the praetor,
led him out; on which the flamen appealed to the tribunes of the
people. He demanded back the ancient privilege of his priesthood,
which was given, together with the purple-bordered robe, and the
curule chair, to the office of flamen. The praetor wished the question
to rest not on the precedents contained in the annals, which were
obsolete from their antiquity, but on the usual practice in all the
cases of most recent date; urging, that no flamen of Jupiter, in
the memory of their fathers or their grandfathers, had taken up that
privilege. The tribunes giving it as their opinion, that justice
required, that as the obliteration of the privilege was occasioned by
the negligence of the flamens, the consequences ought to fall upon the
flamens themselves, and not upon the office, led the flamen into the
senate, with the general approbation of the fathers, and without any
opposition, even from the praetor himself; while all were of opinion
that the flamen had obtained his object more from the purity of his
life, than any right appertaining to the priesthood. The consuls,
before they departed to their provinces, raised two legions for the
city, and as many soldiers as were necessary to make up the numbers
of the other armies. The consul Fulvius appointed his brother, Caius
Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, to march the old city army into
Etruria, and to bring to Rome the legions which were in Etruria. And
the consul Fabius ordered his son, Quintus Fabius Maximus, to lead the
remains of the army of Fulvius, which had been collected, amounting
to three thousand three hundred and thirty-six, into Sicily to Marcus
Valerius, the proconsul, and to receive from him two legions and
thirty quinqueremes. The withdrawing of these legions from the island
did not at all diminish the force employed for the protection of that
province, either in effect or appearance; for though, in addition to
two veteran legions which were most effectively reinforced, he had
a great number of Numidian deserters, both horse and foot, he raised
also a body of Sicilian troops, consisting of men who had served in
the armies of Epicydes and the Carthaginians, and were experienced
in war. Having added these foreign auxiliaries to each of the Roman
legions, he preserved the appearance of two armies. With one he
ordered Lucius Cinctius to protect that portion of the island which
had formed the kingdom of Hiero, with the other he himself guarded the