Kitap 40
35
The senate ordered the consuls to take Liguria as their province. Then the praetors balloted for their provinces. Hither Spain fell to Tiberius Sempronius. As he was to succeed Q. Fulvius he did not want the province to be robbed of the veteran army and accordingly made the following speech in the senate: "I ask you, L. Minucius, since you report that the province is in a settled state, whether it is your belief that the Celtiberi will always keep their word so that this province can be held without the presence of an army? If you can neither assure yourself nor give us any guarantee of their remaining permanently at peace, and still hold that in any case an army must be kept there, would you advise the senate to send such reinforcements as will only allow the time-expired soldiers to be released, the recruits being incorporated in the old army, or would you say that the veteran legions should be withdrawn and fresh ones enrolled and sent there, when the contempt felt for these raw recruits might possibly excite even the less aggressive barbarians to resume hostilities? To say that you have pacified and settled a province whose inhabitants are naturally warlike and aggressive may be easier than to do it. According to what I hear only a few communities, mainly those where we have made our winter quarters, have submitted to our authority; those further off are in arms. Under these circumstances, senators, I declare at the outset that I am ready to take the government of the province with the army which is there now. If Flaccus brings his legions with him, I shall select for my winter quarters places already pacified, and shall not expose my new soldiers to a most fierce enemy."
