Kitap 23
35
In Italy the war had been less vigorously conducted since the battle of Cannae; for the strength of the one side was broken and the temper of the other enervated. Under these circumstances the Campanians made an attempt by themselves to become masters of Cumae. They first tried persuasion, but as they could not succeed in inducing them to revolt from Rome, they decided to employ stratagem. All the Campanians held a sacrificial service at stated intervals at Hamae. They informed the Cumans that the Campanian senate was going there, and they asked the Cuman senate also to be present in order to come to a common understanding, so that both peoples might have the same allies and the same enemies. They also promised that they would have an armed force there, to guard against any danger from either Romans or Carthaginians. Although the Cumans suspected a plot, they made no difficulty about going, for they thought that by thus consenting they would be able to conceal a maneuver of their own. The consul Tiberius Sempronius had in the meanwhile purified his army at Sinuessa, the appointed rendezvous, and after crossing the Vulturnus pitched his camp near Liternum. As there was nothing for them to do in camp, he put his men through frequent war maneuvers to accustom the recruits, most of whom were volunteer slaves, to follow the standards and know their places in the ranks when in action. In carrying out these exercises, the general's main object-and he had given similar instructions to the officers-was that there should be no class-feeling in the ranks, through the slaves being twitted with their former condition; the old soldiers were to regard themselves as on a perfect equality with the recruits, the free men with the slaves; all to whom Rome had entrusted her standards and her arms were to be regarded as equally honourable, equally well-born; Fortune had compelled them to adopt this state of things, and now that it was adopted she compelled them to acquiesce to it. The soldiers were quite as anxious to obey these instructions as the officers were to enforce them, and in a short time the men had become so fused together that it was almost forgotten what condition of life each man had been in before he became a soldier.
