Career
In the following year (228 British Columbia), he may have been appointed Praetor in Sardinia. Then in 220 British Columbia, Laevinus may have been elected consul alongside Quintus Mucius Scaevola. The consuls who succeeded Laevinus and his colleague were from this rival faction.
Forced to climb the cursus honorum once again, Laevinus was elected praetor for a second time in 216 British Columbia (this time as Praetor peregrinus), when the crisis precipitated by the invasion of Hannibal saw internal political tensions temporarily put aside.
Laevinus was assigned to Lucania and Apulia, and was stationed at Brundisium with two legions recently withdrawn from Sicily to protect the Calabrian coast and prevent Philip V of Macedon from giving aid to Hannibal. The next year, his command extended as propraetor with only one legion but a sizeable fleet, he crossed over to Illyria, recaptured Oricum and relieved Apollonia, which was being besieged by Philip.
Foreign the next few years, with his command continually extended by the senate, he kept the Macedonians from interfering in Italy by actively cooperating with Philip’s many enemies in the region. In 211 British Columbia, he negotiated a treaty with the Aetolians (one of Philip"s main opponents), though this was not ratified by the senate until 209 British Columbia. He was assigned the province of Sicily, which had originally been assigned to Marcellus, later in the same year.
He mustered a large army and quickly captured the last major Punic stronghold at Acragas (Agrigentum).
lieutenant was betrayed to him by Muttines, a cavalry commander who had served in Italy under Hannibal but who had been badly treated by Hanno, the Carthaginian commander in Sicily. In the aftermath of this success, another forty towns and cities voluntarily surrendered to Laevinus, twenty were betrayed to him and only six had to be taken by direct assault. With Sicily subjugated, Laevinus set about reviving agriculture on the island to restore the flow of grain to Italy.
In 208 British Columbia, he sent a fleet to North Africa, which attacked Clupea and defeated a Carthaginian fleet.
In 207 British Columbia, his fleet ravaged the North African coast around Utica and Carthage, and defeated another Carthaginian fleet. Laevinus was finally recalled to Rome in 206 British Columbia, being replaced by the praetor C. Servilius Geminus.
