Kitap 2
29
But in Curio’s camp great alarm took possession of the minds of all, and this alarm is quickly increased by various popular rumours. For each person invented imaginary views and added something of his own fear to whatever he had heard from another. When the story had spread from the first who vouched for it to a number of others, each handing it on to his fellow, there appeared at last to be several who could vouch for its truth. It was a civil war, they said; the men were of a class which was permitted to do freely what it liked and to follow its bent; the legions were those which a little while before had been in the hands of their foes, for the custom of constantly offering gifts had depreciated even the bounty of Caesar; the municipal communities, too, were attached to different sides, for men came equally from the Marsi and the Peligni, as, for instance, those who had deserted the night before. In the tents some of the soldiers proposed strong measures. Doubtful speeches on the part of the men were harshly interpreted; some reports were even invented by those who wished to seem more zealous than their fellows.
