both consuls were on the sick list, the senate found it necessary to appoint a Dictator to conduct the elections.

L. Furius Camillus was nominated, and P. Cornelius Scipio was associated with him as Master of the Horse. He restored to the patricians their old monopoly of the consulship, and for this service he was through their enthusiastic support elected consul, and he procured the election of Appius Claudius Crassus as his colleague.

[*](Gaulish Marauders and Greek Pirates). —Before the new consuls entered upon their office Popilius celebrated his triumph over the Gauls amidst the delighted applause of the plebs, and people asked each other with bated breath whether there was any one who regretted the election of a plebeian consul.

At the same time they were very bitter against the Dictator for having seized the consulship as a bribe for his treating the Licinian Law with contempt.

They considered that he had degraded the consulship more by his greedy ambition than by his acting against the public interest, since he had actually procured his own election as consul whilst he was Dictator. The year was marked by numerous disturbances. The Gauls came down from the hills of Alba because they could not stand the severity of the winter, and they spread themselves in plundering hordes over the plains and the maritime districts.

The sea was infested by fleets of Greek pirates who made descents on the coast round Antium and Laurentum and entered the mouth of the Tiber. On one occasion the searobbers and the land-robbers encountered one another in a hard-fought battle, and drew off, the Gauls to their camp, the Greeks to their ships, neither side knowing whether they were to consider themselves victors or vanquished.

These various alarms were followed by a much more serious one. The Latins had received a demand from the Roman government to furnish troops, and after discussing the matter in their national council replied in these uncompromising terms: “Desist from making demands on those whose help you need;