[4] A campaign in no way memorable was fought with the Aequi on Mount Algidus, the enemy being routed before they had well begun to fight. Valerius was the more persistent in cutting them down as they fled, and to him was decreed a triumph; Manlius was allowed to enter the City in an ovation.3 [5] In this year also a new war broke out, namely with the people of Volsinii. Owing to a famine and pestilence which arose in the Roman territories on account of drought and excessive heat, it was impossible to send an army against them; and in consequence of this the Volsinienses, having added the Sappinates4 to their forces, were puffed up with pride and made an incursion themselves into the fields of the Romans. [6] War was then declared against both nations.
Gaius Julius, the censor, died, and Marcus Cornelius was substituted in his place, a circumstance [p. 111]which was afterwards thought to have offended the5 gods, because in this lustrum Rome was captured; [7] nor from that day has a censor ever been appointed in the room of one who has died.6 [8] The consuls, too, caught the plague, and it was voted that fresh auspices should be obtained by means of an interregnum. Accordingly, when the consuls, in obedience to the senate's decree, had abdicated, Marcus Furius Camillus was appointed interrex, and named as his successor Publius Cornelius Scipio, who, in turn, named Lucius Valerius Potitus interrex; [9] under whom they elected six military tribunes of consular rank, so that even if any of them should fall ill the state might still have magistrates.
