mmand while on his journey,
satisfied that an equal share of military skill was not imparted
together with the equal share of command, he returned to the army with
a mind unsubdued alike by his fellow-citizens and by the enemy.

27. But Minucius, who, in consequence of his success and the favour of
the populace, was scarcely endurable before now especially,
unrestrained by shame or moderation, boasted not more in having
conquered Hannibal than Quintus Fabius. "That he, who had been sought
out in their distress as the only general, and as a match for
Hannibal; that he, an event which no record of history contains, was
by the order of the people placed upon an equal footing with
himself,--a superior with an inferior officer, a dictator with a
master of the horse,--in that very city wherein the masters of the
horse are wont to crouch and tremble at the rods and axes of the
dictator. With such splendour had his valour and success shone forth.
That he therefore would follow up his own good fortune, though the
dictator persisted in his delay and sloth; measures condemned alike by
the sentence of gods and men." Accordingly, on the first day on which
he met Quintus Fabius, he intimated "that the first point to be
settled was the manner in which they should employ the command thus
equalized. That he was of opinion that the best plan would be for them
to be invested with the supreme authority and command either on
alternate days, or, if longer intervals were more agreeable, for any
determinate periods; in order that the person in command might be a
match for the enemy, not only in judgment, but in strength, if any
opportunity for action should occur." Fabius by no means approved of
this proposition: he said, "that Fortune would have at her disposal
all things which the rashness of his colleague had; that his command
had been shared with him, and not taken away; that he would never,
therefore, willingly withdraw from conducting the war, in whatever
post he could with prudence and discretion: nor would he divide the
command with him with respect to times or days, but that he would
divide the army, and that he would preserve, by his own measures, so
much as he could, since it was not allowed him to save the whole."
Thus he carried it, that, as was the custom of consuls, they should
divide the legions between them: the first and fourth fell to the lot
of Minucius, the second and third to Fabius. They likewise divided
equally between