Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 30
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

26. Such were the events of that year in Africa. What follows runs over into the year in which Marcus Servilius Geminus, who at that time was master of the horse, and Tiberius Claudius Nero¹ became consuls. [2] But at the end of the previous year envoys from Greece representing allied cities had complained that their territories had been ravaged by the king's forces, and that envoys who had gone into Macedonia to claim damages were not admitted to King Philip's presence. [3] They had at the same time brought word that four thousand soldiers under the command of Sopater were alleged to have crossed over to Africa to defend the Carthaginians, and that a considerable sum of money was said to have been sent with them. [4] Consequently the senate voted to send envoys to the king to report that in the opinion [p. 459]of the senators these acts had violated the treaty.² The men sent were Gaius Terentius Varro,³ Gaius Mamilius, Marcus Aurelius; three quinqueremes were furnished them.

[5] The year was marked by a great conflagration in which the Clivus Publicius⁴ was burned to the ground, and by floods, but also by the low price of grain, because not only was all Italy open by reason of peace, but also a great quantity of grain had been sent from Spain; [6] and Marcus Valerius Falto and Marcus Fabius Buteo, the curule aediles, distributed this to the populace by precincts at four asses⁵ a peck.

[7] In the same year Quintus Fabius Maximus died at a very advanced age, if indeed it is true that he had been an augur for sixty-two years, as some authorities say. [8] He certainly was a man who deserved such a surname, even if it had been first applied to him. He surpassed the number of magistracies held by his father⁶ and equalled those of his grandfather.⁷ A larger number of victories and greater battles made the fame of his grandfather Rullus; but all of them can be balanced by a single enemy, Hannibal. [9] Nevertheless Fabius has been accounted a man of caution rather than of action. And while one may question whether he was the “Delayer” by nature, or because that was especially suited to the war then in progress, still nothing is more certain than that one man by delaying restored our state,⁸ as Ennius says. [10] In his place as [p. 461]augur his son⁹ Quintus Fabius Maximus was¹⁰ installed; likewise in his place as pontifex —for he held two priesthoods —Servius Sulpicius Galba.

[11] The Roman Games were repeated for a single day, the entire Plebeian Games three times over by the aediles Marcus Sextius Sabinus and Gnaeus Tremelius Flaccus. Both of them were made praetors, and with them Gaius Livius Salinator¹¹ and Gaius Aurelius Cotta. [12] As for the elections of that year, conflicting authorities make it uncertain whether Gaius Servilius as consul conducted them or Publius Sulpicius as dictator, appointed by Servilius because business detained him in Etruria, where in accordance with a decree of the senate he was conducting trials for conspiracy among the leading citizens.