ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

L. Cornelius Lentulus, the brother of one of the commissioners, he may have assisted thepre-formulated board in the elections, but probably did not form the board on his own,since the commissioners had stronger connections to each other than to him.Another commission that provides strong evidence of cooperation among thewould-be tresviri is the board to establish the maritime colonies of Volturnum, Liternum,Puteoli, Salernum, and Buxentum (197-194). The commissions included M. ServiliusGeminus, who was another one of the decemviri to settle Scipio's veterans in 201-200with Flamininus and Paetus, as well as an augur. The other two commissioners were T.Sempronius Longus, also an augur, and Q. Minucius Thermus, both of whom had beencurule aediles in 198 and praetors in 196. As with the board for Narnia in 199, these menpresented a neat package of experience settling veterans and a concurrence of amenablepriesthoods and magistracies. Moreover, as commissioners, they shared the obligationsof founding the colony around their other magistracies: M. Servilius Geminus must haveenrolled the colonists on his own while T. Sempronius Longus and Q. Minucius Thermusperformed their duties as praetors in 196 and pro-magistrates in 195, and Geminus andThermus must have lead the colonists to their new home without Longus, who was consulin 194.Their previous co-magistracies and priesthoods and sharing of foundationduties suggest that these men had a closely cooperative relationship, which probablyprompted them to submit their names for the commission in the first place.The composition of the commission to found Potentia and Pisaurum in 184 also3 l Livy 32.2.6-7.3j Brennan (1997), p. 144. Brennan notes that the tresviri cannot have functioned as a unit because ofexamples like this one (contra Gargola (1995), pp. 67-8, 245 n. 90). The time commitment of one to threeyears was one of the main drawbacks to being a colonial commissioner.106