Flaminius, one of the consuls elect, to whom the legions which were wintering
at Placentia had fallen by lot, sent an edict and letter to the consul, desiring
that those forces should be ready in camp at Ariminum on the ides of March.
He had a design to enter on the consulship in his province, recollecting his
old contests with the fathers, which he had waged with them when tribune of
the people, and afterwards when consul, first about his election to the office,
which was annulled, and then about a triumph. He was also odious to the fathers
on account of a new law which Quintus Claudius, tribune of the people, had carried
against the senate, Caius Flaminius alone of that body assisting him, that no
senator, or he who had been father of a senator, should possess a ship fit for
sea service, containing more than three hundred amphorae. This size was considered
sufficient for conveying the produce of their lands: all traffic appeared unbecoming
a senator. This contest, maintained with the warmest opposition, procured the
hatred of the nobility to Flaminius, the advocate of the law; but the favour
of the people, and afterwards a second consulship. For these reasons, thinking
that they would detain him in the city by falsifying the auspices, by the delay
of the Latin festival, and other hinderances to which a consul was liable, he
pretended a journey, and, while yet in a private capacity, departed secretly
to his province. This proceeding, when it was made public, excited new and additional
anger in the senators, who were before irritated against him. They said, "That
Caius Flaminius waged war not only with the senate, but now with the immortal
gods; that having been formerly made consul without the proper auspices, he
had disobeyed both gods and men recalling him from the very field of battle;
and now, through consciousness of their having been dishonoured, had shunned
the Capitol and the customary offering of vows, that he might not on the day
of entering his office approach the temple of Jupiter, the best and greatest
of gods; he might not see and consult the senate, himself hated by it, as it
was hateful to him alone; that he might not proclaim the Latin festival, or
perform on the Alban mount the customary rights to Jupiter Latiaris; that he
might not, under the direction of the auspices, go up to the Capitol to recite
his vows, and thence, attended by the lictors, proceed to his province in the
garb of a general; but that he had set off, like some camp boy, without his
insignia, without the lictors, in secrecy and stealth, just as if he had been
quitting his country to go into banishment; as if forsooth he would enter his
office more consistently with the dignity of the consul at Ariminum than Rome,
and assume the robe of office in a public inn better than before his own household
gods." -- it was unanimously resolved that he, should be recalled and brought
back, and be constrained to perform in person every duty to gods and men before
he went to the army and the province. Quintus Terentius and Marcus Antistius
having set out on this embassy, (for it was decreed that ambassadors should
be sent,) prevailed with him in no degree more than the letter sent by the senate
in his former consulship. A few days after he entered on his office, and as
he was sacrificing a calf, after being struck, having broken away from the hands
of the ministers, sprinkled several of the bystanders with its blood. Flight
and disorder ensued, to a still greater degree at a distance among those who
were ignorant what was the cause of the alarm. This circumstance was regarded
by most persons as an omen of great terror. Having then received two legions
from Sempronius, the consul of the former year, and two from Caius Atilius,
the praetor, the army began to be led into Etruria, through the passes of the
Apennines.
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