was continued in command for the year, as apprehensions were entertained, not only of Antiochus and the Aetolians, but likewise of Nabis, tyrant of Lacedaemon; and it was ordered that he should have two legions, for which, if there was any necessity for a further supply, the consuls were ordered to raise recruits, and send them into Macedonia.  Appius Claudius was permitted to raise, in addition to the legion which Quintius Fabius had commanded, two thousand foot and two hundred horse.  The like number of new-raised foot and horse was assigned to Publius Manlius for Hither Spain; and the legion was given to him which had been under the command of Minucius, the praetor.  To Publius Porcius Laeca, for Etruria, near Pisa, were decreed two thousand foot and five hundred horse, out of the army in Gaul.  Sempronius Longus was continued in command in Sardinia.

44.  The provinces being thus distributed, the consuls, before their departure from the city, were ordered, in accordance with a decree of the pontiffs, to proclaim a sacred spring, which Aulus Cornelius Mammula, praetor, had vowed in pursuance of a vote of the senate, and an order of the people, in the consulate of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius.  It was celebrated twenty-one years after the vow had been made.  About the same time, Caius Claudius Pulcher, son of Appius, was chosen and inaugurated into the office of augur, in the room of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who died the year before.  While people, in general, wondered that, though Spain had arisen in arms, they were neglecting the war, a letter was brought from Quintus Minucius, announcing “that he had fought a pitched battle with the Spanish generals, Budar and Besasis, near the town of Tura, and had gained the victory:  that twelve thousand of the enemy were slain; their general, Budar, taken; and the rest routed and dispersed.”  After the reading of this letter less alarm prevailed with respect to Spain, where a very formidable war had been apprehended.  The whole anxiety of the public was directed towards king Antiochus, especially after the arrival of the ten ambassadors.  These, after relating the proceedings with Philip, and the conditions on which peace had been granted him, gave information, that “there still subsisted a war of no less magnitude to be waged with Antiochus; that he had come over into Europe with a very numerous fleet and a powerful army; that, had not a delusive prospect of an opportunity of invading Egypt, raised by a more delusive rumour, diverted him to another quarter, all Greece would have quickly been involved in the flames of war.  Nor would even the Aetolians remain quiet, a race as well restless by nature as full of anger against the Romans.  That, besides, there was another evil, of a most dangerous nature, lurking in the bowels of Greece:  Nabis, tyrant at present of Lacedaemon, but who would soon if suffered, become tyrant of all Greece, equalling in avarice and cruelty all the tyrants most remarkable in history.  For, if he were allowed to keep possession of Argos, which served as a citadel commanding the Peloponnesus, when the Roman armies should be brought home to Italy, Greece would have been in vain delivered out of bondage to Philip; because, instead of that king, who, supposing no other difference, resided at a distance, she would have for a master, a tyrant, close to her side.”