T. Otacilius was in a state of great excitement, loudly exclaiming that Fabius wanted to have his consulship prolonged, and as he persisted in creating a disturbance the consul ordered the lictors to approach him and warned him that as he had marched straight to the Campus without entering the City, the axes were still bound up in the fasces. 3 The voting had in the meantime recommenc d, and the first was given in favour of Q. Fabius Maximus as consul for the fourth time and M. Marcellus for the third. All the other centuries voted without exception for the same men. One praetor was re-elected, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, the others were fresh appointments; T. Otacilius Crassus, now praetor for the second time; Q. Fabius, a son of the consul and curule redile at the time of his election; and P. Cornelius Lentulus. When the election of the praetors was finished the senate passed a resolution that Quintus Fu1vius should have the City as his special province, and when the consuls had gone to the war he should command at home. There were two great floods this year; the Tiber inundated the fields, causing widespread destruction of farm-buildings and stock and much loss of life. It was in the fifth year of the second Punic war that Q. Fabius Maximus assumed the consulship for the fourth time and AI. Claudius Marcellus for the third time. Their election excited an unusual amount of interest amongst the citizens, for it was many years since there had been such a pair of consuls. Old men remembered that Iaximus RuBus had been similarly elected with P. Decius in view of the Gaulish war, and in the same way afterwards Papirius and Carvilius had been chosen consuls to act against the Samnites and Bruttians and also against the Lucanians and Tarentines. Marcellus was elected in his absence whilst he was with the army. Fabius was re-elected when he was on the spot and actually conducting the election. Irregular as this was, the circumstances at the time, the exigencies of the war, the critical position of the State prevented anyone from inquiring into precedents or suspecting the consul of love of power. On the contrary, they praised his greatness of soul, because when he knew that tbe republic needed its greatest general, and that he was unquestionably himself the one, he thought less of any personal odium which he might incur than of the interest of the repu blic.