The choice belonged to Sempronius; but Cornelius contended that the custom handed down by their fathers must be followed, which was, that they should choose him as chief of the senate who was first censor of those who were then alive; this was Titus Manlius Torquatus.

Sempronius rejoined, that to whom the gods had given the lot of choosing, to him the same gods had given the right of exercising his discretion freely.

That he would act in this affair according to his own free will, and would choose Quintus Fabius Maximus, whom he would prove to be the first man in the Roman state, even in the judgment of Hannibal.

After a long verbal dispute, his colleague giving up the point, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, was chosen, by Sempronius, chief of the senate.

Another senate was then chosen, and eight names were passed over; among which was that of Lucius Caecilius Metellus, disrespected as the adviser of the abandonment of Italy, after the defeat at Cannae.