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[2]
a colony was founded in that same year at Carseoli in the land of the Aequicoli.
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The consul Fulvius triumphed over the Samnites.
as the consular elections drew near, a rumour arose that the Etruscans and the Samnites were levying huge forces;
[3] it was said that in all their councils the leaders of the Etruscans were openly censured for not having brought the Gauls into the war, on whatever terms; and the Samnite magistrates were attacked for having confronted the Romans with an army raised to oppose a Lucanian foe;
[4] thus their enemies were girding themselves for war, in their own might and the might of their allies, and they would have to contend with them on far from even terms.
[5]
this danger, though illustrious men were candidates for the consulship, made everyone tum to Quintus Fabius Maximus, who was not a candidate, in the first place, and who, when he saw the direction of the people's wishes, actually refused to stand.
[6]
why must they trouble him, he asked, who was an old man now and had done with
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toil and the rewards of toil?
neither his body nor his mind retained their vigour undiminished, and he feared Fortune herself, lest some god might deem that she had already been too kind to him and more constant than human beings were meant to find her.
[7]
he himself had risen to the glory of his elders, and he rejoiced to see others growing up to the measure of his own.
[8]
there was no lack of great offices in Rome for the bravest men, nor of brave men for the offices.
[9]
such moderation but intensified the well —merited enthusiasm of his friends; and Fabius, thinking that it would have to be restrained by respect for the laws, bade read aloud the statute which prohibited the re —election of the same man to the consulship within ten years.
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[10]
whereupon there was such a clamouring that the law could scarce be heard, and the tribunes of the plebs declared that it should be no impediment, for they would propose to the people that he be granted a dispensation from the laws.
Fabius , for his part, stoutly persisted in his refusal.
[11]
what , in that case, he demanded, was the good of making laws, when their very makers broke them?
The laws were no longer in control, but were themselves controlled.
[12]
nevertheless the people proceeded to the election, and every century, as it was summoned within, in no uncertain terms named Fabius consul.
4
then at last, overborne by the consent of all the citizens,
may Heaven,
he said, "approve, Quirites, of what you are doing and propose to do. [14] "The recommendation seemed a reasonable one.
all the remaining centuries voted for Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius.
in that year many men were prosecuted by the aediles on the charge of possessing more land than the law allowed.
hardly anybody was acquitted, and exorbitant greed was sharply curbed.
Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor). Medford, MA. .
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