Note 152 — THE THIRD SAMNITE WAR.

We always follow here the chronology of Cato; in Varro and in the Capitoline Fasti whole years are interpolated. This difference is founded upon a monstrous mistake, which Varro makes in the period between the conquest of Rome by the Gauls and the Licinian law. That conquest is dated by him three years earlier than it is in any of the other accounts: from the building of the city to the Gallic invasion, Varro and Cato agree with one another. Varro’s mode of reckoning tallies with the Greek one, and therefore it is sometimes used for synchronistical purposes. But there is not one among the ancient historians who makes use of these patch works: Polybius, especially, follows the era of Cato, which is also to be preferred on this account, that it may always be shown with certainty why Cato has reckoned in such or such a manner. A perfectly satisfactory Roman chronology is an impossibility: it was only in the first Punic war that the beginning of the year first remained fixed.