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.

41. P