The new consuls were M. Baebius Tamphilus and P. Cornelius Lentulus. [2] Liguria was assigned as their province. The assignment of provinces to the new praetors was as follows: The civic jurisdiction fell to Q. Petilius, the alien to Q. Fabius Maximus; [3] Gaul to Q. Fabius Buteo; Sicily to Tiberius Claudius Nero; Sardinia to M. Pinarius; Apulia to L. Duronius, who was also to command in Histria, because news was received from Tarentum and Brundisium that the fields on the coast were being plundered by pirates from overseas. [4] The same complaint was made by Marseilles about the ships of the Ligurians. The military requirements were then determined. [5] Four legions were assigned to the consuls, each consisting of 5200 Roman infantry and 300 cavalry, and also 15,000 infantry to be drawn from the Latin allies and 800 cavalry. [6] The former praetors remained in Spain with the armies they had, and reinforcements were sent to them of 3000 Roman citizens and 200 cavalry, together with 6000 allied infantry and 300 cavalry. Naval affairs were not lost sight of. [7] The consuls appointed two officers to man twenty ships with crews of Roman citizens who had the status of freedmen, the officers alone being freeborn citizens. These two officers were responsible for the defence of the coast, each commanding ten ships, and their spheres of action were separated by the promontory of Minerva, which formed the centre of the defence; [8] the operations of the one extending from that point westward to Marseilles; those of the other, south and east as far as Barium.
