Kitap 34
56
The consuls were not looking forward to any war during their year of office, when a despatch arrived from M. Cincius, the commandant of Pisae, announcing a rising in Liguria. Warlike resolutions had been passed in all the councils of the nation, and 20,000 Ligurians were now in arms. They had ravaged the country round Luna, and after crossing the frontiers of Pisae had traversed the whole length of the coast. Minucius, to whom the province of Liguria had been allotted, acting on the instructions of the senate, mounted the Rostra and issued an edict for the two City legions which had been enrolled the year before to muster in ten days' time at Arretium, their place would be taken by two legions which he was going to raise. He also notified the magistrates and officers of those Latin and allied communities which were bound to furnish troops that they should attend upon him in the Capitol. Here he arranged with them what contingent each city should supply in proportion to the number of men they had of military age, the total being fixed at 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry. They were then instructed to start for home at once and raise their troops without a moment's delay. Fulvius and Flaminius were each reinforced with Roman troops to the number of 3000 infantry and 100 cavalry and also 5000 infantry and 200 cavalry furnished by the Latins and allies, and the praetors were ordered to disband the old soldiers as soon as they arrived in their provinces. Large numbers of the soldiers in the City legions urged the tribunes of the plebs to investigate the cases of the men who pleaded either length of service or ill-health as reasons why they should not be called up. This matter was quite thrown aside by a despatch from Tiberius Sempronius, in which he stated that a body of 10,000 Ligurians had appeared in the neighbourhood of Placentia and had wasted the country with fire and sword up to the very walls of the colony and the banks of the Po, and the Boii also were contemplating a revival of hostilities.
