previous next A few days afterward, Lucius Sænius, a senator,
read to the senate a letter, which, he said, he had received
from Fæsulæ, and in which it was stated that Caius Manlius, with
a large force, had taken the field by the 27th of October.1
Others at the same time, as is not uncommon in such a crisis,
spread reports of omens and prodigies; others of meetings being
held, of arms being transported, and of insurrections of the
slaves at Capua and in Apulia. In consequence of these rumors,
Quintus Marcius Rex2 was dispatched, by a decree of the senate,
to Fæsulæ, and Quintus Metellus Creticus3 into Apulia and the
parts adjacent; both which officers, with the title of
commanders,4 were waiting near the city, having been prevented
from entering in triumph, by the malice of a cabal, whose custom
it was to ask a price for every thing, whether honorable or
infamous. The prætors, too, Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and Quintus
Metellus Celer, were sent off, the one to Capua, the other to
Picenum, and power was given th