Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/181

 ''enemy, kept in no obedience or discipline. So by their bad morale they brought their new commander more anxiety than they gave him support or confidence by their numbers''.

10. Growth of effeminacy:

''For Albinus, dismayed by the disaster to his brother Aulus and his army, resolved not to stir out of his province for such time of summer campaigning as he was in command, and kept the soldiers for the most part in a stationary camp, except when the stench or want of forage compelled a move. But the camp was not fortified, nor regular watches posted according to the rules of war; the soldier absented himself from duty as he pleased. Camp-followers mingled with the soldiers and went in and out day and night, and wandered about robbing the countryside, forcing their way into the farmhouses, vying with one another in carrying off cattle and slaves, which they exchanged with the dealers for imported wine and other suchlike things; not content with this, they sold the state allowance of corn and bought bread for daily consumption: in a word, all the evil effects of idleness and luxury, which can be expressed or imagined, were to be met with in that army, and others besides. But in these difficult circumstances I find that Metellus proved himself a great and wise man no less than in the field, so just a mean did he keep between a pandering to popularity and undue severity and in a short time he restored the discipline of the army''.

11. Then a sketch of Marius:

About the same time when Marius, who chanced to be at Utica, was sacrificing to the Gods, the diviner had announced that "great and wondrous things were presaged; let him therefore rely on the Gods and carry 165