Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 39
William A. McDevitte, Sen. Class. Mod. Ex. Schol. A.B.T.C.D., Ed.

4. Before the consuls came home to Rome, Marcus Fulvius, the proconsul, returned from Aetolia. [2] He, when he had as usual recited to the senate, in the temple of Apollo, the services which he had performed in Aetolia and Cephallenia, then requested of the fathers, that, in consideration of his having conducted the business of the public with good fortune and success, they would think proper to order public thanks to be offered to the immortal gods, and to decree a triumph to him. [3] Marcus Abutius, a tribune of the commons, gave notice, that, if any thing were determined on that subject before the arrival of Marcus Aemilius, he would enter his protest: [4] for “the consul intended to oppose that measure; and, at his setting out for his province, had given him a charge to keep the discussion of it open until he should come home. That Fulvius would suffer a loss of nothing but time; for, notwithstanding the presence of the consul, the senate would determine according to their own wishes.” [5] Fulvius replied, that, “even if the quarrel subsisting between him and Marcus Aemilius was unknown to the world, or with what overbearing, and, in some measure, tyrannical rancour, that man prosecuted his enmity; [6] yet it was insufferable, that the absence of the consul should both obstruct the worship of the immortal gods, and delay a triumph merited and due; [7] that a commander, after performing signal services, and his victorious army with its booty and prisoners, should remain outside the gates, until a consul, who purposely delayed abroad, should be pleased to return to [p. 1795]Rome. [8] But, in the present case, when the animosity between him and the consul was most notorious, what fair dealing could any one expect from a man who procured clandestinely, in a thin house, and lodged in the treasury, a decree of the senate, that “it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force:” [9] a town which was attacked with mounds and engines; where, after the works were burned, others were constructed anew; where a fight was carried on around the walls for fifteen days, both above and under ground; where, from the first dawn, when the soldiers mounted the walls, a battle, for a long time doubtful, lasted until night; [10] and where more than three thousand of the enemy were killed? Then, again, what a malicious misrepresentation did he make to the pontiffs, of the temples of the immortal gods being plundered in a captured city! [11] If it were allowable that Rome should be decorated with the ornaments of Syracuse, and other conquered [12??] places, then the laws of war must lose their force in the case of Ambracia alone, among conquered towns. [13] For his part, he besought the conscript fathers, and requested the tribunes, not to suffer him to become a subject of derision to a most haughty enemy.”