At the beginning of the year in which those transactions passed, after Manius Acilius had gone to open the campaign, and while the other consul, Publius Cornelius, yet remained in Rome, two tame oxen, it is said, climbed up by ladders on the tiles of a house in the Carina. The aruspices ordered them to be burned alive, and their ashes to be thrown into the Tiber. It was reported, that several showers of stones had fallen at Tarracina and Amiternum; that, at Minturnae, the temple of Jupiter, and the shops round the forum, were struck by lightning; that, at Vulturnum, in the mouth of the river, two ships were struck by lightning, and burnt to ashes. On occasion of these prodigies, the decemvirs, being ordered by a decree of the senate to consult the Sibylline books, declared, that "a fast ought to be instituted in honour of Ceres, and the same observed every fifth year; that the nine days' worship ought to be solemnized, and a supplication for one day; and that they should observe the supplication, with garlands on their heads; also that the consul Publius Cornelius should sacrifice to such deities, and with such victims, as the decemvirs should direct." When he had used every means to avert the wrath of the gods, by duly fulfilling vows and expiating prodigies, the consul went to his province; and, ordering the proconsul Cneius Domitius to disband his army, and go home to Rome, he marched his own legions into the territory of the Boians.
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Nearly at the same time, the Ligurians, having collected an army under the sanction of their devoting law, made an unexpected attack, in the night, on the camp of the proconsul Quintus Minucius. Minucius kept his troops, until daylight, drawn up within the rampart, and watchful to prevent the enemy from scaling any part of the fortifications At the first light, he made a sally by two gates at once: but the Ligurians did not, as he had expected, give way to his first onset; on the contrary, they maintained a dubious contest for more than two hours. At last, as other and still other troops came out from the camp, and fresh men took the place of those who were wearied in the fight, the Ligurians, who besides other hardships, felt a great loss of strength from the want of sleep, betook themselves to flight. Above four thousand of the enemy were killed; the Romans and allies lost not quite three hundred. About two months after this, the consul Publius Cornelius fought a pitched battle with the army of the Boians with extraordinary success. Valerius Antias affirms, that twenty-eight thousand of the enemy were slain, and three thousand four hundred taken, with a hundred and twenty-four military standards, one thousand two hundred and thirty horses, and two hundred and forty-seven waggons; and that of the conquerors there fell one thousand four hundred and eighty-four. Though we may not entirely credit this writer with respect to the numbers, as in such exaggeration no writer is more extravagant, yet it is certain that the victory on this occasion was very complete; because the enemy's camp was taken, while, immediately after the battle, the Boians surrendered themselves; and because a supplication was decreed by the senate on account of it, and victims of the greater kinds were sacrificed. About the same time Marcus Fulvius Nobilior entered the city in ovation, returning from Farther Spain. He carried with him twelve thousand pounds of silver, one hundred and thirty thousand silver denarii, and one hundred and twenty-seven pounds of gold.[[49]]
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The consul, Publius Cornelius, having received hostages from the Boians, punished them so far as to appropriate almost one-half of their lands for the use of the Roman people, and into which they might afterwards, if they chose, send colonies. Then returning home in full confidence of a triumph, he dismissed his troops, and ordered them to attend on the day of his triumph at Rome. The next day after his arrival, he held a meeting of the senate, in the temple of Bellona, when he detailed to them the services he had performed, and demanded to ride through the city in triumph. Publius Sempronius Blaesus, tribune of the people, advised, that "the honour of a triumph should not be refused to Scipio, but postponed. Wars of the Ligurians," he said, "were always united with wars of the Gauls; for these nations, lying so near, sent mutual assistance to each other. If Publius Scipio, after subduing the Boians in battle, had either gone himself, with his victorious army, into the country of the Ligurians, or sent a part of his forces to Quintus Minucius, who was detained there, now the third year, by a war which was still undecided, that with the Ligurians might have been brought to an end: instead of which, he had, in order to procure a full attendance on his triumph, brought home the troops, who might have performed most material services to the state; and might do so still, if the senate thought proper, by deferring this token of victory, to redeem that which had been omitted through eager haste for a triumph. If they would order the consul to return with his legions into his province, and to give his assistance towards subduing the Ligurians, (for, unless these were reduced under the dominion and jurisdiction of the Roman people, neither would the Boians ever remain quiet,) there must be either peace or war with both. When the Ligurians should be subdued, Publius Cornelius, in quality of proconsul, might triumph, a few months later, after the precedent of many, who did not attain that honour until the expiration of their office."
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