the people ran to their respective tribes to give their votes, with feelings so strongly disposed in his favour, that the tribunes on a sudden abandoned their attempt.  The largesses bestowed by the aediles were the following:  the Roman games were sumptuously exhibited, considering the present state of their resources; they were repeated during one day, and a gallon of oil was given to each street.  Lucius Villius Tapulus, and Marcus Fundanius Fundulus, the plebeian aediles, accused some matrons of misconduct before the people, and some of them they convicted and sent into exile.  The plebeian games were repeated during two days, and a feast in honour of Jupiter was celebrated on occasion of the games.

3.  Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, for the third time, and Appius Claudius entered upon the office of consuls.  The praetors determined their provinces by lot.  Publius Cornelius Sulla received both the city and the foreign jurisdiction, formerly allotted to two persons, Cneius Fulvius Flaccus, Apulia, Caius Claudius Nero, Suessula, and Marcus Junius Silanus, Tuscany.  To the consuls the conduct of the war with Hannibal was decreed with two legions each, one taking the troops of Quintus Fabius, the consul of the former year, the other those of Fulvius Centumalus.  Of the praetors, Fulvius Flaccus was to have the legions which were in Luceria under Aemilius the praetor, Nero Claudius those in Picenum under Caius Terentius, each raising recruits for himself to fill up the number of his troops.  To Marcus Junius the city legions of the former year were assigned, to be employed against the Tuscans.  Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus were continued in command in their provinces of Lucania and Gaul with the armies they had, as was also Publius Lentulus in that part of Sicily which formed the ancient Roman province.  Marcus Marcellus had Syracuse, and that which was the kingdom of Hiero.  Titus Otacilius was continued in the command of the fleet, Marcus Valerius in that of Greece, Quintus Mucius Scaevola in that of Sardinia.  The Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, were continued in the command of Spain.  In addition to the armies already existing, two legions for the service of the city were levied by the consuls, and a total of twenty-three legions was made up this year.  The levy of the consuls was impeded by the conduct of Marcus Posthumius Pyrgensis, almost accompanied with a serious disturbance.  Posthumius was a farmer of the revenue, who, for knavery and rapacity, practised through a course of many years, had no equal except Titus Pomponius Veientanus, who had been taken prisoner the former year by the Carthaginians under the conduct of Hanno, while carelessly ravaging the lands in Lucania.  As the state had taken upon itself the risk of any loss which might arise from storms to the commodities conveyed to the armies, not only had these two men fabricated false accounts of shipwrecks, but even those which had really occurred