After the ambassadors returned to Scipio, the quaestors were ordered to give in an account, made out from the public registers, of the public property which had been in the ships; and the owners to make a return of the private property. For the amount of the value twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were required to be paid down; and a truce for three months was granted to the Carthaginians. It was added, that during the time of the truce they should not send ambassadors any where else than to Rome; and that, whatever ambassadors came to Carthage, they should not dismiss them before informing the Roman general who they were, and what they sought. With the Carthaginian ambassadors, Lucius Veturius Philo, Marcus Marcius Ralla, and Lucius Scipio, brother of the general, were sent to Rome. At the time in which these events took place, the supplies sent from Sicily and Sardinia produced such cheapness of provisions, that the merchant gave up the corn to the mariners for their freight. At Rome alarm was excited at the first intelligence of the renewal of hostilities by the Carthaginians; and Tiberius Claudius was directed to conduct the fleet with speed into Sicily, and cross over from that place into Africa. The other consul, Marcus Servilius, was directed to stay at the city until the state of affairs in Africa was ascertained. Tiberius Claudius, the consul, proceeded slowly with every thing connected with the equipment and sailing of the fleet, because the senate had decided that it should be left to Scipio, rather than to the consul, to determine the conditions on which the peace should be granted. The accounts also of prodigies which arrived just at the time of the news of the revival of the war, had occasioned great alarm. At Cumae the orb of the sun seemed diminished, and a shower of stones fell; and in the territory of Veliternum the earth sank in great chasms, and trees were swallowed up in the cavities. At Aricia the forum and the shops around it, at Frusino a wall in several places, and a gate, were struck by lightning; and in the Palatium a shower of stones fell. The latter prodigy, according to the custom handed down by tradition, was expiated by a nine days' sacred rite; the rest with victims of the larger sort. Amid these events an unusually great rising of the waters was converted into a prodigy; for the Tiber overflowed its banks to such a degree, that as the circus was under water, the Apollinarian games were got up near the temple of Venus Erycina, without the Colline gate. However, the weather suddenly clearing up on the very day of the celebration, the procession, which had begun to move at the Colline gate, was recalled and transferred to the circus, on its being known that the water had retired thence. The joy of the people and the attraction of the games were increased by the restoration of this solemn spectacle to its proper scene.
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The consul Claudius, having set out at length from the city, was placed in the most imminent danger by a violent tempest, which overtook him between the ports of Cosa and Laurentum. Having reached Populonii, where he waited till the remainder of the tempest had spent itself, he crossed over to the island Ilva. From Ilva he went to Corsica, and from Corsica to Sardinia. Here, while sailing round the Montes Insani, a tempest much more violent in itself, and in a more dangerous situation, dispersed his fleet. Many of his ships were shattered and stripped of their rigging, and some were wrecked. His fleet thus weatherbeaten and shattered arrived at Carales, where the winter came on while the ships were drawn on shore and refitted. The year having elapsed, and no one proposing to continue him in command, Tiberius Claudius brought back his fleet to Rome in a private capacity. Marcus Servilius set out for his province, having nominated Caius Servilius Geminus as dictator, that he might not be recalled to the city to hold the elections. The dictator appointed Publius Aelius Paetus master of the horse. It frequently happened, that the elections could not be held on account of bad weather, though the days were fixed for them; and, therefore, as the magistrates of the former year retired from their offices on the day before the ides of March, and fresh ones were not appointed to succeed them, the state was without curule magistrates. Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a pontiff, died this year. Caius Sulpicius Galba was elected in his room. The Roman games were thrice repeated by the curule aediles, Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Quintus Fulvius. Some scribes and runners belonging to the aediles were found, on the testimony of an informer, to have privately conveyed money out of the treasury, and were condemned, not without disgrace to the aedile Lucullus. Publius Aelius Tubero and Lucius Laetorius, plebeian aediles, on account of some informality in their creation, abdicated their office, after having celebrated the games, and the banquet on occasion of the games, in honour of Jupiter, and after having placed in the Capitol three statues made out of silver paid as fines. The dictator and master of the horse celebrated the games in honour of Ceres, in conformity with a decree of the senate.
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The Roman, together with the Carthaginian ambassadors, having arrived at Rome from Africa, the senate was assembled at the temple of Bellona; when Lucius Veturius Philo stated, to the great joy of the senate, that a battle had been fought with Hannibal, which was decisive of the fate of the Carthaginians, and that a period was at length put to that calamitous war. He added what formed a small accession to their successes, that Vermina, the son of Syphax, had been vanquished. He was then ordered to go forth to the public assembly, and impart the joyful tidings to the people. Then, a thanksgiving having been appointed, all the temples in the city were thrown open, and supplications for three days were decreed. The ambassadors of the Carthaginians, and those of king Philip, for they also had arrived, requesting an audience of the senate, answer was made by the dictator, by order of the fathers, that the new consuls would give them an audience. The elections were then held. The consuls elected were Cneius Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Aelius Paetus. The praetors elected were Marcus Junius Pennus, to whose lot the city jurisdiction fell, Marcus Valerius Falto, who received Bruttium, Marcus Fabius Buteo, who received Sardinia, and Publius Aelius Tubero, who received Sicily. It was the pleasure of the senate that nothing should be done respecting the provinces of the consuls, till the ambassadors of king Philip and the Carthaginians had been heard; for they foresaw the termination of one war and the commencement of another. Cneius Lentulus, the consul, was inflamed with a strong desire to have the province of Africa, looking forward to an easy victory if there was still war, or, if it was on the point of being concluded, to the glory of having it terminated in his consulate. He therefore refused to allow any business to be transacted before the province of Africa was assigned him; his colleague, who was a moderate and prudent man, giving up his claim to it, for he clearly saw that a contest with Scipio for that honour would be not only unjust but unequal. Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Manius Acilius Glabrio, tribunes of the people, said that Cneius Cornelius was endeavouring to effect the same object which had been attempted in vain by the consul Tiberius Claudius the former year. That, by the direction of the senate, it had been proposed to the people to decide whom they wished to have the command in Africa, and all the thirty-five tribes had concurred in assigning that command to Publius Scipio. After many discussions, both in the senate and popular assembly, it was at length determined to leave it to the senate. The fathers, therefore, on oath, for so it had been agreed, voted, that as to the provinces, the consuls should settle between themselves, or determine by lots, which of them should have Italy, and which a fleet of fifty ships. That he to whose lot the fleet fell should sail to Sicily, and if peace could not be concluded with the Carthaginians, that he should cross over into Africa. That the consul should act by sea, and Scipio by land, with the same right of command as heretofore. If an agreement should be come to, as to the terms of the peace, that then the plebeian tribunes should consult the commons as to whether they ordered the consul or Publius Scipio to grant the peace; and if the victorious army was to be brought home out of Africa, whom they ordered to bring it. That if they ordered that the peace should be granted by Publius Scipio, and that the army should be brought home likewise by him, then the consul should not pass out of Sicily into Africa. That the other consul, to whose lot Italy fell, should receive two legions from Marcus Sextius the praetor.
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