1When the plebs had been inflamed by these speeches, though three patricians were standing, Publius. 1Cornelius Merenda, Lucius Manlius Vulso and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and two plebeians of families already noble, Gaius Atilius Serranus and Quintus Aelius Paetus, one of whom was a pontiff and the other an augur, Gaius Terentius alone is elected consul, so that the election of his colleague would be in his hands as presiding officer. 3Then the nobility, having found that there had been too little strength in his rivals, drove Lucius Aemilius Paulus to stand, though he long and repeatedly refused; he had been consul with Marcus Livius and was hostile to the plebs since the conviction of his colleague, from which he himself had escaped almost scorched.
4On the next day for assemblies, since all who had competed with Varro withdrew, he is given to the consul as an equal in opposing him rather than as a colleague. 5Then the election of praetors was held: Marcus Pomponius Matho and Publius Furius Philus were elected. 5To Philus fell the urban lot of administering justice at Rome, to Pomponius that between Roman citizens and foreigners. 6Two praetors were added, Marcus Claudius Marcellus for Sicily and Lucius Postumius Albinus for Gaul. 7All were elected in their absence, and to none of them except the consul Terentius was an office entrusted that he had not already held before, several brave and energetic men being passed over, because at such a time it seemed that no one should be entrusted with an office new to him.