2.  This year, the Carthaginians brought to Rome the first payment of the silver imposed on them as a tribute; and the quaestors having reported, that it was not of the proper standard, and that, on the assay, it wanted a fourth part, they made up the deficiency with money borrowed at Rome.  On their requesting that the senate would be pleased to order their hostages to be restored to them, a hundred were given up, and hopes were held out with relation to the rest, if they remained in fidelity (to the treaty).  They then further requested, that the remaining hostages might be removed from Norba, where they were ill accommodated, to some other place, and they were permitted to remove to Signia and Ferentinum.  The request of the people of Gades was likewise complied with:  that a governor should not be sent to their city; being contrary to what had been agreed with them by Lucius Marcius Septimus, when they came under the protection of the Roman people.  Deputies from Narnia, complaining that they had not their due number of settlers, and that several who were not of their community, had crept in among them, and were conducting themselves as colonists, Lucius Cornelius, the consul, was ordered to appoint three commissioners to adjust those matters.  The three appointed were, Publius and Sextus Aelius, both surnamed Paetus, and Caius Cornelius Lentulus.  The favour granted to the Narnians, of filling up their number of colonists, was refused to the people of Cossa, who applied for it.

3.  The consuls, having finished the business that was to be done at Rome, set out for their provinces.  Publius Villius, on coming into Macedonia, found the soldiers in a violent mutiny, which had been previously excited, and not sufficiently repressed at the commencement.  They were the two thousand who, after Hannibal had been vanquished, had been transported from Africa to Sicily, and then, in about a year after, into Macedonia, as volunteers; they denied, however, that this was done with their consent, affirming, that “they had been put on board the ships, by the tribunes, contrary to their remonstrances; but, in what manner soever they had become engaged in that service, whether it had been voluntarily undertaken or imposed on them, the time of it was now expired, and it was reasonable that some end should be put to their warfare.  For many years they had not seen Italy, but had grown old under arms in Sicily, Africa, and Macedonia; they were now, in short, worn out with labour and fatigue, and were exhausted of their blood by the many wounds they had received.”  The consul told them, that “the grounds on which they demanded their discharge, appeared to him to be reasonable, if the demand had been made in a moderate manner; but that neither that, nor any other ground, was a justifying cause of mutiny.  Wherefore, if they were contented to adhere to their standards, and obey orders, he would write to the senate concerning their release; and that what they desired would more easily be obtained by moderation than by turbulence.”