he chose as successors to the deceased, first those who had filled a curule office since the censorship of Flaminius and Aemilius, but had not yet been elected into the senate, as each had been earliest created.  He next chose those who had been aediles, plebeian tribunes, or quaestors; then of those who had never filled the office of magistrate, he selected such as had spoils taken from an enemy fixed up at their homes, or had received a civic crown.  Having thus elected one hundred and seventy-seven senators, with the entire approbation of his countrymen, he instantly abdicated his office, and, bidding the lictors depart, he descended from the rostrum as a private citizen, and mingled with the crowd of persons who were engaged in their private affairs, designedly wearing away this time, lest he should draw off the people from the forum for the purpose of escorting him home.  Their zeal, however, did not subside by the delay, for they escorted him to his house in great numbers.  The consul returned to the army the ensuing night, without acquainting the senate, lest he should be detained in the city on account of the elections.

24.  The next day, on the proposition of Manius Pomponius the praetor, the senate decreed that a letter should be written to the dictator, to the effect, that if he thought it for the interest of the state, he should come, together with the master of the horse and the praetor, Marcus Marcellus, to hold the election for the succeeding consuls, in order that the fathers might learn from them in person in what condition the state was, and take measures according to circumstances.  All who were summoned came, leaving lieutenant-generals to hold command of the legions.  The dictator, speaking briefly and modestly of himself, attributed much of the glory Of the campaign to the master of the horse, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.  He then gave out the day for the comitia, at which the consuls created were Lucius Posthumius in his absence, being then employed in the government of the province of Gaul, for the third time, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was then master of the horse and curule aedile.  Marcus Valerius Laevinus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Quintus Mucius Scaevola, were then created praetors.  After the election of the magistrates, the dictator returned to his army, which was in winter quarters at Teanum, leaving his master of the horse at Rome, to take the sense of the fathers relative to the armies to be enlisted and embodied for the service of the year, as he was about to enter upon the magistracy after a few days.  While busily occupied with these matters, intelligence arrived of a fresh disaster—­fortune crowding into this year one calamity after another—­that Lucius Posthumius, consul elect, himself with all his army was destroyed in Gaul.  He was to march his troops through a vast wood, which the Gauls called Litana.  On the right and left of his route, the natives had sawed the trees in such a manner that