The election of Marcus Valerius Corvus to the consulship at twenty- three had doubtless been for the benefit of the state; but now, when Scipio obtained the aedileship at twenty-three and the consulate at thirty, and Flamininus, while not yet thirty years of age, rose from the quaestorship to the consulship, such proceedings involved serious danger to the republic.

We have already mentioned that the face-masks of those ancestors who had filled the curule aedileship or any higher ordinary magistracy, wrought in wax and paintedmodelled as far as possible after life, but not wanting even for the earlier ages up to and beyond the time of the kingswere wont to be placed in wooden niches along the walls of the family hall, and were regarded as the chief ornament of the house.

But we have the case of a certain Marcus Oppius who through lack of means desired to resign the aedileship,both he and his father had been among the proscribed,and the populace would not permit it, but contributed money for his various necessities of life and the expenses of his office.