Afterwards Cotta borrowed ships from Hiero, and having united them with the remnants of the Roman fleet, he sailed to Lipara, the blockade of which he left to his tribune, Quintus Cassius, with the express order not to engage in a battle; but, during the absence of the consul, Cassius notwithstanding allowed himself to be drawn into an engagement, in which many Romans were killed.
On being informed of this Cotta returned to Lipara, besieged and took the town, put its inhabitants to the sword, and deprived Cassius of his office of tribune.
During the siege of Lipara one of his own kinsmen, Publius Aurelius Pecuniola, was scourged and degraded to the rank of a common soldier, because through his fault a part of the camp was set on fire, in consequence of which almost the whole camp fell into the hands of the enemy.
In 248 he obtained the consulship a second time, together with his former colleague, Servilius Geminus, and again fought in Sicily against the Carthaginians.
Aurelius was censor alongside Marcus Fabius Buteo in 241, and was later magister equitum under the dictator Gaius Duilius in 231.