Naevius, Marcus Minucius, and Marcus Furius Crassipes.  Fifteen acres of ground were assigned to each footman, double that quantity to a horseman.  This land had been last in possession of the Bruttians, who had taken it from the Greeks.  About this time two dreadful causes of alarm happened at Rome, one of which continued long, but was less active than the other.  An earthquake lasted through thirty-eight days; during all which time there was a total cessation of business, amidst anxiety and fears.  On account of this event, a supplication was performed of three days’ continuance.  The other was not a mere fright, but attended with the actual loss of many lives.  In consequence of a fire breaking out in the cattle-market, the conflagration, among the houses near to the Tiber, continued through all that day and the following night, and all the shops, with wares of very great value, were reduced to ashes.

41.  The year was now almost at an end, while the rumours of impending hostility, and, consequently, the anxiety of the senate, daily increased.  They therefore set about adjusting the provinces of the magistrates elect, in order that they might be all the more intent on duty.  They decreed, that those of the consuls should be Italy, and whatever other place the senate should vote, for every one knew that a war against Antiochus was now a settled point.  That he, to whose lot the latter province fell, should have under his command,—­of Roman citizens, four thousand foot and three hundred horse; and of the Latin confederates, six thousand foot and four hundred horse.  The consul, Lucius Quinctius, was ordered to levy these troops, that no delay might be occasioned, but that the new consul might be able to proceed immediately to any place which the senate should appoint.  Concerning the provinces of the praetors, also, it was decreed, that the first lot should comprehend the two jurisdictions, both that between natives, and that between them and foreigners; the second should be Bruttium; the third, the fleet, to sail wherever the senate should direct; the fourth, Sicily; the fifth, Sardinia; the sixth, Farther Spain.  An order was also given to the consul Lucius Quinctius, to levy two new legions of Roman citizens, and of the allies and Latins twenty thousand foot and eight hundred horse.  This army they assigned to the praetor to whom should fall the province of Bruttium.  Two temples were dedicated this year to Jupiter in the Capitol; one of which had been vowed by Lucius Furius Purpureo, when praetor during the Gallic war; the other by the same, when consul.  Quintus Marcius Ralla, duumvir, dedicated both.  Many severe sentences were passed this year on usurers, who were prosecuted, as private persons, by the curule aediles, Marcus Tuccius and Publius Junius Brutus.  Out of the fines imposed on those who were convicted, gilded chariots, with four horses, were placed in the recess of Jupiter’s temple in the Capitol, over the canopy of the shrine, and also twelve gilded bucklers.  The same aediles built a portico on the outside of the Triple Gate, in the Carpenters’ Square.